The FZS 600 now has a hole where its engine used to be, and is a good
deal lighter. For those of you who find yourself contemplating doing a
similar conversion, let me annotate the workshop manual procedure for
removing the engine:
- Exhaust pipe assembly. Paul: This will require a 12mm socket for
all but one bolt, which is hidden behind a metal pipe whose only bolt
is somehow behind the exhaust pipe assembly. For that you need a 12mm
ring spanner and a lot of patience, as you'll only be able to move the
bolt by about 15 degrees before you have to take the spanner off and
reposition it.
- Exhaust pipe gaskets (4).
- Oil filter. Paul: If only I'd thought to open the sump plug
rather than drain everything through the oil filter. And yet the
engine still has a bit of oil in it to stop it getting rusty...
- Shift arm. Paul: Another thing that the accident broke off.
- Drive sprocket cover. Paul: This sits on two dowel pins (see 7)
and will seem to be welded on. Use a flat-blade screwdriver.
- Drive chain sprocket gasket. Paul: Where the hell was this?
- Dowel pins. (2). Paul: Don't remove them, you'll only lose them.
Keep them in there, they don't need to be out for the engine to be removed.
- Lock washer. Paul: remove? how? It's under the drive sprocket bolt.
Note that there's no instruction to remove the bolt, and indeed it is
basically impossible to do without an air socket driver - and even then
you did keep the rear brake on so you can lock the rear wheel, right?.
See 9.
- Drive sprocket / Drive chain. Paul: Hahahahaha. Instead, loosen
off the rear wheel axle bolt and wind the wheel adjustment nuts out to
give you some slack in the chain. Then use a 1¼ socket to turn
the drive sprocket and a large screwdriver to lever the chain off the
sprocket. To do this you'll have to remove the weird rod which sticks
out in front of the drive sprocket - it slides out easily, it slides in
easily, it's highly polished and I have no idea what it's for.
- Magneto / sidestand / neutral / engine oil level switch leads.
- Ground lead. Paul: Don't believe your friend when he tells you
he's removed this lead.
- Plug caps (4).
- Crankcase breather hose.
- Cover.
- Water pump outlet hose.
- Radiator outlet hose.
- Engine outlet hose. Paul: At this point, you'll want a number of
sturdy blocks of wood underneath the engine because when you start
removing the mounting bolts the engine will try to head in the direction
of the centre of the planet. Also place a ramp to the right hand side
of the engine, because that's the direction it's coming out.
- Engine mounting bolt (front left).
- Engine mounting bolt (front right).
- Engine bracket (front).
- Engine mounting bolt (rear upper).
- Engine bracket (rear right). Paul: No, really, remove this little
plate here. You might think it's possible to remove the engine just by
unbolting it from this plate, but it's physically impossible. And don't
just unbolt one side and swivel it out of the way. Go on, remove it.
- Engine mounting bolt (rear lower).
- Engine. Paul: Hahahahaha!!
Paul: Saying "remove engine" is like saying "and just lift that bag of
cement above your head with one hand". If you're in zero gravity, or
have a handy engine hoist, this is less tricky. You will need to push
the engine forward as far as it will go, lift it up as high as it will go,
lever the back end out half way, twist it delicately around to get the
oil filter mount out from the front of the engine, and then gently lower
it onto the ramp. If you happen to be in normal earth gravity and don't
have a handy engine hoist, this will involve a certain amount of straining,
struggling, and words of power.
I can, however, proudly say that the bike has not drawn blood from me.
Yet.
So stick this in your manual in the appropriate pages. It will save you
a fair bit of struggling and cursing, and possible accidents where you find
the engine inextricably wedged somewhere or a crucial tiny sticky-outy
thing bent in the process of the engine galloping earthward at some stage.
And don't bother buying a manual, either. You can find the PDF for free
on the internet.
The engine bay is not as large as I'd hoped, and does have some annoying
protruberances which I need to check with an engineer before I grind off.
I may also be able to mount at least one layer of cells outside the bars
on each side - the engine sticks out at least that far. Some more
logistic
