L9 ZXR400 Selling Advice?

[keito]

Thank god for this forum, been ridiculously helpful to me but I unfortunately have shitty news.

Bought My green and white 2002 ZXR400 last october for £1800, it had 12.5k miles on the clock and was spotless and everything was stock. ANnoyingly everything was actually stock >.<...original chain and sprockets, original rear brake pads, oil and filter change. Replaced the chain and sprockets for the gold DID chain and brake pads.
Soon after I had to replace the fork seals but had to replace "contaminated" front brake pads as well. I also managed to drop it when i was moving it slowly in the ice at christmas, cracked the front fairing but paintwork is still pretty perfect (well the left side is spotless!) (now has crash bungs on it). Now at 16.8k miles.
Had starting issues crop up in march, had the valves reset and the carbs balanced. Then 3 weeks ago a top end engine noise began, got the garage to check it out, initially thought the camchain but its worn camshafts and followers (rods?]. Got a repair quote of around 2 grand. Can't afford to keep this bike going, besides wanting to shoot myself, it'd be great to recoup some money as it feels buying the zxr has been the biggest financial mistake i've made so far . I love it when it works, the bike rode perfectly, great insurance, great looks..where the f*ck is the reliability.

Any chance anyone has any advice on selling it? prices and all that? I'm currently thinking of wacking it on ebay. But not sure if thats the best road etc.

Cheers
Kristian

[RedexRobB]

Id say u have a few options.

One is to sell as it is, personal experience tells me that you won't get much for a bike that'd a non runner or near as to it.

Two is to pick up a running engine, but not sure the cost of the engine will be offset by the extra you make on the sale as the bodywork is damaged.

Last is to repair what u can itself n see what u make.

[Tirpitz]

You can pick up a decent engine for a lot less than £2k and swapping it over is not a difficult job. You can then sell your existing engine as needing work / to be broken for spares and recoup a certain amount of your outlay. I'd say the first thing to do would be to ring round some breakers, find who has a running engine, and see what sort of cost you are looking at. Decide from there. If my engine blew there's no way I'd be throwing in the towel right away and thinking of dumping the bike, it's waaaaay to early for that route.

If the only damage is deffo cams and followers you might not even need to swap the engine. Either source those bits from a breaker, or take those bits out of a 2nd hand engine you buy and fit to your existing. But TBH, if you get a 2nd hand engine in decent nick it would be more work swapping bits than swapping the whole engine.

Let us know how you go on.

[keito]

Cheers for the reply guys. The engine swap would be a nice way to solve the problem but I can't seem to get hold of a good one (i've tried to look before) especially since most of them are all early 90's engines which seems wrong to wack into a 2002. I commute as well so i need something reliable and might have to get a grandad bike.
I've spent almost as much as I bought it for and cutting my losses. I'd love to know about engines and how to sort it out myself but I have f*** all experience.

Wish these bad boys were still being made/ i could afford 2 bikes xD

[extonyg]

valves reset?do you mean clearances? if you have worn cams or followers and the clearances were done in march why didnt they notice this or have the clearances been set wrong causing damage to cams and followers.....id be taking it back to where the valve clearance work was done...

[keito]

Yeh Valve clearances.
I don't know enough to know why they didnt notice it when they did the valves. I went to 4 garages asking about it. They said it can be badly done valves affecting the camchain but no suggestion of cam shaft? >.<
Yeah took it back to them and they denied the valves being the problem. I don't trust mechanics anyway but Lloyd Cooper in watford supposedly have a good record >.<
If anyone is interested:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 1036wt_887

More details on there as well.

[Mori Man]

extonyg - picks up on a very good point , when your shims were being done the shop should have reported your cams as being badly worn, it's very easy to see especially when your doing that job and its a simple task lifting the followers to see the condition of the pads.

At 16K miles I would be freaked if my cams and followers were gone ! Thats like the bike being thrashed within an inch of its life from day one with half the amount of oil in the engine , why that doesn't tie up is you say it was all OEM when bought including pads so its been cared for and not abused.

Some one has screwed up along the line and aren't being forward about it , go to a small claims court and take out a "do-da " against them and approach citizeans advice plus your local paper. You have paid money for work that has caused damage so you have clout - use it. I would go for the shims were adjusted while the motor was still hot , what time did you drop off and pick up again ?

A series of incidents look to have given you a sickner with the bike and I can understand that but from your description of the bike before all this it was a good un to have - if your planning to have bikes long term I would say, start learning to service yourself and get the benefit of knowing the work has been done , enjoy riding a bike you've maintained and having the coffers saved in your tank for plenty more smile miles

You now have a project engine to repair , there is plenty threads on here to get you sorted out - I have one showing stripping down to the base gasket, you dont need to go that far. Certainly happy to talk you through it if you decide to give it a go, you have a deceased engine you cant make it worse but you could bring it back to glory

If camshafts your about 370GBP delivered 3 day express for standard or SP , 16 followers are about 260GBP but are all 16 goosed ?!? You will have some O rings / seals and gaskets to replace too.

You will need a decent toolbox - look for Halfords for bargains or sales to start you off and top up with more specialist tools like a micrometer & torque wrench(s) - I think under a grand would have it repaired and you also have a set of tools out of it too ! Win - Win in my book.

As a damaged non-runner I think your ebay listing is optimistic but good luck on the sale

MM!