88 ZX600 Restoration (pictures)

[r2kool4u]

Wow they are lookng really good.

[Evil_Ivan]

Thanks for the thread Superfly, it's great to see these bikes being reworked to the degree yours have been. I just picked up an '85 600 (missing some rather random stuff), and have similar plans for it. I'm interested to see what kind of scheme you've come up with for the paint.

[NinjaNoah98']

Great thread, very inspiring . Nice to see junked bikes turn into beautys once again.

[Jay R.]

wow, I'm alsmot speachless, you did a great job on both bikes! I can't wait to see the 88 with its new paint. I have an 88 here that was wreck I put bck together, just having title troubles now. I really want to get mine to the place yours is at!

[iamshadow]

what ever happened to this?

[CTGPZ]

Awesome work man! Gives me hope for my project!

[vile1]

That's awesome man!

I have an 86 ZX600 myself.

If you dont mind me asking: where are you finding all these pistons? Im looking to rebuild my bike and I cannot find pistons for my bike for the LIFE of me!

[Superfly]

Alot has been going on with the ninjas. The 86 has been up and down (head gaskets....) and I had the 88 ready for paint and all the bodywork was in great shape, and then I was riding in West LA around 10 pm, and a work truck swerved into my path (one way, off ramp from a freeway) a couple of feet in front of me, as I swerved to the left to avoid hitting the rear of this big truck my front tire hit the curb and the bike shot out from under me, and the bike & I landed right on the curb, you can see the strange rash pattern on the fairing, and on the front of the fender.



That hurt! I landed on my left shoulder & side on the curb, so I had some nasty bruses and road rash. My left elbow looked like I was hiding a baseball in it, shoulder was badly bruised, my right side was rashed up, and I had a deep cut on my knee... I had my helmet, jacket & gloves on... Helmet was trashed, jacket had some damage, but the bike was lucky.. it landed on me! The wreck broke the fender, Left fairing, left side foot peg, turn signal, and my helmet. Luckly nothing on me was broke, just bruises & road rash.

I took the bike off the road for a week, so I could fix it up, and decided to put the K&N pod filters on the 88, since it is my daily ride.





It was not a bad conversion at all. I put a stage 3 jet kit in the carbs, added the pods, and I bought some new tools to help tune the bike. These tools work really well, A good Carbtune manometer, a 90 degree screwdriver (a necessity when trying to get to the Mixture screws above the waterpipe) and the colortune.



I really liked the colortune, it has a clear top that lets you see the color of the flame in the combustion chamber, The flame color shows that four fairly distinct stages occur. when the flame color is blue/white, the mixture ratio is between 16 and 14:1; a blue color indicates a mixture between 14 and 12.5:1; a blue/orange color indicates 12.5 to 11:1 and orange indicates 11:1 or less. 14.7:1 is the stoich ratio for gasoline and air, and is very easy to see. (this is where the 90 degree screwdriver came in VERY handy!)

I put the bike back together, all tuned up, and replaced all the broken parts except the left fairing, and the 88 (nicknamed the Ghost) was back together. I was really happy at the outcome of the Pod conversion. The bike lost a little "snap" in the take off, but the midrange power improvement was well worth it.





I am going to repair or replace the left side fairing, (hopefully this weekend...) and the bike will be ready for paint (again...) This bike is a great bike, I can not say enough good things about it. right after the accident, the bike started right up, and now after the pod conversion, the bike screams like never before. Currently, the bike is running a 4 degree ignition advance (really smoothed out the engine, and a very easy install) Stage 3 jet kit, K&N Pods, and a new 4-1 Vance & Hines exhaust. Looking back at the accident, if it had to happen I am glad I landed on the left side, I had my new fairing panel and new Exhaust on the right side!

[iamshadow]

damn it, im so jealous, i cant get my 85 to stay running! i need help cuz i sure as hell am not sure what im doing/what to do, lol. at least i know it runs, now if i could get it to stay on =\. again, me=envious

help me? =)

[iamshadow]

please? i dont know what to do

[MWasakoski]

Wow, definitly inspiring... I have an '88 I'm working on...I hope not to that degree though (don't think I could do all that). Where did you learn about engines and where do you get your parts?

[pmac1222]

bike looks good. Im rebuilding an 87 600r right now. The only problem is i am having a hard time finding oem and aftermarket parts. Any suggestions?

[sebastian1000]

ahh brought back to life.

So yeah you ever get that 88 painted?

