bike sat for 5 years

I work on bikes as a way to make a little extra money and my latest one is a 1993 zx11 that has been sitting in a garage for five years without any protective measures taken at all. The sad part is it is a very clean bike never been crashed and everything is there. I'm a pretty decent mechanic so I know the majority of what needs to be done. But I am wondering after so long is there anything I should do motor wise. Such as for the valves, pistons rings or cylinders. Maybe flush the motor with something or??? Just seems after so long in one position the rings may have rusted or the valves could be stuck? I don't know. So I'm asking someone who may have more experience than I if I shouldn't do something for it before I turn it over for the first time. And oh yeah the carbs are ugly. The gas that came out of the tank smelled more like varnish than it did gas. Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

Pull the spark plugs out and spray some lubricating oil such as Marvel Mystery Oil into the holes and let it sit overnight before turning the engine over.

Rollin

 

+1 to Rollin. You may want to try and turn it over by hand if possible following Rollin's suggestion. Might be a good idea to remove the valve cover & take peak inside. if you do a little oil on the cams wouldn't hurt.

 

Thanks. Those are great ideas. I forgot all about the cams etc.. drying out. The mufflers are full of dirt and dead bugs so I'm thinking of pulling the whole exhaust to make sure it's cleaned out as well. I'm not sure how far they have gone. Or do you think it would blow out on its own? Thanks again for the advice

 

Ok brace yerselves!!!

Here is my old Ninja ZX11 that I picked up for a cool $300








Ok OK I know, the paint uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

But here is the point. This is what they are known for, besides being heavy and quick.





Yep that be the #3 rod bearing. So the message here is, check out the fixes for the oil flow issue to the bottom end and git er done before this happens.

 

Don't forget to check out the air intake and filter box area for rodents, and the exhaust for that matter (dead or alive).

I had a friend who stored his bike over the winter one season in his garage. The bike in question was a Kawasaki ZX1000 (can't remember the year but it was in the mid 80's I believe). He used to cover up the air intake tubes and plug the exhaust (wanted to keep the bugs out) by stuffing rags in the ends of the pipes. When he went to start the bike the next spring he found a dead mouse nested up in the air filter box. After cleaning all that up, and checking the rest of the bike over he fired the old girl up and it ran a bit rough at first. He let it idle for a minute or so thinking it was bad fuel (no Sta-Bil or anything in the fuel). The idle smoothed out a couple minutes later so he decided to rev it up a bit and it revved and died. The next time he thumbed the starter it was hell to get it going but it sputtered back to life and he blipped the throttle again and a dead mouse came shooting out the left pipe and shot across the front yard. The bike idled like a dream after that. One of the funniest things that has ever happened during the course of getting one of the bikes ready for the season. You never know what is going to crawl in to the exhaust outlets. I now make a point of stuffing rags in the exhaust pipe and air intake snorkel on my bike if I store it for any lengthy period of time.

 

Oh boy that is funny. Thanks for the laugh. I bet that was funny as hell to see. So I guess I should leave the pipes alone and see what pops out? Thanks again very funny.

 

reason number 3 rod goes on zed x 11's is that they run a counter-balancer off that journal. I always liked them though, never owned one - kinda looks like my gen 3 bike, but we all know the inter-shlepter is the better looking bike :smile:

 

I'll second that. It is amazing how fast a mouse can pack up an air box. It is also amazing what you will find in intake and exhaust tracts. I once had a customer's BSA poop out a bag of weed from the right exhaust pipe.

By the way, I love the ZK11. Engines can be fixed. Who cares what it looks like? I'll ride a pink "Hello Kitty" bike that only costs $300.

 

I was standing behind the bike at the time giving my friends black lab a scratch behind the ears, and when the mouse popped out with a phwump, I ducked. The black lab ran after the damn thing picked it up, and dropped it my buddies feet. Dog was wagging his tail ferociously as though to say "Here you go, did you lose this." That particular story pops to the front of mind every year when I take my bike out of winter storage and start her up for the first time.

