CRF450 SuMo Thread

[lopycam]

You just got a major score on wheels on SMJ. I am so jealous!

Nathan

[lrrs428]

should be all set , just need to recheck my valves and clutch plates, budget racing this year

[csmutty]

So finally got parts that I needed and time to work on the bike yesterday. Best part was the bike turned into a father son project. Started off taking the valve cover off again and fixing one of the valve cover bolt holes, as I overtightened it when my torque wrench gave me a wrong reading and stripped it out. Got a helicoil kit for $50 and drilled it out and threw one of those springs in it. I laid the motor down on it's side as that way the metal shavings from drilling out the cam tower would not find their way into the engine. Here is a pic all finished.

Threw the motor back in the frame and installed all the little stuff like the coil, footpegs, kickstarter, shifter, etc.
Next order was the 13mm tripleclamps that I had just gotten from DH1 racing. Brought them over to my buddy Steve and had them pressed onto the stem and the bearings and seal pressed on. Got back home and packed the bearings with grease and threw them on. When I went to mount the Scott's Steering Stabilizer I found out that the frame bracket was for a 2005 right after they did the frame redesign, so I sourced out a 2002 bracket which also fits the 2003 for $45 shipped on thumpertalk (retail is $90).

I threw the wheels on next with the new sliders on the chain adjuster plates. Also put on the rear brake assembly.

For the front brake assembly I ditched the stock caliper for a 4 piston motomaster and ditched the stock master cylinder for a 16/18 brembo radial with a remote reservoir. I didn't have a way to mount the remote reservoir so I took a scrap piece of angled aluminum and made a bracket for it that stems off of the top bolt of the master. May not be pretty but it works. Am waiting for the steering stabilizer mount to put the bars on so I didn't put fluid in the brake system yet.


Threw the suspension that I had gotten back from Peter Kates on there and mounted the piggyback reservoir for the rear shock.

[csmutty]

So this weekend was pretty successful as far as reassembly goes.

Started out by mounting the front fork guards. Upon mounting I realized that with the wider street tire instead of the narrow dirt tire, the guards made contact with the tire. I had to take about an inch of material off of the inside of the guards on both sides before they would fit. The part for the steering stabilizer still hasn't come in so I decided to put on the top triple and bars anyways and will disassemble them again when the part shows up. So put new grips on the bars, put on the acerbis supermoto handguards, filled the front brake line with fluid and bled it, put on the chain (after removing 6 links), cleaned the carb and put it on, cleaned up the cuts in the airbox with the dremel and put the airbox and air filter in, installed the full Yosh exhaust, put on the radiators and hoses, drained the old gas and put new 93 octane in, and finally put oil in the engine and transmission and put water in the radiators.

Upon starting it up it was pretty evident that I have carb problems. When choke was on the header got cherry red in about a minute or so. There was also a lot of cracking and sputtering even after the choke was pushed in. The other thing was upon cleaning the carb when I was trying to remove one of the jets the jet broke where the screwdriver slots into it. Not really sure how to go about removing it now so I put it back together to see how it ran. Now that I have to take it apart again I am wondering how I am going to remove it considering the jet is recessed in a hole and with the sides broken off there is no longer a slot for a screwdriver.

The other problem is that I have a leak coming from my right radiator. It looks like it was repaired in the past, but there is still a slow leak coming from there. Looks like I will be finding a company who fixes radiators or will be looking for a used one on ebay.

The exhaust was also pretty interesting to get to fit. The Yosh was made for an 07 and therefore none of the mounts were the same. To get it to fit I had to grind off the mount on the midpipe and on the subframe. Had to bend the header up to get it off of the motor and then had to bend the midpipe away from the rear shock once assembled. To mount the silencer to the frame a hole has to be drilled in the subframe and a bolt and nut threaded through it. The nut was just skinny enough that the fender would fit on the inside too. For anyone doing a project like this I can't say how much the Moose bolt kit has helped. I think it cost around $60 and has at least 1 of every fastener used on the bike, and in many cases it has 5 or 6.

Here are the pics of how she sits now. Getting it out of the basement by going up the bulkhead was a chore btw. Those stairs are steep as a mofo.

[Kitt]

good deal... my new 450 may be heading the same route! I played with it in the dirt and it reminded me quick how ridic they are off-road!

Maybe I'll get to the classic to scratch my itch?

[csmutty]

good deal... my new 450 may be heading the same route! I played with it in the dirt and it reminded me quick how ridic they are off-road!

Maybe I'll get to the classic to scratch my itch?

Yea I tried this one off road for a while too. Way too much bike.

[Pittenger5]

Maybe I'll get to the classic to scratch my itch?

Youre on my hate list too.

[Kitt]

Youre on my hate list too.

*takes bow*

[csmutty]

Here is the link to the vid... You can hear the popping if you listen closely when I rev it.
http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/...568584833&ev=0

[csmutty]

Got all the bolts drilled and everything safety wired. Fixing the slow radiator leak now. I found the reason the bike was running so lean with some help from Adam Clark. The hot start cable nut that seals the cable to the carb is stock plastic. The threads got a little stripped and therefore I had air leaking in there. Pro Circuit makes a replacement that is aluminum. I got that and installed it and now the bike starts great and runs pretty good. Still have to adjust the air screw a little bit but it runs MUCH better. I also got the front fender drilled and mounted and picked up the rest of the plastics. Just waiting on the graphics that will get here this week and then I will install them on the bike.