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ER5 Restoration


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Finally going to try and get round to writing a restoration thread for my ER5.


This is my first attempt at a bike, previously worked as a mechanic (cars) and done a few spares and repairs flips in the past but apart from some service work on my little sinnis never really worked on a bike.


Was not on the look out for anything specific just keeping my eyes on ebay / facebook marketplace at spares and repairs bikes coming up, unfortunately things were always miles away, way too expensive or gone before I got a chance. Then one day an ER5 popped up for £250 down the road from me and I jumped on it. Came without an MOT, rear brake seized and not charging with lights on.

 

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Mechanically was fine and fired up on the button but also looked like it it had not seen a bit of soap and a hosepipe since it left the factory. Also on closer inspection found a few other minor problems. Both forks had oil leakage from the seals, rev counter did not work and left rear fairing was different colour and from an earlier bike (so didn't line up and was chopped to make it fit). That said I was still happy with my purchase.


Few other pictures to show how filthy it was...

 

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So onto the restoration... Now firstly I will say this bike is for me, I like originality but at the same time there are things I do not like with standard ER5 (e.g. indicators and certain design bits). So while I'm not going to start cutting the frame down or fit neons to every spare surface do not expect to see a totally original looking ER5 at the end.


Also I want to try and do a lot of stuff myself for as cheap as possible, some things will be stuff I have done before and know what I am doing, others will be trial and error. This will be especially true when it comes to painting as I know I could easily put all the bits in a box and take it someone to be painted nice for hundreds of pounds but could I achieve a reasonable finish for a few pounds of rattle cans?


I am a couple of months into the build so far so will post up a few what I've done posts to follow this opener but still have tons of photos to sort through and lots of work left to do (although I am dreadful at remembering to take before photos).

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First things first, the known problems.


Rear brake seized is common issue, lovely youtube video showing how to fix that

so not going to spend much time talking about that, exactly the problem shown on that.


Actuating pin when removed...20171203_155330.thumb.jpg.078dd2503ba7afcc74f72a67e179ea60.jpg

 

Cleaned down and ready to go back together...20171203_160424.thumb.jpg.4c3277086e69b51e3b55c2d994356679.jpg

 

The rear shoes were good so left them in, a nice free fix.


So onto the charging issue, first port of call was to check stator, this tested OK so onto regulator / rectifier, now I've never delved into such wizardry as this before but when I removed this one even my virgin eyes noticed something was not quite right...20171208_143548.thumb.jpg.9a7d4959c234f9dfd14e8dc85ad91f9e.jpg

 

And also on top of most of the wires coming out of the crimps I noticed something else strange, where the wiring was a different colour coding on the reg/rec the positive and ground wires had been switched, so out comes the trusty soldering iron and some heatshrink...20171208_172535.thumb.jpg.49218ec0f3233c968b6c48bcd3c33e20.jpg

 

Plugged it back in and I have a decent voltage again, another free fix :) I'm starting to like this bike.


Now the rev counter issue I'll throw in here as well as this is linked to the reg/rec, quite noticeable on this occasion and is caused by blowing of a resistor and diode when a reg/rec goes fubar. The damaged resistor is quite obvious and the diode is one directly behind it. The diode may look fine (it did on this one) but can be easily tested using a multi-meter on continuity, positive and negative on each terminal and then flip, you should get a beep one way but not the other. Sure enough this one showed a flow in both directions. 20171206_150750.thumb.jpg.4b1f5ccdeca410b69f2a1540690c4ab1.jpg

 

Now it is time to dip into my pockets, the best will in the world unfortunately I cannot fix them, so onto eBay and 4 resistors for £2.25 and 20 diodes for £1.24 (both including postage).


Warm up the soldering iron again and out with the old, in with the new. For the eagle eyed viewers you may have noticed the resistor has got slightly bigger, this is because whilst I managed to remember it was 30 ohm I quite simply forgot what wattage it should be, should have got a 0.5w and went with 3w, wont make any difference though as will still send out exactly same current but just means it will take more before it blows, this may cause more damage if reg/rec ever went again but willing to take that chance, plus a resistor is not a fuse so shouldn't be relied on to not damage other things in failures anyway. For those interested diode I used was a 1N4004.20171208_150444.thumb.jpg.6352756b55960636a1f59462729ce7cb.jpg

 

Will also throw this last bit in while on subject of clocks, all the originality purists may want to look away but I don't like the chrome surrounds and backing, so roughed up the chrome and out comes the spray can. I think black surrounds would then go the opposite and just put too much black there so I go for Ford Graphite Grey which I have sitting on the shelf (and coincidentally the same colour my alloys are on the car) this colour will be making more of an appearance in future episodes but for now this is what the surrounds now look like (excuse the messy kitchen in second pic!).

