| Once the bearings were done I thought that I had it licked. I should have known that there would be a couple more details to sort out. I started to reassemble. The upper triple was the first thing to put in place, so, I bolted up the ignition switch and placed the upper triple on the steering stem. It did not fit. Go figure. The ignition switch was fouling on both the frame forward of the steering head and the steering lock. It was too low. Hell! Oh well. I had seen Cain some weeks back and we had spent a bit of time talking about his bike. At this point he revealed to me that he had made his upper triple. I thought back and realized that his ignition had fit up so pretty and looked so stock because it was something that he had measured up. The moral of the story? Never trust a smiling machinist. |
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| So, I faced the fact that if I wanted those results I was going to have to fake it. I knew that if I filed off the ignition mounts and raised the ignition up in the upper triple that the steering lock would still not work unless I changed the hole that the ignition poked up through. I would then have to drill and tap new holes. I was looking at about half and inch of the ignition sticking up above the triple. The better solution was to just eliminate the steering lock mechanism from the ignition all together. It is a separate piece. I unbolted it and started looking at the parts. No biggy. I can just make a plate to go over the bottom of the actual switch and call that good. So, I got an 1/8 inch thick |  |
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piece of aluminum stock in 2 inch width. I ended up with 8 feet of it but, hey who's counting. The whole thing is kind of slopped together. I used a hacksaw to cut, a flex shaft to rough the shape in and files to finish the profile. The drilling came first. I needed to get the holes all lined up pretty before I began any real work. I had lots of material to screw up so I was not really worried about it. I think that is why it all came together so clean and easy right off the bat. If I had started with the small scrap I wanted I would have been looking for more material at the end of the night. I used a piece of duct tape to protect the ignition in the end while a matched it's profile. The whole thing got a heavy coat of flat black paint so that it would disappear when the fairing was in place. I used a heavy rubber washer in the bottom of the switch to keep the contacts from rubbing and creating a disaster. A nice healthy spray of contact cleaner and a big glop of dielectric grease and |
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game was on. The switch turns much stiffer but, it is still operational
for on and off. The parking light no longer works due to the lack of clearance
to push the key down to turn it passed the off mark. I had Eric test the
on and off positions for continuity before I threw it on the bike. It looked
good and worked well. I mounted it up and as predicted a ton of clearance
was there.
What the hell! All it is is a keyed switch, right? |
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The rest of
the story is just bolting up parts. I have one more thing to tackle before
the job is done. The mounting holes for the clip-ons do not match, so,
I will have to drill and tap another set. They will not line up regardless
of which set I use. The FJ bars mount up near the ignition and the YZF
bars mount closer to the holes provided for the FZR clip-ons. One might
use the FZR clip-ons and get by without having to do this but, I planned
to use Genmar risers and the YZF bars to get around the need for a taller
bar on the FJ and have the newer style clip-on. I already have the riders
so there is really no room to play with this idea. Plus, I am pretty sure
that Genmar no longer makes a riser kit for the old FZR.
I guess I should give the formula out should anyone else be interested in this swap. Everything below the triple clamp is YZF600R 97 - 99. The forks are 41mm cartridge units. Race Tech makes all sorts of nice goodies for them. Fork travel is 130mm. The brakes are four piston with 298mm floating rotors. The rim is 17/ 3.5 inch and carries a 120/ 60 17 tire stock. The triple clamp is FZR1000 87 - 88. The offset is the same as the stock FJ. The width is the same as the stock YZF600R which is slightly wider than the FJ. The forks have 1.0 KG Race Tech springs installed to help them handle the extra weight of the FJ. I am told that they work well with an average rider on board. The cartridge forks are the real reason to do this mod. They are supposed to rock! I am told that the brakes are noticeably better than the stock FJ brakes even the late model 4 piston units. They should absolutely smother the old two piston units that I road with last year. |
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