My long termer Z650

[Gix11]

My limited knowledge of turbos now has me wondering how the outlet facing forward is going to handle being rammed with air? Or is this another of those "deceiving photos" episodes? Edumacate me...

Regardless of that; I love any kind of stainless tube work, looks great!

[Surt]

not just ram it, but also the jet would slow down the movement being directed forward
but it does look great

[ozzy1100]

blah...... I doubt it anyone could ever tell the difference...

[Surt]

lol i just was trying to be a smart arse mate

[ozzy1100]

Same you crazy rusky fucker lol

[MDM]

Yeah, a slightly deceptive photo - the pipe does point forward-ish. But it's going to be slashcut so the exhaust will be directed outwards rather than forwards although, as Ozzy1100 said, it'll be next to no difference anyway. There are loads of draw-though set-ups that have the dump pipe routed forward over the up-pipe, and they all run okay, so I have no worries there.
Besides, it was the only place I could have it running - I didn't want it pointing directly at the ground, I didn't want it pointing back at my foot, and I didn't want a high level pipe running back to the rear shock mount (although I am making a second pipe that is just like that, albeit with a baffle for MoT porpoises). :-)

[MDM]

I asked a grown-up to stick the bits together properly.

Yep, that's an ASF hoodie.

[ozzy1100]

Shed of doom?

[Gix11]

Excellent all round.

[MDM]

So, ages ago I mentioned that the carb wouldn't fit in a manner that would allow it to work very well...

[MDM]

Usually the carb slips into this flange that bolts onto the turbo body

So I needed to find a way of offsetting that flange forwards and outwards...

[MDM]

I got a cast aluminium bend, and marked it up where I guesstimated would work...

And cut it. The piece of paper is a template for the flanges to go on each end of the pipe to A) bolt to the turbo and B) hold the flange for the carb

And if it was wrong I still had the other piece of bend

[MDM]

At which point I went over to FBM for the final welding of the dump pipe, whereby he produced a pair of ready made flanges that he welded to the bend! So much for fannying around making my own flanges...

It needed some material trimming off, but it was looking close...

[MDM]

And bolted to the turbo...

[MDM]

Tadaa! The carb flange mounted (with holes redrilled and tapped to take 5mm allen head bolts) and the carb slipped into place.

Note, however, that the tank actually has to come down a bit yet as it's being held falsely high by the rose-jointed brace that steadies the turbo, and that fuel tap is perilously close to the carb... We're not finished here.

[Gix11]

Shit mate, this is more progress than the last 12 years! You're on a roll!

[MDM]

Yeah! And not only that, but I get to say the word 'flange' a lot! :-)

[MDM]

Meanwhile, things were happening. Only little things, but at least something was being done. Small steps, but all in the right direction. Mostly.
The swinging arm shock mounts on the Martek arm were further apart (across the bike) than the standard Z650 mounts, but then you'd expect that when upgrading to a 180 section tyre I guess. I had originally been happy with the Maxton shocks sitting angled inwards from the new mounts to the standard upper ones, but over the last few years I'd grown less happy with them, so wanted the upper mounts moving outwards to match.

I found that a bloke on the Z1 Owners club forum was making adaptors that extended the shock mounts outwards, and somewhat conveniently they happened to be exactly the right dimensions to suit the shock mounts on the Martek arm. Yippee!


They'll need to be welded onto the frame, but that can happen when I do the frame mods for the chain run (oh, did I not mention the chain run issues...)
I was never happy with the bolts in the lower shock mounts, as they had threads running through the mounts, so I got a couple of bolts with long 'shoulders' that I re-threaded so that the shoulders ran through the shock and mounts and the thread was only up to the inside face of the mount.

[ozzy1100]

Much coolness :-))))

[MDM]

As I mentioned previously, I had a rose-jointed support to hold the weight of the Rajay hanging from the standard tank mount, but it was too chunmky and got in the way of the Tank Shop alloy tank...

So I took it off and threw it into the 'might come in handy one day' pile.
Measuring up for a more svelte bracket, it was clear that it wouldn't just be a straight piece of steel that'd do the job.

I found a pice of angled steel and, with a bit of chopping, bending and welding, made a bracket that fitted something like.

Hopefully it'll help support the weight of the turbo and give a bit more life to header gaskets etc.