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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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#2 ·
The first thing I had to do to get the bike running was check the valves.

Bad previous owner, bad....

This guy must have put in a + instead of - on his calculator and got the wrong shims.

Had to swap around the smallest shim I had to measure the clearance and determine that I needed 3 shims in the end.

The bike wouldn't run at all before I did the shims.
 

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#3 ·
The second thing that needed to happen to get the bike running right, is ideally a new carb.

The bike came with 2 carbs, one really dirty one, and one clean one.

Now, for some reason, I didn't look inside the dirty carb, and just assumed that it was older and probably had more junk inside to clean out of it.

So I sold it, to recoup some money and make the bike a little cheaper, I was considering flipping it at first like the last bike I had, and what better way to make some additional profit, than to sell the spare parts.

Well, that was a bad idea, the clean carb turns out to have a worn slide, which is preventing me from raising the idle any higher than 1600 rpm, or else it hangs because the slide catches on the wear marks in the carb body.

It also had a secret hiding in it, some funny guy at the factory decided to do something very mean.

The check valve for the AP nozzle was pressed in all the way, not allowing any flow, in or out of the nozzle.

Had to drill and put a screw in the valve to pull it out, and re-insert it so that the valve worked.

Yep, wish I hadn't sold the other carb when I found all this out.
 

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#4 · (Edited)
After I got the bike running as best I could, I installed the Tusk Enduro Lighting Kit, and the Vapor Dash.

Also found a good deal on a Leo Vince system that was sitting around for 10 years, the stock can sounds so incredibly bad.

Selling that other carb nearly paid for the new exhaust.

When I installed the Lighting Harness, I also bought an R6 start/stop switch, to clean up the bars.
 

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#5 ·
So, at this point I was fairly happy with the bike, except the the suspension.

I rode it for a few months with horrible suspension, just taking cruises to the local 60km~ away coffee shop at the twisties.

This winter I decided I need to do something about the suspension on the bike.

It came into the house, and decided, I've got all winter, lets make this bike nice, and unique-ish at the same time.

First thing I did was fix the forks, the bushings were shot, and the seals were "All Balls"... Chinese junk.

New OEM Seals and Bushings, the forks are nice and smooth now.

I've always had the issue of the forks feeling too hard, and the rear shock was waaaaay too soft.

Rear spring is currently in the mail, and I hope the stock fork springs are stiff enough and they work well together.
 

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#6 ·
While I wait for the rear spring, I've decided to take on the wiring harness.

Anyone who has ever owned a WR450 knows about the horrible rats nest behind the headlight, and all the silly connectors stuffed between the rads in the triangle opening of the frame?

Well, I want to fix that.

For starters, I removed the neutral switch, clutch switch, and the kill switch since I have an R6 start/stop switch.

Since the safety switches were removed, I also removed the 2 diode/relay things.

This ended up removing 7 connectors in total from the main harness, and an 8th one is going as well, I just need to order a 4 pin Deutsch connector and crimping tool.

The ECU now has 7 wires that are not in use, so I combined the remaining 5 from the dual 6 pin connectors into just 1.

Will also be replacing a bunch of the ugly bullet connectors from the Tusk harness, so it's easier to remove/install stuff, and also waterproof.

I integrated the tach sensor into the harness while I was in there, why not right?

I wrapped the entire harness with some fancy wiring harness tape, so it doesn't become a gooey mess like it was before.

Originally I planned on combining the Tusk harness into the main bike harness, but I decided to leave it separate, in case there is a time when it becomes a race bike, you can just remove the entire lighting harness and lights as one.
 

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#7 ·
I've got the bike mostly torn down, I'm just waiting on a new rear spring in the mail.

Once the spring gets here, I'll re-install the shock and linkage, and vaguely check the sag, to decide if I'm going to get new fork springs or not.

I'm hoping the new seals and bushings made the fork acceptable for me, and the rear shock spring is stiff enough.

Before I could put weight on the pegs and just the rear shock would compress... not good, weight on pegs should make the fork and shock move.

In the mean time, I decided to attempt straightening the left radiator.

One of the previous owners had made an adaptor, so the shroud could reach Hah.

Had a 1" aluminum strip so it would reach, now it reaches without that.

Spent all of 5 minutes with a block of wood and a hammer, as well as an adjustable wrench to re-shape the tab.

If I see a good deal on eBay or something for some aftermarket rads in good shape, I might buy them, but they're not really that important, this bike won't be ridden WOT all the time, it's just for cruising some twisty roads and going on some adventures once in a while.
 

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#8 ·
My new rear spring came in the mail today.

Factory Yamaha spring with the pink (5.5kg/mm) indication on it.

I didn't put all of the bike back together, but just enough to test out the forks and shock with my weight on it.

The rear is still a tad soft, but I'm still able to pre-load the spring another ~8mm or so according to the manual, so I'm probably good to go.

The forks, oh my, they are 1000x smoother now... I had a hard time bouncing/weighting the front end at all before I did the seals and bushings, now I can easily push down and then lift the front off the ground.

I guess the steering stem bearings are toast... but my linkage bearings look reasonably good, enough that I'll re-use them.

This suspension setup makes me want to add a YZ-cam.
 

