[Apollo1777]

... and the issues that I've come up across (and am in the process of working around...).

I was shocked when someone actually asked ME how I did my fork swap, thinking that I really didn't do much out of the ordinary with it.... Once you wrap your noggin around everything, it pretty much is just a bolt-and-go operation!

But, I did come across a few small snags that seem to plague most everyone when they do their swap... I originally typed this as a .DOC file, but it was 48MB with the pictures, and not a single email application could handle it. haha... So, here goes. (Without pictures for now, because apparently photobucket decided NOW is a good time to work on their website.)

 

[Apollo1777]

First the background: I bought a complete 01 GSXR750 front end (minus wheel/rotors/fender) for only $250 shipped on WERA's website. I was excited, because it also included the ignition, controls, clip-ons, damper... everything!

After it finally arrived and I got a good, close look at it, I noticed some parts that had some wear-and-tear on them that bothered me. So, I ordered a new dust seal, new steering locknuts, new steering stem locknut & washer, and some various new bolts. I sold some of the used GSXR parts and other parts I didn't need (ignition w/key, clutch cable & housing, throttle cable & housing).

I found a well taken care of 01 GSXR750 front wheel, with rotors on SVRider, and I also found an 01-03 front fender for very cheap on the WEAR forum (I think it was about $35-40 shipped!)

So, I was on my merry way gathering parts for the swap, spending MUCH more than I had anticipated… I also decided that all the key-fob scratches in the upper triple needed to go bye-bye and I had it powdercoated raven black. It turned out great, and I’m eventually going to get the lower triple done by the same guys…

Well, after some more research, I discovered that “newer is better” with the GSXR fork swap, and after seeing more pictures of the radial GSXR’s on the SV, I REALLY liked the look of the 04/05 front end.

 

[Apollo1777]

So, up for sale the 01 forks and calipers & lines went! KurtSV is now the proud owner of those things, and I found some cheap 04GSXR600 forks on eBay. (04-05 GSXR750-600 are both set up exactly the same so I’ve forgotten exactly which forks I have. LOL).

OFF TO CALIFORNIA!! BYE BYE!!

So, now I’ve got my radial forks, found some radial GSXR calipers… BUT, I’ve got the 01 GSXR front wheel, complete with 320mm rotors. D’oh! The rotors are too large by 10mm for the 04/05 forks… Well, I wish I knew at the time( because those rotors looked mint!), and NOTE TO OTHERS: I could have used Zoran’s spacers and used some spiffy R1/R6 calipers with the 320mm rotors!!! Oh well, live and learn!! I ended up selling the 320mm rotors and buying some 300mm rotors, so I can use the stock 04/05 calipers.

 

[Apollo1777]

Swap so far is looking good! Everything bolts up nicely, looks good… Oh, wait. Ick! I noticed that the 01 GSXR front axle has a male socket-head instead of the 04/05 which has a female head. Well, that won’t do!! I sold the 01 GSXR axle, and bought myself a nice, shiny 04/05 axle so it will be flush with the forks (and, it will also accept some fork sliders – which I don’t have yet. Haha) And now, I need to buy 2 new tools: a 24mm axle tool… Well, they have these aluminum 24mm hex-things on eBay for cheap, so I got one of those, and I discovered that 24mm is exactly the same as 15/16” so I bought a SAE socket set from Wal-Mart. Another tip: someone else discovered that at Home Depot they sell a 15/16” “coupler” for less than $2 intended to link two threaded rods. The threads on the inside are no big whoop, as you only need the thing because it’s a perfect 24mm hex! (EDIT: I was going through my pictures, and I forgot that I found the second picture of a home-made front axle tool on the GIXXER forums... The picture is labeled "24MM" but I'm 100% sure you could do just fine with a 15/16"!)

 

[Apollo1777]

Now, the final puzzle: how to fix the speedo!? Well, Jim has made himself scarce a long while ago since he sold his SV, but if you can get a hold of him, I believe he still makes his speedo kits… If not, there are plenty of different write-ups that do exactly the same thing using probably cheaper material! Sweet. Figured that out. But, I didn’t really want to solder the speedo yet, because well I have NO idea how to solder, nor do I have access to one… Amazon.com to the rescue, with a Weller WLC100 soldering iron and some Helping Hands!

