cabbie's S3A

cabbie · cabbie's S3A

So we got to the back of the lock up after 2 hours clearing junk and uncovered the S3

First daylight the bike has seen in 20 years

Took it back to the workshop for inspection

All the switch gear, idiot panel and clocks chrome is still good!

But all the engine covers, forks and swing arm have peeled and will need re-plating

Here's the rearsets I made, I'll make a new set I think lol

I'll get the frame re-powder coated white and the pipes will need repairing as they are bent from a heavy crash also new TZ cans will be fitted.
Not too bad considering it's been locked up for so long.

ståle

Cool

What kind of wheels is that ?

cabbie

Can't remember who makes the wheels sorry.

Had a good day finding parts and buying stuff for the rebuild, I found out Gibson made the pipes for me in 1982, I ordered a new set of TZ alloy end cans from Gibson today also.
I found for sale a complete S3 engine with log book showing 800 miles from new, original wire spoke wheels and a huge box of S3 parts all for £70 and just up the road from me, nice, I'll use the new engine as the one in the bike is per-mix in the tank and I can't be asked to do that now.
So first job is repair the damaged pipes and get them re-chromed.

garyb

looks great how longs it been locked up

cabbie

garyb

thats the biz for that length of time must have been a good dry garage, well worth spending on that little baby its just a shame to pull it to bits

cabbie

garyb

ive got three 250's in variuos bits and doin a kh500 at the moment can't wait to ride one again, where abouts are you Mr cabbie

cabbie

I'm in Croydon.

garyb

sound i,m only down in horsham maybe a meet at some time i'd love to see it in the flesh

cabbie

yogi20

cool as feck mate
hope you can make the next rally at MFN nottingham

like the blade too but tiger is the best for blades imho

cabbie

simonh

glad youre doing it up again

shame, i had three chrome endcans here for ya, doh! i'll stick em on ebay.

whats 'quarterflash' mean

cabbie

Did a lot of drag racing up the pod "quarter" in'a "flash" bit sad I know but I was young at the time!

I went for the Kevlar cans so no worries.

simonh

cool, how much do they weigh, dave (of higgspeed fame) made me a set out of titanium, third of the weight of carbon fibre ones, thats why my chrome ones are for sale

scouse

cabbie

I remember RB, wasn't Nipper the owner of the H2 "masterblaster"?

This was last night's work, almost stripped.

I took the S3 swing arm measurements to the bike breakers today and after an hour sorting though piles of arms came away with a perfect fit, it's a CBR 600 F swing arm, slots in to the frame perfectly

The wheel base will be 10cm longer but that will help when the smaller front wheel goes in, there is still a long way to go fitting the swing arm like getting the sprockets lined up etc, all good fun though!

Once all the fitting is done the frame will be re-powder coated white and the swing arm mirror polished.

Here's the shock, R1

malc87

NICE

The Wolfman

"Can you tell what it is yet?"

Looking good already.

simonh

guessing you dont want me red marzocchi's now then

what i really want to know is - whats goin on with the inlets and carbs, what works been done in there, i'm nosey...

cabbie

cabbie

First little problem to over come, the swing arm will need a bit of surgery I think.

The Wolfman

I think on other specials that people have moved the sprocket outward a touch to clear such things.

cabbie

simonh

a 70 tooth rear sprocket might clear it

cabbie

Here's the brand new wheels and front end all for £650!

simonh

too cool for school

17's?

cabbie

bubba2 · s3

Have you had it powerder coated yet ? if not just clean up those little rusty bits and get it recoated save hours shoot blasting it. or if you want it blasted back get it zinc primer on before the white it will last for years ..keep up the good work..

cabbie · Re: s3

yogi20

cabbie

Thanks but the new Talon wheel has the sproket offset the same as the original wheel, so all I need to do Is mod the swing arm upper brace, a simple job.

The Wolfman

Why not two side by side different sizes with a spacer? same at the back, would make changing the overall gearing a snip.

Wolfies useless tips #3093

cabbie

A small up date of progress:

I've been scanning the net for parts needed and found a complete set of STD bore cylinders, heads and crankcase, I took the frame to the shot blasters just now to remove the old enamel, the new wheels are coming too.

I started on the swing arm, the section in the way of the chain has been removed, I will be welding a new piece in but that will be done later when the back end is fitted so I see exactly where the chain sit.

Soon as the engine parts and wheels arrive the project will pick up pase

The Wolfman

You don't mess about do you??

cabbie

Got the frame back from the shot blasters, I set up the R1 shock but the pivot point is too far back so I'll need to make up brackets to move the shock mount lower.

cabbie

Ok, time to start building, I bought a secondhand CBR 600 swing arm bolt and took it to my local machine shop to be shortened by 50mm and re-threaded.

Next job was to have the machine shop make a spacer to fill the gap between the swing arm and frame.

The holes for the original swing arm bolt are too small so I drilled them out to 17mm for the new cbr 600 bolt.

