Went to my friend-from-grade-school's son's first birthday party today. I ended up getting a present, he gave me his 1994 600cc ninja. He lowsided it at low speed about 3 years ago and it's been sitting ever since. He started to mess with it 3 months ago, it only runs with the choke on, and at 6000r at that, if you give it any throttle or turn off the choke it dies. I can finess the choke lever down to about a 2000 rpm idle, under that it gets real rough and dies.

It's in good cosmetic shape, just a couple barely noticable scratches from the lowside and a small dent in the tank where the clip-on smacked it.

Going to pull the carbs off whenever I get around to it, clean them out and hope for the best. Also the battery is stone dead, looks like it's even empty of electrolyte. I've ridden this bike back when it used to run good, it's no power monster but it's a ton of fun, weighs nothing and flicks around effortlessly. Plus should be great on gas for my 125 mile per day commute.

I know, ttiwwp, I'll get them up probably tomorrow. It's black with green and purple graphics and purple wheels. And the tires do not appear to be cupped. :) Probably going to sand down the scratches and paint all the plastics "hot rod black" and strip the wheels to bare metal with a clearcoat over it if I get it running decent. :)

Cool deal. Yup, sounds like it just needs a carb cleaning. No big deal - especially on an I4. Don't waste your money on "rebuild" kits and the like. Just get a can of carb & choke cleaner along with a 1 gallon can of carb parts cleaner (has a basket in it to soak jets and such). That's usually all that's needed. Good luck with it.

Id say you got a pretty good deal on that bike. For 0-dollar's I would've taken it too. Sound's like it need's some work done to it though, I also have a older bike 1993 Yamaha FZR600 that has been/& being a real pain, everthing from carb. work to electrical but it will eventually get there. Good luck with the project bike it will make a nice little winter project anyway's ?

I would replace the battery before ever touching the carbs. My Saber that I had would run just about like this when it had a stone dead battery in it. Just not enough juice being produced to let it run right. The carbs might still need cleaning but one thing at a time.

I had the bike running off a brand new car battery I happened to have, when I disconnect the jumper cables it ran even worse and the gauges went all crazy. While I had it running I checked all the lights and gauges, seemed to work. Think the only issue will be the carbs, and possibly a frozen clutch. I could not move the bike in gear with the clutch pulled in, only in neutral. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

OK, so I gutted the carbs and cleaned them. Pilots were sealed completely shut, mains were ugly, bowls were coated in shit, etc, etc. One of the slider diaphragms had a small tear at the edge, and somehow the spring was dislodged, but I reassembled it with the diaphragm pulled a little tight so the cap clamped down on the tear.

Got it running. Still runs like crap, but it idles relatively smooth at 1200r, even better up near 1400, and has pretty good throttle response, especially when warmed up. Biiiiig difference from before I started working on it. Also starts right up from cold, no problem.


Which brings me to the clutch. Stuck. Very stuck. I rolled it down my driveway a few times, sitting on it in neutral, and banged it into gear with the clutch handle pulled in hoping it would break free but no luck. It's a cable clutch and it is actuating the clutch arm on the crankcase, so the problem is internal. Anything I might be able to add to the oil to work it loose without opening the engine (ATF, Seafoam, piss?)? I did manage a short ride around the neighboorhood here tonight by starting it, rolling it up to speed in neutral then clicking it into 1st and powershifting (and not stopping...). I took a ride with the engine dead cold since I didn't want to rouse the neighbors letting it warm up, ran decent and I think it will actually be kinda fun if I get the clutch working and let the engine warm up next time.

Any advice on the clutch???

Thanks!

It's fucked. I'll take it off your hands for a buck




I had this problem with my nighthawk. I was able to warm up the engine and once the oil was warm, pull in the clutch, rev the motor up and drop it into first gear, holding the rear brake. The combination of the warm oil and motor power broke it free.

The other option is to remove the clutch cover, and take apart the friction plates and pressure plates, clean them off, soak them in fresh oil, and reassemble them. I had to do that with my Katana 1100. It wasn't binding up, but wanted to walk in first gear.

So, right foot on the brake, left foot on the gear shifter.... I'll make sure my wife has the camera ready when I try that tomorrow. Thanks. (really, I'll try that). I'll have my finger over the kill switch!

Actually, it had a center stand...


So what I did was put it on the center stand, started it.. snicked it into first gear, then wound it up.. and hit the rear brake, holding the clutch in. It broke free before it died.

So I tried the center stand trick, nothing. Got really agressive and it would just keep dying. I then opened up the oil filler which is right above the clutch plates. They were bone dry. The oil light went out after every startup and never came back on so I never even checked the oil. Still can't find the dipstick or sightglass. Anyway, I added oil until the clutch started slinging it around then added another 1/2 qt on top of that. Let it run for a while and whala, first good whack and the clutch is working perfect now.

