A Katana................in here................?????

[garry55]

this............



is the 750 Katana airbox inlet trumpet that came with the airbox I bought from Japan, and it just so happens to fit this......



very tightly. And is also an interference fit in here......



so - when its attached to the 2T oil tank neck and fed upwards through the hole in the undertray.....



it becomes an oil-dribble protector........

[garry55]

polishing a turd............

the standard Bandit 650 rear caliper bracket isn't a thing of beauty, or light weight...........



so a few holes drilled in it should lighten it a tad........



and several hours of grinding / cutting / filing later......



shame it can't be seen when fitted........

[rngdng]

Nicely done.....again.



Lane

[Desert_75]

Can't wait for the next post!

[Suzukidave]

Nice work Garry

[garry55]

been having some trouble getting the rear wheel alignment right. The standard Bandit 650 sprocket carrier has too much offset, so I machined 10mm off the sprocket mounting tabs, the bearing recess and the bearing spacer piece but it was still tight. I had to turn the sprocket retaining nuts to half-thickness just to get them to clear the swingarm.
So I tried a GS500 carrier which has a lot less offset and still fits the Bandit 650 cush drive - now alignment is spot on. And even the sprocket mounts are the same - result!

left to right :- standard Bandit 650, machined Bandit 650 (10mm off) and standard GS500




Only the inner spacer needs attention - it won't fit on the axle, so once that's been addressed, the bike is off to have the new engine mounting plates fitted.

[garry55]

at last ! the Bandit 650 wheel is in and the sprocket retaining nuts clear the swingarm.........



now ready to roll to the welding shop for it's engine brackets to be fitted.............

[garry55]

dropped the Katana off at my local emporium of speed to have the motor fitted.



it's in good company, with 2 Kettles (gold one is a"K", rare Jewel Grey one is an "M") and a Lucky Strike VJ22 awaiting attention.............



and a big-bore (APE block), flat-slide equipped (though not fitted), Spondon armed Katana..........

[garry55]

well - it's been a while but, in response to a phone call from the God of Speed that is John Warrington, I found myself at his premises to help finalise the engine position. John had already installed the frame in his jig and levelled it in readiness for my visit...............





so we set about getting the chain alignment right......



this off-set the motor so that the r/h exhaust port was fouled by the frame downtube. John sparked-up the grinder to make room for the header pipe.....







should fit now.........





then. in a flurry of sparks, he set about making some templates for the upper rear engine mounting plates........





sure do hope his welding is better on the finished items........





once the rear mountings are completed, it's time to fit the new frame downtubes.............

[garry55]

then I scored this...............



early GT750 "J" frame off ebay for $44 - plan is to cut the bottom cradle / downtubes out of this and fit them to the Katana frame to give the right clearance for the exhaust header pipes. Hopefully, we can utilise the original motor mounts too.

[garry55]

spent a couple of hours at Mr Warrington's today. A 15" grinder made short work of the GT750 frame................



then out with the old, and in with the new...........



some heating and tweaking.........



and that fits nicely.......



the down tube requires the same attention........



and gets it..........



spot on (ish)..................



tacked in place, awaiting final welding........



other side next............

[Alan H]

Come on. This is getting exciting.
Get on with it man!!!

[garry55]

waiting for a GT750 front engine mounting plate before we can affix the other side rail.............

[pjmcburney]

Seems like a stupid amount of work just to get the chain alignment right ...


Why not just use an offset sprocket?

There are quite a few options around as they're used by the drag race and retro-mod guys when fitting massively-wide wheels and different swing arms to classic and modern bikes.
There is even a plethora of support brackets and such to reduce loading on countershaft bearings.

I'd be investigating anything else rather than compromise the integrity of the frame - those new downtubes not being straight would bother the crap out of me...

[garry55]

I see your point, but the primary reason for using the GT750 down tubes was to get the clearance for the exhaust headers, 2 of which wanted to run where the Katana down tubes were (see photo in previous post). With the GT750 tubes in place the headers can run their normal path. The frame will actually be stronger than standard (and braced around the front joints), as Katana's are renowned for the l/h lower frame rail rotting through from the inside. This was the case with the rail we removed.