The Wolfman

The metal in that gusset appears awfully thin now the hole is bigger?

cabbie

It's the same thickness as all the other S3's Kawasaki made!

The Wolfman

Yep, but it feeels thinner.

cabbie

garyb

Loads of swarfffffff no doubt

and the hot spanner

cabbie

Had a few parts arrive today:

The rear wheel fitted straight in and will need only one spacer made for the sprocket side, I was worried the spindle would be the wrong diameter but its the same as the cbr 400, nice!
Looks good I think?

I chose these wheels because the sprocket had the exactly the same off set as the S3 wheel so I knew the sprockets would line up without modding.

I also bought some LT 1000 rearsets, nice, and the rgv USD forks arrived to

New front wheel

New front caliper

Tomorrow the new engine is coming and I bought 3 flat slide carbs.

cabbie

The yokes arrived at last, now I can start building.

First job was to grind and press out the stems of the rgv and S3 bottom yokes, The S3 stem will be welded back into the rgv yoke:

The S3 stem is 2mm smaller in diamiter than the rgv one so a spacer will need to be made.

bricep59

by the look of those lock stops some one knocked the bottom yolk off with a lump hammer

g6mow

cabbie

cossackmannie

I'm seriously liking this thread

What are you doing with the forks and wheels that you removed and would they fit a 79 KH250?

Ian

cabbie

cabbie

A little progress! I had a spacer made to fill the gap between stem and bottom yoke, I'll get the stem pressed in and welded in place tomorrow

cabbie

Made a start on restoring the seat, this a "two-four" seat I got cheap from Simon but it looks very secondhand so a complete rebuild I think

Although the base has some rust and is bent a little from a crash it'll taken to the powder coaters for shot blasting and re-coating tomorrow

Unfortunately the foam is knackered but Matt at caulfield leather can re-foam and vinyl cover it back to new condition

I got the S3 stem welded in to the rgv bottom yoke today too.

cabbie

Got the top rgv yoke sorted,

before:

I don't need the ignition or bolt fixings so I machined them off, I skimmed the top too to loose some weight
After:

cabbie

I got the yokes and forks fitted

With the tank etc just to see how it will look

garyb

YUM YUM

cabbie

Little update for the guys that wanted every detail of the build

Drilled the top yoke for the riser

Turned two spacers on the lathe, these will be welded to the yoke Monday

And the riser in place

simonh

beautiful work, nice to have that kind of access

cabbie

yogi20

I just got to say WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice work

cabbie

I'm still hunting parts so progress is a little slow, I did get the yoke spacers welded on

And I'm changing the engine from piston port to reed valve, I cut the reed boxes

cabbie

Update:

Got the rear brake fitted and bought new chain adjusters, I'll have the caliper stripped and anodised silver to match the front

Got the sprockets lined up nice

Just need an 18mm spacer to complete the back wheel fitting

The reed boxes need shaping, I cut a cardboard template to get the right angles

Here are the boxes cut, bent and trimmed, I'll get these welded inside and out Monday

I've made the boxes well over size as I'm not sure of the final position yet, they will be trimmed down as necessary later

The tank, tail unit, side panels and mudguard have been dropped off at 1off-design for Will to do his magic, although I'm keeping the same colour and design he is doing some thing very nice with it.

BIG AL

Thats some mighty fine work there cabbie

cheers
Al

garyb

how did them there fins get a beating ?

great stuff

cabbie

garyb

Shame that, see you put some work into them

Got another tank for my H1 today must get it up to the Painters

cabbie

Evening guys

I got the reed boxes welded up and cut the angles, I also made up the base plates, next is welding the two together and spending all day dremeling them to match the cylinder ports.

Here's how they will mount up, I still need to shorten the boxes by 8mm on the inlet rubber side

And here's what happens when you run at full speed from the garden barefoot in to the house to answer the phone and not pay attention to where the door frame is!

God does it hurt :P

garyb

mind that little pinky doesent fall off

The Wolfman

You need some steel toecap flip flops for this weather.

cabbie

Update:

I have got access to a full size mill, lathe and sand blaster :119: so life just got a whole lot easier.

I've machined 10mm off the back of the cylinders and sand blasted them

I've also fitted helicoils and new exhaust studs

cabbie

Made a start on porting the base plates to match the reed boxes, should suck a bit better now, LOL

Still a bit more to do but I'll get the boxes welded on first then finish off, one down two to go!

shiver85

love it cabs glad to see your at it again

cabbie

I've finished porting the intakes, hoping to get the boxes welded on tomorrow if I have time.

cabbie

I got the reed boxes welded to the base plates, just need a bit of JB inside to smooth them out at the joints

cabbie

The front wheel was a bit harder to fit than the rear, the wheel is off a CR that has a 20mm diameter spindle and the RGV has a 17mm spindle

Easiest way to solve the problem is get a piece of 20mm O/D stainless steel tube with a 1.5mm wall thickness to slide inside the wheel, I also made a spacer to fit the gap between the forks

Here's the tube fitted in the wheel

I got the top yoke finished, it just needs polishing or powder coat.