Just need to motivate my friend into finding and mailing me the title now so I can register it. There is still some serious hesitation off idle, but there is also some seriously bad gas and a seriously corrupted fuel filter in the system so I'm hoping for the best. Every time I start it, it gets better though. I think the seafoam is working it's way thru the carbs slowly but surely.

Its already rideable so I'm 100% ahead of the game.

Wait just a minute! Am I understanding that you spent all that time cleaning the carbs and your still running the 3 year old gas?
You obviously got the carbs re-assembled correctly, so you have to be smarter than that.

The tank was just about empty when I got the bike here. In a rush to get it started I just topped it off with new gas and seafoam, so there's about 20% old gas in there. However, my friend also said he attempted to start it 3 months ago and put new fuel in it at that time, so the old gas that was in there was 3 months old. Also, I just noticed the last time the bike had a valid registration was 2003 so it's been sitting for at least 4 years, not 3. Hooray.

Took a short ride about an hour ago to my parents house, with the bike hot. Runs decent. If I give it over 50% or so throttle it bogs down and won't accellerate, but if I keep it under that I can take it to redline.

Starting to hate this bike and don't know if anyone gives a fuck about my progress, but here goes.

I made a guess based on some reading that the bogging I was getting was due to the hole in the slider diaphragm. So I fixed it with plasti dip. See here:

http://www.cbr1100xx.org/forums/index.php?...mp;#entry555769

Anyway, it pulls like any 1994 600cc monster should now. Bogging completely gone and has lots of power. However after I brought it home from trouncing on it, it left a puddle of gas. Looked and it's coming from the venturi of carb 3, no not the carb I plasti-dipped that was carb 1.... So the float in carb 3 is fucked up or the rubber tipped valve hanging from the float is fucked up, regardless I need to spend another hour and a half wrestling with these damn carbs to get them off and back on. Hooray.

Don't know what happened, it wasn't leaking fuel for the last few days, just started once I finally got to rip on it a little bit. Figures.

Gotta remember it was free and it will be a nice beater once I get it going. Yeah, that's it.......

for the record, we do give a fuck about your progress.

the little rubber tipped valve on the float is called a needle and comes as a set with the seat that it goes into. may have just got a piece of crud stuck in it though.

keep up the good work. its a great project.

Thanks. I knew the thing in the slide was called a (main) needle, thought the thing in the bowl was a needle too but it's been so long since I did a jet kit, or anything in a carb for that matter, I forgot. :) Really starting to appreciate the FI bike now....

ps - nice 500th post vetteman!

+1

I'm currently putting a 2004 ZZR600 (aka ZX6E) back together. I think it's same bike as yours. Lemme know if you have any questions or need photos or anything, maybe I can help.

Thanks, this is a ZX600C. The 600D and 600E are similar to each other but different from the C. The C has an old school steel tube frame that goes over the motor, not the square aluminum perimiter frame of the ZZR600. I like the looks of the ZZR, very similar to the ZX11's with the flush mount signals.

I wish these carbs were easier to R/R. The problem is the connection to the airbox, the airbox can't be removed without removing the engine, or using a sawzall. So it's a ton of twisting and manipulating of the rubber boots on both sides of the carbs. I found individual pod filters for as little as $12 each, but they would require rejetting, probably a stage 3. And the bike won't run with the airbox disconnected so I can't even test the carbs without reassebbling everything. Pain in the ass. :)

only took me 4 1/2 years

It LIVES!

Yanked the carbs off, sure enough there was shit in all the bowls and some more shit in the seat in carb 3. Cleaned it out, reassembled, started it up, runs great in the garage and no more leaking.

I accidentally pulled the #4 plug wire out of the boot that goes to the plug. I stuck it back in as tight as I could and taped it.

Took it out on the road for about 5 miles and opened it up from a stop to about 60mph. No more burbling from off idle anymore, great throttle response. Has a slight miss now that it didn't have before, likely from the wire I fucked up. Still pulls very well and is 100% smoother and more powerful than the first ride I took on it about a week ago. Idles nicely at about 1250R.

The tank is a problem. The crap in the carbs was my fault, I ran it without a fuel filter for about 10-20 minutes after I did the carbs. I put a new see thru fuel filter in line to the carbs Sunday evening. Today when I took the carbs off the filter was LOADED with rust chunks and other crap, from a total of about 30-60 minutes of running, probably a gallon or two thru it. Popped open the tank and looked in, there are what looks like rust spots all over the inside of it. Figures. Sat for 4 years, probably with a minimal amount of watery fuel. Guess I'll be scouring ebay for a tank.

Got the title today, will insure and register it Friday. Yes, now that I mentioned that, what you're thinking about the rides I've been taking is true.........

Not so fast ;)

Kreem fuel tank liner

CLR also reportedly works really well on cleaning out the inside of a rusty tank. You may have to soak & rinse it a few times, but it should take care of the rust.

Once you do get it cleaned out, rinse it well with fresh fuel a few times, then re-install it on the bike.

