"TZV500R" Retro Rebuild;

[Gary Papesh]

Do a compression test on the engine, with close attention on that weak cylinder. The readings should be within maybe 5% of each other.
Sincerely, Gary P.

[JungleJustice]

Here are a few shots of the bike now as she looks! Lots of band-clamps, lots of zip-ties, lots of washer-spacers (construction strap-tape to hold the battery-box for example!!!) - all things that can be addressed in time! The key was to get it all together and fitting together nicely and to see where things would go and how things would fit, before making custom bracketry and billet pieces.

Yes, a compression test is next, but I wanted to consider the fact that the bike sat for a while and maybe the rings just need some load again (low rpm - roll-on under full load and up on pipe) to see if that will maybe kick them out again! We also wanted to get ahead of the curve on these slide-throttles and make sure that we had the basic aspect of jetting, tuning and the air-control pretty close...

[JungleJustice]

I rode the bike for the first time last night - what a BEAST! Even in third gear it doesn't need any heaving, or clutch help; you just twist the ear as she is about to come up on pipe and the bloody thing just stands right up!!!! Scared the crap out of me - most unexpected. Well, it was a race-bike after all... Cylinder number two is getting much better, but it's not quite there yet, so I will be doing a compression test this week (I just need to get a different attachment for my compression tester kit to fit the RZ plug-hole!) A bit more riding will really help too, I'm sure.

[JungleJustice]

I still have to figure out the final look for this bike; mid-90s GP, modern sport-bike (R1 body-pieces perhaps), or a "StreetFighter" appearance...? This naked-bike look is surely growing on me!

[JungleJustice]

One question again; in the absence of 4 individual air/fuel-ratio sensors, what is a good, quick and dirty way to estimate AFRs - can I simply ride it, get it nice and hot and then hit the down-pipes with a laser heat-gun perhaps? What should those temperatures be if the air/fuel is in the right range?

[rzatch]

Your hooked!!!!!!!!!!!! Where did you end up putting your servo motor?

[JungleJustice]

In the front - I moved the cables through the center... a bit long, but it works!

[rzatch]

your running premix then?

[JungleJustice]

Yep - premix.

I should probably sell this thing, before I hurt myself! It is STUPID fast! Took it on the freeway a bit to open her up, because around the neighborhood there's just not enough room to stretch her legs in any gear.

Freeway on-ramp - even downhill - 1st-2nd - the wheel comes right up on ya (even at the change to 3rd, the wheel lifts on releasing the clutch and it feels scary!)! Crazy! I love it, but the naked-bike thing will be short-lived if I were to ride it on the fwy often. Dunno how fast - maybe at 100-110 mph she is NOT patient at all without fairings, but what an awesome urban-type / streetfighter bike!

The temperature at the tips (the heat and the pressure), is now nice and even across all four cylinders; #2 could still be better though! I'll check compression this week anyway. What about AFR - what temperature should those exhaust downpipes be? How else should I check them (without the obvious installation of after-market AFR meters and sensors...?)

[Gary Papesh]

Who says you can't buy a thrill? If that bike does'nt do it for ya , you may have flatlined . As far as the AFR goes, you can use the old school carb tuning proceedure for Mikuni's , or go with a sensor and a gauge.I am fitting the bungs to my pipes for sensors, it seems like the way to go. I have not bought anything to plug into it yet. I could just buy a gauge, but then I will want to be able to play it back , so I'm not looking at a gauge , when pulling a wheelie on the on-ramp . Of course, you will need to know what RPM you were turning, so you can correlate the two. And some guys tell me you will need to have the EGT as well to really do it right. So now were talking about dataloggers , which can hook up to your p.d.a. or laptop with graphing software, so you can really see what's going on at the same time. I guess it just depends on how anal you want to get about it. I'm no engineer, but I'd bet that using an infrared thermometer on the down pipes, would not be of much use until it's so hot she's about to seize. I understand the temptation though, I've got one of those things as well, very handy. Good luck with your choice. Sincerely, Gary P.
P.S. If anyone out there has a solution for this that does not cost a fortune, please chime in. Innovate has some nice stuff I am considering, but I don't need the OBD II stuff, hoping to keep it simple. Kinda?

[JungleJustice]

I've used the Innovate LM-1 for YEARS on the race car and on the street car tunes (where I install a stand-alone engine management system) and it works very well.

I am not sure with the 2-stroke if the readings will be off due to the fuel/oil mixture though...? What should the AFRs be with this bike?

Also, Compression is around 150 on the lower left (#2) and 155 on the lower right (#4), 170 on the upper left (#1) and finally 175 on the upper right (#3)…

This is a pre-mix bike, so there isn't an accumulation of oil that can come from a leaky injector pump setup - that stock injection setup was removed. Also, the pipes have been off of the bike for years and were dry when installed recently, so no accumulation of oil or fuel in that lower left pipe.

Given that I run pre-mix now without any injection (and with the Mikuni flat-slides and no vacuum connected), I have to keep the petcock to the Prime position (there isn't any vacuum anymore, so it has to gravity-feed the carbs...) I should pr5oabbly turn the petcock back to the ON position (which should translate to Off without vacuum), every time that I park it?

[smurph]

Th LM-1 will work nicely. Just pay attention to where you put the sensor. Make sure it is at a 9 to 3 o'clock position. I located my sensor in the belly right before the baffle cone. The use of an extended bung will keep the tip out of the liquid stuff flying through the pipe.

I had my 350 at around 12.5 AFR. The O2 sensor reads oxygen content, not the oil, so the readings won't be affected. However, if your engine misfires on the cylinder that you are checking, it will read lean. This is because combustion did not happen to use up all of the O2! So an overly rich mixture will look lean. So look out for that.

Also, keep the LM-1 away from the ignition stuff. It wigs them out. If you get a bunch of "error 2s", then that might be your problem.

I put over 10K miles on my permanently installed O2 sensor for my EFI 350 and it was still good the last time I rode it.

If your spring and diaphragm are good in your fuel valve, then ON without vacuum would indeed be analogous to OFF.

Steve

[JungleJustice]

Thanks!

So, we ran into a charging issue and based on the tests, the generator / stator? coil is bad! Is this typical?

Any replacement / aftermarket available, how much, who / what / where please...?

Is there an easy fix maybe?

[JungleJustice]

So, it turned out that when you try to do a first test-start-up (with things still zip-tied together and so forth), the bike won't charge while the bloody rectifier is not BOLTED to the lower-left side of the frame...

I think that I've already mentioned it in another thread - come to think of it, but I want to complete the thought here in the thread for this bike...

Next stop is to get the bike over to Dave Alexander and his guys at Fluid Suspension Science to sort the fork setup and to make whatever changes necessary to the rear suspension and then I can get the bodywork finished up! I'll post some updated pictures soon!

[JungleJustice]

Paul Smart ally rims came in today and bloody hell does everything look awfully close with the YZF swinger and forks in terms of the wheel spacings, sprocket off-set and the Ducati brake rotor fitments!