Tell me about the Z 750 Zephyr I'm picking up this evening.

[Mac_Black]

That rarest of things happens today, I take ownership of a bike that's actually roadworthy
My good friend from SAS county is picking me up at 6 to take me to pick-up his workhorse now that he's upgraded to a Suzuki GSX1400.

So for 500 notes I get a 66,000 mile example in fairly good nick with slightly weeping oil seals and a small smear of oil at the base gasket (which has been present for a his whole ownership of said machine and will continue to be overlooked).
Apart from that it's had the brakes and carbs cleaned up, recent plugs and oil etc..

I plan to fit a new rear tyre, balance the carbs and do the oil seals soon, then leave it at that and just enjoy a fuss free run around without experiencing the urge to give myself another expensive long term project.
(The garage currently contains old Elisha, the RVF which has been lavished with attention and money as of late..
Benny the CD is all over my house and needs more of both and my Dad's Sprint 955i is in need of a top end rebuild after I fried the piston rings early this spring ).

What should I know about the Zephyr basically?

[Matt B]

Underpowered and corrosion prone. They basically melt away after a dose of winter salt. If the front brakes have been sorted then it will highlight the soft front end.

But it's a comfy ride (the only bike other than the Pan my wife was ever really happy as pillion), makes a great commuter and the engine is pretty bullet proof.

EDIT - meant to say the only thing that went wrong with mine in 2 years of commuting was a set of fork seals.
____________________
stinkwheel: He had an animated .gif of a cat performing fellatio. It's not socially acceptable. It can have real life adverse effects on other people.

[Islander]

Engines can get a bit clattery. If it's the cam chain, then tensioner rebuild kits are available on eBay for around £17. If it isn't the cam chain then it's the primary chain and you'll just have to live with it unless you want to split the cases...

Calipers are prone to corrosion, they can seize on the mounting pins and this is usually due to oxide build up under the rubber boot that goes through the caliper. Easy job. The pistons are prone to corrosion if they're not maintained. I use plenty of red rubber grease on my OH's Zephyr to protect the pistons. Keep the stanchions protected with ACF 50 or similar if you ever lay it up over winter.

Michelin PR3s do very well on this bike.

[STONEY!]

Know a courier that used the 550 version, did interstellar miles (100,000+) with only basic maintenance but did look like it, he kept it covered in grease all year round and washed it off with brake cleaner once a year then re-applied.

always rattled but never died, as far as I know it now resides at the back of his shed as a back up bike.

[Mac_Black]

Well I found out tonight that my friend in the past year of ownership has covered 10,000 miles, It had a full service just before that.
He's recently replaced the HT leads, caps, plugs, oil and drive chain as well as a new throttle and clutch cable married to a CBR 900 lever..

The calipers were cleaned, specifically the mounting pins but I think the brakes could benefit from at least a bleed.
Interestingly it's sporting the master cyclinder from the RVF that I sold him for another bike a while back, interesting how that's come back into my possession, also braided front lines. The pistons will be checked too.
The carbs definitely need balancing, as it misses on 2 and as such takes a long time to even idle, badly.

The fail is strong in this one: With a weak battery I managed to let it die at a set of lights in Worcester tonight and it refused to start up again ,
Got panicked abit as I hadn't sorted out tax and the rozzers just happened to be across the road, so after trying the button after a while it did turnover but I figured by then it was flooded.

I gave it five whilst I checked over the silly things like the fusebox and plug caps etc.. with everything looking orderly I decided to try and bump it and sure enough it sprang into life and off I was. It didn't want to start up when I tried it back home either, so I'm just hoping that a bit of charge in the battery will get it cranking at a respectable rate.

Old underpowered engine, 'orrible forks and wheeey under inflated and squared off rear tyre aside, it did get up down the Worcester Road from Hereford at quite some rate, though I know now that I can't ride it at quite that pace if I expect it to last me as the misting base gasket problem becomes a leaking base gasket problem if you take it into the redline (only in the last gear, exploring those triple figures).

My mate did give me a bollocking for that as he knows what I'm like, getting used to owning a bike with an ancient engine design and not having the capability to be thrashed will take some getting used to..
But I've taken ownership of this bike so that I have reliable transport, so I'll have to not be a dick and treat it as such, especially considering as I have killed two perfectly good machines in the past 9 months

[virus]

Don't thrash it and i'tll be fine

Hold on, im talking to mac... Put the keys in a safe, preferably one you can't access


Cheers
John
____________________
own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[stinkwheel]

Rermeber, a top-end rebild on an old zed is not a huge job and gasket sets are cheap for aircooled bikes. Base gasket can very effectively be cut out of a cereal packet.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Mac_Black]

^Air cooled/ Oil cooled same difference?

[Islander]

Yes it's an air cooled engine with an oil cooler in the lubrication circuit.

[yambabe]

[Matt B]

[Mac_Black]

Pre TL:DR, the Zephyr lives, and tomorrow it will get a shiny new MOT and Tax!
It's been a nightmare the past month with this bike, so easily could have become another long standing project but fuck it I've piled into my overdraft and had the tools out..
I'll update at some point in the next few days and explain exactly why.

[Mac_Black]

Well that didn't last long!
I found this crack on the lower crankcase last Saturday afternoon when attempting to replace the gear-shift seal and transmission cover gasket.
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrforsale003_zpsae0487f7.jpg
Having thought about it the bike had skipped from 1st into neutral a few times, so it is likely that this damage has been there a while.
It's not worth the further time or money invested to sort, so I'm retiring it.

