2 Strokes Down Under

So to be absolutely sure. Spring faces out, away from the engine on all seals. And the hole is left open where the tacho wheel used to go. Cheers Jon.


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Great link. I used that site during the strip down but it's been that long ago I forgot about the site. On with the show...


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After a burst of energy underpinned with determination I've managed to get from this :



To this:





In about 3 hours of graft.
Quite pleased with myself even if I did have to build the clutch 4 times.
And credit to an old mate who stepped in with the experience and moral support.

I did manage to nearly break a locking washer which will have to be replaced soon :


Whilst putting the hex bolts in the side casing I did notice that my shiny new paint job got damaged with the bolt head pulling the paint off as it tightens. What's the trick here?

More to follow. Will try and put it back in the bike frame next week.
Happy for now.....


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dab of grease...

told ya you could do it...

some might say youve got acess to a very large bunch of 'experience and moral support' here...

Indeed Jon, if it's not been clear before then I'll reiterate that I am extremely grateful for the advice and encouragement I get from these forums. It's invaluable, which is why I like to post pics and updates for anyone else that comes along afterwards. I would hope these threads are used for many rebuilds and repairs to keep these smelly legends alive.


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Well the fluids went in. Sort of.
The oil didn't leak which I thought was a great start. Next went the coolant which started to drip from the water pump cover. I was talked out of putting a new gasket on that last week during the rebuild. Don't I feel silly now. Lesson learned.... I won't do that twice.

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I read a lot about the RZ running hot, esp in Australia. 50 degree thermostats, bigger rad, switched fan etc... Any reason why you can't just remove the thermostat completely and have the coolant running permanently? Or am I being nieve here.

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Who talked you out of a WP gasket? no one who builds these motors surely? its a thin paper thing, always replace it.

Nah, you need the stat Gavin, and it will probably be fine as standard rad and stat. you can buy chinese larger rads on ebay if you want and fit the snowmobile stat and a faster impeller, but you should research what each will do before you use them really. Cooling is an enlightening subject when you get into it, but you dont really need to...

Yeah don't fall into the trap of removing the thermostat - it's there for a reason.

I just wire in a manual fan switch for security. Doesn't take long and is very effective at pulling the temp down.

you also would need to wire in a fan... not many fit behind the OEM rad cos of the frame downtubes. Also any fan you fit will block airflow when not running... swings n roundabouts. I have an R6 fan on my 421LC, but it wasnt 5mins work...

So close I can almost taste the fumes. After cleaning the old gasket off the water pump (gasket cleaning is a crap job), I got it back together, filled up the coolant and the leak is fixed. No surprises there. I then filled up the oil tank. So far so good.
Put a good battery in and listened to the PV churn. It sounds a bit weak. I recall on my original RZ350 YPVS the sound of the servo was stronger and dtermined. It's like I have a weak battery but it's fully charged and new. I've pulled the PV cables and moved it by hand, seems like there is resistance but it moves freely. I also thought the movement wasn't much in the circular direction, i.e. it only seems to move about 20 degrees. I've got a video but need to check how to upload videos.

Tried to kick it over after checking the spark but it's not firing. I intend to pull the carbs next week and check / replace some bits once my carb repair kit arrives. I did clean them previously but suspect I didn't blow through the jets.

More to come soon. It's getting too close to stop now.

sometimes the cyls clamp down angled apart which makes the PVs bind... its not that i hope...

No chance the cables are binding?


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