Even though my buddy Doug and I live in different cities now (about 600 km's apart) we always try to out do one another as to who gets to ride first in the spring, so we phone each other up when we start the bike for the first time and email a photo of the first ride. Picture has to be on a road with a road sign in the background, and has to be at least 10 km's from the house to count. We both have iPhone's now and Doug tried to cheat last year and took a picture in front of a road sign down the street from his house. Only way I found out was I accidentally switched my iPhone setting to Location (didn't realize it would map the location of where the photos were taken) and while I was looking through the photos by location wondering where were taken, I came across the one of Doug's first ride last year. BUSTED, he now owes me a case of beer. He laughed and admitted the subterfuge and said he would buy my wife and I dinner at Red Lobster the next time we got together. It's funny to think we have been friends now for 30 years.

 

I'll replay this photo of what i shook out of a VFR muffler that sat in a shed for a couple years for the amusement of some, the amazement of others.....

You'll need to thoroughly cleaN out the fuel tank b4 proceeding further or risk fouling the carbs.

 

Haven't had a lot of time to work on this bike lately but am getting ready to fire it up. I have a question about the fuel pump though. Will a fuel pump keep gas in it or just flow through it? I'm just wondering if whenI attempt to start it for the first time is it going to blow 5 year old gas into my nice clean carbs? I have cleaned everything I can clean and changed the fuel filters but do I need to run some fresh gas through the fuel pump first or can I just hook it up? Thanks

 

Taylor,

You might want to try to contact Doug Meyer of Muzzys. He is a super pro on ZX11 bikes . . .

http://www.muzzys.com/articles/index.html

 

Taylor65, disable your ignition. Find the pump outlet & disconnect it. Your looking for the line that feeds the carbs. Most likely there's a in line fuel filter before the carbs. If you haven't replaced the fuel filter now is a good time. Depending on how much slack is in the fuel line you may want attach a longer hose. Most autoparts stores will have generic line you buy by foot for short money. With the ignition disabled & a suitable container to catch the fuel put the bike through a few starting cycles. Have one person hold the fuel line & container while another hits the start switch. 2-3 cycles should be plenty. Your just looking to push any residual crap out of the pump. A clean clear container is a good idea so you can inspect what comes out. Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the help. I will pump some through it then first. There are filters that I have replaced before the fuel pump but there isn't one between the pump and carb. But just to be safe I will run it into a. Container first. Especially after all the work I had to put into the carbs. I have to say I sure love Honda's all the more after working on this one. Honda's just seem to be so much easier to work on. The engineering makes so much more sense. This zx 11 seems like so many things were an afterthought. For example the coolant catch tank is is in the rear tail section next to the turn signal. They would have to mount it to the license plate to be any further away?

 

Yamaha did the same thing on mid-to-late 90's YZF1000. Coolant reservoir was on the rear subframe if I remember correctly.

 

I personally think the Honda engineers actually took into concideration that someone was eventually gonna have to work on their creations....


And I'm not dissing Kawi cause I've owned more of them then Honda's, but the only thing that Kawi Engineers seemed to be concerned with is getting the bikes assembled.


Possible exception goes to the fact the to change the starter on the Wings the Motor has to come out.....


I know on my ZG it was easiest to take off the motor mounts and rock the block to remove the carbs....


I second the Cam inspection, I'd also be looking real hard at steering head bearings and wheel bearings. they dont seem to like idle time.

 

Latest update: she is all back together and looking real good. But! It will not pull me. It starts fine idles great revs up clean as can be but when I try to take off letting the clutchoutility it just dies. I tried revving it way up to nearly red line to take off and it will spin the tire in the grass for a second and die. I put it back up on the table and strapped it down started it pulled in the clutch put it in first gear let the clutch out and the rear wheel spun just fine I tried applying some rear brake until it nearly stalled. All I can think of right now is the mouse or whatever may still be in the pipe? I cleaned out the mufflers best I could with a shop vac and got a bunch of dirt but this model has a one piece muffler 4 into 1 with a second muffler bolted on. Do you think I need to go farther with the pipe and just take it all off and make sure it's all cleaned out or could it be something else? Thanks a lot. S

 

Take the mufflers off. Crank it up and rev it. Use ear protection. It has been said before but check air filter for mouse nest.

 

I have had this bike down to nearly the frame and motor cleaning replacing and 're-building I was just hoping I could catch a break on the mufflers. I tried to shoot something out but it wasn't to be. So I guess it's off with the pipes and mufflers. Thanks again