[Sight Z-er]

I figured I should leave myself a trail of bread crumbs so I can trace my steps back when things go haywire in the future.

That said, this won't be any crazy build thread, just my rambles as I change things going forward. I bought this quad with a setup I'm quite happy with right out of the gate but I'd like to tinker and try to improve it as I go.

When I bought it it had a full HMF exhaust and the lid removed. It had a janky filter setup with the stock filter and a "custom" bracket to hold it in. Up front it has a set of 2in spacers and Hydro-Dynamic Ishock i5500's which should probably be rebuilt due to age but still ride great and show little wear. Out back it has a tusk adjustable axle. It has AC nerfs and Propegs (love these) and is otherwise stock to my knowledge.

The first thing I did was install a Uni clamp-on filter using the MAP-sensor adapter method. I also found the petcock to have failed and installed a 660 petcock and a pull choke. The pull choke ended up being the wrong type (no taper on the end) and had me scratching my head for a few days.
After installing the correct type of pull choke it ran far better but still seemed like it didn't like idling consistently and seemed twitchy at low throttle cruising.

Being that I live in the frozen wasteland of northern Minnesota and it ran great above 1/8 throttle, I ignored the small annoyances and made the most of the fleeting warm, end of summer weather. I did a blob delete, reverse/key relocation with a 3d printed key mount I designed, installed ODI Rouge grips and checked the valves. I painted the valve cover while I was at it, red makes it faster right? The valves, to my surprise, were spot on in the middle of the spec. I should check them again soon but I was happy to see they seemingly survived the aforementioned janky filter from the previous owner.

I did some local TT style racing and had a blast in the early fall as well.

In December I worked out that the air cut off valve was missing it's spring, this was the cause of my idle and low throttle cruising issues. I blocked off the vacuum signal for it and put a random spring I had in it, now it runs beautifully, go figure.

January saw a fair bit of ice riding and the death of the stock grab bar from a few wheelies that went too far back. I bought a tusk one, absolute garbage, first time it hit the ice it bent. I decided I needed a stronger one to handle my inexperienced wheelies so I made a stainless steel one that so far has held up great, it even excavated the frozen ground without any damage and is still pretty light. I also found some cracks on the stock swing arm, welded them up and decided to start collecting parts to do a LTR swinger swap.

After riding my buddies YFZ450 I understood what people meant by how snappy the FCR carb was.

Now it's February and I have a 03 crf450 FCR 39, a set of jets for it, an extended fuel screw, a 400ex boot in the mail, a set of ninja 500 carb to head boots in the mail as well as a trx450 throttle cable and 400ex thumber. I'm also waiting on a mid body gaskets sets, I figured if I ignore the gaskets it may lead to chasing my tail while jetting if they are bad. I also intend to 3d print an adapter for the carb intake out of nylon, I think it should handle the heat and fuel vapor just fine and have a design ready to go, just gotta make sure it fits with the 400ex boot.

As for the LTR swing arm I'm going to continue to slowly collect parts for it, I'm not super concerned about the stocker for now since it's welded, but I'd like to get the swap done sooner then later. I also plan to modify the LTR sprocket mount by lathing down the outboard side and adding metal to the seal/bearing side to correct the chain mis-alignment that I had seen on some posts on Facebook. I'll also need to modify the chain guides but that's the least of my worries.

Aside from the FCR and swing arm the next mod I'd like to tackle is YFZ450 front calipers, braided lines and fresh fluid. After that I'm eyeballing Alba's +3 A Arms so I can ditch the spacers and hopefully reduce bump steer in doing so.

Anyway I should probably get back to work, I intend to update this as I get on with the FCR swap. If your still reading at this point I appreciate you dropping by to read my rambles!

 

[cwright2006ltz]

I was bored so I read the who thing. I’m looking at a blob delete and what to know were you would put the reverse lever is you put the key in the reverse hole.

 

[Sight Z-er]

My reverse is on a hot start perch clamp, I used the cable adjuster from the parking brake mechanism that I ditched to get it to work right. I was able to find these pictures on my phone, the grey plastic is the key relocation peice I 3d printed.

