Picked up a track bike a while back as a few of you may remember. So over the past few months I have been bored and have been collecting a few bits and pieces to make it my own, and to keep the boredom at bay over the winter period. Here's a list of things I've got to do during the build. Fit a tuned engine, replacing the 1 in the bike which has a crankshaft issue (will be dropping the engine this Friday and will keep the thread updated) Fit silicone hoses to said engine Fit HM dash and Plus SS quick shifter Fit Brembo RCS master cylinder Fit new front forks with K-tech cartridge kit and DDS shock (will be changing springs to suit my lardy ass also) Get the bike to the dyno to see what the engine can do and have it tuned with the Woolich flash kit. Fair bit to be done so should keep me busy for a while
Basically it's a known issue with bikes from 08-10. The crank can tend to distort and make a mechanical whine not much unlike a supercharger. Heard the noise when I went to see the bike and got it cheap enough to warrant taking the bike anyway.
This will be great Colin, keep us well updated and look forward to seeing you and the bike next year buddy....
Interestingly my race ZX6R makes a similar supercharger whine.. wonder if that is whats causing mine!
Will do Matt. I'll keep the thread up to date. Will be at Oulton and Donny along with a few others next year. Hopefully be there at the same time for a chin wag.
Worth looking it up on the net mate. May not be the issue with your bike, but worth checking out. 1 way you can check is to sit on the bike, put the bike into gear and bring the clutch out to biting point. If the noise then dissapears then it is probably the crankshaft.
It's not if it is an actual supercharger or like the SP1 which had gear driven cams. But on the Blade it's not such a good idea lol
It may sound ok and miby a bit cool right up until the crankshaft main gear sheers its teeth stopping all drive to the gearbox and more importantly the oil pump drive chain as well as sending metal shavings all round the engine galleries!
I doubt the crank will be the same issue on the zx6r to that of the early current gen blades, the issue on the blade is Honda didn't get the hardening/tempering correct on the main output gear leading to the gear wearing through the hardened surface and stripping the gears teeth away to nothing as well as the metal twisting out of alignment enuff to cause the whine which is the starting tell tale sign of problem. Honda nicely ignored this flaw in manufacturing like they do.............and not recalling the bikes sold over the 3 affected years and replacing the crankshaft instead they issue a service bulletin that doesn't get released into general public which only tells the dealers what to look for and fix if customers keep screaming loud enuff and pushing the dealership hard enuff to look into the issue and in turn the service bulletin book! Oh and Honda being the nice and customer friendly company it is put deadlines on when they were willing to fix and fork out the cost of their botched manufacturing and just put the cost back onto the owners of the vehicles!
That'll go with a bang then! What's happening with the original engine? Is it going to be a donor or repaired and sold?
Col's not really decided what to do with it yet........or at least he hasn't told me yet! The problem with the cranks tho is there are so many changes to each year as Honda tried to dodge round the issue but never actually sorting the case hardening on crank itself, the 08 and 09 have the same crankshaft unit with different main bearing shells and clutch upgrades to plates, judder springs and bearings. The 2010 got a heavier crank which was meant to mean a steadier and more progressive spin from the crank rather than the harshness caused by the lightweight crank. This heavier crank meant changes to both cases and shells as far as I know as Honda won't actually disclose differences in part numbers and I have never seen both the early blade cases stripped and lyin side by side with a 2010+. But Honda still didn't do anything about the crank case hardened strength issue until the 2011 bikes were realeased so any second hand crank could develop the same whine issue if agressive throttle use is introduced (a lot of people in other forums said after pulling a lot power wheelies was when whine started!) as the hardening process wasn't rectified until the 2011 onwards bikes were released.
Thought I'd best get started today on getting the track bike ready for next year. Started off with the bike just with its fairings off Then proceeded to remove the tank and air box. From there it was onto disconnecting the loom from the engine wherever it needed to remove the engine. Fingers are sore now releasing all the plugs in the usual tight spaces. Looks daunting, but it's easy enough. It was then into draining and removing the radiator, and removing the exhaust system. All easy enough. From there it was into the engine itself. Managed to use the engine removal tool that I made for the SP1 to get the castle nut out, then it was just a case of using a jack under the engine and removing the remaining engine bolts. Slowly lowered the jack, and realised we had to remove the front wheel to get the engine out easily. And there she goes. Engine out and looking bare. We swapped the throttle bodies over to the new engine and left it at that for a day. Next up is to fit the new silicone hoses and quick shifter loom before slotting in the new engine. Probably do this tomorrow or Sunday.
Started things off on Sunday by giving the engine a bit of a clean down before fitting the new silicone hoses, and then decided to fit the HM quickshifter loom whilst it was easy to get to the coils. Hoses look decent enough Quick shifter loom in place Once the engine was cleaned up, it was then time to get the engine in the frame. Have to say this was easier than I expected and it was in there in no time with the help of a jack and an extra pair of hands. From there it was just a case of hooking up the most part of the wiring loom to the new engine up to the point before fitting the air box. Called it a day at that point as next up will be fitting the QAT whilst the airbox is still off.
