Welp...
I finally am getting around to organizing all my photos from when I started this build about two years ago, so I can document what all I screwed up and learned along the way so maybe others can learn from my mistakes. I have champagne dreams on a beer budget and literally none of the proper tools needed for customizing a motorcycle, so this entire venture is an exercise in doing as much as I can with as little as I can for as long as I can until I have pay a professional. This whole project is really like a self taught shop class for me. I am constantly having to research for weeks on how to accomplish the next step as much of this I have never done. So I may have really struggled with things that other folks could whip out in an afternoon in the garage. So bear with me!
I previously did a ground up restoration on a 1990 zr550 and in the in the process I ended up with literally enough spare parts to build a whole other bike. So after seeing lots of guys in Japan grafting on Zephyr400's (Zephyr zr550 in US) swing arms and front ends onto z750gp's and z750fx2's and 3's, I knew what I was going to do with all my spare Zephyr parts. I wanted a kz750e as they were easier to find than an dual shock gpz or a kz750L or kz700 ( plus I didn't want to irreparably alter a rare bike like those.) It took me a long time to find a bike that wasn't to nice to modify or to trashed to bother with.
Eventually I found a 1981 kz750e with 27K miles that was on it second owner. It had been garaged and taken care of all its life until the second owner, who spray bombed it all black, put pods on it and never figured out the jetting, so it was forgotten in the garage. The gas tank was covered in tinny dimples from a failed attempt at cleaning out the inside with large nuts and bolts, and the rear brakes were frozen solid. But it did start and it ran even though the petcock was fashmoganed and the carbs gushed gas as soon as the engine stopped. So this one was perfect for me to start with.
The day I brought it home.
I wasted no time in beginning to test fit the zr550 parts on the kz just to see how easy or hard this was all going to be. And was pleasantly surprised to find the swing arm fit between the frame bosses with millimeters to spare and the zr550 front end bolted up almost as if it was designed for it, even using the incorrect kz bearings.
So far so good!
Now that I knew that the Zephyr suspension bits were going to work, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish. I had one and a half entire zr550 parts bikes I could use and the internet to find the rest.
I will skip forward to this past winter when I mocked up all the parts I had amassed to see how and if it would all work together. All the powder coating, suspension work and wiring had been completed at this point, but I never had the engine and the carbs and the gas tank in the same place at the same time, so I was hoping it all was going to fit. And thank God it did.
At the time of writing this, the motor is apart and I just finished painting all the engine pieces...so now it will all have to be sent off to the machine shop for the cylinder boring and valve job.
I ended up with:
1. kz750 frame and motor
2. zr550 front suspension, front and rear brakes, handlebars, headlight, swing arm and wheels
3. zr550 entire wiring harness including ECU, Ignition pickup, coils, fuse block, regulator....the entire thing.
4. zr550 speedo and tach and switchgear
5. zr750 (zephyr) cvk32 carbs and intake manifolds
6. zr750 ignition timing rotor
7. 810 piston kit
8. 1984 gpz750 cams
9. zr-7 sprag style starter clutch and secondary shaft
10. zr-7 high capacity oil pump
11. zr-7 oil sump with oil cooler ports
12. zr550 oil cooler and lines
13. 1984 gpz550 6-speed transmission
14. cheap ebay rear shocks until I can find something affordable and worth using.
15. Kerker exhaust
16. kz1000e (shaftdrive) gas tank
17. zx600d rearsets
I will now try to work my way through illustrating all the steps in between and document reassembling the engine when life stops getting in the way.