This setup works well, definitely not the most convenient spot for the lever since I have to reach over with my throttle hand to press it but I don't use reverse more then a handful of times in a days ride anyway.

 

[Sight Z-er]

Well, swing and a miss, the ninja 500 head boots I got were no where close, I guess for now I'll be using a fernco fitting and I'll be buying a DRZE head boot and moding my head stay, makes me wonder what the guy who said the ninja 500 boots work great had, at least they were cheap I guess, red dot is LTZ boot, blue is ninja 500.

You can also see the 2nd attempt at a carb snout, this one fits good, just needs a few tweaks and a to be made from nylon.

 

[Sight Z-er]

Well, with enough cold beer and swearing at it I was able to use the stock boot despite it's protest, and to my surprise, it doesn't look awful when looking down the bore. I think this is due to having the crf450r carb, it's head side spigot has much thinner walls then the yfz450 carb, I'll take being lucky over good any day. I also measured the venturi and it is 39.8mm so from reading repeatedly that they measure around a mm oversize this is infact an FCR 39 and not an FCR 40, keihin also does not list 40 as a carb size, this was rather confusing while looking to buy one.

I'm thinking I may move the black box, as much as I really would rather not "wooter" with it, it's far more annoying with the FCR then I could have imagined. I'm thinking I may go the route Spize did and just move the whole damn thing over behind the coolant bottle and make a beauty plate to hide it. I'd put the breather filter up by the dash but MN is one big swamp half the year and I like being indiscriminate with the garden hose after riding so that seems like it could be an issue.

Anyhoo, she fits, I need to 3D print one more intake adapter and cut the boot to give me a few more MM of space to clear the battery box better with my hokey hardware store aluminum intake box... It'll do till I get some 1/8" and bribe my coworker with some Grainbelt to weld it up pretty for me. I can tig aluminum, but it's an ugly mess when I do.

Also, as a PSA, check on your midbody gaskets folks. Mine were leaking slightly it appears and they were trashed, granted they are likely ~20 years old they really don't like heavy solvents and turn to a fantastic goo when they encounter it.

Tomorrow will tell if my choice of a 160mj 45pj and 1.5 turns will work, I have an OBKER on it's 4th clip and did the oring mod while I was in there.

Cheers!

 

[Sight Z-er]

My intentions tonight were to finish the airbox and intake as well and figure out what to do with the electronics that used to be on the factory airbox and down the side of the subframe. I ended up finishing the airbox with the final version of my carb intake adapter, should have took a picture, oh well. Then I ended up doing an unconventional black box relocation.

My habit of hoarding bits of hose from every parts car I've had made moving the black box to the clutch side, just in front of the gas tank, a cakewalk. I'm pretty damn happy with how the hoses came out, I just need to pick up a small breather filter and 2 brass couplers and it's completely done. I think it should be completely spew free due to it sitting in the same orientation as Spizes's setup but just a bit higher up with longer lines. The hoses are the valve cover hoses from a Subaru EJ251, the one with the dog leg fit astonishingly well over the radiator and down to the block. Here's some pictures of how it came out, I decided to hold off on any paint on the brackets because I'm buying a powder coating setup shortly and will coat all the things. The only thing I had to do to get clearance at the headlight was to unclip the light plug and clip it on the top side of the tab.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a pain to get the electronics all hidden away, I'm cool with extending a few wires but really not feeling extending the cdi, that gets to be a mess. I really hated cleaning around all that stuff after a ride, especially since it was always covered in whatever the chain flings at it.

I was hoping to ride this weekend but I keep making myself more work so we will see.

-Cheers!

 

[cwright2006ltz]

Did you have any problem fitting the carb? We had problems with the top of the carb hitting the support bar and had to modify it to make it fit.

 

[Sight Z-er]

Nope, other then the boot being a bear to get on the carb. I'm hoping that the throttle cable and head stay doesn't prevent me from tipping the carb far enough to get to the jets, it looks like there will be just enough room. If it does I guess I'll be making a head stay as well.

 

[Sight Z-er]

Well I got a chance to ride it this weekend, this carb definitely made an improvement in the response of the engine as well as mid and top range pull, I didn't notice any low end losses either.

