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Project 929 complete rebuild-motor

4K views 50 replies 10 participants last post by  BigdaddyPaz 
#1 ·
Wow guys it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been on here. 5 years and some change I believe. Unfortunately life has had its way with me and I had a daughter and my bike has gone by the wayside. It’s been sitting in my basement for the last 4+ years being very sad. The happy ending for the old girl is about to begin though. I have her completely torn apart and the frame and a 954 swingarm are going off to powdercoat. I am going to be replacing pretty much everything visual on the entire bike. The few things that are staying are going to be getting a serious makeover at least. I have a shopping cart full of parts on eBay I’m going to be pulling the trigger on so feel free to chime in and tell me your advice. So far I have only purchased the 954 swingarm and a used ohlins steering damper. I am going to have some questions along the way about parts that I should purchase (I’m sure I forgot some things that should be addressed on a 19 year old bike that has been sitting for more than 4 years.) First and foremost I parked the bike originally because the fuel pump stopped priming (I have done the pink wire fix with a resistor in the past so I’m assuming it’s time to swap out the resistor again.) other than that the bike ran but I was having some issues I attributed to possible vacuum leaks. After tearing it down and seeing the sad state that everything rubber is in I will be replacing all the vacuum lines and all the coolant lines with silicone replacements. I will be posting pics of the parts I plan on buying so if you would like to offer up advice i would appreciate it. I will be buying everything over the next week or 2 while I’m waiting on my parts to be powder coated. Stay tuned.
 

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#3 ·
Great to see you bringing her back to life!

My only suggestions, and this is more personal preference than hard fact, but I would stay away from aftermarket fork seals. Just something about them that makes me feel insecure, especially with all the work involved to change them. I would go OEM. The bushings and other hardware for them looks ok.

Just from your pics it looks like the Gold Valves you chose are Emulators, which would not work for your USD cartridge forks. Again, just judging by the picture.

All the other stuff seems appropriate, but before you blow $150 on levers, I would recommend getting the fuel pump prime issue fixed. Has it sat with fuel in the tank all this time? You may need a new pump and/or tank altogether. Sometimes when the pump won’t prime it can be an ECU issue, which could cost some bucks.

Keep on with the updates and pics, we love good build/rebuild threads!
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the interest and the advice. There was about a quart of gas left in the tank when I parked it. I also purchased the new ignition this morning so I can plug everything in and see if I get the pump to prime. I’m on my way home from work right now so I think I will pop the sending unit out and see what the condition of the inside of my tank looks like. Any advice on cleaning out the tank is kindly appreciated.
 
#7 ·
What i do is get 60 to 80 grit sandpaper.
I sand all the areas i can with my hand, if you can fit it in there, mine cant usually unless its a Harley tank.
Fill 1/2 of the tank with coarse sand and granite gravel. Block off the fuel pump hole with gorilla tape after filling.
Then you have to shake the ever loving fukk out of it for like 4 hours.
Its not fun.
You will be sore the next day. The sand and gravel works like sandpaper and cleans out the debris and loose rust.
Then flush with a garden hose for a few hours until all the sand is out and then pick out the gravel one by one until there is none left.
Then coat the tank with 2 stroke oil after it has dried to the point where not one drop of water is evident. I use a shop vac for about an hour to dry it.
\Good luck.
It sucks. but in the end the system will be clean enough to run.
Best,
Mace
I usually charge about 400 for a fuel system overhaul like this because it is so labor intensive.
stay away from creem and other tank "coatings" they will come off in sheets and reclog your fuel system.
This is my opinion. Other people do it other ways.
this works best for me and Ive brought alot of bikes back from the dead.
 
#9 ·
Well I have 3 pieces of good news. The inside of my gas tank is immaculate. I jumped my fuel pump directly off my battery and it works. And my 7ish year old expensive ass lithium ion battery is still good as new. My buddy ran a cell check on it for me and all cells are 95% + operational he has some kind of rc car battery equipment that lets him check such things. Since I’m fairly confident the resistor on my pink wire is probably the issue I’m pretty happy.
 
#11 ·
Haha, will do. Here’s the bike 8 years ago. And then last week after I started tearing it down. I had the bike completely apart once before and I rattle canned the frame, swingarm and subframe black. I took my time, did many coats and it looked nice for a couple years until the random rock chips and such started. Up until a few days ago I was planning on just stripping it down and painting it again. I have since decided that with all the time and energy that would take I would rather just get it all powdercoated. That led me to get the 954 swinger because I’m not gonna pay to have everything powdercoated when I really wanted the 954 swingarm since forever
 

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#12 ·
msf0002 my only concern is the ignition switch, i bought a similar one and the ignition did not work, fuel pump would not prime, its missing the Diode to the pink wire. all it did was get super hot which was a big concern. the trunk lock did not work either and did not line up to the unlocking hook. but it would have taken some modifying and at the time i was not willing to do. which was a few years ago. but you can use the bottom guts of your old ignition switch and swap them so that you can use 1 key. I may buy the same seat cover replacement myself.
 
#13 ·
I ordered a different one from the one that I had listed in my eBay shopping list, it’s exactly the same but it’s being shipped from the USA instead of China. I’m very interested to see if it has a diode or resistor in it as well. If it doesn’t I’m going to ship it back and demand a refund (it’s only $20 shipped but it’s just the principal of the thing) I don’t have the guts or any part of my original ignition. I lost the key so I disassembled the entire thing a long time ago. I just ran with a hidden switch for a couple years. It really wouldn’t be the biggest deal if it doesn’t have the diode, I have a pack of resistors I can wire in line on the pink wire if it comes down to it.
 
#14 ·
Got the 954 swingarm today! It has a little more damage than I saw in the eBay photos. Does anyone know anything about filling aluminum scratches before powdercoat? So far it looks like there is a product that costs 75$ a pint you can use but a lot of people have said jb weld works great.
 

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#16 ·
It’s a direct swap, the only difference is the rear brake “triangle” mount. I’m going to try to modify the 929 mount to fit if possible because I want to get it powdercoated black along with the swingarm. I’m trying to send my parts out for powder on Saturday otherwise I would just buy a 954 mount (I may have to anyways if I can’t modify the 929 one to fit.)
 
#18 ·
Also figured out how to repair the scratches in the swingarm (or any aluminum for that matter.) I’m going to use a propane torch with aluminum brazing rods to fill them and then grind/sand it down. Brazing is a welding like technique where you heat the piece you are trying to fill to 730*f and then flow and aluminum rod into the void. I remember seeing it on tv a long time ago under the name alumalloy. I found some youtube videos on how to do it. Not something I would use for a structural repair but since I’m just trying to fill in scratches it should work great.
 
#29 ·
Well I spent pretty much all day learning how to braze and grinding and sanding and overall I would say I’m 85% happy with how it turned out. There are a couple pin holes and places I couldn’t really get to but I’m going with a matte black powder so I think it will look nice when all is said and done. This isn’t a show bike so I think it will be okay anyway. I guess I will learn a lesson on how well powder covers minor imperfections at least.
 
#33 ·
Yea the chain wear is pretty extreme, I will definitely be using the chain guard which whoever owned the bike definitely didnt, that wear goes all the way around.

I meant to take some video of the brazing but it would have been boring. And I’m not that good at it
so there was plenty of grinding and sanding.

Just dropped my parts off for powdercoat a couple hours ago so should be getting those back in a couple weeks
 
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