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Thanks for likes and replies so far.

 

The grey looks good but if you want some chrome bezels I think I've got a set left over.

 

To be honest there was nothing wrong with them to begin with I just didn't like them in chrome :)


Before I get onto pics just also want to say I'm trying to group similar bits so things aren't in order that they were actually done, I have had a tendency on this project to start one thing, then jump onto something totally different, clocks are an example of this as they are still in pieces in box and haven't got round to finishing them but you'll see more on those in the future.


First item today is a quick one, exhaust. Came with an aftermarket can and overall exhaust was in good condition just muddy. So simple clean down. For protection in future I decided to wrap it, got a "titanium" wrap from Amazon (£11.99). 20171216_144448.thumb.jpg.ce52a976a37864f9da293d6b7cd0b3b6.jpg

 

Next it's Christmas trip time, 5 nights in beautiful wales relaxing over christmas not doing any work on the bike... well not quite... I have a friend that does powder coating that lives in Tredegar, right next to where I am staying, so before I go I strip a few bits off and box up to take with me.20171217_112650.thumb.jpg.5cff675256597ca50095674080c1a052.jpg

 

As you can see swing arm is absolutely disgusting, so into the sand blaster it goes and a few minutes later we are back to bare metal.20171223_121709.thumb.jpg.7024e99ddd5ca73a331db8d8eac13eb7.jpg

 

And on goes the powder. 20171223_132542.thumb.jpg.6b0296eecd461b61da4c1647a310eb0f.jpg20171223_133850.thumb.jpg.22bda6e987e6c41d4e3aaa353000e0c9.jpg

 

Into the oven and miraculously transform from a glittery white to a nice titanium colour (which is also amazingly different from the "titanium" wrap I bought). 20171223_134915.thumb.jpg.e6aa2bab37b0e46fbc3d2519f8ecc2bb.jpg20171223_140420.thumb.jpg.93343a9dd494f0b9ce31b772364d9a4d.jpg

 

No photos of peg hangers being done as we ran into a small problem with those, they were powder coated originally. This powder coating had flaked and corroded in parts but in other parts it was fine so when they went into sand blaster it quickly and easily took off the corroded bits but wouldn't touch the good bits. Now while the radiator brackets were also originally powder coated we could just give them a blast to rough the original coating then powder over the top, with the peg hangers it left noticeable lips between bare metal and powder coat. This wouldn't have been a problem normally as he has a corrosive dip to soak powder coated items in which strips all the old powder coat off unfortunately it has to be left in that for 3 days so with his Christmas commitments and me only there for a few days we just did not have time to do this so had to "make do". Don't get wrong they look miles better than they were and unless you got on your hands and knees looking at them you wouldn't notice.


For anyone in South Wales that ever needs powder coating done can't recommend him enough, keen eye for detail and meticulous with his work, PM me for details if needed.


Will continue reassembly in next post.

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Got back from Wales with 4 days holiday remaining and can't wait to put everything back on bike. So out into garage early morning ready to start bolting things back together and then I look at all the ancillary bits which now look a disgrace compared to the freshly powder coated bits. So needless to say nothing ended up going back on that day instead out comes the trusty rattle can (just a matt black this time) and after a lot of cleaning and prep work I got all the ancillary bits cleaned and sprayed fresh. 20171229_145304.thumb.jpg.f206380603681c9ad6f15f3c4f24f613.jpg

 

You'll see some of the bits look a bit shiny for matt black, I did a good few coats of clear on the bits I thought could do with some more protection such as the rear brake pedal.