I was disappointed as I bought the bike with the intention of it being a cheap work hack, I've had to spent another £500 already in servicing and rectifying faults to pass the MOT and have only got 3,000 miles out of it..
Just as I was starting to enjoy and think that it could be a care free riding experience, just as the work finally starts to pick up and life strikes.
...I wish it could have happened 350 miles sooner, I spent a tonne on new chain and sprockets, only just past first adjustment .

How rude of me anyway, I haven't even offered any pictures of the bitch.
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/2013-08-23-352_zps495ddeab.jpg
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrforsale011_zpsc1461eca.jpg
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrforsale008_zps8125906b.jpg
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrforsale007_zpsa32accf7.jpg
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrforsale006_zps70be0e2b.jpg

RIP Zebadee
PS. I'm selling the carcass for spares and repairs. So here it is before I list it on Gumtree, ebay and the like. Sale thread.

Cheers,
Mac.

[stinkwheel]

WHy not just keep riding it as a work hack until it doesn't go any more?

Presumably it was getting you too and from work ok when you didn't know that crack was there?

You've got an MOT on it. Run the bugger through the winter so whatever you replace it with doesn't take the hit from the salt.

Gives you plenty of time to keep an eye out for someone flogging their bike in January because they've overspent at christmas.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[virus]

530 114 chain? The 6/12 is getting close to eating its one so I might be interested, after you've taken Scotts advice
____________________
own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[ZRX61]

I'd just park it until another engine showed up.
____________________
They're not one night stands, they're auditions.

[hmmmnz]

fuck keep riding it, thats not the end of the world,
some steel putty shit on there if your worried to fill the whole, job done,
back riding again, ride till engine pops and get a new motor
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[MarkJ]

As above, ride it and replace engine if/when it going bang.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

I love the look of it but two separate mechanics have told me if I buy one they will set me on fire and throw knives at me. I was actually thinking of getting one prior to that cos they really do it for me on that superficial but important first glance 'oh yeah!' sort of a level.
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[STONEY!]

why not just repair the crack? if you cant weld it google Q-bond glue, I recon you could fix it with that its bloody good my mate bodges loads of seriously busted stuff with it, like cam caps, crank cases, footrest hangers etc etc!

[Mac_Black]

Ok I've had the bike started for the first time in a couple of weeks (a task in itself with this bike ) and with everything back together it does at least shift, though seemingly sluggishly through neutral.
Keeping it as it as and riding it regardless was an initial consideration, but I should explain the sequence of events leading up to the discovery;

Oil, filter, Chain and Sprockets replacement 3 weeks ago, when trying to change into first to lock the drive (with the sprocket cover off) I managed to damage the oil seal for the gear change shaft on the transmission cover.
This was damaged because the gear change shaft had a fair bit of swaying movement at the time, which I put down to the absence of the sprocket cover to hold it in place. (dope)
Knowing what I know now, that is evidently not the reason the shaft was swaying.
Daily commute up until 2 weeks ago, drinking oil, through the usual leaky spots and possibly burning, but now there's a puddle of oil everywhere I leave the thing.
Thursday fortnight ago: Replace gear-change shaft oil seal, gasket of transmission cover breaks.
I come to the bike the next day (Fri), BIG puddle.
Bike lent against the wall to save some blood, I ordered gasket on ebay US, realise it's going to take an age to arrive so buy some Gasket Glue instead.
Taking the Transmission cover off again, clean the faces up and create a seal with the gasket glue.
Everything back together, now the gear selector doesn't spring itself to it's finding position from shifts.. "Damn, I must have knocked the selector-mech spring".
Apart again on Saturday morning, "Ahhh" the end of the spring has just slipped from it's grove.
Noticed the crack, get very disheartened.. "That's just my luck now that I've finally got some ongoing agency work sorted".

So consequently I haven't yet been able to return to that place, but have kept the work going with a train commute elsewhere.
I've been a busy chap for a long while now, and what with the work as well I've just gone along with what seems to make sense.

Well the opinion that I should just get on with it has been universally echoed, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to get it apart again on Saturday,
Replace the gasket glue with the proper piece that has now arrived.. Take care of the rear caliper and then take the bike for a test ride.
With the time and consideration taken to give it the hindsight it needs, I am clear now that this damage is not recent, and have even managed to rule out any possibility that it may have been caused by myself.
(Most likely on the occasion when I had the bike lay on it's left-side to mess about with the clutch mechanism without draining oil),
But then I took every precaution to ensure that nothing of fragile nature was aloud to take any of the bike's weight (by balancing the bike on pieces of timber).
So I am confident now that the damage has been present for a significant while, and as such I'm going to continue to use the bike.
Thanks to the reasoned advice and opinions of the BCF massiv!

Stoney, the crack is in no way repairable without splitting the gearbox and some handy Tig work I expect, that in any case would be too much of a headache.. If that were my only port of call then the bike would be retired, end of.

Cheers,
Mac.

[hmmmnz]

im sure this is exactly what liquid metal was made for
____________________
the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[Hetzer]

[mysterious_rider]

Looks small to me. Clean area properly with white spirit, liquid metal it.

Or just leave it, I mean it was running fine before right?
____________________
KAWASAKIIIII

[Mac_Black]

Well turns out I was wrong twice.
It is indeed repairable, because the gear change shaft is simply held in position by the gear mech arms.. I was under the impression that the shaft would only be removable once the crankcase was split.
Only giving it a proper wiggle out of curiosity this evening did I find that it pulls straight out.
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrrepair001_zps70dc2f6a.jpg
As you can see there's quite a bit of surface area to work with there, so as I have some Araldite Rapid Steel handy, I thought I'd give it a shot.
https://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n243/MacKaliba/Zephyrrepair003_zpsd4651015.jpg
Gunna leave it at that for tonight and then sort it all properly tomorrow as I said.

Cheers,
Mac.