Back into it

It is raining, a bit cold and I am at a loose end so what better thing to do than wander down to the garage and see what stuff I can progress on the FJ project.

For some time now we have been talking about "cutting" the frame to give the bike a more aggressive and "street-fighter" look but there has been indecision. What do we cut off, where do we cut, what if it doesn't look so good once it is cut off?

"before"

I thought "Aaahh ,,, stuff it". Got out the Dremel and started shaping the front fender. Then I got adventurous and got out the angle grinder and shaved a couple of "inches" from the frame at the back. End result looks OK.

"after" (with a bit of plastic fender attached to under the seat)

The seat looks a bit "dicky" but there are moves afoot to have it reshaped into a single seat. I also had a go at reshaping the broken plastic front fender.

Cut off the cracked bit and then cut even further (where line marking is)

Cafe racer with back frame shortened, new headlight and front fender

Now it's starting to look like a cafe racer ......

I'm going to spend this afternoon searching the web for a suitable exhaust system and handlebar mirrors.

Will it ever start

It's now getting towards the end of March and still we can't get the donor bike to run. Our intention was to get the bike running then sell it to finance the "build" of the cafe racer.

We have replaced the diaphragms in the carburettors, installed a starter motor (for another donor bike), put in a new ignitor and ignition switch and still nothing.

Next step is to get some decent spark plugs and see if they make a difference. In the meantime I'm off to the coast ...

The Simple Plan

It's "workshop day" and Paul is at Yamba so Peter and I decided to go it alone. The plan was simple ... meet at my garage at 9am, fit the carbs and get the bike running, and then have a discussion on where to from there ...

Well we fitted the carbs ... did not get the bike running and then had some lunch. After fish and chips we bought a new speedo on Ebay and then Peter left as he was going out that night.

What do the army reckon about plans ... something about them being perfect right up until "execution".

Progress at last

Last Saturday it was hot; stinkin' hot! But that was no reason not to meet at Paul's place and try and make some progress on the bike. Peter was late arriving so Paul and I began work on putting the handlebars back together after we have positioned the clipons on the frame. Everything went surprisingly well and in no time the clipons were installed (even if they were upside down). Ooh well.

Next step was to change the oil and filter. By this stage Peter had arrived so he took the lead and emptied all the old oil into a bucket and then filled the "Yam" with nice new Motul.

At the same time Paul decided to start reassembling the old motor. Once we have it back in one piece we plan to sell it to some cart racers who apparently love the old FJ 1100 motors for their go-carts.

The "workshop day" was productive. Next week we plan to buy the headlight brackets and headlight along with some rear vision mirrors that fix to the ends of the clipons.

Well .. what have we been doing? Aaugh now let me think. Ooh yes, we have bought another 2 FJ's to help with the cafe racer project.


After pulling apart the engine of FJ1100 (no 1) and discovering that we had a cracked (but welded back) engine block, a chipped piston crown (sorry that was me getting a bit brutal) and no special tools to get the clutch plates out, we lost a bit of interest in the project ... until.


Peter saw two FJ1200's for sale on ebay for $2,000. We checked them out and before we knew it we had bought both bikes for $1,100. Actually one of the FJ's cost $1,000 (No 2) because it was in running order and easily ready for registration and the other was a "barn job" that had been stored out on a farm at Laidley for the last 2 years. It (No 3) cost us $100.

Not a lot happenin ....

Can you believe it? It is almost a month now since the last blog entry and what has happened. Well to put it bluntly ... not a lot.

Peter has been frigging around with the carbs and we have finally decided to get them dynojetted. He will then clean the casings with "carb cleaner" and polish the tops. They should come up a treat when this has been done.



Ian and Peter spent a lazy Sunday grinding off all those useless fittings on the frame in preparation for getting it powdercoated.

The decision has been made to get the frame done in "shiney black". I think we are all leaning towards a completely black bike (frame, motor and tank) with the odd bit of orange here and there ... I think.

Off with its' head !!

Last Saturday (3rd July) was "workshop day". We all assembled at Paul's place and debated why we were going to take apart (what we thought was) a perfectly good FJ 1100 motor.

But this whole project was about getting to know a little bit more on motorcycle mechanics so really there was no debate; we would strip the whole motor down, identify what was worn, replace stuff that needed to be replaced, and then put it all back together again (bit like Humpty Dumpty).

Ian was in charge of "manual reading" whereas Peter and Paul were to be the head "stripper-downers".

At Paul's suggestion, we placed the motor on a table that allowed us to "attack" the thing from all sides. First it was off with all peripheral stuff like starter motors, and miscellaneous leads. This was where we discovered our first "issue". The metal lug where the starter motor was attached to the engine donk had broken off (see picture on left). We would need to get this welded back on at some stage.

In between Ian hitting his head on the (far too) low floor beams under the house, we also noticed that the starter assembly was fixed to the engine casing by only one bolt. Some "brilliant" mechanic from the past had screwed in a bolt too tightly and it had broken inside the casing. That would also need to be drilled out at some stage.

The cylinder head cover came off easy enough as did the cams and associated gaskets. The lobes on the cams looked straight and true but Paul knows someone "in the game" who he will ask and get a second opinion as to whether we need to replace anything in this neck of the woods.

On inspection, the end of the cam chain tensioner was damaged and it is the usual story; you can't just buy a replacement part, you need to buy a complete new assembly. Ian will try and pick a secondhand one up from a motorcycle wrecker sometime during the coming weeks after he sees someone about the damage done to his head from hitting the beams no less that five times.

Thankfully, it was at this point that lunch was served (love that Beck) and we all feasted on burgers and little homemade pies.

After lunch it was off with the head !!! and (to everyone's surprise) the cylinders looked clean with little scoring. See picture. We are all hoping that the scoring that can be seen is "normal" wear and tear.

Well into the afternoon Pete got the "rescue call" from Laura and excused himself and then disappeared for a while. It was getting late anyway and so Paul and Ian tidied up the mess (that's OK Pete ... you just go off ... we'll clean up) and adjourned upstairs to marvel at Paul's new kick-arse tellie in the recently renovated lounge-dining room. As we have come to expect, Beck was on hand with cake and tea for all.

When Pete did return we all decided that we would need to do "other jobs" in between the "workshop days" if we were ever going to bring this project to completion in a year or so. It was organised that people would be allocated the following "in-between" jobs.

Paul

Keep the engine RP7"d and covered

Remove the bolt that is broken in the engine casing

Peter

Break down the carbs and rebuild with new jets and filters and replace all worn parts e.g. diaphragms or floats

Ian

Continue to break down the rest of the bike

The next workshop day is on Saturday 7th August and that day will be spent finishing off the breakdown of the motor.