I made a start fitting the shock but I need some steel plate so I'll order that Monday.

The Wolfman

awww, now yer just showing off.

It'll be easy to pick that one out in a crowd Cabbie.

bricep59

good ally welding did you do it yourself

you need to straighten the tract out a bit

cabbie

cabbie

So after a whole day trying to find the right position for the rear shock I can't get it to work, simply bolting the shock to the swing arm is messing up the rebound etc, so, I've bought a 94 blade uni track linkage, It's a set back as there is a lot of work fitting it but there's no point pretending it'll be ok, finishing the bike to find it bounces up and down like a space hopper is there.

Be back in 2 weeks.

cabbie

While I'm hunting for suspension parts I'll get some bits of the bike finished

I cut the top flanges for the reed boxes, these will be welded in place tomorrow, I'll drill and tap the corners plus skim them flat.

The Wolfman

Can you tell what it is yet?

Shame about the Shocker, it was looking so good.

cabbie

cabbie

I got the flanges welded to the boxes today and I drilled the mounting holes and skimmed the top surface, just need to thread the mounting holes and do some JB work inside them.

cabbie

Here's the reed boxes finished

There is a small problem with the RD 400 petal screws sticking out and not clearing the boxes

I've countersunk all the petal stops and used 3mm high tensile screws (with threadlock)

And the finished reed units ready to bolt on the cylinders

garyb

that is some lovely work there Cabbie

cabbie

Got the reed units fitted

With carbs

I got all the suspension parts today to make up a uni track linkage so I'll make a start on that tomorrow.

The Wolfman

I wasn't too sure at first, but looking very tidy now they're on the Cyls

cabbie

Here's the uni track linkage, it'll need new plates made but should work ok.

cabbie

I found an old linkage to use for mounting purposes

Having fun with the angle grinder

The bracket cut shortened and ready to be welded in place

All clamped up in place ready for welding, I managed to get the shock low enough to use the fireblade triangle plates

I made up a template for the top mount.

cabbie

I got the linkage welded up

And the bike is a rolling chassis, nice!

The rear suspension still needs the correct size spacer to set the ride height but I'll do that after most of the parts are back on.

cabbie

Been having a few problems getting the shock set up right, the MV shock just has too much travel for the little 400 and with only 5mm of damping adjustment I can't reduce it enough, I tried making longer plates

This helped but there is still too much travel, so I need a shock with a large amount of damping adjustment so I can dial it in to find the sweet spot, the only shocks I know that have fully threaded bodies are Ohlins so I'll be getting a secondhand one, be back soon.

ståle

Man, you're effective ! Looks great !

cabbie

So here's the replacement shock, it's off an RSV Aprilia, I fitted in the chassis and after a bit of adjusting works perfect and still has loads of adjustment either way left.

Only thing is the previous mounting plate was too far back so I cut it off and made another, I'll get this welded in place tomorrow.

Now all the suspension problems are solved the bike should start to come together quickly.

cabbie

I've got the shock top mount welded in the frame and the shock is nice and straight now

Here's the rolling chassis now completely finished

Next job is making a plate to mount the CR caliper to the RGV fork bottom.

cabbie

Time to fit a new battery box, I cut off all the mounting lugs and put them aside while the shock cross bar was being fitted, the battery box needs moving back in the frame so the mounts need repositioning.

Heres the lungs jigged up for welding

And the lugs welded in place to bolt the battery box to

And the new battery box, still some fabrication need to finish it.

The oil tank won't fit with the relocated battery so I'll have to make a new one.

cabbie

I got the side piece welded on the new battery box and fitted the rubber bushes today

garyb

cabbie where do you get your rubber bushes from?

cabbie

cabbie

Made some good progesses today:

Started to make the new two stroke tank filler cap, this is a cheap alloy rear brake reservoir I cut in half

I'll get it welded to a base plate and fit a spigot underneath for a clear flexi tube to the new tank

I made the new rec/reg mounts to be welded to the battery box

And fitted the rubber battery strap

cabbie

Bit more progress, got the battery box finished with the rec/reg mount to it and the 2 stroke filler spout bolted in place

I've ordered a new rear sprocket as the one that came with the wheel was a 520 and I need a 530, I also ordered a new chain, soon as I've finished fabricating the new 2 stroke tank the frame will be off to the powder coaters and the rebuild can begin, Bob Farnham called today saying the cylinders where re-bored and the pistons modded so I'll collect those Monday.

All looking good.

cabbie

This is the template for the brake caliper cut out in MDF, when I'm happy with the fit I'll copy the shape on to 10mm 7075 T6 alloy

Here's the template fitted

I also made a mock up for the oil tank

cabbie's S3A

s3

Re: s3