February 8th, 2015, 10:21 AM | #41 |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: Rick
Location: Alexandria, Louisiana
Join Date: Jan 2009 Motorcycle(s): 05 Blue Ninja 250 Posts: Too much.
MOTY - 2017, MOTM - Jan '19, Oct '16, May '14
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Hello and welcome.
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February 8th, 2015, 11:19 AM | #42 |
Participant
Name: Dave
Location: South of Seattle
Join Date: Oct 2012 Motorcycle(s): '94 K75 std Posts: Too much.
MOTM - Aug '15
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I like that seat!
If you squint, it kinda looks like it might be faux alligator... |
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February 9th, 2015, 01:07 PM | #43 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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Marsha, marsha, marsha!
Yeah the petcock lever thing is what i'm thinking, cutting it down like that, but then you cant get a hand on it to turn it, so i'm going to cut a slot in a piece of aluminum and use that to reach up there and turn it. I made a little mockup out of cardboard and played with it and it looks like it will work but triggering the reserve probably won't be possible while riding. And if I forget the 'key' I had guests visit this weekend so mostly and no work on the bike. I did sneak off in between grilling shish-kabobs on the grill for a hot minute and try out the petcock-tabby-switch-thing to see if it would work, and take a flap wheel to that huge hunk of bondo on the back of the tank. Probably should have left it alone, it looks like a huge grody rusty dent that may or may not have jb weld holding back a leak somewhere near the bottom of the bondo. I'm going to have to weld those holes up from the fairing bolts going into the tank, so i suppose now is the time to fix it permanently, grind it all down and not have to worry about it. |
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February 25th, 2015, 01:59 PM | #44 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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Woah, hey haven't checked up on this for a minute. Been kinda busy and stuff.
the tank has been kicking my butt for the last couple weeks. Slow progress. Ground the bondo out and found some uglyness. wow that sucks some roofing nails upside down will fix the pinholes finally got around to painting the handlebars. paint got all messed up when i bent them back with the torch. Sanded down and shot with some rattle can. had to drill one of the brake fluid reservoir screws out, wasn't frozen just stripped, came out easily with the dykes Used a syringe to suck out all the crusty fluid, then i refilled with fresh and bled the line down with my handy dandy ghetto rigged vacuum pump/pickle jar apparatus. ] Thats about all the further I got, I need to pick up a spot weld cutter for the fairing mounting tabs, thats the big hold up now. I put some PC7 epoxy in the area with those pinholes, and i'm hoping that takes care of it. Ran some more gas through the bike and futzed with the mix screws. Hard to get a good tune without actually being able to ride it, but it seems like 2.5-3 turns is about right. |
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February 25th, 2015, 02:06 PM | #45 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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oh yeah, almost forgot
got the gauge cluster back on, kinda glued together all janky but seems to be holding for now. also reinstalled all the controls, duh, and the bar end weights. The stainless flathead socket screws were a perfect fit, M8x30 i think? Give a much more finished look to the bar ends, not that i really care, but much cleaner than those crappy tore up phillips. |
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February 25th, 2015, 02:24 PM | #46 |
ninjette.org certified postwhore
Name: Mark
Location: Portland
Join Date: Sep 2010 Motorcycle(s): Cheap Italian Suit. Otherwise known as Dew Kitty Posts: A lot.
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Welcome. And, nice work.
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April 29th, 2015, 12:11 PM | #47 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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Finally finished!!
Sorry folks, No updates for a long time, several weeks. Truck seized up an axle bearing and wiped out one weekend with that crap. I got a TW200 dirtbike and got that thing running and ready to flip.
