Crane's DRZ400 Build and Rebuild

Decided to pour some gas through the frame oil reservoir to see if anything came out. Yes, it did.

So I strained the gas and poured it back through.

Next time I only had this much...

And then this...

I alternated between flushing it with water and gas for a while. Each time I switched between gas and water it seemed to draw out more stuff, so I kept alternating. Eventually there would be very very little coming out each time. Then I switched to fresh gas and it came out pretty clean. I'm not certain I got 100% of it, but fortunately I found the oiling diagram and the oil has to go through the filter before it goes to any internals. I will change the filter after the 1st ride and drain the sump to see if any made it's way there.

I think I'm going to try this on my pressure washer.

If I remove the quick couplers I should be able to screw the head right on to the tube. Hopefully it will fit through the hole, thats the one thing that could rain on my parade here.

I saw this, which is making me a bit more paranoid.

Just a note on why I'm doing so many updates: 

I have turned to forums for SO MANY projects. Often times I just needed a photo to show me how it was supposed to look when it was all together. Sometimes I just need to know how difficult a certain job is. Sometimes I need technical help. I have often been inspired and helped by forum posts, and my goal here is just to hopefully give that help to someone else. Perhaps I post a photo that many people will just glance over, but it might be the key for someone who has their bike apart and can't remember how it goes back together.

I appreciate the help here, and hope I can give back just a little.

Regards,

Alex

Rear swing axel installed. At least it's rolling again.

Now the dreaded part... flushing the oil reservoir. Again.

There was no way the quick coupler was going to fit through the hole, so I simply took the coupler off of the shaft and threaded the back sprayer straight on. (see a couple posts back).

Turns out it wouldn't fit through the hole...so two minutes with the bench grinder got us squared (or unsquared) away.

Of course we had to test it.

This handsome man (yours truly) got to work. It would only stick in about a foot, but I simply moved it up and down for what seemed like forever. Caught the drainage in a bucket.

This came out.

After a while I just left it in there and zip tied the handle.

My Dad also suggested tapping the frame with a rubber mallet. So I've been doing that too. Sure wish I would have done this before assembling the whole bike.

More cleaning out the sand blast media in the frame. I put the garden hose down the top and just let it run a while. In fact we went and got some dinner while it just flowed water in the top and out the bottom. It was good for the grass too.

Then did another flush with gasoline. This is what I got.

I set up a little electric 12V fuel pump and pumped diesel out of a gas can through the dispstick hole and out the bottom of the frame into a bucket. Got a couple grains, that was it. I let it pump about 4 gallons before reversing the hoses and pumping the diesel back into the can. Each time it gets pumped it goes through two in line filters. Then I laid the bike on it's left side, and pumped from the can through the vent barb down to the bottom. Didn't get any debris. Then I laid the bike on it's right side, and pumped through the oil return hose. Not a spec. Then I stood the bike upright, plugged the two drains holes on the bottom and filled it to the brim with diesel. Shook the bike as hard as I could, and then drained out the bottom again. Not  a spec.

I'm going to repeat this process one more time and call it good.

I'm willing to make a deal with the internet: If this causes issues in the future I will follow up on this thread and let people know, so in 4 years when people read through this with the same issue they will know if it didn't work.

here is the boroscope image of the DRZ internals. Didn't find any sand in there, but I did find some shavings from the powder coat. The snake looking thing in there is from using a deburring tool to get some powder coat off of the threads. Surprised it didn't get flushed out, but it's kinda large and will certainly get caught by the strainer. And if a little does get through I'm not too worried since the powder coating is pretty soft stuff. It's not going to wreck the oil pump like sand would.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mLxF2YNFMMbb5Mfh7

Just for fun I spend another complete session flushing once again. Honestly aside from a little bit of that powder coat I got nothing. I would run my hands on the bottom of the bucket looking for grit and couldn't find any. Not going to say it's 100% out of there, but most certainly the vast majority of it is. I'm fairly confident there aren't any pockets of it remaining.

This thing has pretty much been a full time job the last week or so. Good think I'm self employed, but the wife is telling me I might need to get back to real work at some point. I estimate I have spent about 12 hours flushing the frame.

Here is the little pump rig I set up to flush diesel. I ran it off of another 12V motorcycle battery I have lying around.

There are two inline filters. As far as I can tell nothing ever made it to the 2nd filter.

I filled the oil and coolant and started it up. I didn't have my gas tank on yet, so I routed some fuel line up from the carb and simply filled the fuel line up with gas from a syringe. It worked just fine. The bike started right up after it started getting gas. I ran for a few minutes and let it heat up. After a little a bit it ran out of gas in the tube and I drained the oil from the engine case. The oil was a bit brown, but I couldn't find any contaminates. This doesn't surprise me considering the engine has been sitting a while and there is probably some surface rust that formed in the oil reservoir after being flushed with gasoline and water.

One thing I do need to address - the valve cover is leaking like a siv. And not just a little- a lot. I can't put a seal in to save my soul from hell. I will order a new one tomorrow and redo it. Of course now it's in the bike so it will be more fun.

I also noticed oil around the breather box. Can't tell where it came from, but there was quite a bit. Too much crank case pressure?

I was able to blow through the oil separator box with no obstruction. I think it's fine, and the oil was just sprayed from the valve cover. I still think the engine case seems high pressure, but will know more once I fire it up again after the RTV around the half moons sets. If there is high pressure I want it to set before firing it up again.