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#10 ·
:)

If anyone knows where to find some relatively affordable engine plugs, I'd like to replace the shitty plastic ones in the left side of the engine with something other than a giant slotted piece that gets mangled by every previous owner.

Oh, and a decent plastic skid plate that replaces all the existing engine guards. Maybe I should see how well the Beta XTrainer stock one fits on the WR Haha, I replaced that one with an Enduro Engineering one.
 
#13 ·
Pulled the motor out.

They really secure it in there... 3 motor mount points and the swingarm pivot.

The Husaberg only had the swingarm pivot, and then 1 set of motor mount plates in the front, nothing holding the top at all.

My son and I started stripping the paint, whatever they painted this frame with is a bitch to get off... last time I stripped paint on anything it bubbled up and scraped off super clean.

The motor is surprisingly light though, doesn't feel any heavier than the Husaberg motor surprisingly.
 

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#17 ·
Aircraft stripper works pretty good at removing paint. Give it a try, found at almost and auto parts store- dont get on your skin though...
 
#14 ·
Went for a drive today, picked up some brand new take off Renthal Fatbars for $40.

The Applied Racing top Triple Clamp I bought on eBay decided to come about 30 minutes away from my house and then go back to the US for some reason.

Hope it fits when it arrives, since the 2004 WR has the 46mm forks, I hope they listed the year correctly.
 

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#15 ·
Applied Racing triple clamp arrived today, along with the Baja Designs regulator/rectifier, pre-wired for the WR.

The wires are much shorter than stock, but should still reach.

The triple clamp came with some bar clamps, will probably just use them, they're factory Yamaha ones I think.

I also got a horn from BD, because the only thing that broke on my Beta in ~600 KM of trail riding is the horn... and the bike is too quiet to get your friends attention by blipping the throttle when they're in front Haha.
 

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#16 ·
My Disperse Dye sample came in the mail today.

Used about 8 litres of water, 1/2 Oz of dye, and kept it at low boil for 2 hours.

The blue is a piece of a fender, turned out perfectly black.

The caliper guard, is a little bit light in tone, more dark charcoal grey.

The brake line holders are a slight bit brown, but I believe the small amount of dye might be the culprit there, or maybe I'll just boil them in dye again when I order more dye.
 

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#19 ·
Decided to re-boil my dye mix and see how many more parts I could turn black.

The pure white plastics might be an issue, so I may end up having to buy new number plates.. but the fork bottom guard is a harder plastic than the number plates I think, so might be why it turned out grey.

The sprocket guard, caliper guard, and the other dark grey parts, don't turn out black, but I probably won't bother using those parts anyway, same with the fork bottom guard.

The cable guides, and fork guard guides turned out good though.

The rubber plugs for the swingarm also turned out great.

Not bad for a free 1/2 Oz sample of dye.
 

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#20 ·
Cut another sample off the ruined fender.

This one had a crap ton of glue on it from a graphics kit.

I cleaned it off kind of half assed.

I've re-heated the dye mix about 4 times now, and added water several times because it boils off into the air.

It didn't dye this large piece quite as well, but I think it's because of the glue residue that seeps into the plastic, and a lack of dye left in the water.

Not bad for 1/2 Oz Sample, did way more than I expected it to.

Anyone want to buy a black gas tank? I've got 2 tanks, going to dye both of them.
 

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#21 ·
Decided to give a cheap china clutch lever a shot.

$40 CAD shipped, figured why not.

It's quite well made, and very beefy, while still being lighter than factory, also has 2 cable positions.

Not 100% where/what I'm going to do with the hot start... I may remove the cable and run a second choke knob, the bike does start with E-Start while slowly opening the throttle anyway when it's hot.

I also went full-retard on eBay, ordered a used Brembo caliper and master cylinder...

Found some cheap rad guards, to replace the busted up ones, and SS brake line for the front.
 

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#24 ·
Well, got the engine covers back on.

It was a huge pain in the ass to clean the blasting media out... don't think I would use that powder shop again, they did a good job coating, but not masking or cleaning.

Also, they assured me the swingarm bearings would be fine to leave in, and then they didn't mask them off either.... so they are buying me new swingarm bearings.
 

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#26 ·
Whenever I get the new head bearings in, and when the shop gets the swingarm bearings in.

That's literally the only reason it isn't already a rolling chassis.

Also waiting for my dye to come in the mail so I can make the tank, shrouds, rear fender, and side panels black.

Not sure if the white side panels will turn out, might have to buy new ones, they're pretty rough anyway.

Seat concepts is on it's way too, gonna be comfy this year finally.
 
#27 ·
Yeah, waiting on stuff sucks sometimes. Just dropped a motor in my truck and eBayed some crap figuring I plenty of time. The high pressure power steering hose took forever and the low pressure lines took forever and a day. And the high pressure line was buggered up anyways.
You need a couple new plugs for that cover, my OCD.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Yes I know.

Previous owners butchered them.

I can't find any cheap black ones... do you know where to get some?

I sanded the silver off of them for now, but I doubt it'll make it to the street with those plugs, can't have that ugly shit messing up the fresh black look.

EDIT: I just looked harder on eBay... found some for $40 CAD shipped, with allen heads, not that stupid slot BS.
 
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