ALLEN MILLYARD
He’s sorting the chassis on the Kawasaki Super-six Zed 2!
Work on my second super six has been progressing slower than normal. The 1522cc engine is finished and ready to start, but for now I’m concentrating on building a complete rolling chassis for the new engine.
With all the parts away for painting and plating, I only had a few bits of the bike remaining at home to work on, like the rear wheel hub, forks, clocks and electrical bits. I usually send the alloy parts for vapour blasting, then polish where required, but this time I decided to clean them myself at home with wire brushes and wet and dry paper, finishing off on my vintage buffing machine.
I started with the rear hub which was in fairly nice condition and seemed to have missed the corrosive output from the rodents’ nest, so the first thing I did was to remove the wheel bearings and spacers from the main body of the hub and also the sprocket carrier. Then I washed all the parts in the utility room sink with hot water, detergent and an old washing-up brush, not the good one from the kitchen! I find that this method works really well to remove years of dirt and brake dust, using some steel wool to help the process.
With the loose dirt removed the hub looked quite clean with only light surface oxidation, so I set about abrading the surfaces with 320 grade wet and dry paper while the hub was in the sink full of water. I find it nicer to abrade aluminium parts wet because there is no dust. The inner iron drum was quite rusty but this was easily removed with a scraper, and then I abraded with 280 grade wet and dry paper, rubbing around the inner braking surface until it was smooth and rust free.
When the whole hub was rubbed down I put it outside to dry ready for buffing. The sprocket carrier and brake plate were treated to the same procedure and cleaned up really nicely. The parts were then buffed up on my vintage buffing machine, not to a mirror shine, but more of a satin sheen. After buffing I removed any excess buffing soap from the parts with brake cleaner on a rag, especially around the spoke holes. With the hub all clean and polished, I fitted the bearings and internal spacer, followed by the sprocket housing bearing and oil seal.
I then stripped down the front forks to replace the seals and wiper seal. A single cap head screw secures the forks together and can be difficult to remove due to the internal damper assembly rotating with the screw. To overcome this problem I use my impact driver with a half-inch drive 8mm hex to remove the Allen screw. It works perfectly every time and the Allen screw spins out easily. A special tool can be made or bought to hold the inner damper tight while using a regular Allen key, but I find it quicker and easier to use my impact driver.
While the fork lowers were removed I polished them on my buffing machine to a nice sheen. The abrasive buffing soap easily removes the original clear coat to reveal a virtually unmarked surface below. I like to retain a polished aluminium finish rather than clear coating the surface because I like to polish the aluminium with metal polish when cleaning the bike.
The stanchions were in perfect condition with only a slight bit of surface rust under the headlight ears which polished off easily with steel wool, so all I had to do was clean the inner dampers and polish the aluminium top nuts and then the forks could be reassembled.
The Z1 forks are easy to assemble. The seals are first tapped in with a drift followed by a steel ring and wire clip, then the stanchions are carefully inserted into the top of the sliders and secured with the single Allen screw at the bottom, and finally a new wiper seal is lowered down and pushed on to the aluminium lowers. The last thing to do was top up with fork oil.
With the forks ready for re-fitting, I had a look at the electrical bits that fit on the battery box, cleaning them up and cleaning the connectors. Then I stripped down the speedo and rev counter to replace the dials with stick on overlays with ‘Millyard Super Six’ printed on the rev counter dial. Will Barber of Classic Gauges makes great quality self-adhesive overlays for any bike and he will work with you to make custom dials if needed. Will can be contacted at bhuna@talktalk.net
A couple of weeks had passed and I was getting calls to collect parts from the zinc plating, painting and powder-coating so I excitedly made a round trip to pick them all up. It’s amazing how much space it all takes up when you get home and lay them out on the kitchen floor, and it’s a nice feeling seeing all the parts returned and finished better than new.
The first thing I did was to fit the swingarm to the frame. The original pivot bearings were unworn so were greased and replaced, then the zinc-plated pivot bolt pushed straight in and the chrome nut tightened. Tony at Hagon Products (0208 5026222) sent me a pair of stainless steel custom classic rear shocks. They fitted perfectly, and for a bike that’s going to be ridden these will handle a lot better than restored original Z1 shocks.
I then fitted the steering bearing cups back into the frame with an aluminium drift, first greasing the headstock recesses to help them slide in nicely. Next I fitted new quarter-inch ball bearings holding them in place with ZX1 Extralube grease while the lower yoke was inserted and the top bearing and yolk fitted. The fork stanchions pressed in perfectly while holding the headlight ears in place, then the clamp bolts were tightened.
I then built up the battery box into a sub-assembly with all its electrical components, and then wriggled it into the frame on to its two location rubbers and secured the two bolts to hold it in place. I had just called Phil at Z Power (01942 262864) with a long list of parts to complete the rolling chassis and a couple of days later they arrived. The quality of their replica parts are second-to-none and fit perfectly. With the exception of the parts being re-chromed I can now build up a complete rolling chassis.