In the mean time I'm working on getting this mess all cleaned up. Is it just me, or do motorcycles suck at transitioning wires from the frame to the steering head? Dad's Honda was having issues at this location last summer. Seems like someone would come up with a better way. There is a molded plastic piece around the main harness near the steering head that appears to designed to mount to something. Does anyone know what this mounts to? It might be the headlight assembly, but that is gone now.

I have some good news to report. The 1st and 2nd test ride have been successful. I pressure washed just about everything to get as much of the oil off as possible from the leaky valve cover. I wanted a good baseline to see if there were any leaks, and it was pretty well coated. Then I installed the tank and the old (yet to be recovered) seat and took her for a run around the neighborhood.

She ran just like she used to. Except the brakes. They were weak, by which I mean non-existent. Pulled back into the shop for a front and rear bleed. The fluid that came out looked like a blended frog. I swear there was even stuff growing in there. But after a full flush it looked much nicer. Also drained the crankcase oil and ran my fingers through it. I couldn't find any contaminates or grit.

On the 2nd ride the brakes were much better, but still not great. Do new pads need to wear in a bit? I didn't do anything to the discs.

Checked for oil leaks. None!

The video is after the 1st ride. There is some smoke from stuff still on the engine during 1st real heat cycle, but it quickly went away. I purposefully let it get pretty hot because I wanted to see if the temp light came on. The trail tech sensor on the left side radiator said 210 degrees, but I never saw the light. Is there a good way to test this?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5sKFkaAL86kgdU6E8

Pulled back into the shop so I can give everything a once-over before starting to put on plastics.

Starting fitting plastics late last night. Perhaps I have bought the wrong kit twice, but both times I have done this I needed to trim the rear fender to get it to fit in the sub frame. I think the kit is designed for the E, but it works. The side panels fit a bit better on the last kit I bought (the blue kit) but these seemed to do the trick. The quality is fine...but not great. I used a sawsall blade by hand which works. Fortunately all the cut ends are hidden. Pro tip: Use a butane torch to clean up your saw cuts. It makes it look a bit nicer.

Here it is fitted and trimmed to satisfaction. Took probably an hour.

Room for the wires.

It's starting to look like a DRZ. Obviously the seat needs replaced. Also the plastics don't match up quite as well as I wish they did right here. It was actually quite a bit worse on the old plastics kit.

I also drilled and screwed into the sub frame at these two points.

Still need to install the front fender. That might be the first order of business this morning.

I got the speedo sensor permanently installed. I tried to find a spot on the back where it would work, but the magnet just didn't position well and I had a hard time getting a good reading, so I put it up front. I did wrap the connector in some heat shrink and zip tie it in place to avoid getting snagged. It's not ideal but it works.

Here is something I'm not too happy about. I pressure washed the bike after spilling some oil on my controls, and where I didn't hit the TT directly it still got some moisture underneath the screen. It looks a lot better now, but that was a bummer. I will have to be careful in the future.

I'm open to advice here. You can set warning levels for temp and battery on the Trail Tech Striker. Any suggestions for warning temp and danger temp? I set it to 200 (warning) and 240 (danger) and 12V for warning and 10.5V for danger. Not sure what the lowest voltage you can have and have it reliably start, but that seems to be a good set point.

I have been stranded because of a dead battery a couple of times. Once because the stator went out and wouldn't charge the battery. Another on dad's bike when the kiddo ran off the trail, and I left the key on for too long and the battery ran down. The volt meter was more important to be than the tachometer, which is why I chose the Striker.

For now I have the Neutral/High Beam/Water Temp/Turn signal just zip tied. I might get creative and find a better way to mount it.

This is the last thing she needs.

I ordered a shroud for it today, and think I am going to get the JNS Engineering light. I would just put a new high performance bulb in the stock headlight assembly, but it got smashed in the accident.

Took it for another spin, this time got into a bit of mud. (not a lot, but a bit.) Even did a pretty decent jump (for me) and was pleasantly surprised how well this bike feels compared to Dad's XR650L. Don't get me wrong- I love the 650, but it's a different type of bike. The DRZ feels more nimble. It feels lighter. IIRC it's about 30lbs difference, but you feel it. Also I only have about 1/2 gallon of fuel in there at the moment, so another 4 gallons is sure to add a bit of heft.

I did notice a bit of noise coming from the back tire/chain area when rolling. I'm loosening up the chain a bit as I think I have it a bit on the tight side. Already loosened up, but haven't had a chance to ride to see if it's any better.

Might as well say goodnight and close with some glamour shots.

I went for a quick ride today. I forgot how fun this bike is. Aside from the rebuilt swingarm everything should be more or less the way it was before, just cleaner. My headlight shroud came in today, but haven't had time to put it on. I also need to order a new seat cover.

Got my JNS Engineering headlight in. Haven't gone for a ride with it yet, but in the garage it looks a lot brighter than the original. It was a direct bolt on replacement, the wire connected directly with no modification, and the bracket attached to the stock location. My bike is pretty dirty, but it looks good.

I also recovered the seat. Here is the old one:

This was my first time recovering a seat. It went pretty well. One thing that happened is after I had it finished and stapled the tank pushes up on the front edge with induces a wrinkle. Not a huge deal, but a bit of a bummer.

The seat was Enjoy MFG from Amazon. Cost about $60 shipped. It feels good and is grippy. Looking forward to riding on it.

"Yard Sale" was a good description of the starting point after the "trailer crash". I bought a brand new XR400 and after 13,000 documented trail miles tore it down for a similar rebuild. Difference was, I loaded all the parts in the trunk of my Crown Vic and sold them to guy for $400.