Couple things held me up, running out of gas in my Oxy rig was a big one, needed to braze those stupid bolt holes that broke through in the tank. I wasn't going to risk trying to fill them with the mig. No welding shops around here are open on the weekends or when i'm not at work, so it took some careful timing to get the kid to daycare, get to the welding shop, and make it into work just a little bit late. Second, and I apologize for not posting a better writeup/ followup, the paint job took a lot more time than it should have. The gas tank gave me fits because i had a situation where rust started to form in the tank while it sat and waited to get welded. In order to get the rust out i needed to do an acid rinse again followed by filling the tank with gasoline to prevent rust, but I couldn't have gasoline in the tank to paint it, and I didn't want to risk screwing up the paint with acid. Chicken and egg sorta thing, had to get the rust first, but couldn't do the rust until i painted it. If i had not run out of gas, i could have got the paint job done before rust started to form and it would have not been a problem. So i did the acid before paint. laid down a coat of primer, then put enough gas+2stroke oil in the tank to prevent rust and sealed it up with a block-off plate for the petcock and gas cap, which i masked. The paint went really good, i was using the 'rust oleum professional' rattlecan. Most rattlecan sucks but this stuff is awesome, it is a really high quality paint combined with a higher-pressure can and better spray nozzle. It sprays on really well and the can has enough pressure to run for several minutes at a time, without having to sit in hot water or whatever to come back up to pressure. I had a couple runs the first time so i shot a second coat, but i did something real stupid, I grabbed a rag that had brake cleaner on it to tack-off the sanding dust and it completely screwed up the first coat of paint, causing it to get really gummy and screwing up how it hardened. Dang. That was a 2 week setback right there because i had to wait for the paint to get really hard before i could sand it back off and start over. Its still not as good as it was the first time, but its good enough for this bike. While i waited for that paint to dry, i began the tedious process of pop-riveting the fairings back together. This is a pretty simple process but takes a lot of time. Best to get a couple beers ready because you're going to need them. I bought aluminum strip in 1/16 thickness, by about 2" wide or thereabouts. I already had a bunch of holes along the cracks from the previous owner's zip-tie stitching back together job. I cut and fitted the strips in behind the cracks, trying to capture the holes that were already there. Then I traced the holes through onto the aluminum with a sharpie. I took a sheet metal punch (which i just found a week ago at a garage sale woot!) and punched the dots. I did all the plates first and held them in place with pop rivets pushed through, before actually riveting them on. Once i was sure it was all going to line up and work, i cleaned the plastic and the aluminum with scotchbrite and alcohol and glued the strips in place with 3M weatherstrip adhesive. Then I popped all the rivets in place. The two pieces of plastic that weren't already messed up with bad rattlecan were a cinch. I peeled off the stickers, scotchbrite and alcohol just to take off any waxes or whatever, then one coat of 'bulldog adhesion promoter' and one coat of primer, 400 grit wetsand, two coats of paint. Perfect The plastics that were painted I took down aggressively with a 220 disc on a random orbit sander. Bulldog, prime, wetsand, paint. The front cowling was a PITA sanding around all those stupid rivet heads. Hmm what else, I dunno its pretty much 'there.' I've got the 'Raptor' manual petcock installed flipped around backwards. At the very least its a halfway decent security system if you are an idiot and cant figure out how to trace a hose from the carb. I'm also running a big automotive fuel filter. That seems to be catching all the gunk from the tank. I did have the watery fuel thing at first, was running well but had no power... craziest thing ever but everyone on here says its a common problem. Some water was left over from acid cleaning the tank and that water was probably chock full of garbage. The gas was brown for awhile but has since cleared up now that it has had 3 gallons of clean fuel added to it. I've been watching the in-line filter built into the nipple on the carb and it hasn't shown any debris, but when i cracked the float bowls there was clearly separated water sitting at the bottom of those. Rode it into work today. I've been riding the TW200, which at 70 mph is only slightly less violent than trying to use a rototiller in a hurricane. I almost fell asleep on this on the way in, its buttery smooth at 60, 70, even 80 mph. I can just barely tuck into the slipstream but it puts my arms at a slightly uncomfortable angle. Awesome. such a nice little bike. Few little things that I've still got to get sorted out but all in all it I'm very happy for the minimal time invested and $500 total. So the total budget looks like: Initial cost: $300 Carbs (from a friendly forum member, thanks!!): $85 Sidecovers: $25 cheapest set on ebay Seat (ebay): $40 Partzilla order, small body hardware: ~$50 Several trips to fastenal/lowes for random hdw: ~$20 3 cans of Rust-oleum pro white and 1 can primer: $25 Fuel filter (auto parts): $5 Total cost: $550 Title, reg, insurance not included. Tonight i'll finish the paint on the front fender (black) and bolt that back on and probably put the crappy flushmount turn signals back on. I've got to get those good ones ordered at some point here. |
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April 29th, 2015, 12:29 PM | #48 |
I'm crazy,your excuse is?
