V4 RGV500

[garry55]

a productive afternoon - V4 motor installed in the SRAD frame, rear top and bottom mounts fabbed and fitted.

The fronts require welding up, so they are absent from these photo's..........

[garry55]

not a great deal of progress today - spent most of the day washing / polishing / detailing the MX5 - its been a bit neglected for the past 6 months.



Then a spare hour in the garage, during which I drilled 8 x 9mm holes into the beam frame, into which I inserted 8 x 6mm Rivnuts, into which I screwed the mounting bolts for the 4 ignition coils.

[garry55]

just enough spare time today to refit the carbs...............



and to re-work and mount the twin-pull choke levers.........

[garry55]

It's a lot easier without the road gear..............



bike all wired-up now - awaiting delivery of the battery then I can have a play at programming the Zeeltronic. Gulp.........

[garry55]

some good news, and some bad news.......

Good news is that the new RGV250 battery and modified battery box I fitted to the Steam Triple is now unsuitable for use.

So I drilled 3 holes:- 2 in the back of the SRAD's head stock and 1 in the cross piece and inserted 3 Rivnuts......



the top 2 holes are for mounting the battery box, the lower one is to secure the "Z" bracket, when it arrives.

I then removed the battery and battery box from the Steam Trip and fitted them to the V4, like so..........



The bad news?

I now have to buy a new 10amp/hr battery for the Steam Trip............

[garry55]

remainder of the electrics now have a home.

fuse box and Zeeltronic control unit on upper rear engine mounting casting.........



(scabby) rectifier on rear of fuel tank bracket.........



and water pump controller on rear sub frame.........

[garry55]

Unsure whether to go with the standard SRAD hump seat unit or this (broken) VJ23 race tail...........

[garry55]

So, today I stripped the Steam Triple of all unnecessary parts so it's ready to go for it's 3-1 exhaust making and fitting next week.

Can't do anything on the V4 until postie / couriers deliver a stack of parts I've ordered.

So I set to tidying the garage. Started with the parts shelf above my workbench - and the 4th unmarked box I opened contained a pleasant surprise!

After studying how to modify it to fit the SRAD, I fired up the lathe and relieved the mounting nut of some internal threads and surplus metal........



so that it is a snug fit on the SRAD top yoke nut..........



then I carefully drilled 4 x 5mm holes into the mounting nut.........



which enable the mounting bracket to lock to the mounting nut........



which, in turn, allows the mounting bracket and mounting nut assembly to lock onto the SRAD top yoke nut..........



so I can fit the new Scott rotary steering damper I unearthed earlier.........





I'll modify the mounting post tomorrow.

Note:- the 4 x 5mm cap head bolts will be replaced by some grub screws, which I've just ordered off ebay

[garry55]

frame notched - on the inside only - to facilitate #1 carb fitting and removal........

[garry55]

made a start on the r/h airbox - because of space limitations there will be 2 separate boxes joining 1 bigger box that has the air feeds.







as I can't weld (should have learned a long time ago) I have to rely on sticking bits together with chemical metal and waiting an hour or so for it to harden.

the finished item will look much better than this.

[garry55]

well, the part-finished item turned out to be a pile of crap - don't know what I was thinking when I started it.

Anyway, it's been consigned to the scrap bin (having first spent £8 to have it welded) now and after a serious rethink, I've started on box #2.

I bought a good, used SRAD air box for £13 off everyone's favourite auction site and made a tunnel for #3 carb......







then made a floor and side for #4 carb before running out of 2mm aluminium sheet......





just had enough scrap material to make the floors for #1 & #2 carbs - waiting for a delivery of 2mm sheet now.......

[garry55]

carb #'s 3 & 4 air feed tunnels welded.............

[garry55]

Early production SRAD 600's share the same instrument housing as the VJ23, albeit with different speed and rev markings.

I have 2 sets of VJ23 T instruments and these would bolt straight on to the SRAD's mounting bracket, then just a case of plug n play, but I found a set of Aprilia RS250 instruments in a cupboard in the garage and decided to fit those instead. Benefit of these instruments is that I can mount the rev counter centrally, like a race bike, with the small LCD panel for speed / temp / lap timer off to the side.

Unfortunately, Aprilia didn't copy Suzuki's mounting template and none of the mounting studs aligned with the holes in the SRAD bracket.

So, I made a template to fit the SRAD bracket and the Aprilia instruments...........



mounted the template on the SRAD bracket.............



and mounted the Aprilia instruments to the template............



just need to lose the top right side mounting, or find a set of idiot lights to mount there as the instruments only have a low oil warning light in built.

[sportston]

You are very brave...and patient. That's a lot of fiddly engineering you're doing. It looking great though. Can't wait for the next instalment!

[garry55]

called at a friends bike tuning emporium the other day and noticed this box on one of his shelves..........



"whats in there John"? says I, hoping there was a thumb brake kit inside. And behold, there was.......



looks a little home-made, but the basics were there.

Back home, time to inspect my new purchase up close.........





and start taking it apart - the original lever pivot bolt and washer stack (bottom) and my replacement above it.......



and fitted..........



found a replacement piston plunger in one of the spare parts drawers......



replaced a few bolts and gave the Brembo cylinder a clean...........





I'm leaving the alloy bracket as is for now, until I have finalised what forks I am using, then I will make another with the correct diameter mounting hole.