Thanks mate. I did have a bit of a stumble with the fuel pump not priming. That is until I realized I need to bypass the bank angle sensor as well, once I did everything came to life. What are your thoughts of running track with or without a bank angle sensor (tip over sensor)?
Sounds all correct. Spark plug leads in the right order! I think the best thing about starting the engine on a project bike is the smell of all the cleaners/oil/fingermarks etc. It really marks the conclusion (or close enough to it) of weeks or months hard work. Congrats to you!
Slightly off topic...I love to go into the garage about 15/20 mins after a ride and smell all those burnt hydrocarbons that have slowly eeked out of the exhaust since it stopped running. Along with cut grass it's up there as my favorite smells
OK folks, time for an update. Radiator in place, finally all hoses connected and filled with coolant. Do you notice anything strange about the radiator? Yep - no fans. I noticed it once I had it filled. I am not really keen to drain and refill, so hopefully will be able to bolt the fans on the backside. Luckily the fan bracket bolts are a combined Philips head and 10mm socket so I think I can make it work with a small ratchet.
Next - front brakes. Remember the fully stripped down front calipers? Turned out, the pistons were previously removed using pliers and were scored around the edges. The damage was towards the inside and not on the sealing area of the inside seal, but I wasn't really happy, so …. I also got a like-new set of EBC dual carbon pads. These are supposed to be really good when you put some heat in them... we'll see in the future.
Pads installed, along with brand new stainless steel bleed nipples. Caliper spacers fitted. From the factory, they are held in place with red Loctite. Blue should be fine. And finally calipers in place and tightened to fix the spacers firmly in their seats.
I got Venhill steel braided lines from AS3 Performance, as they were a very good price. Quality-wise I would say they are top notch - very nice hoses, molded sleeving, full stainless steel fittings. I am not overly impressed with their choice of banjo fittings though. The kit came with 2 x 20 degree, 1 x 20 degree left bend and 1 x 45 degree fittings. Regardless of the combination I tried it never was 100% perfect. I emailed AS3 if they had any fitting instructions and they were less than helpful telling me to match the fittings to the old hoses. I asked if selling bike-specific kits suggests they should have an idea which fitting goes where... didn't get a reply. Oh well, I guess it was to be expected considering the price. Any of you have experience with their cbr1000rr 08+ non-abs kit?
Rad fans taken apart and cleaned. Detaching the rad from the upper mounts and leaving it connected at the bottom should provide enough clearance. And both fans in place. Again the bolts being suitable for a 10mm socket helped immensely.
Renthal medium compound grips installed. I've heard a lot of people complain that the medium compound were colored grey instead of black. I actually quite like them. Left grip was installed with the headlight controls in place just for a visual orientation of grip position. Buttons were then removed. Overall the grips are a tiny bit longer than OEM. Left one doesn't really matter, the bar end just squishes it a bit and that's it. The throttle grip though rubs in the bar end. I managed to push it a little bit further and will probably use a thin spacer for the bar end. Will be safety wired in place.
And finally for today - front brakes bled. It is a huge pain in the ass bleeding a completely empty system without a vacuum bleeder to draw fluid through it initially. You just pump like crazy and getting the air out bit by bit alternating the various bleed valves. Once you get "some" pressure it gets easy and following the standard pump lever / hold / release bleed valve / tighten bleed valve / release lever procedure works like a charm. Finally the lever is secured under pressure against the bar to release every last bubble of air up through the lines and into the reservoir. The droplets you see is just water from a spray bottle to wash any residual brake fluid around the various fittings.
At this point folks, I need to route the clutch cable, rivet the chain with the new link and I consider the bike ridable. Next is fitting the complete race fairings I got with the bike in the first place and I am ready to do some track testing. It has been one hell of a job but I am almost done.
They look nicer than my HEL lines, especially the black banjos and fittings. I can see you've got them all fitted and bled now, but because there's no junction above the front guard to service right and left calipers, two banjos are attached to the master cylinder. I hope they supplied appropriate copper washers! I guess you've worked out from the angles, which is the best fit at the master cylinder, because, quite obviously, both caliper fittings will be the same angle.
Yes there were plenty of new copper crush washers. In the end I fitted both 20 degree fittings to the 2 calipers and the 2 other - up at the master and they fit good enough.
Nice. I bet you're relieved and proud at what you've achieved here. When you get the fairings on and sorted lets have before and after side by side pics
Absolutely. Although i dont consider this nearly complete. There are still a lot of cosmetic issues to sort, fairings to paint etc. I will be able to ride at least.
As promised (Nigel ) now that I have a rear wheel in place, lets sort the front sprocket area. Wooden strut wrapped in a rag through the rear wheel locking it in place. The sprocket bolt was tight as hell, I had to use a breaker bar and a little heat to get it off. The sprocket was pretty seized on the shaft, it took a good part of an hour tapping and pulling to get it started This is what I ended up with Luckily this is all surface rust, as you will see in the next set of photos.
Sprocket, washer and bolt thoroughly cleaned. Upon closer inspection, I now consider myself EXTREMELY lucky. Do you see anything wrong with this bolt? Check out the stretch in the last 2 threads. The torque spec for this bolt is 54 N/m or 5.5 kgf/m... mine was probably double that and judging by the stretch I assume the bolt was at the point of shearing. I am very very lucky it came loose.
That's what 'm talkin' about!! Yep, very lucky. That is the result of cowboys working on bikes instead of horses. They can talk to a horse but can't torque a bolt.
Indeed. Most people don't realize that this bolt, doesn't torque the sprocket itself, it just holds the washer against the shaft. But the sprocket still has a very tiny amount of play.