I practiced on some crappy wire I had lying around, and got pretty comfortable at it. It is WAY easier than I had thought! I then proceeded to replace my (not-yet faulty) stock Regulator/Rectifier with an 07 GSXR 2-plug, 7-wire (4 live, 3 ground) assembly… I didn’t take a picture of it, but it turned out very nicely. I shrink-wrapped all the wires, and I used the stock SV’s plug so I didn’t even have to modify the wiring harness! The stock SV’s has only 5 wires (2 live, 3 ground). I guess the GSXR has a redundant system where it has 4 hot wires (2 black/red & 2 black/white), and 3 black ground wires. Well, the wiring is as simple as it sounds…. 2 GSXR black/red to the 1 SV black/red plug position, 2 GSXR black/white to the 1 SV black/white position, and the 3 GSXR ground to the 3 SV ground (doesn’t matter what spots the ground wires go into). Voila!

 

[Apollo1777]

Anyway, back to the speedo fix! I decided that I would cut the speedo off about ½” from the mechanism so I would have TONS of wiring to cut & screw up if I made a mistake… I decided that instead of soldering the speedo, I would use something to just temporarily splice the wires together to make sure everything was Kosher, and so it would not be a permanent soldering disaster. I used some Posi-Lock weatherproof, reusable connecters, and they’re still on the bike! They held up like a champ, and it 100% survived a trip through some of the wettest weather I have EVER been through on the 6-hour bike trip to the wacky inaugural Indianapolis MotoGP (normally a 3-hour ride, yes a 3-hour ride! lol.)
Sorry, I don’t have many pictures of my speedo-fix, because it was pretty standard, and I hate getting into a groove just to stop and take pictures. Argh! (EDIT: I have the original "Jim's Speedo Kit" writeup saved as a word document with his pictures. If you want me to email it to you, PM me your email. ;D)

Here’s the wiring for a 2002.
​

code: SV SENSOR WIRE → HALL EFFECT WIRE

1. 12V Orange/Red → Brown
2. 6V Black/White → Blue
3. Signal Pink → Black

EDIT: You can see where I mounted the sensor to the fender, tucked in front of the brake caliper. You can also spy the magnets in the 300mm rotor... Hmmm... Those bright gold calipers scream "BLING" to me.... I think I'm gonna change them to the Yamaha silver calipers. In the background you can see the Inaugural Indianapolis MotoGP poster on the wall. Oh, and yes I have a couch in my garage!! LOL ;D;D;D It's too snowy and salty right now to put the carpet and padding down, but when it stops snowing here....

 

[Apollo1777]

So, now that I FINALLY had all the parts (had to order fender bolts, and buy plastic spacers & washers for the 01 fender to fit perfectly on the 04/05 forks, had to order new caliper bolts, bought new 7.5 wt fork oil for a quick refresh, new brake pads just in case these ones sucked, new grips in case I couldn’t use the stock SV’s, and various other stuff I’m sure I’ve completely forgotten about). So, theoretically, all I had to do was bolt everything right on…!

 

[Apollo1777]

Well, I didn’t have the KomodoDraggin steering tool to torque everything down to spec, and acer66 was kind enough to lend me his… Although, I think the post office LOST the thing, because it finally got to my door (from CA to IL in about 11 days!!) and the box it was packed in had almost completely fallen apart. I shipped it back to him in a MUCH nicer box. Since it was August and the weather was perfect out, I was getting antsy in my pantsy to get the swap done, so after 8 days of waiting, I got impatient and I ordered my own tool from KomotoDraggin. Ironically, it arrived in the mail the same day as acer66’s did. Hahaha. Oh well, now I can take the thing apart whenever I want!

As a FYI: for the 00-03 GSXR750 top steering nut, you’ll also need a 32mm socket….

Add another tool to the toolbox! Arruu Ruuh Ruuh!!

 

[Apollo1777]

Well, Now to the well known issues that I came across:

• With the 01-03 GSXR lower triple, you lose the steering stops. The GSXR is in the COMPLETELY wrong spot to do a 1st Gen any good. (Need to fix that... more later.)
• I was trying to avoid paying more money out my nose, so I decided to give the stock GSXR clip-ons the old college-go and hope it wouldn’t hit my ¼ fairing.. (No luck. They rub all right, and it woulda rubbed a hole in my fairing if I let it! More later…)
• This issue I never heard about: the clutch cable’s elbow was bent at an unsightly angle (and almost right after I finished the install I was having a SUPER hard time with the clutch pull). Before I heard about Andy Yauger’s Clutch Mantra, I just decided that I would eliminate the huge bend in the clutch cable’s elbow by using a $20 pipe-bender from Sears… Until I saw that Zoran sells a Motion Pro clutch cable with a VERY short elbow for only $28. (I’m in the process of swapping the clutch cable out… more later…).

 

[Apollo1777]

More later when photobucket is up and running, and I get some sleep (it's 2am!).

