YZF600 | Banshee

Well Elijah came to me with a cool idea, “my Banshee needs more power”. So he had already started roughing the motor into the frame. He needed me to make it solid and functional.

So stated out by making the lower frame rail giving me a solid base. The oil pan needed to have more room than the original motor, so that was pretty straight forward to make happen. Then I started making the engine mounts. Starting with the rear lower mount. The engine needed to be suspended in order for proper chain alignment. This was tricky. I left one of the motor mounts Elijah made in place, he had the alignment pretty close. While lifting the motor from below and suspending it from above, I managed to make the right side motor mount which also needed to be removable so the engine could be taken in and out. It was quite the balancing act. Once that was done it was on to the left side mount which could be stationary. My chain alignment was good and the rear lower mounts were done.

For the rear top mount I was able to line it up with the upper frame. I drilled a 7/8″ hole in the frame and used 7/8″ tubing to fill it and make the motor mounts. I had to sleeve the 7/8″ tube with 7/16″ tube in order to have a snug fit with the engine hardware. This also helped fine tune the alignment. I drilled holes in the 7/8″ tube and plug welded the 7/16″ tube inside of it. So at this point I have top and bottom mounts done.

I then switched over to the top of the frame. I needed to connect the front and back halves while still having room for the larger engine and room to remove and install the motor. I attached the new tubing using slugs to create a lap joint and placed gussets and cross-members in oder to strengthen the new geometry.

Finally I needed the side motor mounts. The left side was to be stationary, because to engine comes out the right side of the bike. I started with the left side making motor connecting points out of the 1″ tubing I was using for the frame. I bolted those the the motor. Once they were on it was simply connecting the points together and to the frame. On the right side of the bike the side mount needed to be, you guessed it, removable. So I made mounts out of 3/4″ solid stock and drilled and tapped them. These got welded to the frame. Then from there it was just like the left side, time to connect the dots.

KZ750 Four | Exhaust Header Repair

I was taking apart the KZ750 and got to the exhaust. The exhaust wrap I had on there was in bad shape. It was unraveling and losing its color. So I took it off. The bottom two pipes on the header had some dents. I decided to fix the dents by cutting them out and hammering them back into shape. Then I simply weld back in the pieces. After some grinding and paint the header is back in shape.

Swingarm Clearance Needed | kz750

Well I knew it was going to be a tight squeeze, but chain rub is no good. What is nice about chain rub is it marks where you need cut. I made a rough cut out for a piece of 1.25″ x .120″ wall square tube. Then I shape in a piece of tube to fit the notch, and burned it in. I did the same in both cases. The chain was rubbing on the rear and the front of the swingarm.

With the notches the chain doesn’t even come close and the strength is still there. It’s all ready to repaint!!

cracked points cover | repair

Well shit happens and bikes end up on their side. Luckily it was an easy fix, and you wouldn’t even know it was cracked.