New Member: Kawasaki KZ 200

Hello,

I am a new member to this forum, but, have owned my 1978 Kawasaki KZ200 since 1992.

In the winter of 1992, back when there were still motorcycle magazines and small motorcycle shops in many small towns in Upstate NY, I drove to a small shop in Canandaigua, NY to pass a cold day. It was just north of the lake in an older, sort of run down area containing many little shops that has now all been converted to high rise apartments and fancy restaurants.

When I walked in the owner came out of his tiny office right away, like they used to do back in the day. He had a few bikes on the show room floor (no ATV's or snowmobiles to balance winter sales). We were chatting and I indicated I was looking for a smaller motorcycle.....but....nothing specific in mind.

He said: "Ah, stop back to the shop", back when they still let you walk around the shop without checking their liability policy. We walked back to the shop where two guys looked like they were doing rebuilds and there, on its center stand, was what looked like a a brand new Kawasaki KZ200. I checked the odometer (because it was analogue and I could see the miles and it showed 1800 miles. The bike was completely stock. No aftermarket anything on it. Just like it was new from the factory.

I asked: "How is it possible that an essentially new KZ200 is here?" He said, "In 1978 an older guy bought the motorcycle new, rode it for a couple of summers, then, stopped but stored the bike in a heated garage. Eventually, he passed and his son asked the owner to sell it for the estate and it had just come in. Mechanics had just finished checking it out in the back.

I asked how much? He said, tentatively, $550?. I said, done, I will be right back. I came back within 30 minutes with cash, and, he delivered the bike to my door the following week. I immediately bought the Haynes manual and have performed all maintenance since then. The bike now has 5600 miles on it. I own a 1999 Suzuki SV650 for most of my riding. But, I ride this little Kawi a little every summer.....but....I am now like the old guy who originally owned it.....hoping to keep in in good shape for the duration.

Some pics of the old bike, still all stock. Still looks brand new unless you really examine some of the harder to reach parts.

photos.app.goo.gl/9vUJgGtndgyfsry69

photos.app.goo.gl/TeNZoEN6SXC5QNdLA

I just finished complete maintenance (everything is in spec), and, because the cycle has been hesitating off idle, reset the float height to the middle of the spec. This took some effort because I am getting dumber as I get older but I finally figured out how to measure exactly from the bottom of the carb top gasket to the surface of the gas. For a while I was guessing. The spec height is 4mm-6mm but I finally nailed it at 5mm in the middle of the spec.

photos.app.goo.gl/vYCG4pgJnDsc6qej8

Took it out for 30 miles yesterday and it ran better than it ever has. Two weeks (off and on) to do a two hour job......that's what getting old is all about.

At any rate, I look forward to participating in this community. I love this old motorcycle, but, while I was getting older, all the parts for it were discontinued. I remember when I could get most stuff for it from bikebandit.com. Now? Nothing. Just finding tires, which, was easy in 2005, is hard.

I did manage to find stainless steel, hex head, bolt replacement kit for the engine covers from Dime City Cycles. I replaced all those old Phillips, soft head screws that were nearly worn out with the hex head stainless. Looks better and MUCH easier to open the case now.

That's it for now.

Welcome. Great story about a relatively rare bike. I've only seen one other up close and that was a tastefully done café at a VJMC rally a decade ago.
I've been on the lookout for one to complement my Kawasaki twin, triple and in-line four.

Welcome aboard! You stated " I replaced all those old Phillips, soft head screws that were nearly worn out with the hex head stainless. Looks better and MUCH easier to open the case now."

The reason those screws were messed up is that they are NOT Phillips. They are Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS). Using a Phillips screwdriver on them will wreck the screw heads because the Phillips driver will not seat properly in the JIS screw heads. Use a JIS driver on them and they will last forever with zero damage. One can very easily modify a Phillips screwdriver to make it a JIS shaped driver. Most folks do not know this; I found out the hard way too. Ed



JIS screwdriver bit

By msancho08: Some pics of the old bike, still all stock. Still looks brand new unless you really examine some of the harder to reach parts.
.... ....... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... photos.app.goo.gl/9vUJgGtndgyfsry69

Neato. I hope you don't mind me putting up the pic here. size slightly edited.