 

[Jan Zoellner]

This issue I never heard about: the clutch cable’s elbow was bent at an unsightly angle (and almost right after I finished the install I was having a SUPER hard time with the clutch pull).

See here. By now, I hava a clutch lever assembly from an RSV mille (12 mm) and it works great.
Dunno what others did about it.

(it's 2am!)

Not over here.

Thanks for the nice work. We should find a way to host your document. Have you tried resizing the images and then converting the whole thing to a pdf? Maybe you could save a lot of size doing that...

Oh, and maybe you can include some material from this thread if need be?

Ciao
Jan

 

[Apollo1777]

wow someone read my post? lol
photobucket was just "down for maintenance" last night. I'm hoping that tomorrow night (after my exam I have to study for today) I will get a chance to edit my posts with the few pictures I do have... ;D

Ah, dang. A PDF file... I just discovered OpenOffice.org, so maybe I'll try doing that!! Great idea!

The hydraulic clutch is a good idea, and I've often wondered about what beneifts might be had if I had one... However, I also have a ton of other mods that I want to do. Among them, I already bought some CRG Shorty black levers that fit the SV650 only, plus I did already spend the money on the MotionPro clutch cable.

What I didn't mention was that when I unscrewed the forward sprocket housing, it was completely caked with gunk in there... I found out that the nut that was on the underside of the adjuster was not even screwed on!! I even found a 14mm socket that I had lost a long time ago lying around in there! :-[:-[:-[ I'm sure that if I had simply adjusted the cable properly it would have been fine. But, it would not have fixed the awkward angle that big metal elbow makes.

Other things I'm doing, but waiting on new parts/gaskets for:

• carbs (done, need to reinstall after cam swap is finished - 17.5 pilots 152.5 mains, 2 shims under clip, drilled slide, a/f out 2 -½ turns)
• desnorkled stock air filter
• 03 cam swap, w/03 CCT (need new gaskets for cylinder head bolts and for the 03 CCT adjuster screw... that thing is a PITA to get at by the way!!)
• full WileyCo exhaust w/carbon fiber can (also have a bolt-on ART carbon fiber can for a GSXR600 that I was gonna try and mate with the stock headers using a GSXR1000 midpipe... Probably going to do the easiest route - WileyCo - and if I don't like it I'll chop up the stock exhaust and see how that sounds)
• F3 rear rim w/oversized galfer wave rotor & 46T sprocket, (Brand new 160/60 Conti Road Attack and 120/70 Conti Sport Attack tires waiting to be installed. I stripped one of the sprocket's bolts, so I'm waiting for a 19mm nut extractor from eBay GRR!)
• stock blue hugger (hope it fits with the F3 rear!)
• woodcraft-cfm 1.5" riser clip-ons
• 05 R6 throttle tube & m/c & CRG Shorty black lever to match the SV clutch lever
• Zoran's VooDoo'd forks (when I remove the forks to replace, I'm going to remove the entire front so I can drill & tap new steering stops and grind the old ones off, then powder coat to match the upper triple)
• removed & fixed radiator (had a slight leak at the neck, also wanted to freshen paint & install ART radiator guard)
• new rad hoses...
• Osram Night Breaker headlights (need to fix a dashboard light too)
• Bunch of other mods in my brain or ½ finished in the garage, either way not quite ready yet!!

Whew! I think that's all, but I'm sure I have more ideas that I've forgotten... Between all this and finishing my final semester of nursing school, I think that'll keep me busy until spring 2010!!

 

[SuaveNotion]

Sorry, I don’t have many pictures of my speedo-fix, because it was pretty standard, and I hate getting into a groove just to stop and take pictures. Argh!

Man do i know that feeling! I got through most of mine with pics then i kind of gave up so I'm missing a few pictures of things. I'm doing the same thing you did except i used the SRAD triples so that i only had to slightly file down the steering stops instead of making new ones. The only problem with that is that it makes the forks wider apart which will had serious insult to injury when it comes to making parts fit. Maybe using a newer triple and making stops isnt such a bad idea...

 

[Apollo1777]

Man do i know that feeling! I got through most of mine with pics then i kind of gave up so I'm missing a few pictures of things. I'm doing the same thing you did except i used the SRAD triples so that i only had to slightly file down the steering stops instead of making new ones. The only problem with that is that it makes the forks wider apart which will had serious insult to injury when it comes to making parts fit. Maybe using a newer triple and making stops isnt such a bad idea...

