jporter12

$2 purchase price back then was a freakin' fortune!!

And the $20k top payout was crazy big, back then!

Cool stuf, even if it's not worth much!

Head gaskets? Not on 4.3's. I can only think of maybe 2 or 3 cases in the 10 years I've been a technician at a shop. The 2.2, now that's another story, but I don't think you could get 4wd with the 2.2. The INTAKE gaskets go left and right on the 4.3, especially with the factory fill dex-cool. I recommend Peak's Global coolant. I run it in everything of my own.

Ball joints, pitman arm, and idler arm routinely fail. You also have to consider the GM fuel pump plague. Don't run it low on fuel, and that will help.

I've also noticed some of the transmissions with a broken sun gear shell, which causes a loss of reverse, second and fourth gears. Funny thing is that I rarely see the same thing on trucks with a v8 and the same transmission.

The oil cooler lines develop leaks where the rubber lines are crimped to the aluminum ends, and CAN cause serious engine failure if not attended to.

Really, there's not that much that goes wrong, I just highlighted a few things that I've seen a few times.

With all that said, I DO like them. It's not often that they get towed in, unless the owner totally neglects them, and does NO maintenance.

Need a demonoid reg? I just noticed that registrations are open! Get em while you can! If they close, PM me for an invite.

I bought a off brand Double Bubble for my 10....cheap as hell...and I have never have problems with it...but I am a bit cautious of Hong Kong Krap

I bought my real double bubble from ebay! I got it from zero gravity outlet. I DOmake sure the stuff is coming from within the US.

I've bought quite a few used parts for both bike on ebay, mainly because I can't find much at all for the interceptor, and for the ninja, $10 is better than $100 when the stuff's in perfect condition. It's only a 250 after all.

Honestly.....just STFU ok.

out to cheech..

What was I thinking? I should have at least gone to the end of the road and back! Geesh! I did get the Ninja started, the Hon-duh has the front cylinder head off it right now.

I might be visiting columbus zoo this or next week. anything else to do while there?

Drink, or go to the malls.

There is quite a bit of local music playing most of the time, also.

Not a good idea, since YOU started on one as well. For the record, the 250 has been claimed by the OTHER jporter.... So, yeah, it pretty much is a girl's bike, but I still ride it once in a while.

The Japanese are losing the credibility in the quality dept with me....

^^ That IS intersting.

Very nice find! There are some things that I think look hideous, such as the front signals/mirror pods, but I like the idea all the same, just not the implementation.

What is it with the mid 80's and some of the sportbikes? It seems that quite a few of them were a bit ahead of their time! This one and my Interceptor come to mind. The power / CC ratio of my 500 is STILL excellent, they just had some issues with top-end oiling.

There are so many Busa jokes to be made in this thread that I just don't have the heart to make them.

We should all remember this when spring comes back around... next time I see a Corolla in my mirror I'm getting the fuck away.

fyi... my wife has a Corolla (pre recalls though )

All the more reason to get out of the way?

apparently it's a lawyer thing...

look at this article, but it still doesn't prove much either way..

Are new tires best in front or back?

my wild guess/opinion: The standard practice is to never put a radial on front, with bias ply on the rear.

A radial mixed with bias must always go on the back wheels.

Therefore, perhaps tire shops can't identify types of tires, and cover their ass by putting all radial tires on the rear to be safer.

Theoretically, if you tried to buy bias ply tires, they would insist on putting them on the front.

The only bias ply tires I have seen available for street use are bikes, and trailers.

Just install a lift kit.

You're dumb. I need the wheel speeds to be the same (ABS on the Malibu).

Besides, it's not a 4 cylinder, 2 wheel driver Ranger.... (Inside joke....)

It's a conspiracy, the Japanese are trying to turn us into kamikazes!

Now THAT is hilarious!

I have a 2003 Monte Carlo. My front tires wear alot fast then the rear tires. I dont have my tread gauge at my house (at my dad's) to give you specs, but it you can visually tell the rear tires had more tread. When this winter started, I had no traction with the "worn" tires on front.

I rotated the worn tires to the rear and moved the more tread having tires to the front. Now I have traction and control. No problems with turns or changing lanes with the less tread tires in the back.

I started with 4 new tires, but the front wore down faster then the rear tires due to front wheel drive, turning and braking.

Currently have Cooper tires on the car now because i could not afford Goodyear. The prior set of tires were Goodyear Triple tread assurance. By far, the best tires I ever had on the car but were kinda pricey.

Triple Tread's FTW! I have them on my car, all the way around, and on the front of the wife's car. Unfortunately, they quit making them in the sizes that I need! I'm going to have get something else, or a different size that will be close enough to the same diameter.

Correct on the rotating. I use Mobil 1 oil and change the oil every 5000 miles.I also rotate the tires. I am out of sync now with the rotating and the oil change this winter.

Now if i knew why my 2002 Durango has had 2 caliper lock ups, once on the right front and once on the left front. Locking up to the point of smoke out of the front wheel well. After the truck sits, I can raise the front tire and it will spin free. After each event, I flush the brake fluid, verify caliper piston retracts, clean/anti-seize the caliper slides. Dodge has 88K on it. I suspect the brake hoses are collapsing internally? Right front locked up Thursday night. Truck sat for 30 minutes before I could inspect it. No problems today. Will flush brake fluid this weekend.

In such a case, we usually do it all. Calipers and hoses. The pads are probably less than ideal now, also if they got THAT hot, not to mention the rotors might be warped. The only other thing could be a rare ABS problem, if your's has 4 wheel ABS.

The problem, though, is the front will end up getting so much better traction that the car will end up spinning out pretty easily and probably at higher speeds. So, it will go better around the neighborhood at slows speeds, but on off and on ramps and even general interstate driving in general the car will tend to have some nasty snap over-steer.

With tires as different as that, you really should get them on all 4 tires.

That makes VERY little sense to me. If this is the situation, someone is outdriving the road conditions. I ALWAYS want the better traction tires on the front of a front wheel drive car. My wife's car is that way.

BTW, I do this stuff for a living, although we're not a tire shop. We do tires, but it's not our primary business.

We actually get parts diagrams faxed to us quite often at the shop.

Aren

t there some online fax services you can use?

Roncooper i think?

That's the one Jagr was tlaking about

I'm not too worried about noise or comfort on that bike. There were 2 things compelling me to get a new one. 1. the old one was scuffed all to hell so putting a camera on the tank wouldn't work very well. 2. It was so low there was no way I was getting under the air on the straight aways. I'm 6'3" so it's tough. The zero gravity double bubble is the same one a lot of guys are running at the track.

This picture of me pulling in the pits is a good illustration of how big I actually am on this bike.

Quite different application, and reasoning for the screen. I get your point.

Like.

I have a DB on the ninja 250, and I'm not all that thrilled with it, in combination with my helmet. The airflow over the screen still hits just below the chin for me, and if I tuck in "behind" it, the airflow is NOISY, almost to the point of unbearable. I can't really say it's worse than the stck screen. It does LOOK better though.

As you get a little older, you'll run into plenty of people like this.

I have one that works across the shop from me......