TOPIC:

you've done a very nice job on his old beast tyler.

leon

Thanks, its been a long project. I can't wait to start it! The sound will be music to my ears.

I also go the radiator and coolant reservoir installed. The fan works, I had to repair the wiring, someone had put a manual switch in mucked it up. You would think the radiator would be a simple job... oh no not on this thing. It is a royal pain in the ass to get the hose clamps lined up just right. It took a few tries. You can tell Kawasaki hadn't put water cooling on a production bike yet, The engineers laid out the frame like their air cooled motors, realized they forgot about the radiator and coolant reservoir, and then said " Eh we will figure out how to shoe horn the rest of the parts in later... no worries."

Cut a simple plate to replace the missing air box cover/tool tray. I'm going to mount the ignition coils here. There is plenty of room under the seat.



Installed the Carburetors too. With all of the body work off you can appreciate just how well these bikes are put together... complicated and sometimes difficult to service, but well done. In contrast to these rather simple 2 barrel carbs, the 6 carbs that adorned a CBX were staggered in a wedge shape to make them narrower. This further complicated them, not to mention you have to drop the engine down to get them on and off. From above you can see just how narrow the 1300's carbs are, yet they can still breathe well.







Getting close now, I can't wait to wake this monster from its slumber

Got the ignition coils sorted out. It is possible to mount these in the stock location above the valve cover under the frame, Moving them back under the seat keeps it clean above the engine, and makes trouble shooting that much easier down the road. They will also run cooler away from the engine. Just have to put some paint on the new plate and wire them up.

This is a great read. I recent started putting a 1980 1300 back together and I find it helpful to see your pictures for reference and to read what your doing for inspiration. Thanks so much for the details.

Thanks Melvis, good luck with your project.

If finished the ignition, turned out very nice...



Got her all ready to start up...

I have awoken a sleeping dragon and filled him with great resolve...



In projects like this there is always that one little problem that rears its head, and I've got to that point. Unfortunately I have coolant leak under the thermostat housing, I'll have to pull the radiator off and have a look.
Have some carb adjusting to do as well.

i bet that feels good!

I fixed the coolant leak, when I first installed the new thermostat the NOS gasket I got had gotten brittle with age and split when I tightened it down. I grabbed the pattern gasket out of the kit I had, but it wasn't thick enough to seal properly and caused a leak. I got another NOS gasket that time has been kinder too, that solved my problem.

I ran the bike again and let it get up to temp, the fan cycled correctly. Still running too rich though. I took the carbs off and put the stock size pilots in and dropped the needles one clip to the "stock" location. I compared the needled to old stock ones I have and they re identical apart from the adjustable ring groves. I will run it again and see how it does. I had the idle air screws out way to far trying to compensate so I will put them back at 3-1/2 turns.

The tank covers and fender is at a local body shop. They are slow this time of year and take on little stuff to keep people busy. The owner was going to quote me after talking to his paint supplier, if its not too steep I will have it done. It won't be black but I'm going with a current Kawasaki color... Golden Blaze Green.

Sounds good. Crisp too.
Steve

Yeah it does have a unique sound to it, sounds more Jaguar than Kawasaki... They were not messing around when they thought up this engine.

It should be a blast to drive.

The body shop called me back, and talked with him about options, the Kawi Green is a Tri-coat and the paint is pricey. I can use GM's paint fro the new Camaro, Synergy Green.

Same kind of look...