mankiest zxr400 ever?

[tobomoto]

i picked this up off my mate on sunday and the planwa to get it running and keep it as an all year hack. got it home and started to look at it. it hasnt been used in 4 years, apart from a home to loads of insects. so brakes seized, no water in it, no oil in it, air filter breaking up, exhaust rusted, forks pitted... then agin for what i paid for it, it isnt too bad.
good points- braided steel lines, aftermarket hugger, green art can think thats about it.
bad points- pretty much everything else.
plans have changed so now i think the first thing to do is try and get it up and running. if it runs then ill put it in for an mot and see what it fails on. if it doesnt run then i have a couple of ideas...

[RedexRobB]

certainly looks rough! Strip off the bodywork so you can get to everything, check plugs and carbs and filter are clean, fill with fluids and see if you can get it to fire!

[CaNsA]

That is minging!

Let the oil soak into that clutch for a day or 2 before you turn it over.....
Get the carbs off too.
Good luck.

Ill give you a tenner for it

[tobomoto]

Ive got to gight my way through all the cobwebs first before i can get to the carbs. Was like somthing from indiana jones!

[cargo]

looks like a fun project..................you might even make a few quid on it

[tobomoto]

not too sure about making money on it. ive just had a look at it a bit betterer and i think im going to give it a nut and bolt strip down so i can get everything cleaned and repainted. i want to get the engine running but eventually it will be coming out and a zx6r lump going in. the forks need re chroming as theres more pitting than chrome. think im going to invest in a set from a zx6r with radial calipers. will also need the wheel and discs.
bodywork wise all the panels will be coming off and a race fairing will be going on (daytime mot). ive seen some nice tail units but im a bit unsure what would look good- any suggestions are welcome (carbon fibre would be nice too...)
im going to get hold of some pipe as well and make a twin exit exhaust.
other bits will get changed as and when- got to figure out what needs to be changet and what i want changed.

[Tirpitz]

Is that really an economical repair? You don't say how much you paid for it but given that you can pick up a good ZXR for £800 you have to ask yourself - why bother? If you broke that for spares and flogged them off you might make a bit. You could buy a decent ZXR, swap out the motor for a ZX6R, flog off the ZXR motor.

I couldn't be arsed with that by the look of it, it's a money pit. No point resurrecting something to sit on a big fat loss.

From what you're talking about doing and what all that is going to cost you, you must either be having a laugh or have a lot of money and nowt much to do with it.

Utter madness IMO

[cargo]

I would agree with Tirpitz


Give it a good clean................you labour costs little.........................make it look reasonable cosmeticaly
get it running and MOTd

dont buy any more parts for it than absolutely nesscessary.

And sell it...................


Question is how much have you paid for it


I once bought one owner had given up on it..................I used some parts from my box of bits and a day or two of work.
Sold it for more than double what I paid..................wasn't even MOTd

[tobomoto]

How much would it be worth with an mot? Its a j reg jap import with 36000 kns on it. The only mods arei anart can but i have the standard as well and braided lines.
The main reason i want to do it is because i wanted somthing with more power and i want to see what it will be like. It may be a money pit but i dont plan on selling it, although i may just get the forks re chromed instead. The rest of the work i can do myself.
By the way, i paid £38 for it...

[Ewetea]

If you do have the forks re-chromed, I would be very interested to know where you had them done, and how much it cost. I looked into having my forks re-chromed a couple of years ago, and the prices then were horrific - it would have been cheaper to have them gold-plated! I gave up and bought some on e-bay. The general impression of the bike is that it has not been maintained and just thrashed. Just break it and sell the parts - even low sums of money will still generate a tidy profit. By the way - did you haggle over the price?!!!!

[cargo]

It is possible to buy replacement fork tubes...............they guy that services the forks and shock on my race bike got me some for my Triumph road bike a few years back.................................somthing like £150 the pair............. bit of a specialist job to fit to the fork bottoms.

[cargo]

38 quid.......................bargain of the year Id say



get it running with an MOT and a good clean you'll get £500 easy................


That HUGE profit



And if you want something with more power dont waste time trying to fit a 600 engine or tuning......................utterly useless waste of time unless you are a real wannabe bike builder


BUY A 600................soooooooooooo much easier

[tink]

£38 thats a bargin

[tobomoto]

The bike was maintained up until the bloke lost his job. He didnt know one end of a spanner from the other so he used to take it to a bike shop. Ill have a go at getting it started and go from there.

[Tirpitz]

As said, at £38 you can't go wrong, you deffo got a bargain there. The parts alone are worth way more than that broken. But if you start trying to restore it it will soon turn into 'not a bargain'.

As a tatty runner you could flog it and walk away. If you really want a project think about buying another bike which needs work and using this one as a parts mule. What you don't use you can flog off again to offset the purchase of bike number 2.

If you want more power I wouldn't fart around fitting a different engine to a 400. Kwak already did this and called it the ZXR750 You can pick a reasonable example up cheap enough without a load of work.

The worrying part about your bike is that it was stored with no oil or coolant and obviously from the state of it not somewhere dry. I would expect that engine to have internal corrosion, the coolant pump to be shagged, bearings to be be seized etc.. That's going to take serious work to get running. It may well run, but as to whether it will stay running...........