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Yet another WR450... Rebuild.

21K views 93 replies 11 participants last post by  Borg 
#1 ·
Earlier this year, I snapped up a cheap 2004 WR450F, with dirt and SuMo wheels.

It was a non-runner, sitting in a garage for about 3 years.

I saw the bike roughly 3 years ago for sale, but at that time it came with 2 frames, and was about 50% more expensive.

This bike came with a TON of spare parts, including a complete wiring harness, extra gas tank and full plastic kit, spare carb (which I regret selling, I'll make a post about that), a complete second rear brake, and... a FULL Tusk Enduro Lighting Kit.

I'll try and make posts about progress that I made to it a while back, till current state. I've already been riding the bike, and put about 2000 km on it, and fixed a bunch of stuff that I list below.

Picture below, is how the bike was as I bought it, in it's non-running state.

And some of the parts I received with it.

The bike also is grandfathered in to be road legal in Ontario :)

The List:
Get Running
Install Enduro Lighting Kit and Vapor Dash
Fix Exhaust
Fix Suspension (Front too hard, rear too soft)
Partially re-make the entire wiring harness, and remove erroneous items (Clutch switch, kill switch, wires for ignition light, etc...)
Paint/Powder Coat the frame black
Paint the engine to make it looks nice
Dye all the plastics black
Buy/Install Seat Concepts seat
Possibly new rads and rad guards
Possibly get a nicer headlight
Replace steering stem bearings
Maybe get new tires (The Pirelli's are 10 years old, and never used, but not dry...)
Upgrade to Fat Bars
Get proper hand guards (Zeta or Emperor Racing that mount to the bar clamps)
Big maaaaybe is upgrade the front brake
As well as one day get a new carb (This is a long story)

Snow is going to fly any day now, which means I'll be pretty busy with work, so I've got all winter to finish or get this project back on the road.

This WR450 replaced a Husaberg FS550 which I rebuilt the motor over last winter to flip the bike, sure the WR is a little slower and a little fatter, but it won't need nearly as much maintenance.
 

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#59 ·
I've had this threaded bar end kit sitting around for a while now... decided I should install it finally.

The inserts don't fit as tight as I had hoped, tons of slop in the threads, but I used epoxy when I installed them, so they should be good forever regardless.
 

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#60 ·
Finally picked up the right hand guard mounting kit... they sent one for 7/8" bars for some reason, even though I asked for 1 1/8"

Also, anyone have any better ideas for mounting the brake line? If I mount it up into the fork guard, it sticks up REALLY high and looks stupid.

I made a little tab thing to hold the line inboard for safety, but not sure if this will be final routing or not.
 

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#64 ·
So I finally got my dye tank setup.

55 Gallon oil drum, cut the top off of it, drilled 2 holes for a water heater element, and hooked it up directly to 220v power.

For some unknown reason the fender, and rad shrouds didn't turn out very well.. but the gas tank did, so I guess it's a win.


I gave up and ordered black shrouds, side panels, and rear fender... I don't want my bike to look all purpley after this much effort.

Can't for the life of me figure out why the gas tank turned out so well, oh well, that was the important bit anyways.
 

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#65 ·
If I send you a tank do you mind coloring mine black? Mine is clear right now. I will pay you to do it and cover shipping costs. I am in Chicago. BTW the build looks great.
 
#66 ·
Not interested, because I can't guarantee that colour tank will turn out black.

Contact Aljo, or get RIT Proline Disperse dye.

Worse case it doesn't go completely black... and MAYBE adding more dye and dying it multiple times will make it black.

I dyed 3 different colour items with a 1/2 oz sample.

White turned grey.
Natural colour turned mostly black.
Blue turned black with a factory look, except the fender and rad shrouds I tried it on failed. But my first sample fender piece turned out perfect.

If you have access to a very large cook pot and a gas burner, you can just dye the tank on one end and then flip it and dye the other end, it will turn out all the same most likely.
 

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#68 ·
Anyone have ideas on trimming the number plates to make the bike look more modern? I put all the plastics back on and was thinking about it.

I have black number plates coming in the mail though.

Was also thinking of leaving the white ones on and getting very bold 666 numbers to put on just for fun.
 

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#72 ·
So I had the ignition cylinder zip tied to the handguard mount...

Decided I need to make a nice aluminium plate to hold in instead.

Dremel, drill, tap, and about 30 minutes later, I came up with this.

Really happy I did it, looks so much better than when I had it zip tied, Haha.

To top it off, it's quite solid, feels proper to me.
 

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#73 ·
Bled the front brake finally.

Did it without any fancy tools, just a piece of tubing with a zip tie on it, an 8mm and 7mm wrench.

Lever feel is similar to the FTE master, this is a Brembo 16mm master from an R6, with Chinesium Pazzo Knockoff levers.
 

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#76 ·
Maiden voyage was good till I went to leave my friends house.

No spark...

Somehow the bike made it to his place, then the soldering job I did broke while the bike was sitting.

Pulled the stator out when I got home, yep, broken solder joint.

Re-soldered it, with a crimp connection in place, fired right up.

The bike rides so much better with the suspension more leveled out.

That front brake... wow... I didn't do any stoppies, but damn, it's got nice one finger power.
 

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#78 ·
Haha.

How does it smoke if it won't even run?

It broke before I loaded it up on the van.

I still can't believe I ordered that reservoir from China for $20, it's quite well made.

Can't wait to take some new pictures of the bike all finished in some fancy places again.
 

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