One more tip, if you do decide to clean out the existing tank. Slide a length of heavy chain through the gas cap and shake it up real good with whatever solvent you use. It'll knock loose a lot more rust than just chemical measures would. Make sure it's steel so you can use a magnet to grab it and drag it back out.

In the past I've used a big handful of nuts and bolts. But holy GSUS, it can take a long time to get all those nuts & bolts back out. Yea, a chain would have worked better.

TRACK BIKE!

Well, here she is, all cleaned up and fixed up. Running great, did about 150 miles today spread over 2 rides. Not too bad for free.... :) Apparently there is no rev limiter because I accidentally buried the needle waaay past the 11,500 redline more than once (like 12,500 - 13,000). Gotta be careful with that. Fun to wind the gears out and not be going completely ballistic like on the XX, plus this thing turns like a bicycle compared to the blackbird...

Bargain! I hope you have a great time on it. It sure is fun to ride a small bike once in a while. Great work on getting it all fixed up too.


Edit: Forgot to ask, How did you fix the dirty tank?

I'm not using "reserve" which is keeping most of the shit out of the fuel line. I'll try CLR and a couple chains over the winter, going to ride the piss out of it for now.

Terrific work on the bike! Nice job rescuing this one.

Purple wheels rule.

That is a sharp bike. On the tank, you may also want to look into POR-15. I used that on my Radian. I had heard that if you do not do the Kreem exactly correct, it will peel off. Never used it so only hearsay. The POR-15 is easy to use. Just a little time consuming.

I've heard the same thing about Kreem, after reading up on it it sounds like that if you don't get the prep exactly right (ALL rust gone, ALL oil/fuel/whatever residue gone) the Kreem will start to flake off in large chunks, causing a bigger problem than you started out with in the first place. I'm going to try to just clean it out as best I can with traditional methods, including nuts / bolts / chains in the tank with a rust dissolving solvent like KLR or whatever, and be happy with whatever results I get. I've been cleaning out the fuel filter after every few runs, and each time there is much less crap in it than before. The tank just has surface rust, doesn't look like there is any really deep rust that would start to cause leakage problems or anything like that. Just crap getting in the fuel line, hopefully all getting caught by the filter I installed (according to Kawi parts guy, when I tried to buy a replacement filter, this bike has no fuel filter, and a $30 air filter!!!!)

Took the little fucker in to work today, man it really screams on the highway, over 6000R at 80MPH (just keeping up with traffic onthe A.C.E.). It's running absolutely perfect now, even the little burble / sputter I had just off idle has worked itself out, been using seafoam and Sunoco Ultra so I guess it helped clear out the low speed circuits. The one place I didn't get to when cleaning the carbs was the low speed needles, they still had the factory block off plates over them and I didn't want to mess with them just yet if I didn't have to. It is suprisingly smooth, even cranking along at 6000R on the expressway it's smooth as silk, no buzzing or vibration. And the way it's geared, it pulls to 12,000R in 1st and 2nd amazingly fast, it's a ton of fun to ride especially on the back roads here in south NJ.

I finally got my brother's ZX6E back together and have been "test riding" it ever since. You're right, lot's o' fun.

Muriatic acid dissolves rust. It's cheap and available at most hardware stores.

Looks brand new! Love those free bikes!

For my buddies 1974 Kawasaki I drained the gas, filled the tank with water and lots of nuts and kept shaking and rinsing.

Works fine with a clear in line filter I keep checking periodically. So far no loose rust particles.

I never tried any chemical, If you do don't get any on the outside, will eat the paint right off.

Buddy cleaned a muzzle loader with CLR once. Took all the bluing right off!

Any problems with the rust coming back?

I have a VERY rusty tank to clean out.

I may start with water or CLR. Problem is, the tank sits over the frame and is like having two tanks. It has a gas line that connects the two halves.

Nice score!!

ZX-6's of that vintage have no dipstick. Sight glass should be on or below clutch cover somewhere

Nice bike

My girl traded in her -92 ZX6 US imported when I bought the -05 XX
She liked it allot.

All that are left is an unused KN filter.

Click to view attachment

It does work, is cheap and didn't hurt the paint on my 1000 Interceptor.

A quick update since I saw this thread was on the first page here...

Removed the tank a few weeks ago and removed the float, petcock, etc. Filled it with a gallon of muriatic acid, about a gallon of CLR, and 100 stainless #8 X 3/4" screws. Made some interesting vapors, and got pretty hot as I was shaking it. Killed a nice sized patch of my back yard grass as well. But it got the tank pretty clean inside, rust appears to be all gone from where I can see inside. Screws were fairly easy to get out thru the float hole. Rinsed it out for about 30 minutes with a hose just running into it, then dried with acetone and filled with fuel after putting back on the bike. Keeping it completely topped off at all times when parked to hopefully keep the rest from reappearing. there's a gas station 1.1 miles from my house so it's easy to keep the tank full after a ride.

Been running great, haven't ridden it much but my wife took it out for a few rides with me and she likes it a lot, says it's very comfortable for her and she likes riding it.