The Zephyr Zone

Go on Eddie.
You know you want to polish those master cylinders ?

You could switch to a remote reservoir Master Cylinder. Staying Kawasaki, and not going Brembo, I used one from a ZX636, then used the same year clutch perch assembly. This allows me to use Pazzo 6 Position Adjustable Standard, or Shorty Levers, as MY GPz didn't come with adjustable levers. I see your brake lever has an adjusting knob.

Bigzeph wrote:Go on Eddie.
You know you want to polish those master cylinders ?

Don't give him ideas Bigzeph, eds bike might end up being as polished as yours

Seriously, its coming on well Eddie, you must be really pleased with it !

Go on Eddie.
You know you want to polish those master cylinders ?

You've got to be joking! I don't think I'm ever going to get the polishing bug, just the thought of doing the swing arm and header pipes is filling me with dread Having said that the bike is looking the shiniest it ever has!!

Corey » Yesterday, 12:46

You could switch to a remote reservoir Master Cylinder

That's a good idea but I've already bought the master cylinder repair kits so am going to stick with the originals.

I rebuilt the clutch m/cylinder today and after cleaning and greasing all the lever pivot points it feels very good now.



Next up is to make up some new brake lines, as you can see from the pic they are a simple compression fitting the most tricky part being cutting the steel braiding. I wrapped some tape around it and used a dremmel with a thin cutting disc on it which gave a pretty good result, but to be fair a good metal saw will do just as well. It was also a bit fiddly splaying out the braid far enough on the cut end to slip the brass feral over the plastic inner of the pipe, then insert the banjo ring part and thread it all together.




Calipers next!

Not much progress since the last post but did manage to finish the front brake master cylinder today. I wish Kawasaki would supply the master cylinder repair kit pre assembled, as fitting the tight rubber seals onto the plunger is quite tricky through fear of damaging them, I used a bit of red rubber grease to help them on which helped







Cheers eddie

Eddie wrote: I wish Kawasaki would supply the master cylinder repair kit pre assembled, as fitting the tight rubber seals onto the plunger is quite tricky through fear of damaging them

I would of been tempted with sticking them in hot water for a while, or is that a No No ?

Keep at it eddie

I have only ever used clean brake fluid on my master cylinder and caliper rebuilds. My thought here is that assembly grease could contaminate the brake fluid used, even if you bleed the system, as it might not all come out, or will over time. Just a thought.

Red rubber grease is fine to use for assembling hydraulic brake components. That's specifically what its designed for, and has been used for that purpose since 'Adam was a boy'.

BUT ..... there are now WAY better rubber safe lubricants available. The little white packet of grease that comes with every Brembo overhaul kit is silicone grease. No different to the stuff in a general brand rubber friendly silicone grease.

Question regarding using brake fluid to assembly motorcycle calipers. Is brake fluid water soluble? If it is, what will happen when you ride in the first shower of rain? Then what will stop the pistons getting all corroded up and sticking in the dust seals?

I wonder why Brembo supplies that little white pack of silicone grease in all its kits?

I've always used red grease on calipers and master cylinders etc and never had an issue, I do use it very sparingly as maybe leaving big dollops of it inside something may cause trouble , but the main bonus is if like me your a bit of a messy worker, at least any spillages won't paint strip your newly painted brakes !.

Finished the Handlebar switches, my original ones were damaged and pretty worn / faded anyway with most of the lettering having rubbed off over the years. I found these on ebay advertised as coming from a GPz or GPX ?. Close examination of the pics showed the wiring to be all correct and identical to the Zephyr ones, the only difference is the colouring of the letters being a greenie shade rather than the original white. They look good I think.

I unpicked each wire from it's connector block and cleaned the terminals as some of them were a bit "green" with corrosion, a time consuming job but well worth it, next fitted them up with all the throttle cables etc, hooked up a battery and all worked a treat, job done

Last post of 2018! , I haven't done much of late as unfortunately my Father in law passed away in November so have been tied up with family matters, all very sad really bless him

I did get my tank back though, It was quite severely dented in the accident and I didn't want to give it to a paint shop as it was, fearing they might just put huge dollops of filler in it, so a guy I know who used to do spraying and is now a classic car welder agreed to have a go at preparing it for spraying. He stripped it to bare metal then drilled out some access holes underneath the tank and pushed out as much of the dented metal as possible, then carefully welded over the holes and applied a thin skim of filler on the outside. He did remark the tank was in very good condition but had already been repaired before!! .... seems my bike has had quite a life I was pleased with the result though as I had had no joy in finding a decent 2nd hand replacement, we all know zephyr tanks are like gold dust
He also suggested having it "lined" but personally I'm not keen on these treatments and would prefer not to, I've filled it with petrol and so far it's bone dry,

....just need to decide on a colour now

a lot of the dents don't show up in the picture but trust me it was pretty beaten up...there is a dent by the filler neck from my bo*****ks, man that hurt!!!!




not a great pic but you can see the holes on the bottom of the tank now welded up he used to gain access to the dents on top




End result




Happy New Year everybody!