Fast forward all the waiting to dry and boring bits and get onto the reassembly. 20171230_121926.thumb.jpg.e6854f6856fb2f4dbd732c4ec483a98a.jpg20171230_134315.thumb.jpg.965ccfd57eb290397f205d42bace295f.jpg20171230_134328.thumb.jpg.d82226b8b7e7a0b511caf6966e12a14d.jpg

 

Eagle eyed viewers and those that follow pitstop will notice my glaring error leaving a bit of rubber off swingarm :shock: was so happy I had got it all back together then turn round and notice it is still hanging on garage wall, after a quick discussion on it's importance off it came again and on went the bit of rubber. 20171231_114530.thumb.jpg.075e5d4edf207179ad3f07b9c594dbf6.jpg

 

Next bit left was the chain guard. As well as being filthy it had the typical old plastic look, so out comes the trusty graphite grey. Now this I don't know how it will end up after use as I don't know how much flexing the guard will do and if paint will end up cracking or not. I have put some decent layers on and a lot of clear to protect but for now at least it looks good and hopefully will stay that way. 20171230_150302.thumb.jpg.db1955409b3cef667d89ccc54924f104.jpg20171231_120710.thumb.jpg.64d3b6fe2eb8749906905e08554edb27.jpg20171231_123230.thumb.jpg.2d9bd90a1fd16a2f639558cda294d629.jpg

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Finally will throw some bolt on bits in. As I said originally I do not like the standard ER5 indicators, this didn't come with standard ones but ones it come with I didn't like either (the hollow teardrop style LED ones). So I got some retro black indicators from eBay (£11.99) plus they are bulbs so no fiddling with resistors or flasher relay so they don't give people following a seizure. 20171216_130100.thumb.jpg.b9f91595b0239bedcb87e9654179d195.jpg

 

The bike has had a minor drop at some point, little dink in tank and clutch lever was missing the end bobble so needed to be replaced anyway, found some original look levers with adjustment dial but in black from eBay (£23.45) could have got cheaper black levers but liked the original look of these ones so went for them. To compliment them I got some low profile mirrors from eBay (£6.99) and some new grips from amazon (£6.99). You'll have to excuse poor focus in pictures. 20171216_112358.thumb.jpg.4b602ddcb7707aca20b933d0a84796f3.jpg20171216_112352.thumb.jpg.2ee0550b8841338859ad1834954c105f.jpg

 

You can just see on brake lever side state of reservoir cap, unfortunately screws were knackered so ended up having to be drilled out, I just drilled head off leaving a stub of the screw to get a set of grips on and remove. Disaster on one side though as I turned grips the stub snapped off ending up having to drill and retap a new thread. Unfortunately I could not get this perfectly center so was off by 1mm meaning cap is now slightly wonky but not noticeable and all the rubber bits fit back fine. 20171230_110508.thumb.jpg.31cee8497ca22a2d1eb6357b1c34116e.jpg

 

Now totally unrelated, I normally keep quite a tidy garage, not big enough for all my tools and a car so car gets parked in front and it's my workshop (now with a bike in the middle) this is what it looked like after a few weeks of having a bike in and working on at weekends. 20171217_102453.thumb.jpg.804f399005e633cfd9e3152c6e587db6.jpg20171217_102500.thumb.jpg.d1fe3593dad3aaa3771031a679bbfaa2.jpg20171217_102505.thumb.jpg.0b07faade033858bb16b6a9d9d420554.jpg20171217_102518.thumb.jpg.e59ef6579be92bd98f27c0fddb88447d.jpg

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Thanks again for all the nice comments :)


This update will take a lighter note (sorry!).


Firstly the rear light, unfortunately I have no before photos but basically rear light looked how you would expect a 17yr old piece of red plastic to look, the typical washed out pink. Also it does stick out from fairing a fair bit. So first idea was to black the sides and use some perforated tint film you see advertised for car headlights (£3.99 eBay).20171216_160511.thumb.jpg.2684a486a2076daef0ab6678129c20c5.jpg

 

At first I liked it, there is a crack in the lens (bottom right) which you can see as a bit of bubble in photo, this wasn't as obvious as photo makes it look so I was happy with the result... for about 5 minutes when all the edges started peeling, and it started bubbling in places. Despite whatever I tried it would not stay stuck down. So I gave up on this idea and just decided to give it a spray with some clear coat, this actually came out really nice and it was then this point I was most gutted I didn't take a before photo to show how much difference it made. 20171216_215324.thumb.jpg.4d6a994c73fa326c69be3088c62c7bee.jpg

 

Excuse the dust and fairing just mocked up to see what it looked like on bike. 20171217_120429.thumb.jpg.cdb3bccf4afbb5df525d36fa8e5566ff.jpg20171217_120434.thumb.jpg.316c682a6cc31e3d6f9371e4b3bba42c.jpg