[Superfly]

the 88 just hit 15,000 on the rebuilt engine! The bad news is that I have gone that far and still not painted it..... but more importantly.... I reached the end of the life of my existing chain. So I was looking to see if they made a 520 conversion for this bike, and I just purchased a conversion for my FZR (FZR 600 (CA model) project bike - The FZR Forum) so I started asking him, and I found one! The place is Sumofallparts.



Front Sprocket, Rear Sprocket & Chain. I went -1 +2 on the gearing.



There is a huge difference between the width of the 520 & 530 front sprocket.



Chain Comparison.



Installed perfect! It was not hard to do at all. With the smaller chain, it moved my rear tire more tword the front of the adjustments. It was funny, when I was putting on the new rear sprocket, I heald both of them in my hand to feel the weight difference and I could not believe the difference. The existing sprocket felt like a good chunk of steel, where the new sprocket felt like lightweight aluminum! The first ride on the new setup was great, I really like the upgrade!

[MR.S7]

Probably some of you have already seen this link ive posted b4, but just in case someone needs extra ideas or for new members.

Here it was mi zx600 transformation work quite time ago:


YouTube - Kawasaki Transformation part 3! , by 7th World Custom Sport



hope u like it , enjoy

best wishes all! theres nothing like the feeling of transforming a bike.

[MR.S7]

Originally Posted by iamshadow

please? i dont know what to do

wHATS YOUR PROB man?

[SilverEagle]

This was a fascinating read Superfly, a true enthusiast you are.

[Superfly]

Thank you! The bikes have been a blast to work on and ride.

Last weekend I decided to sell the 86. I hated to do it, but about 7 months ago, a friend of mine decided that he needed to sell his Ducati, and I jumped on the deal. I was like "I will take it" then hung up the phone with him and then realized that was alot more money than I had stashed away for another bike. Over the last 7 months I have rebuilt & sold a couple of bikes (cafe racer'd out a Suzuki GS450s, my Kawasaki Ninja ZX600a, and a Yamaha XZ550), I have been going thru my stash of parts, and selling alot of them, fixing other peoples cars/bikes, etc... to come up with the money for the bike. On Monday, I finally sold the ninja, and that was the remainder of the balance I needed for the bike.

Yesterday I went up to pick the bike up, and spent a good part of the day at his house as he went thru the modifications on the bike. I was able to take her out on the freeway for a short run last night, and she is really a blast to ride.



On the way home.





It was alot of work to get the bike, but ultimately it was well worth it. I do miss the 86, but she went to a good home so that is good. I will still keep the 88 Ninja as my every day ride, the Ducati was an 'offer that I couldn't refuse'.

[MR.S7]

Originally Posted by Superfly

Thank you! The bikes have been a blast to work on and ride.

Last weekend I decided to sell the 86. I hated to do it, but about 7 months ago, a friend of mine decided that he needed to sell his Ducati, and I jumped on the deal. I was like "I will take it" then hung up the phone with him and then realized that was alot more money than I had stashed away for another bike. Over the last 7 months I have rebuilt & sold a couple of bikes (cafe racer'd out a Suzuki GS450s, my Kawasaki Ninja ZX600a, and a Yamaha XZ550), I have been going thru my stash of parts, and selling alot of them, fixing other peoples cars/bikes, etc... to come up with the money for the bike. On Monday, I finally sold the ninja, and that was the remainder of the balance I needed for the bike.

Yesterday I went up to pick the bike up, and spent a good part of the day at his house as he went thru the modifications on the bike. I was able to take her out on the freeway for a short run last night, and she is really a blast to ride.



On the way home.





It was alot of work to get the bike, but ultimately it was well worth it. I do miss the 86, but she went to a good home so that is good. I will still keep the 88 Ninja as my every day ride, the Ducati was an 'offer that I couldn't refuse'.

Dude... u did the Right thing.. congrats a Ducati is a Ducati no matter who says but but.
Congrats again sweet blast u got

[iamshadow]

Originally Posted by MR.S7

wHATS YOUR PROB man?

not to try and jack, superflys thread, but i cant get my bike to stay running. dunno if its carb related or electrical. had it running for a few mins then it dies out. bought it non running. you can check all my threads, for the the probs i went through... my car crapped out on me(more like i killed the poor thing, so the bike isnt priority, though i would like to get it going, save on gas and fix my car)

fly, great work as usual! still very envious on this end...lol