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Cam Caps must match head - why? 11 Nov 2019 09:46 #813856

  • SWest
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I don't understand the question. Is this on your Z1 or one of the smaller fours? Larry said he had the answer but didn't share it here. He's gone now so we won't have his answer unless one of our members care to share his PM. From what I've learned it is not possible to hone the head and caps without opening the bore too much allowing the bearings to "walk". I thought about trying that but didn't want to chance rendering the head and caps useless if it failed. Thanks to Bill (hardrockminer) he sent me two caps that came on a later model head. They fit and are within tolerances. Not perfect but useable judging by the plastigauge. Honing is an option on the larger fours but only if they're close. I doubt it would work on heads without cam bearings. The cam tolerances are .001-.006 so that's a lot of leeway so it might. I have a thread on this subject and I plan on fitting the caps and head to my Andrews cams when the time comes. I have lots of used bearings I can hone if need be. Matching caps to a foreign head is a crapshoot at best.
Steve
kzrider.com/forum/2-engine/611611-kz1000-cam-tower-caps

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Cam Caps must match head - why? 11 Nov 2019 10:45 #813860

  • Z*1
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Thanks for your answer! I am sorry for my broken English since not beeing a native English speaker...

Yes it is Z1 900. I have few heads + caps which do not belong to these heads. I was planning to machine a little bit of material off from the bottom of the caps, then tighten the caps (without bearings of course) into their place and ask the mechanic to re-linebore (or hone) the camshaft line (if that is possible, and of course avoiding to machine the head itself). That is why I asked the diameter of a factory bored line.

The caps which do not belong to the head can have both vertical or horisontal misalignement so I guess the bearings might have short life even if they seem to fit, but I have no experience. I heard that some people have just removed the dovel pins(?) from caps and then tightened them. The idea is that the caps "float" into right position when tightened. Not a perfect idea I think.
Z1 -73 x2

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Cam Caps must match head - why? 11 Nov 2019 11:43 #813866

  • Rick H.
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Old Kaw your post made me laugh out loud a bit. It took me back to my high school power shop classes back in 1968 and '69. I absolutely loved those classes and they were the only ones I got "A's" in besides US History. The instructor was a gentleman by the name of Mr. Briggs and he was a Saint. Showed us how to mark most everything with a very sharp pin punch so it would go back together properly. No letter or number punches for us in those days because they were too expensive although Snap-On did donate ALL of our hand tools. Man that class was a hoot and I learned a bunch from Mr. Briggs. The day we all started up our just finished rebuilt Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engines was really interesting too because we set off the dang fire alarms from all the smoke and emptied out the entire school of almost 2,000 students!!! They didn't let Mr. Briggs forget that one for a long time. Those were really good times....
Rick H.
Rick H.

1977 Kawasaki KZ-1000A1

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