I didn't change anything from my settings listed above and it seemed pretty well jetted. In hind sight I should have swapped the plug out before the ride for a more accurate reading as it was a bit rich before. I'll have to do that once the snow melts so I can just go to my local gravel pits and do some pulls on fresh plugs with proper traction to load the engine.

It also seems my black box relocation worked, I was at high rpm a lot and it never puked out any oil.

 

[Sight Z-er]

So I haven't had much time to play around with the quad since last weekend, I ripped apart the street bike (03 z1000) to get it ready for the season and while it was apart my friend shot it's bodywork with some fresh paint.

While I was thinking about the jetting I realized I have a AEM wideband that needs a new sensor so that got me to thinking. After a bit of reading and thinking about it I think I can set up an unconventional, but reasonably useful, tuning aid with it. My goal is to be able to log some form of AFR, throttle position and rpm data so I can ride up the long hill by my house on the road and have actual data to go off of with jetting.

Going by the plug color or doing it by feel just makes me uneasy. I'm sure it works, but I'm just not sure I have the experience to be accurate with it.

So what I have in mind is using a piece of lexan to make a large clear cover for my throttle housing, on it I will mark throttle positions as a primitive throttle position reading. On the cover I'll mount the wideband readout and a cheapo inductive tach I have. Then I'd make a mount so I can point my GoPro directly at it and record pulls as a log if you will.

I think it would work decent, maybe look a bit silly but it would be a bit of test equipment and removed once I got the AFR's in a good range.

Any opinions on the effectiveness of this idea?

 

[Sight Z-er]

I had a chance to ride on dirt with the FCR a bit ago, before I swapped up my suspension but with the new carb setup, I've made absolutely no progress on the wideband idea but I felt a definite dead spot in the midrange with the load of being on dirt. I raised the needle a clip but haven't ran the engine since.

It's spring thaw in MN and the trails are mostly closed or impassable for a little sport qua. I intend to go to some all-season sand pits near me on Sunday but I'm unconfident in the weather being worth it. Rain and 40°f sucks for everything.

Anyhoo, I bought a powdercoat setup and got a kitchen oven so I've been doing that. What I can fit gets coated more or less. I also got Alba +3 A Arms and finished my LTR swingarm setup except protection, that should be solved shortly. I also had to pick up LTR shocks because HDusa can't source springs for my old-as-hell Ishock's, pretty bummed but the LTR ones seem decent and have more options for sending them out to be set up for my needs, so whatever I guess. The pictures that follow are where I'm at now, once I build a bigger sandblast cabinet and oven I'll be able to deal with an uncoated frame and nerfs.

 

[Sight Z-er]

I thought I updated this more recently but I guess not.

I didn't get a ton of time riding this past summer, I got enough riding in to decide the LTR shocks were not the solution to my +3 arms though without a revalve. No surprise there. I swapped the Ishocks back on recently and dailed in some rebound and it stiffed the compression a bit more, they honestly doesn't feel bad at all jumping snowbanks. I hope to get them revalved this spring.

I got my persistent crappy brake feel and performance problem solved with new pads and rotors, turns out the rotors had a bevel to them. Sorta stupid it took me so long to work out, felt just like air trapped in the system. 🤣

This winter I picked up a bench buffer and have been polishing some parts, stripping that old AC racing powder coat off was a pain. I plan to polish up some more parts while I have it apart for some top end work in the next month or so.

I feel like I'm forgetting some changes I've made but they mustn't be worth posting if I can't remember.

 

[Sight Z-er]

Well, parts for the top end are in the mail, along with an alba stem and some new bars. I had analysis paralysis going on with what bend I wanted so I just picked the RC high bend, hopefully I like them.

I decided to pull the engine to work on it on the bench for comforts sake which led me to strip the frame, since I can't powder coat it with my setup's size limitations I decided that I'll have my buddy duracoat it red, I'm intrigued to see how it holds up. I intend to put helicopter tape on the leading faces of the frame up front and to put it where the boot rubs too.

Hopefully I don't find any surprises in the engine when I open it up, 3 valves were the same as last time and one was about .010 tighter and under spec.

Noticed the northern lights doing there thing last night while working on the quad too, kinda neat.

 

[spize909]

Love it! Great work!