XZ400 forks on an XZ550?

Started by pinholenz, August 03, 2015, 07:01:00 AM

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pinholenz

The manual I have is a paper copy in fairly good nick from a former Yamaha service centre. The Perfect binding is broken on the spine and I was thinking of having it rebound.

If it was useful I could separate the pages then scan it to create a Pdf document for your (generously shared) resources.
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550

pinholenz

The manual I have is a paper copy in fairly good nick from a former Yamaha service centre. The Perfect bindings is broken on the spine and I was thinking of having it rebound.

If it was useful I could separate the pages and scan it to create a Pdf document for your (generously shared) resources.
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550

pinholenz

For some reason the site won't let me add a jpg of the manual cover. POD, I will contact you by email. Cheers
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550

pinholenz

Fork straightening went well.

I found an old school engineer locally who had a set of aluminum half round blocks to support each end of the fork and another one to press the bend out. "I've done a few of these" he said. How many forks are 55mm diameter? I watched and learned as he pressed and measured  in a 6 tonne press. Finally a quick polish on the lathe. NZ$40. Sweet!

He gave me a tip for bad dents or nicks in forks. Fill them with silver solder and then polish them smooth on a lathe with super fine emery paper. Apparently solder sticks to hard chrome OK.

Happy bunny. Forks are now filled with 10w fork oil, assembled and ready to reinstall.

Thanks for all the advice
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550

The Prophet of Doom

That's a nice price.  Congrats.
Wish I'd had that tip before I ditched my spare forks

pinholenz

Finally got the bike back on the road today after the adventures of dealing with a bent tube and a bent triple clamp spigot.

First ride on the new forks felt like I was driving an old style pneumatic hammer.  (10w oil in forks at recommended volumes, no air pressure, progressive springs and spacers from the '82 forks)

I would say that the preload is too much for my weight.  I will do some sag measurements in the morning. If the sag is less than 30mm I will start by shortening the spacers.
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550

pinholenz

Tested the static sag today after the hard as nails ride yesterday. 26mm between resting sag and sag with me on. I was aiming for about 30mm

I dropped the aircaps off the forks and removed the XZ550 spacers that I had put in on top of the XZ550 progressive springs. The length of the original spacers is 100mm. The difference between the length of the 550 fork caps and the longer 400 air caps is 10mm. As a guesstimate I decided to cut 15mm off the xz550 spacers.

After reassembly the static sag was a more workable 33mm. It will be interesting to see the difference in the ride.
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550

pinholenz

33mm static sag on the front springs gives a good ride for my weight (85kg). Nice to be back on the road again.
Only one '82.5  eXtreme Zen 550