EFE Rebuild project.. updated aug 2009..
after having ridden the EFE for some time instead of modifying stuff certain nagging issues kept stalking in my head.. so I did decide to address these as long as it wouldn't mean having the EFE off the street in pieces for to long..
so.. what's been done in the meantime?
- redid part of the paint on the tank (black bits were hiding rusted and pinholed spots)
- thanks to a buddy at the dutch katanaclub I got hold of a set of really good knee grips to replace the sun faded and warped old ones which came loose everytime I got off the bike..
- fitted another head light (kawa KZ550) no longer making use of the welded up frame-mounted support but using aluminium mounts attached to the fork legs instead.. narrow clamps hold these in place and allow height adjustments..
- with the ditched support a new instruments mounting plate had to be made too.. getting the angle and height took a bit of doing though..
- cut down the front part of the seat.. because of the raised rear and the big diameter rear wheel (18" instead of 17") the sitting position was unnaturally high.. with 2,5 cm of foam removed things seem to fall into place a lot better..
- after lots and lots of bleeding and fiddling I finally decided to swap the front calipers (Tokico 6-pots) for Nissin equivalents.. these were once stock fitment to Kawasaki's ZX-7rr and use the same bolt spacing as the Tokico's and most other oilcooled GSX-Rs.. so fitting was straightforward if it wasn't for the slightly different offset which was -in time- cured by adding washers of the right thickness.. feel in the lever was immediately a lot better (no more mush) but the braking performance had actually become worse.. clearly a case of a mismatched master cylinder..
- so.. another m/c was needed and after doing some calculations comparing piston surfaces of the old and new calipers I determined what size master cylinder I'd need to find.. now I was spending money anyway it seemed a radial m/c would be a great upgrade too so eventually came across a ZX10r brake pump which had the wanted diameter of 11/16" (17mm).. and it is a very nice thing to have indeed.. very well made and a positive feel in the lever.. I can finally do some serious braking!
- worked on the rear brake too but only the pedal which fouled the exhaust.. so to make it clear and make a more ergonomic position possible I cut out a pie-section and welde it up again to take out the angle and straighten the pedal out..
- swapped the half-synth oil for fully synthetic (Castrol RS 5W-40) in an attempt to solve the gear change action which seems to heavy.. to counter possible clutch slip because of the super slippery lubricant I increased the preload of the springs on the pressure plate.. (shortened the spacers about 3mm)
- did some carb adjustments.. bigger main jets with lowered fuel levels to cure low end richness.. which improved things but it really needs new emulsion tubes (Mikuni BST carbs are well known for wearing these tubes down to an oval shaped hole..)
- with the carbs off I grabbed the uppertunaty to some matching of the rubber manifolds to the intake ports.. also filled up the gap in between that always develops when doing up the clamps.. used 3mm grounding wire to create rings that take up the space perfectly and thus creating a smoother intake path..
well.. all these things amount to the EFE now looking like this:
not bad, huh? ;-)
further plans? well.. I have set of 1327cc MTC pistons and matching block with new sleeves almost ready for installment..
this won't be as simple as it might sound because upper crankcase machining will be needed to make the big sleeves fit.. but it is a nice thing to look forward to anyway.. ;-)
..go to the next page for the next step in the evolution of my EFE..
..or go back a page for the story leading up to this current guise of the EFE..
after having ridden the EFE for some time instead of modifying stuff certain nagging issues kept stalking in my head.. so I did decide to address these as long as it wouldn't mean having the EFE off the street in pieces for to long..
so.. what's been done in the meantime?
- redid part of the paint on the tank (black bits were hiding rusted and pinholed spots)
- thanks to a buddy at the dutch katanaclub I got hold of a set of really good knee grips to replace the sun faded and warped old ones which came loose everytime I got off the bike..
- fitted another head light (kawa KZ550) no longer making use of the welded up frame-mounted support but using aluminium mounts attached to the fork legs instead.. narrow clamps hold these in place and allow height adjustments..
- with the ditched support a new instruments mounting plate had to be made too.. getting the angle and height took a bit of doing though..
- cut down the front part of the seat.. because of the raised rear and the big diameter rear wheel (18" instead of 17") the sitting position was unnaturally high.. with 2,5 cm of foam removed things seem to fall into place a lot better..
- after lots and lots of bleeding and fiddling I finally decided to swap the front calipers (Tokico 6-pots) for Nissin equivalents.. these were once stock fitment to Kawasaki's ZX-7rr and use the same bolt spacing as the Tokico's and most other oilcooled GSX-Rs.. so fitting was straightforward if it wasn't for the slightly different offset which was -in time- cured by adding washers of the right thickness.. feel in the lever was immediately a lot better (no more mush) but the braking performance had actually become worse.. clearly a case of a mismatched master cylinder..
- so.. another m/c was needed and after doing some calculations comparing piston surfaces of the old and new calipers I determined what size master cylinder I'd need to find.. now I was spending money anyway it seemed a radial m/c would be a great upgrade too so eventually came across a ZX10r brake pump which had the wanted diameter of 11/16" (17mm).. and it is a very nice thing to have indeed.. very well made and a positive feel in the lever.. I can finally do some serious braking!
- worked on the rear brake too but only the pedal which fouled the exhaust.. so to make it clear and make a more ergonomic position possible I cut out a pie-section and welde it up again to take out the angle and straighten the pedal out..
- swapped the half-synth oil for fully synthetic (Castrol RS 5W-40) in an attempt to solve the gear change action which seems to heavy.. to counter possible clutch slip because of the super slippery lubricant I increased the preload of the springs on the pressure plate.. (shortened the spacers about 3mm)
- did some carb adjustments.. bigger main jets with lowered fuel levels to cure low end richness.. which improved things but it really needs new emulsion tubes (Mikuni BST carbs are well known for wearing these tubes down to an oval shaped hole..)
- with the carbs off I grabbed the uppertunaty to some matching of the rubber manifolds to the intake ports.. also filled up the gap in between that always develops when doing up the clamps.. used 3mm grounding wire to create rings that take up the space perfectly and thus creating a smoother intake path..
well.. all these things amount to the EFE now looking like this:
not bad, huh? ;-)
further plans? well.. I have set of 1327cc MTC pistons and matching block with new sleeves almost ready for installment..
this won't be as simple as it might sound because upper crankcase machining will be needed to make the big sleeves fit.. but it is a nice thing to look forward to anyway.. ;-)
..go to the next page for the next step in the evolution of my EFE..
..or go back a page for the story leading up to this current guise of the EFE..
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