Hey everyone,
I thought I'd get a winter project to keep me occupied over the 3 months of crappy non riding weather ahead here in the southern hemisphere.
I bought this bike locally and it's pretty much complete.
Missing a mirror and has had a knock in the front, the subframe bent and straightened (poorly), the dash surround has a little crack as do the rear side fairings, but barely noticeable unless close up. Came with a different coloured front upper nose fairing.
The forks were badly sagged and leaking, front tyre totally f**ked, and a newish rear BT023 Bridgestone.
The clutch lever had no pressure at all, full of air and fluid gone bad.
DID Gold Chain and sprockets looked good, not very worn looking.
The motor was not running after 3 years storage but the owner put a new battery in it and it would not start for him.
I cranked it over before I gave him the cash, ( a bargain, Trump would have been very happy with this deal!) and it had good compression by the sound of it.
Loaded it onto my trailer and took it the 40 miles home.
I found a free download of the RF900 Suzuki Factory service manual and checked up on several things
I stripped the carbs and found all the jets blocked and the fuel pump was not operating. The whole thing was a gamble, but I felt good about it and I knew it wouldn't take much time to get it running. I love a challenge like this.
I cleaned the fuel tank and fuel tap gauze/filter out, cleaned out all the jets and thoroughly checked every part of the carbs, all ok.
Reset the float levels, check the inlet rubbers on the cyl. head for damage, all ok.
All the plugs were badly fuel fouled so replaced them and did a compression test on the motor. All even and around 180 psi.
I bought a second hand fuel pump and charged the battery and cranked it over and it ran quite rough ( 3 cyls) for about a minute until it warmed up and cleared it's throat so to speak.
It's now running on all 4 cyls and idles smoothly, mid range is a little lean but revs clean and hard at 6000rpm and above, all the way to 12000rpm. I warmed it up to temperature and all seemed normal, no unusual noises, no leaks, no over heating etc.
Ok, time to inspect the forks to ascertain what the cause of the sag is.
Removed the forks etc, took the caps off (right way up cartridge style forks) and immediately noticed one fork has an upper spring seat washer missing, causing the spring tube spacer to slide up to the top of the cap. Easily fixed with a new washer and I replaced the seals and fork oil as well. Man the old oil stinks real bad!
Fitted a new front tyre (BT023) today, repaired all the cracks in the fairings with JB Weld ABS plastic bond, checked all the brakes and rode it up the road for a few miles. Goes well, brakes well suspension is OK, I'm so used to the Busa it felt pretty strange though.
I've got a lot of cleaning and reassembly to do, will keep you all posted....
Here's a few pics, tell me what you think.
I thought I'd get a winter project to keep me occupied over the 3 months of crappy non riding weather ahead here in the southern hemisphere.
I bought this bike locally and it's pretty much complete.
Missing a mirror and has had a knock in the front, the subframe bent and straightened (poorly), the dash surround has a little crack as do the rear side fairings, but barely noticeable unless close up. Came with a different coloured front upper nose fairing.
The forks were badly sagged and leaking, front tyre totally f**ked, and a newish rear BT023 Bridgestone.
The clutch lever had no pressure at all, full of air and fluid gone bad.
DID Gold Chain and sprockets looked good, not very worn looking.
The motor was not running after 3 years storage but the owner put a new battery in it and it would not start for him.
I cranked it over before I gave him the cash, ( a bargain, Trump would have been very happy with this deal!) and it had good compression by the sound of it.
Loaded it onto my trailer and took it the 40 miles home.
I found a free download of the RF900 Suzuki Factory service manual and checked up on several things
I stripped the carbs and found all the jets blocked and the fuel pump was not operating. The whole thing was a gamble, but I felt good about it and I knew it wouldn't take much time to get it running. I love a challenge like this.
I cleaned the fuel tank and fuel tap gauze/filter out, cleaned out all the jets and thoroughly checked every part of the carbs, all ok.
Reset the float levels, check the inlet rubbers on the cyl. head for damage, all ok.
All the plugs were badly fuel fouled so replaced them and did a compression test on the motor. All even and around 180 psi.
I bought a second hand fuel pump and charged the battery and cranked it over and it ran quite rough ( 3 cyls) for about a minute until it warmed up and cleared it's throat so to speak.
It's now running on all 4 cyls and idles smoothly, mid range is a little lean but revs clean and hard at 6000rpm and above, all the way to 12000rpm. I warmed it up to temperature and all seemed normal, no unusual noises, no leaks, no over heating etc.
Ok, time to inspect the forks to ascertain what the cause of the sag is.
Removed the forks etc, took the caps off (right way up cartridge style forks) and immediately noticed one fork has an upper spring seat washer missing, causing the spring tube spacer to slide up to the top of the cap. Easily fixed with a new washer and I replaced the seals and fork oil as well. Man the old oil stinks real bad!
Fitted a new front tyre (BT023) today, repaired all the cracks in the fairings with JB Weld ABS plastic bond, checked all the brakes and rode it up the road for a few miles. Goes well, brakes well suspension is OK, I'm so used to the Busa it felt pretty strange though.
I've got a lot of cleaning and reassembly to do, will keep you all posted....
Here's a few pics, tell me what you think.
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I myself am not a competent mechanic , unlike yourself , so I really enjoy the full gamut of skills written up as you do bro . I will be watching your progress on this project with interest my friend . 
