Richard's ZR750C1 Restoration Project

[Richard]

I used brake fluid Freddy... Why?

[Freddy]

I used brake fluid Freddy... Why?

Brake fluid is water soluble. After the first light shower of rain you ride in, every part of the piston exposed to the elements and the dust seal will have all the brake fluid washed away and you now have zero lubrication or surface corrosion protection. So while brake fluid gets the assembly job done, it doesn't offer long term protection or lubrication to the bits forward of the brake fluid seal.

A bone dry piston running in a bone dry dust seal can cause all sort of problems including reduced braking efficiency, and excessive level travel. You can even end up with the dust seal dislodging itself from its groove and find bits of it hanging out.

An appropriate water proof silicon brake assembly fluid is vastly superior https://agscompany.com/product/sil-glyd ... tube-4-oz/

[Richard]

So I have been too fast as it seems , the kit was supplied with some sort of special grease but I thought not to use it following the Haynes manual. Obviously that manual is dated as I now discover...

Good news is it only has to last one or maybe two years as I plan to replace the front with upside downs and brembo brakes.

Thanks for the lesson Freddy (again)

[Richard]

Finally my discs arrived in the mail, several weeks after ordering, guess corona still has influence on deliveries as I'm still waiting on a new petcock from CMS delayed with several weeks as it seems...

Anyway I spent some time on mounting those discs and my overhauled calipers, still have to bleed them but it sure looks promising
Will do the remaining tasks tomorrow evening and hopefully I can make my first (test) miles this year after I finished them...

[Stereordinary]

Lookin’ good!

[Richard]

It's alive! Pictures to follow later but here's a video. Will get some test mileage this week...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w90BzMlaXKw

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w90BzMlaXKw[/youtube]

[Richard]

CMS tells me shipment is today, finally!
And some pictures I promissed:

[Swampy]

It gets the thumbs up from me, well done you must be well pleased

[Richard]

Thanks! And yes its finally getting somewhere. Received my new petcock with front wheel bearings etc today, this will have to wait until next week however as we are going away in the weekend...

[Freddy]

Looking good .... trust you won't mind a thought, only intended to help.....

Given you clearly spent a bit of money on the rear shocks (or were very lucky if someone gave them to you), an observation from just looking at the pictures, which I fully recognize could be misleading.

From the picture, for a bike sitting on the side stand (essentially very little weight on the springs) the top lighter spring section (the bit more tightly wound) looks pretty compressed to me. Can I suggest you try the following ......

With the bike on the side-stand, sit backward on the bike, and stand the bike up. Put as much weight as you can on the seat, balancing the bike with just your toes. Now check (the reason your sitting backward) the coils of the tighter wound top section of the rear springs. If they still have decent spaces between the coils all is good. But if they are all collapsed down each coil hard against the next, you should consider moving up to a set of higher rate springs.

Why?? If the top more tightly wound section (lower spring rate) is fully collapsed just under the weight of yourself and the bike when stationary, it may as well not exist. You are essentially only ever hitting road imperfections etc using the heavier part of the spring (the more open wound section). By fitting a heavier dual rate spring with its light section strong enough to properly support the weight of both the bike and yourself, you will get a more comfortable ride. You will actually be running much of the time on a lighter weight spring (the top section of the heavier spring) than now (the stronger section of your current springs) Not only will it give a more comfortable ride over less than perfect roads, it will also give you much better ground clearance as the heavier spring will resist compressing as much under cornering forces.

Anyhow, just a thought.