1982 KZ1000p project progress

I have some bad news. Was riding to work yesterday and my timing chain broke causing who knows what damage. It seemed to be without warning, the chain wasn't rattling and looked in good shape.

I'm deciding what I want to do with it. I guess the first thing to do is to open the thing up to see the damage.

Whoa! That's no good! I don't think I've ever even heard of a busted cam chain on one of these motors!

Curious to hear what you find in there. Was it OEM or a manual tensioner?

autotech2@tx.rr.com wrote: Curious to hear what you find in there. Was it OEM or a manual tensioner?

Excellent question! If it was manual how tight was it? Ed

I had that happen to me in 78. The rollers get brittle and fail. Every time you go through the head you have to replace them. Way expensive. One of the reasons for waiting 15 years to rebuild it. At Z1 they have Liska solid rollers at half the price of OEM. APE tentioner too. I got my new valves on Ebay. I can give you the sellers info if you need it. They were $130. Turned out good and bought the Viton seals for $28 too. Let me know. Kawasaki had problems with the automatic adjusters, there was a recall. Maybe this one slipped by. Sorry to hear about this, I've been there. If I can help, let me know.
Steve

The bike will only go in neutral and first so we think something broke in the transmission that helped cause the chain to break. The clutch basket is loose, the clutch worn (explains why it was slipping/grabbing so much), and it may have a bent shift fork. It had plenty of oil and the chain was in good shape and to spec. It has the stock automatic chain tensioner that seemed to be functioning properly.

I got it on video, I could post it if people really want to see it. Basically I got stuck in neutral and I couldn't get into 2nd so this seems to have happened before the chain broke. I attempted to shift around 8k rpm so I was on it a bit. On my 2nd shift attempt (first time it required multiple attempts) the bike revved to about red line due to no resistance and after this I could hear the chain rattling (tensioner broke perhaps?). I tried one last time to get it into gear and this time the chain snapped and there were more unpleasant noises and I lost all power.

There were a lot of issues with stripped threads and loose bolts all over the engine so something falling off inside seems the most probable cause. I never opened the bottom end so I'm sure that's where the surprise was waiting.


I'm going to pull the engine and split the case to find what happened. The pistons appear to be fine besides a little mark where they hit the valves. I spent the money rebuilding the top end that I'd rather not throw that away so hopefully all I need is valves. Are there any good performance camshafts that are worthwhile? Mine have a little bit of uneven wear so it may be something worth replacing. Is there anything else performance or reliability related that I should consider while I have it apart? I'm ready iffy things about aftermarket tensioners although I could see how a manual one would be more durable but with higher maintenance.

Man that sucks. pretty rare to hear of engine failure on these bikes. If you don't have the coin/time to rebuild the engine you could pick up another engine and drop it in relatively easy. lots of KZPs around.

He's in California. That means the swap has to be recorded thus making it a salvage title.

I never liked automatic tensioners. With the Liska rollers and APE tensioner, you can hear the cam chain. It has a distinctive sound. Kawasaki had rubberized rollers to quiet the cam chain sound. They don't stay "rubberized" for long. I like the whirring sound and don't mind adjusting it from time to time as needed. There must have been a weak part in there. Sounds like someone's been in the motor. That's the problem buying used especially MOTORCYCLES. The shifting problem might be in the gear select area behind the counter shaft sprocket. The select arm ,spring etc. Might as well split the cases and inspect everything. I had my crank welded, back cut the tranny dogs and went through the oil pump. The one thing I didn't do was the oil gate to prevent all the oil going to the back of the pan on hard acceleration. I can drop the pan to do this later. I'd look closely at the pistons. They might be OK but if in doubt, you can buy some on eBay or get some 10.25/1 Wiseco's. They're expensive but worth it. The cam differences suggest a oiling issue. My Andrews cams are still good after 20+ years and they don't make them anymore. There is another source I've used. It's theoldkawman on the web. He's sent me what I needed at good prices. Good luck
Steve

Doesn't seem that I could do cams without getting new pistons and higher displacement.

www.pitstopperformance.com/kawasaki-z1-k...82-deg-030-lift-p-25

I'm going to be out of state for Thanksgiving week so I'll open it up after and upgrade based on the wear and damage. By then I will hopefully have my other bike street worthy so I can take my time on the KZ to make it really nice.

swest seems to think this is an older model. 1981 - 2005 used a HyVo chain.

Your right, then why did it break?