Well, new forks are on the way from TwinWorksFactory, (anyone want to buy my OTHER 04/05 forks with calipers!? Heh) and I bought a 7amp Milwaukee angle grinder with a Home Depot gift card (for christmas lol) from my brother, so I'll let you know how easily it goes! ;D At this point, for you, it would be super simple to swap triples out, the hard part is basically all done!! But, since they triples are wider, that may mean that it doesn't take a 15-point turn to make a u-turn! That's one thing that is very annoying with the 00-03 triples!

A few of the reasons that I wanted to keep the 01 triples was because 1) I already had a front wheel that fit perfectly 2) the 04-05 forks fit perfectly into the forks and 3) IIRC, when I first started doing research on the swap about 2 years ago (jeez), Zoran from TWF told me that he preferred the rake/trail of the 00-03 GSXR to the 04+.

As a side note: Few weeks ago I went to the Chicago IMS, and HOT [email protected]! That 09 GSXR1000 upper triple cap was so slick! It's completely flat, and both adjusters are just small screw heads. I loved it!! (and being 6'4, it was one of the few GSXR's that I could actually fit on haha)

 

[SuaveNotion]

Yeah, i LOVE the new flat top forks. I just bought some '06 forks so I'm just going with what i got at least until i have more cash. But after i get this swap done I may do a few things more such as exhaust, etc but i'm really aiming toward a brand new gsxr1000. You can't compete with 191hp haha.

Due to the wider forks from the SRAD triples, I had to have several parts machined for me as i'm sure you saw in my thread. Thankfully I knew a machinist so i didnt have to go to some shop and pay out the ass for some cheap aluminum spacers.

 

[Apollo1777]

I wish I knew some peeps! I'd mock up an undertail for one...
maybe if one of us can coax dackler to send us the template to his one-piece undertail you can get your buddy to churn out two copies lol! ;D

and yeah, for our size can't beat the GSXR1k!

 

[Apollo1777]

Also, there was another issue that I came across that I had not anticipated. On the left/clutch side there was a problem with the black elbow from the clutch cable. Because of a change in angle, the clutch cable is not bending at a very relaxed or natural angle.

Operationally, for a while I didn’t think that it seemed to affect the bike – although, not until someone else rode the bike and pointed it out, the clutch lever had become VERY difficult to pull and took a LOT of strength. I did not find out if it just needed an adjustment, or if it was because of the awkward bend being put on the elbow. My solution: I bought a short-elbowed clutch cable from Motion Pro. (Zoran from twinworksfactory.com has them available for sale.) I am also going to do an “AndyYauger’s Clutch Mantra” adjustment at the same time. So if the problem is fixed, no way to tell if it was the cable or the adjustment…

However, another tidbit – I did notice 2 things: after I removed the front sprocket housing that also covers the clutch cable, I found a 14mm socket had found it’s way into the fairings that I had been missing for quite a while, and I found that the lower nut on the clutch cable (the fixed part) was unthreaded completely, so it was just dangling. I am SURE that this affected the clutch pull negatively, and I probably just needed to fix that part of the clutch and not have to replace the cable completely. Oh well, I already bought the new one, might as well use it!! Other than replace the clutch cable, the only other solution that I could think of was to get a $20 pipe bender from SEARS and hope that I don't break the stock clutch cable's elbow trying to bend it...

 

[SuaveNotion]

Looking good. So i guess youre takin it to the rally right? haha

 

[sdobbs20]

just curious, but do you mind if i ask how much the total swap cost ya, approximately ofcourse...i'd like to to do a swap, but i know it will be further down the road someday... you can PM me if you want to. thanks.

 

[Apollo1777]

Looking good. So i guess youre takin it to the rally right? haha

what rally? haha. Actually, I would love to go... I've never been.... If I can do it for very, very cheap, (and I have the free time) I would seriously consider it. But, I've already bought my tickets for the IndyGP this August (with a parking spot 900 feet from my seat!!!) so that put me back a bit of money already... But, I've been bike-camping before (2-up), and loved it so I wouldn't mind going to the rally...

just curious, but do you mind if i ask how much the total swap cost ya, approximately ofcourse...i'd like to to do a swap, but i know it will be further down the road someday... you can PM me if you want to. thanks.

Sorry, but honestly I've no idea how much this has cost me...! At one point I had a spreadsheet to keep track of everything, but I decided that it would just make me completely stop trying if I actually saw how much I've spent on this thing! lol! The reason that things kept adding up was that I wasn't happy with the used parts I got, so I had to get new...

Also, I sold some stuff (SV forks, brakes, triples, fender, wheel, GSXR locknuts, ignition, L/R controls) so I would have to deduct that from the overall cost...

I would estimate that if you are happy with the parts that you purchase (the first time!), you should probably come close to breaking even; given you sell your stock SV parts also.