HONDA guy just aquired his first KAWASAKI!

Yep, believe it or not! (That's actually more for convincing myself)
Hello to all!
As a kid, my first REAL bike (street) was a 76 Suzuki TC125 - rode it all through high school.
Had all sorts of dirt bikes from age 14 on -
72 Bultaco Pursang 125/250
72 Hodaka Wombat 125
74 HD (Aermacchi) 125SXT (still have this)
75 Yamaha DT400 Enduro
And a few other oddball, junkers that I made to ride.
Joined the US Navy in 1980, in 83 I bought an 81 Suzuki GS 850L and in 83 bought a second 850L brand new 82 (Dealer had a holdover still in the crate).
Got out of the military in 88 and eventually sold both Suzy's to my older brother around 1995.
I was 'bikeless' from 95 until 2004 (got into boats and snowmobiles for awhile and still have 2 boats).
In 2003 a buddy of mine had a couple of Honda 4Trax that I rode several times and one time at the ATV trails there was a fella that had 3 or 4 mid 80's Honda ATC's and let me ride a couple of them ...
And I was HOOKED!!
Ended up buying way too many over the next several years (had as many as 9 at one time).
These were all 85's: 200X, 250SX, 250ES Big Red (still have), (2) 250R's, several 125's (still have a 125G) and so on.
Then one day I realized that I still ride these "Death Machines" (as they were called back in the day and removed from the market) like I was 15 years old and it occurred to me that I have been very fortunate NOT to end up in a traction (yep, rode like a crazy man) and since I'm pushing 58 (2 years ago) I should probably consider something a bit tamer.
And since I was very impressed with Honda, I considered a road bike and ended up with 4 Goldwings (79, 2-84's, & a 96).
Still have them but have always wanted to build a cafe racer.
Really didn't care what brand or size, thought about modifying one of my GW's but thought they were a bit large for a true cafe.
A little research determined that true cafe's are 300cc to 750cc so I started to look for an 80-90 Honda CB.
And I happened across a little gem of a bike that was stored inside and ridden maybe once a year.
This bike was about 2 points off near perfect condition.
BUT IT WAS A KAWASAKI and I never had one, EVER (which was really odd since I had just about everything else!)
Well, long story short (yeah - really long, sorry) I couldn't pass it up for the price and became the proud owner of a 1978 KZ400-B1.
An absolute blast to ride - like a dirt bike on steroids!
But now I have a dilemma - I hate like hell to tear apart this fine speciman.
So here's what I'm thinking -
Remove all the stock bolt on parts; tank, handlebars, fenders, lights, etc. and replace with aftermarket cafe style parts.
That way I get my cafe but still retain everything to make original again if someone wanted to.
No cutting or modifying frame but start with basically a rolling frame with engine and final drive.
What do you guys think?
ALSO, in the KZR Forum service manual section, the KZ400's stop at 77 and start again at 79 - What no 78? Is the 78 that different from the others?
Anyway, glad I found this forum!

Welcome and thank you for your service. I cant help you with your particular model but there is a lot of help here for you. Just ask.

Great story! You've had a lot of vehicles!

1977 and 1978 were transition years for the Kz400. They changed the engine, the carbs, and the body parts in various stages and combinations across the various sub-models so it's important to pay close attention to details and part numbers when looking for parts. Between those two years there were 5 sub-models: D, S, A, B, and C. And the A sub-model had major differences in the carbs between the A1 and A2.

Your 78 B1 has diaphragm carbs, screw-type lash adjusters, oil-path in the alternator area, perimeter frame rear of the carbs (as opposed to a backbone frame), and best of all I think it has 6 speeds instead of 5. These are some of the things that might be different on other sub-models during those years.

Well I'm a bit confused -
The ID label on the front of the frame shows that it's a 77 BUT the picture in the model recognition PDF (pic #186) is exactly what I have.
6 speed and the same silver pin striping on red with the plastic tail behind the seat.
Identical - - So what do I have?

Are you looking at the manufacture date? If so, a bike made in late 1977 will be an early 1978 model, just like with cars. The model year switch seems to have taken place in late July or so, most years.

Welcome to the Forum.
The KZ400 can be a cool little cafe bike but it might be hard to do without permanent mods. Here is my favorite example. You should also go on Do The Ton .

That's really sweet!
I don't really see any permanent mods but I'm not real familiar with the KZ400 yet...

TexasKZ -
I guess that's logical and would explain my confusion.
So, I'm thinking that the Service Manual for the '77 won't do me much good.

Here are a few pics that I hope helps to ID what I have.
Still thinking that it's a '78 KZ400-B1
BTW, the side view pic looks like there is a dent just forward of the emblem - NO dent, wierd pic I guess.

That's a good basis for a cafe. I was thinking it was one of the "swayback" versions where the seat is lowered.
You can do a lot with that...
I bought my '76 D3 to cafe but it is a low mileage survivor and I couldn't bring myself to hack it up. I bought an XS650 Special to cafe instead.

Wow that thing looks nice. Definitely save the body work and find some cheap ebay parts to modify for the cafe.

For general maintenance, the main difference is how the valves are adjusted. The early motors had eccentric adusters on the side of the motor under little rectangular covers. Your motor does not have them. Your motor gets adjusted through a more conventional screw type adjuster above each valve. The valve lash spec is different for those two adjuster types so you will want to hunt down the appropriate manual.

I call the early style engine the "first gen" and the later style motor the "second gen".

1978 was the first year of the second generation motor, but not all 78 models were second gen. So you want a manual that covers the second gen 78 models. The 1978 Kz400A2 uses a first gen motor so you don't want a manual for that.

Since you are new to Kz's, I should mention almost all Kz's are identified by year, then model, then sub-model letter and a number which usually indicates which year of the sub-model. Then there is the marketing name or general descriptor like Ltd, or Special, or Gpz. Europe often had "Z" models instead of "Kz" models. The rules are not strictly true but in 90% of the cases it is.

Your Kz400 is of submodel type B, and is the first year of that sub-model, hence the 1. It would generally be known as the "standard" model. The "Special" was a budget model with lesser performance parts. The "Ltd" is more of a cruiser style.

The earliest Kz400's didn't follow the convention exactly, but the convention can still be implied.

For example, the first Kz400 that came out in 1974 was just the "Kz400". But based on later models it can be assumed it was a Kz400D1 standard.

In 1975 there were two models. The kz400D and Kz400S. We can assume they would be the Kz400D2 and S1 respectively where the S model was the "Special".

In 1976 they started using the label convention on the Kz400 line so you get the Kz400D3 and Kz400S2.

So in 1978 they had the aforementioned Kz400A2 Deluxe, which used the older style motor, then your Kz400B1, then the 5-speed Kz400C1 Special (no electric start, single exhaust, drum front brake),

Sorry this got a little long, but finding Kz400 parts is a little tricky because of all the years and different models. (And I'm only including the U.S. models. Europe and Asia got many more models in the late 70's and early 80's so keep that in mind. Luckily the Kz400 site is pretty thorough. The man originally responsible for that site started here on Kzrider.)

KZ400 site????
And where would that be?