650Ed:

Thank you very much for this information. In fact, I did mess them up one bolt so bad I almost did not get it off this year to swap with the hex bolt.

And, on this forum, in the last two days, I did run across the JIS reference and began to realize my long time mistake.

I assume that the screwdriver set that came with the toolkit is JIS? I will use those, always, going forward on any screw on the bike.

I have the complete toolkit that came with the bike so if those are JIS I should be OK. Is there a source for JIS bits so I can use a torque wrench?

Thanks for the detailed explanation and the great drawing. Invaluable information. Thanks for taking the time to post it. Yes, I was ignorant of the issue.

Martin_csr:

Thank you for taking the trouble to actually make the bike appear in the forum itself. I did give that a shot by using the image link during post, but, in preview it did not show up, so, I just used the google link.

I will check around in the forum to see how to post pics directly.

Thanks for the welcome. I hope to be more active now that I ran across this forum after all these years of sorting issue on my own.

650Ed:

I see you are the original owner of a Kawasaki KZ650. I tried, in the mid and late 90's, to get a KZ650 in good shape up here for several years but never found one. One of the greatest bikes, with the highest quality materials, of all time.

By msanch08: .... I did give that a shot by using the image link during post, but, in preview it did not show up, so, I just used the google link.

I added the pic below from my computer as a test. It's kind of cumbersome. Click attachments. click add files. After choosing a photo, you have to click the "Insert" button below the pic. Then click submit post. Alternatively as w the photo of your motorcycle above, what I do is upload pics to Imgur.com, then link them from there. Imgur provides the links to the right of the pic >> the BB code link works best.

Vessel and some other tool manufacturers make JIS screwdrivers; they can be found online. However, rather than buying them you may want to modify a few Phillips screwdriver tips to the JIS profile. That's what I did before I found places that sold JIS drivers, and frankly my home made drivers work as well or even better than a few of the JIS drivers I bought. It's really just the tip of the driver than is different. The image below show the true #2 JIS vs the homemade #2 JIS vs the DeWalt P2 Phillips. The homemade #2 JIS was done by starting with the DeWalt #2 Phillips driver. I just carefully ground off the tip of the Phillips driver while very often testing it in a Kawasaki screw to see how well it fit. After doing that with a #2 Phillips I did the same with a #3 Phillips and a #1 Phillips. The key is to take your time and check the fit often. The homemade bits actually fit the Kawasaki screws a little better than the official JIS drivers, and making them cost a lot less than buying the JIS drivers. The last 2 pictures show what I use to hold the screwdriver tip when using them. Ed

650ed:

Regarding your post of how to make a JIS driver bit, I plan to attempt what you describe with my old impact driver set in the next two weeks. Excellent information and procedure, and, also, excellent photographs. Thank you for taking the time to post all of the JIS information. I have owned the bike since 1992, for 28 years, and, never knew this. Too bad. I would have rather had the original screws but the stainless hex screws I just put in are very nice, and, give a good look to the case on the right side. I did not do the left side yet with them. I may not. I did save the old screws, but, all of them are partly buggered from changing the oil filter multiple times over the years.

Thanks again.

Martin_csr:

I am not exactly sure why the google link did not resolve to a picture. I tried it with using the linking process here, but, did something wrong. I will try use the upload process for embedded pictures in future. Thanks for the info.

msanch08 wrote: 650ed:
Regarding your post of how to make a JIS driver bit, I plan to attempt what you describe with my old impact driver set in the next two weeks.

Do yourself a favor and get some genuine Vessel JIS screwdrivers. Quality tools are always a worthwhile investment.