Richard's ZR750C1 Restoration Project
Posted: 09 Sep 2017, 18:08
After our forum crashed this year I immediately started missing all the good articles shared by others on the forum, it had been a very good source of information for me and the only way to get it back is to add and share personal stories so here's my 2nd attempt to share what I went through with my 1992 Zephyr ZR750 model C1.
As I mentioned in my introduction topic , last year (July 2016) I decided to get a non chopper model as I started to dislike the steering. As I liked the engine used in my 750 LTD and the Zephyr ZR750 was using sort of the same engine I started looking around for one. There were not too many Zephyrs on the market but I managed to find one quite nearby even and only for some 800 Euro's.
Off I went with my son Rick (so he could drive the car back). The owner had parked it a few years back in his shed and before he used it mainly to ride to work. It didn't look too bad, sure it needed work but earlier on the phone he told me it was in running condition, soon however we found it was not...
After a visual inspection we attempted to start the engine but all it did was a loud click with the headlight weakening while doing so. I first thought about a bad battery so my son jumped on it while running but no matter what gear it was in the rear wheel just slid over the street, no turning over what so ever. The owner said it was put in the shed while running and he was surprised this was happening. By this time I suspected fuel was in one ore more cylinders (fuel lock) but we didn't have the tools to remove the spark plugs. So we agreed to come back at a later date to see if I could fix the issue.
During the next visit we removed the plugs and tried turning the engine over, I should have put a towel or something over the engine as in this case the fuel went a few meters across the parking lot (with cars parked on it ). So it was definitely a case of fuel lock and soon after reinstalling the plugs the engine was turning over and came back to live be it very irregular and I had to keep the revs up to prevent the engine from stalling. This was probably also caused by the old fuel I think. Later I found the petcock wasn't closing completely with the engine turned off, dirt from the gas tank caused some leaking through and since it was parked on it's jiffy cylinder number 1 was where the fuel went causing the fuel lock.
Anyway, as the bike itself was looking good enough to ride home I bought it and on my way I filled it up with some fresh fuel making a lot of difference although it was still stalling when throttling down. It was a 50km ride and the engine started to behave more and more like it should. It was clear the bike needed some real maintenance but I did arrive home safely after all
This picture is taken a month later with my LTD still in the background (now sold)
As I mentioned in my introduction topic , last year (July 2016) I decided to get a non chopper model as I started to dislike the steering. As I liked the engine used in my 750 LTD and the Zephyr ZR750 was using sort of the same engine I started looking around for one. There were not too many Zephyrs on the market but I managed to find one quite nearby even and only for some 800 Euro's.
Off I went with my son Rick (so he could drive the car back). The owner had parked it a few years back in his shed and before he used it mainly to ride to work. It didn't look too bad, sure it needed work but earlier on the phone he told me it was in running condition, soon however we found it was not...
After a visual inspection we attempted to start the engine but all it did was a loud click with the headlight weakening while doing so. I first thought about a bad battery so my son jumped on it while running but no matter what gear it was in the rear wheel just slid over the street, no turning over what so ever. The owner said it was put in the shed while running and he was surprised this was happening. By this time I suspected fuel was in one ore more cylinders (fuel lock) but we didn't have the tools to remove the spark plugs. So we agreed to come back at a later date to see if I could fix the issue.
During the next visit we removed the plugs and tried turning the engine over, I should have put a towel or something over the engine as in this case the fuel went a few meters across the parking lot (with cars parked on it ). So it was definitely a case of fuel lock and soon after reinstalling the plugs the engine was turning over and came back to live be it very irregular and I had to keep the revs up to prevent the engine from stalling. This was probably also caused by the old fuel I think. Later I found the petcock wasn't closing completely with the engine turned off, dirt from the gas tank caused some leaking through and since it was parked on it's jiffy cylinder number 1 was where the fuel went causing the fuel lock.
Anyway, as the bike itself was looking good enough to ride home I bought it and on my way I filled it up with some fresh fuel making a lot of difference although it was still stalling when throttling down. It was a 50km ride and the engine started to behave more and more like it should. It was clear the bike needed some real maintenance but I did arrive home safely after all
This picture is taken a month later with my LTD still in the background (now sold)