Name: Winston
Location: Connecticut
Join Date: May 2013 Motorcycle(s): 250 2007 ninja Posts: A lot.
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Looking good there!
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May 1st, 2015, 07:20 AM | #49 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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Rode to work thursday and she died on me... I panicked because I was late to a meeting and got a ride, but went back over lunch and got it running.
Fuel filter plugged off tight. Cleaned the filter out and made it home, but she did it again (same exact place where i'm running 70 mph up a hill just about full throttle) on the way in this morning. This time I flipped the filter around and hooked it to the tank to blow the crud out. Was flowing free, but started to loose power a few blocks from work. Nursed it in but i'll have to run over lunch and get a new filter. Oh well, if that is the only hiccup, I'd say i'm doing pretty well. Worst case scenario just carry an extra and swap it out when it dies, until all the fine crud makes its way out of the tank. I will drain the tank this weekend and fill up fresh, hopefully get most of the big crud out. I can use the gas in my truck, it will burn anything and has the industrial size fuel filter. |
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May 1st, 2015, 07:29 AM | #50 | |
I'm crazy,your excuse is?
Name: Winston
Location: Connecticut
Join Date: May 2013 Motorcycle(s): 250 2007 ninja Posts: A lot.
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maybe get large car carb filter?
Quote:
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May 1st, 2015, 08:22 AM | #51 |
ninjette.org guru
Name: Ray
Location: 48162
Join Date: Aug 2013 Motorcycle(s): 2012 Ninja 250 Posts: 450
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^^^^^
I was thinking the same thing about a much larger car filter to use for now until your certain all the mess is flowed from the tank. |
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May 4th, 2015, 03:28 PM | #52 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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Ha yeah I'm using the large paper filters from the auto parts store, they have a 1/4 and 5/16" stepped nipple so i can run 1/4 line from the 'yamaha raptor' 7 dollar ebay special petcock into the 5/16 fuel line going to the crab.
I ran through one in 2 days, the second one wasn't plugged after two days but it was getting there. I changed it out on Saturday and drained what was left in the tank. Put on the black front fender and right side mirror, added some strategic nylon locking strap fasteners to hold the plastics in place and fixed the shift linkage so it shifts smoothly now. Put air in the tires. All and all pretty much got her sorted out. LOVING these Dunlop whatever crap tires. They are so greasy i can slide the rear like i'm racing moto GP just riding around on the street. Woah, cool. Its like drifting! |
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May 20th, 2015, 03:18 PM | #53 |
Lostcause enthusiast
Name: Graham
Location: Austin, TX
Join Date: Jan 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2000 EX250F Posts: 178
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Haven't popped back in for a bit.
Filled up the 4th time since I started daily driving the bike. Lots of rain here in central texas so I've driven the truck more than I'd like to. I guesstimate about 500 miles i've put on it. Running like a clock. Tagged 85 once on the gps, but mostly i've been keeping it at about 10,000 rpm whatever that works out to. Still need to fix the smashed tail light, get a speedometer cable, and sort out a couple odds and ends, but she's been reliable so far and getting the job done. The enamel rattle can paint is still a bit too soft to install the 'cow-a-saki' decals, so that too is on hold. Re-forming the seat to be comfortable for a 6' 34" inseam guy with monkey arms is probably going to be happening sooner than I thought as well... the seat now is pushing me into the tank with a very unpleasant ball-squishening effect. |
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May 23rd, 2015, 02:16 PM | #54 |
ninjette.org member
Name: Tyrone
Location: Abingdon, Maryland
Join Date: May 2015 Motorcycle(s): 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250r Posts: 10
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Welcome, quite the project you got there
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