76 KZ900a semi restoration

Well, I had a lot of this project kind of done when I joined here, and my work has had me running around like a maniac for quite a while now(really helped with funding this venture). I figure this is as good a time as any to start my project thread. This bike was bought new by my father in 76, he rode it like it was stolen for the first chapter of its life. The oil and such was changed regularly, but im certain the engine has seen more revolutions than the odometer would indicate. It sat from about the time I was 6 or 7 until I turned 16. It took some doing, but I convinced him that I wasn't a maniac like him(sorry dad). The bike got put on the road then, with the necessary repairs and improvements(modern regulator/rectifier, chain sprockets, brake pads, cables...I might have done more, but the resources just weren't as easy to find then, All of my friends were downloading songs from napster every night, And I was starring at Pics of Mellisa on oldkawman.com :laugh: I rode her for a few years(racked up some miles too!) and eventually she got sidelined in favor of my less finicky crotch rockets. Fast forward 10 years or so till now, and an older wiser married version of myself decided that maybe, just maybe the wife might like riding a bike with a seat on the back. The is what I found after I resurected her from her tomb, and hit her with a pressure washer real quick

anyways, time for a dinner break, more to come

I started by making a "short" list of things that needed attention, bear with me, I am going by memory here.
-either rechrome, or find replacement pipes. It has LTD pipes on it, and I like them so I wanted to stay with them or at least similar
-need left side cove(lost)-also need to do the "keeper" mod on other one
-new case savers
-it always would oil foul #1 on a cold start-up(what a pain) so new valve seals were in order.
-While it was down that far, might as well give it some rings
-Brakes, something needs to happen there, they always used to squeal, I cant have that. also I am not sure if Im just spoiled by gixxer brakes, or if the single front disc always sucked this bad, I would be better off with a cinder block tied to a rope.
-Once I saw the cost of the dyna s system, and new coils(if only to change the wires), I couldnt pass that up.

I wasn't looking to go crazy and modify the crap out of this bike, just want a nice dependable rider, one that can leave a harley, or even a poorly ridden 600 behind :evil:

here are some photos from day 1




damp basements suck!

forgot the front fender was pretty pitted, came across a NOS one for a couple hundred bucks, looks great



you can see it in this photo

some pictures from the next week or so as I tore it down

bringing engine home, along with dog and gixxer tire


lots of crud in there



I have never torn into a head, but whats the worst that could happen?

So this is where I got lazy with the camera, But I tore the head down,(bagged and tagged everything), replaced the seals, and lapped the valves that didn't look so sexy. Next reassembled the engine(incorrect timing marks and all), Paid through the nose for some various sized valve shims, and then reassembled the bike. Im sure more than a few of you know the let down in my heart when she didn't fire right up, or try to, or cough, belch, not even fart. @#$#@, I can feel air puffing out of #1 carburetor TIMING... So I read, and read, and searched, then eventually between google spitting me here, and the 1 friggin photo of this process in my clymers manual, I was able to use my decoder ring and discover the process. I ignored the warning to just tear down now, because I had turned the engine over by hand several times with no resistance, retimed it and it fired right up! Took a short video of it running to put on youtube to show my riding buddy, and took it for a ride My bliss was soon soured as the very next time I started it, it puke oil smoke for the first 5 minutes (alot). after a couple of retries, because perhaps it was a fluke that all the oil got there :blush:, I tore It apart. The was no less than A tablespoon of oil sitting on top of the pistons, and it sat there for a while before draining back down :dry: . So in my mind, I obviously screwed up in the head, I figured the oil was dumping into the cylinders from above, since it took so long to go down. I started looking for somebody to go through the head, fix my stuff, replace any bent valves, ETC. I was led to Larry C from this site, and took the head to him, and regailed him with this gripping saga. He suspected that I overlapped my oil control rings from square 1, which I did, looked like thats how they went to me :blush: . but at any rate, my ebay seals were crappy, and most guides were crap, and I still thought it to be a good Idea to have him go through it(I was right, for once) and he was quite generous to share some of his wealth of knowledge with me. That catches us up to last weekend.

While the head was out, I made a soda blaster and hit the carbs, then tore them down and set them up on a bench, I learned of the clear tube method here, and I was Way off before!

before

after

bench tunning

Then I got the head back, man this thing looks awesome. It has taken every single ounce of my personal strength(and good sense) to keep from popping a valve out just to look.



Im so friggin excited to hear her run with this thing, Plus what Im thinking will finally be a proper tune job. Im like a diamond in an ice storm :laugh:

among the other things I leaarned, I was only getting half spark or so due to my suppresion wires and resistor caps, so I gotta redo that, but this is where I left here before having to do the fathers day thing

Turns out I lost some of the valve cover bolts, and screws for the intake boots, so im going to launch that search party now, just wanted to get this thread up!

cheers!

Found the bolts, and intake boots, It was just a matter of figuring out where I put them to "keep them from getting lost". I went down tonight, Tightened down the valve cover, installed the carbs, new tach cable and ignition wires. I could have got the pipes on and fired her up(hopefully), But I opted to heed the advice I received here and drop the oil pan to have a look. I sure am glad I did, as I found an oil pump pick up screen at least 70% covered in crap. This might not have been a problem, but I dont want 70% of my arteries clogged up with crap(despite my diet :woohoo: took some pics, I'll try to get them up tomorrow

for my fellow hockey fans, NHL awards tomorrow

Wow that thing is looking great! What did you use to polish and clean you engine?

Just curious. How did you figure out your suppresion wires were cutting your spark,etc?

Nice quality work Tomolu5. Bike is starting to look great!

Flyndrive, on the rougher castings such as cylinders and cases I used a dremel and little wire brushes, mostly soft steel, some brass. On the smoother castings, like the covers I used a polishing setup to bring them out. You could get them same effect by wet sanding down to 1200, then using mothers aluminum polish, or flitZ.