 

On to the front headlight, first thing was to dechrome the surround, just a matt black with this. This also resulted in the first blood going into the bike after I nearly took my thumb off with a wire brush on angle grinder (surround got caught and I was only holding it, pulled hand into the grinder, luckily I managed to hit the off button and it just scraped thumb, still took off a fair amount of skin and hurt like f**k though). I also replaced the spring for the left/right adjustment screw (£4.98 for a 150pc assorted springs pack from ebay - always handy). I've also replaced top and bottom screws with allen bolt equivalents, again eBay depending on size range for about £4/5 for 50 (bought a few packs of different sizes to replace a lot of bolts). Finally I will say not learning my lesson I did try the perforated film again on the headlight, you can see how that turned out on finished article.20180107_131029.thumb.jpg.9ccf1d0a3abb5e795548b65b68d3047c.jpg20180107_131034.thumb.jpg.1e64cb1f4d88dcfa57fa2e7f014f02a2.jpg

 

(yes it was just as terrible and got taken off again).


And now for something completely different, only a couple of pics to go with this so will shove on the end of this one.


Fork Seals... got full rebuild kit from wemoto (£41.73) and fluid (£8.70/litre) - stupidly bought 2 bottles because for some reason had it in my head they were 500ml bottles, and then went and opened both including puncturing film ready to use so cant even sell on the other bottle :roll:. Also purchased a fork seal driver (Amazon £47.54) learnt over the years that while there are lots of ways of doing different things making do with what you have sometimes you just need the right tool so weren't going to try any of the shortcuts and just bit the bullet and bought that.


Stripped the forks off, now a top tip (life hack), you have to push down a cap at top of fork and then release metal securing clip, this cap on one was extremely corroded as dust cap was missing but even on the one that was better it is very tough to push down and remove clip at same time. If you leave the forks in the yoke you can then use a 3 leg puller on yoke to push down the cap then remove the forks (you may need to remove handle bars to get them out of the way but that's 4 bolts and made it so much easier) likewise did the same for putting the cap back in.


Poured the oil out of the forks and it looked like an old strawberry milkshake so water had obviously got in through the seals too so definitely well overdue. Anyway those that have ever seen the backyard ER5 rebuild on youtube (great series!) would have seen the problems he had getting old seals out of fork, well happily no problems with this one and both old seals out in seconds. Put them both back together (decided to rebuild each one before refilling) then go onto service manual to remind myself of air gap and notice a picture showing diagram of seals... I've put a washer in wrong place :shock: so need to separate them again and hope the seal can survive being removed and put back in again. Short version is they appear to be OK. Refilled them finished reassembly and don't appear to be any seepage but will keep an eye on them, at least I have plenty of fluid left if I do need to redo them again.


Finally the fork bottoms, they weren't that great and a bit corroded (picture don't really show how bad they were).20180107_115021.thumb.jpg.41d84caae7063bf1cac2eec0f5759303.jpg

 

Did think hard about polishing them, going matt black or just be different, so out come trusty graphite grey. 20180107_122432.thumb.jpg.11a14eed44b44f228187bce14c4826a7.jpg

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Fairing and plastic welding.


As mentioned in first post the left rear fairing was from earlier model and to be fair I understood why when I went to get a replacement, trying to find the correct version on eBay was near impossible the vast majority being the older version or some complete 3 piece sets going for crazy (£70+) prices, finally found one for £23 on eBay albeit with a broken (but included) lug.


Also removing the existing fairing there was another piece with a broken lug as well. Plus 2 of the 3 bolts holding clocks to bracket had broken.

 

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So got some filler rods (£8.99 from ebay for 50 pieces of different plastics).


Wont go through the wonders of plastic welding plenty of youtube videos showing how to do it. I had the advantage that for these pieces they will all be hidden so don't need to clean them up too much. They are done on both sides and just as strong now as they would have been originally.

 

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Good luck with those plastic repairs. I had all the same breakages but I decided to rivet bridging plates made of strong plastic across mine . They aren't visible so I went a bit over the top . Going back to the rear brake , have you been lucky enough to get a bike that doesn't have a distorted rear drum ? If not I know a crude but effective fix for this. Great work so far.

