How To Make A Compact Headstay

[z400kiksazz]

Well my fcr carb off of a yfz450 was no way in heck going to mount up to my drz boot, it was hitting the fat stock headstay.

My options were to make a longer boot or a smaller headstay. I opted for the smaller headstay because it would make it more roomy to get the carb on and off for jetting. I may still put Cataway's extended carb to head boot on.


You need a welder, grinder, metal cutting saw/chop saw, some 3/4" round stock pipe tubing, and a drill with 3/8 bit, and some fabrication skillz

I measured up the stock headstay.


Then I cut the ends off with a sawzaw, I cut as close as I could.


heres what it should look like cut


Grind the excess weld from the tube off


You should have left what looks like this:


Cut a piece of 3/4 OD pipe a tad longer than 6 3/8" long


Heres what you should have now:


Sight up the rod on the end tab so it is about 3/16 or so from the edge so there is room for the weld bead



Weld it on


Go bolt it up and sight up the other one and make sure it all lines up, you may have to bend the rod a little bit before you weld the second one on.....


You should have plenty of clearance


Weld the second tab on



I measured up for the tabs, start out at around 2 1/2" long


I made tabs out of round stock and smashed the ends....I think these are one of the strongest ways of doing it, but whatever you think will work will work


It was a PITA to figure out how to get the tabs on at the right angle......I traced around them with marker while the headstay was bolted in the frame. Once I got the right tab on, I drilled the hole.
Cover the intake and carb or whatever so shavings don't get anywhere they shouldn't. Notice my dumazz didn't cover the cam chain tensioner hole


Then I drilled the other hole in the vise:


Bolted up:



Amount of cleance you will have:







semi-finished product VS old fatty tube




It looks a little rough, but I ground down some stuff today, and it will be getting powdercoated very soon, I'll post some purdy pictures. I am very happy with it and it saved me about $50 bucks. There is plenty of room for the carb, about 3/8-1/2in gap.


UPDATED WITH FINISHED PICTURE

[captain uno]

Nice job.

[RANCHER420]

never took welding eh?

[z400kiksazz]

No sir. Lets see your work that hasn't been sandblasted and painted.

[meade377]

would it not have been easier to just get a little longer boot??

[z400kiksazz]

yea......but it sure is nice to have more carb room.

[camaro1976]

i hate to say this, but i'm 90% sure my fcr bolts up just fine. i was all read to make a couple new headstays too. i'll check friday but i held it to where it would bolt up and it was fine.

[z400kiksazz]

what c2hb are you using? theres no way in heck mine was bolting up to a drz boot.

[camaro1976]

stock LTZ boot. i'm gonna pick up some hose clamps and i think it will still hold. the boot is hard enough to get off the carb so i can't imagine it coming loose when its clamped. i'll double check this tomorrow and i'll probly make a few headstays anyways just to get some more room. maybe a drz boot down the road.

[z400kiksazz]

purdy pics