Fiat Dr's Vision gets a new look

[briandneville]

This may take a while.  Never done anything like this and expect to be learning the hard way.  Plan is to repaint forks, triple clamps, and all parts around the grips and controls, then move on to the tank, fairing, side covers.  Then swap the mufflers with a much better looking set I got from QBS.  And while I'm at it, rebuild the carbs and see if I can figure out why one of the drains was leaking gas and why it ran poorly when cold.  Otherwise Fiat Dr. had this machine running great and I had a lot of fun on it this fall.

Hope I get back out on it next spring.  Will see.

[kevin g]

I did what your are planning to my '83 last spring.  I stripped the old paint from the forks, calipers, triple clamps, control mounts and the fairing mounting frame.  I used chemical stripper but it is not as good as in the 'old days' and takes longer to soften the paint.  I did not repaint the switch housings yet since I need to figure out how to re-letter them.  There have been posts from others about the lettering.

I used 2K satin black paint that I got from Eastwood after first spraying with their epoxy primer.  It is a bit spendy but the results are worth it.  2K paint is tougher than just regular paint.

I also rebuilt the brake calipers and forks while it was all apart and added braided stainless brake lines from HEL.  To top it off, I replaced the steering head bearings with tapered roller bearings.  The front end looks nice and new and now the rest of the bike needs cosmetic attention.

[briandneville]

Thanks for the details.  Fiat Dr. did the bearing and brake line upgrades. Also swapped the calipers (Suzuki SV650)  and rotors (Yamaha R1).  I think I will paint the calipers gold to match the rims.  Just thinking.  I found control housings from a parts bike that are in great shape so am not going to attempt the lettering process.  This will be a test of memory to see if I can get it back together again.

[kevin g]

Can you post pictures of the brake upgrade?  I tried to put FZ1 calipers on mine and the adapters I got did not fit well so I aborted the effort.

[fret not]

What was the main issue with the caliper installation?

[kevin g]

I bought the adapters for the FZR calipers and they did not clear the wheel.  I know there are several adapters out there but they all look the same to me so maybe I should have tried another kind.

[Walt_M.]

I got adapters for RZ350 from TDR. They didn't clear but I was able to remove some material from the adapter to get them to clear. I'm using the gold-spot calipers. I have some older blue-spot calipers that don't even fit the adapters so use care in selecting.

[briandneville]

Attached are photos of the brakes.  There's an adapter plate that I believe was custom made.  I can post a photo of the plate by itself once I take this apart.

Also attached a photo of the bike from the side, meant to do that on the first post but the tech failed me.  Or I failed to understand it.

[Prophet Of Doom]

I'm jealous of that brake mod.  If I did that here I'd have to get engineer signoff and LV cert - probably cost $1000-$1500

[briandneville]

wait until it's cleaned up and repainted...then you'll be jealous!

[pullshocks]

Nice.
Did you change master cylinder too?  Or just the calipers.
When I painted my XZ550RK fork legs I bought a can of spray paint that was marketed as being meant to use on shock absorbers.  I think I have some left if you want it.
You might as well do fork seals while your at it, and once you're that far down the rabbit hole, Race Tech springs & internals.  I've still got the tool my son made for me when I worked on the forks.

[fiat-doctor]

Nope, it's the original '83 (rebuilt).  I think it would benefit from a smaller MC...  a more common '82 would be a good place to start.

[fret not]

Somewhere there is a chart that shows values for braking determined by the number of and diameter of the caliper pistons so as to determine the size of the M/C bore.  A smaller M/C bore gives more leverage, a softer lever more like power brakes, and requiring more lever movement.  Where as a larger M/C bore makes the lever feel more wooden, or just plain stiff and not much braking.  It is important to select the parts of the system specifically to work together. 

[briandneville]

You might as well do fork seals while your at it, and once you're that far down the rabbit hole, Race Tech springs & internals.  I've still got the tool my son made for me when I worked on the forks.

Thanks Pullshocks for the offer and info.  Is the tool you refer to used to compress the assembly when reattaching the cap bolt at the top?  I'm in central Seattle; where are you?  I may take you up on the offer when the time comes to reassemble the parts.  I am going to have the painting done at a body shop.

I looked at the Race Tech site and see that one could drop a lot of money into these parts.  Will think that over.

One thing I noticed last summer / fall was a 'clunk' from the front suspension during hard braking.  Does anyone have experience diagnosing the source of this and eliminating it?  I was not able to re-produce the sound with the bike stationary.  The sound would only come once when braking relatively hard, then there was no similar sound during rebound.  It was very consistently present during hard braking.

Another question:  does fork oil have a rancid smell?  The oil in my forks did; both sides seemed the same, so maybe that's how it is, but I wondered if it was fouled by water?  It was cloudy, dark grey.  Did not look like 'oil' though it is very oily.

Thanks!

[kevin g]

The clunk when braking could be the steering head bearings but I would also expect some clunking going over bumps.  I think you mentioned that there were tapered rollers installed.  Mine needed to be re-torqued after riding a short while.

On the Mike's XS website he sells emulators for the XS650 forks that fit in the 35mm Vision forks.  I have not done this but I have read of others doing it.

I had no problem getting the forks caps threaded back in when I did mine, no tools needed.

[jefferson]

The clunk you mention is most likely the top triple clamp moving on the steering stem. People have used shims to tighten things up to get rid of it. The lug is there on the top triple clamp to drill and slot so the triple clamp could be tightened up on the steering stem, but Yamaha deemed it unnecessary and never finished the machining to put a pinch bolt there. You could try tightening the center nut tighter in case it isn't tight enough, but you must first loosen the handlebar bolts so the top triple clamp will be able to move down.

[pullshocks]

The tool is a metal rod with bolts welded on each end, for removal of the damper rod.  One end goes in the top of the damper rod, the other accepts a wrench.  I gather you have the fork apart so you must have

Yes I seem to recall that Yamaha used a fish oil in the forks accounting for the nasty smell.

I also recall having some clunk under hard braking even after installing the tapered bearing head set.  For a while I thought it came from the fairing structure....But the main thing is to make sure the head bearing is tightened up properly.

[Prophet Of Doom]

Yes most likely Steering bearings or even loose calipers.
Another possibility is slop in the damper.  I've attached a sheet (in German sorry) about fixing this - a procedure I did on my 400 with great results

[jefferson]

If you go through the old newsletters the front end clunk was mentioned enough times it would have had a sticky on modern forums. The culprit is the top triple clamp not being tight enough on the stem. Loosen the bolts that hold the handlebars to the top clamp and then tighten the bolt in the center of the triple clamp. It needs to be really tight. Ride and report back. Oh, and don't forget to tighten up the handlebar bolts afterwards.

[kevin g]

You can make the tool to hold the damper rod at the top with the right spark plug socket and several ratchet extensions.  If you have a spark plug socket with a 3/4" hex nut at the bottom it fits in the damper rod.  Add enough extensions starting from the opposite end of the socket to make it long enough to stick out of the top of the fork tube and you are in business.