So, I've had several sportbikes over the years although not for the last 8 or so. My last Kawasaki was a 2006 zx6r. This was also my favorite despite "upgrading" to a 2008 CBR 1000RR. I never liked it as much as my zx6r!
Well, fast forward to today and I was browsing Craigslist and ran across a "Free If You Come Get It" post. Turns out it was a 99 zx6r. So, I went and picked it up. Here she is as I found her. Hasn't run for 2 years.
I'm really looking forward to building her back up. I enjoy fixing things and have done car restorations. She was allegedly running 2 years ago when she was parked.
She's all there with the exception of the plastics although some items were a bit banged up or ground down. It looks like the last stage of her life was as a stunter. I removed an ugly heavy Wheelie bar, 12-o’clock bar, scrape bar, whatever you want to call it. Fortunately they didn't cut the subframe, just drilled some holes in it. It looks like he/she looped it a few times as the clip on brackets are ground down a bit on the top too. The sides of the engine and frame all look good. No rash there.
My plans so far (subject to change!):
Step One - Get her running
Carb clean/rebuild
Replace Fuel Lines
Change Fluids
New Battery
Step Two - Get her riding
New Tires
New front master cylinder
Step Three - Fix the ugly
02 Headlight
02 Plastics (I have no issue with 99 plastics and lights, but since I'm buying, I'll update it.)
Paint tank
Replace upper triple (ground down in spots from a wreck)
New levers
Recover/replace seats
Possible Items
Swap to even newer tail and seats
05/06 Fork Upgrade
So, I got some additional pics of the bike once pressure washed and such. She doesn't look too bad considering the price! It appears that a headlight, plastics, and a few odds and ends is all it will take.
So I did a full teardown on the carbs with the exception of actually separating the four bodies last night. Did some soaking of all the jets and such as well as the full assembly.
It was cold last night. Do you like my shop?
Bodies soaking:
All the jets and other internals soaking:
Bowls and diaphragms being cleaned up:
I've got them all sparkly, reassembled and ready to go. Now I'm just waiting on a new choke cable and battery to arrive in the mail. After this cleaning, I'm not expecting any fuel system problems. If, as the PO said, it was running two years ago when he parked it, I should be good to go!
So, I got the carbs rebuilt and put back on the bike and installed the new battery. She fired off well with ether which is great. Now I feel more confident in the POs comment about it being running when it was parked. At least I now know the ignition and engine are fairly sound. I only did the one instance of firing with ether as running on pure ether is not the best thing for an engine.
I installed new NGK CR9E plugs while I was there.
Replaced the fuel lines with new rubber and clamps.
I cleaned up everything as I went along.
Next I installed the tank and added a bit of gas. That's when the petcock began pouring fuel. So, now the tank is back off and empty. I'm waiting for petcock rebuild parts to come in.
I know the opportunistic nature you possess, my wife has to take several business trips a year... I really line the projects up when she's gone during the winter time. I came clean with her back in '05; she found some wee red/black shavings - ironically the same shade of red as my bike, evidence of hole-saw cuts used to install my frame sliders.
Now, before she is about to walk out the door for a business trip, she quips, "... What's the bike project, this time... ?" Damn, am I a fortunate man, or what?
Don't know how I didn't see this sooner. That's a nice find! Looks like you got a nice deal too. Since you didn't pay anything to buy it that means there's more money to dump into it :devious
If you want to do a tail swap it'll be easy to find some inspiration. The G and J are a nice model to swap a lot of parts. I've got an 09 tail on my 2002. It was a lot of work, but from what I've heard and seen other swaps should be easier. It'll take some work though, but the results are well worth it
If you want to do a tail swap it'll be easy to find some inspiration. The G and J are a nice model to swap a lot of parts. I've got an 09 tail on my 2002. It was a lot of work, but from what I've heard and seen other swaps should be easier. It'll take some work though, but the results are well worth it
Yours looks good! I can definitely see a tail swap in the future. I'm focused on getting it back on the road first though. Getting a full set of '01 plastics for $199 shipped made me decide to go ahead and do that rather than piecing plastics together with a more updated tail.
The rebuild kit for the fuel petcock came in last night. I disassembled it and let all the hard parts soak in carb cleaner overnight. I'm hoping to get it rebuilt and the bike fired off on gas tonight.
So this happened Friday afternoon. The rebuild kit for my petcock was waiting in the mailbox. I assembled it, splashed some gas in and fired her right up. I had to adjust the idle down a bit which took about 5 seconds, but she's running great! I took her for a quick spin around my block and the transmission shifts out fine too.
Last night I removed the fairing/gauge stay and the ridiculous bracket conglomeration that was holding on those streetfighter lights and alarm/horn. It had a collection of metric and SAE nuts, bolts, and ill fitting washers holding it on and together. I installed the new 05-08 ZZR stay and test fitted the upper fairing. It looks good. I'll get the headlight installed in it next and see about installing the upper for real.
They hacked into the wires running to the headlight harness plug to wire up the lights. I cleaned all that up and will need to see if I will try to find a factory headlight harness (missing from this bike) or just wire up some headlight connectors I have.
I also installed the Chinese tail plastics and they look and fit pretty good.
Here's what she looks like tonight. I test fit the plastics, ram air system, and headlight. Considering it's a $199 Chinese fairing kit, Chinese headlight, an aftermarket fairing stay, and aftermarket hardware kit, I think the fitment was really good. I had to trim the ram air piece where it slipped up under the headlight. I spent about 15 minutes on that, but otherwise everything bolted right up.
I painted the frame semi-flat black. I plan to paint the plastics and the tank white and get either black or carbon look factory style graphics.
I installed my Brembo RCS 19 this weekend along with some Galfer braided front lines that I had never installed on my '05 636. It DEFINITELY has a great bite on the front brakes now!
Bleeding was no problem with my MityVac. Every time I use it I'm happier that I spent the money on it!
It's not all good news though. When tooling around the neighborhood I discovered that it was bogging down and jerking. I can pull the clutch in and rev it right back up. I'm guessing that the fuel pump is bad. The pump was really noisy and it is probably full of all the same varnish and crud that I cleaned out of the carbs. I considered borrowing a fuel pressure gauge to validate it, but it sounds bad and a fuel pump isn't too expensive. So, I've got one on the way now!
I'll try to get some pics of the master and lines tonight to keep the thread up to date.
Thanks! It slowed a bit as I was out of town for 3 weeks with work. I'm glad to get back after it!
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