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Going back to the rear brake , have you been lucky enough to get a bike that doesn't have a distorted rear drum ? If not I know a crude but effective fix for this. Great work so far.

 

Good question and no idea not actually tested that, only got as far as testing it works and pedal movement is good. Got a new chain to go on so rear wheel and brake not been adjusted completely and just put on for now, will check when I get front back on and get back to you.


Was going to do that today but decided to have a day off, apart from time away I've spent every spare day on it so far and feeling it now, getting too old, so just going to veg and watch tv.

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De-chroming was the first thing I did to my ER5, also seems that the swingarm is a weakpoint for corrosion, same thing on mine!

 

They are indeed, they were obviously never powder coated by how easy everything came off in sand blaster and no protection from crap thrown from rear wheel. If you have a look at my thread on pitstop (rubber piece on swing arm) there's 2 posts from [mention]fastbob[/mention] showing how to better protect it (£100 bolt on or custom using bit of plastic from an old oil can).

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Going back to the rear brake , have you been lucky enough to get a bike that doesn't have a distorted rear drum ? If not I know a crude but effective fix for this. Great work so far.

 

Good question and no idea not actually tested that, only got as far as testing it works and pedal movement is good. Got a new chain to go on so rear wheel and brake not been adjusted completely and just put on for now, will check when I get front back on and get back to you.


Was going to do that today but decided to have a day off, apart from time away I've spent every spare day on it so far and feeling it now, getting too old, so just going to veg and watch tv.

 

Ok, you won't really know until you ride it. If the pedal pulses up and down its distorted.

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Just a small update.


Not many pics for work I've done recently, most of it mundane. Finished back end off with a new chain and new shocks (really begrudged those as nothing wrong with old shocks other than looking poor but every time I looked at them it wound me up lol).

 

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And a reminder of what it looked like before...

 

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Gave a service and got exhaust back on, that ended up being an absolute nightmare but finally back on. Still no front wheel on yet and now moved onto the painting, all the fairing has is now primed ready for a rub down tomorrow and some paint to go on. Tank dent has been filled and will begin rub down of that tomorrow.


Not much left to do now, hopefully will be back together for final pictures in a few weeks.

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Excellent work so far , the last two pictures say it all really . Its crying out for some shiny new sprocket nuts . http://i.imgur.com/V8toqK3m.png go on treat yourself !

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Lol true and a new axle ;) oh and the foot pegs, rust round edge of those bothering me (cant get in with wire brush without destroying rubber).


BUT, I have decided no more spending, bought a new battery and some more primer for tank (ran out after 2nd coat) and need more paint (need to give one piece of rear fairing a final coat and then the tank) plus most likely few more cans of clear coat (got some petrol resistant one, hopefully 1 can will do for tank as over twice the price of what normal one costs lol). That's it I've set my limit now and only what's needed to finish it off, tbh gone way over what I was originally planning to spend but did more than anticipated, still think I could make back what I've spent plus a bit more if I resold it but no plans on selling.

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There are two cheap ways of making rusty nuts and bolts look much better. One way is to buff them up to a silver finish with a rotary wire brush and then lacquer them . Another technique borrowed from the world of plastic model making is to paint them satin black and then " dry brush " them using a tiny amount of silver paint on an almost dry paint brush using a flicking motion . Neither of these solutions are particularly durable but after you've worked so hard , the colour of rust just doesn't belong on the bike. I'm glad to see that you have no plans to sell . I had one of my best biking summers in years last year on mine . Here's a pic to hopefully inspire you . Have you seen my thread in the touring section entitled Scotland no motorways ? http://i.imgur.com/UM1BjSf.jpg

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the colour of rust just doesn't belong on the bike. I'm glad to see that you have no plans to sell . I had one of my best biking summers in years last year on mine .

 

Very true and hate it, will no doubt have other goes at getting rid of it before it is finished off as really does bug me (hence shocks going). Definitely not going to be sold before I get some enjoyment out of it, can't wait to be able to get on it.

 

Here's a pic to hopefully inspire you . Have you seen my thread in the touring section entitled Scotland no motorways ? http://i.imgur.com/UM1BjSf.jpg

 

Amazing picture! Looks like it was a lovely ride. Don't think I've seen that one, will have a read.

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Some good trips there! Certainly got your moneys worth out of it!


Once I'm up and running with mine you'll have to let me know if you ever plan a trip south, not that there's the scenery here your other trips have had!

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