Happy to come aboard! New member, 73 Z1 project....

Hey guys, happy to join the board. There’s a wealth of knowledge and resources here and I’m looking forward to taking part in it and getting my new project going. My background is mostly in cars, and trucks. I’ve worked on everything from new direct injected GM LT engines to old-school carbureted 289’s, diesel engines from single cylinders to 16 cylinder 2500 hp. I’m electrician by trade, then quite a bit of electronics work, I’m a good welder and fabricator, I’d say I have a pretty good mechanical aptitude. This brings us to my project. I’ve been looking for a couple of months for a Z1 900 for my dad and I to put together in his retirement. After all of that looking I found a left for dead 73Z1 900. The bike was completely stripped down and most parts were powder coated. I have ton of NOS parts plus a bunch of original stuff. I basically bought the classic bike in a box. I look forward to drawing from everyone’s knowledge and getting the bike put together with pop. I think this is going to be a great project for us since he’s just started his retirement and has a lot of free time on his hands. He’s been out of bikes since about 1985. His last bike was a 74 Z1 900. He talks about that bike the same way he talks about all the stuff that he used to have and hates that he got rid of.

Welcome to KZRider
We are here to help
Dave

Welcome Mike, great find. Good luck and we look forward to pictures. Did I say we look forward to pictures. Maybe I should remind you we look forward to pictures... :lol:

I can definitely appreciate the love for pictures. I’ll probably get some later tonight. I have a paper to complete for school (don’t ask me why I decided to do a bachelors degree at 40) . As soon as it gets done I’m back to getting greasy and I’ll get some pictures stuck in there.

Welcome! Like your Dad I had a Z1 back in the day and gave it up around the same time he did. My excuse was marriage and family. The kids grew up and the wife and I separated. Then a couple of years before I retired I bought another Z1 ( and resumed riding. Now I have two of them.

For your restoration I would highly recommend a book sold by Z Power out of Great Britain. It's by John Brookes and is titled the 72 to 75 Z1 Parts Restorers Book. Let us know if you can't find it.

Here are the pictures I could get while I was over there. I know not all of these parts are numbers matching for the bike. Our plan is to get it together and then hunt down whatever we need later. I have run into a problem with the jugs. They are correct for the engine, but I’ll need to get them bored, they have some pretty good pitting. I got a set of pistons with all of the parts, but the wrist pins don’t match the crank. I did not even check compression height. I think they were mixed up with another project at some point. Looks like overall the thing was just neglected for such a long time. Once the previous owner did decide to do something with the bike, he took it apart threw it in a bunch of boxes and walked away from it. He did end up getting the frame and most of the components the bolt to the frame powder coated. That was as far as he got. We’re not looking for a 100% numbers matching restoration job. we’re looking for something that’s clean, runs good. Pop and I have agreed that we want to put it together as if it was his bike that he had never gotten rid of. Nothing exactly factory but not a whole lot of aftermarket. Just something to enjoy.

Good luck with your project. I'll be watching your progress.

BTW, when posting photos please be sure to click the "insert all" button before posting. That way the photos show up in high resolution instead of thumbnails.

Humpty Dumpty had a big fall....The easy work (tearing it apart) is done. Now comes the hard stuff...putting it back together!

Engine and related parts look good...just need to be cleaned. From the photos it appears some of your parts are not from a Z1. The seat cover is definitely not Z1.

What are the serial numbers for the frame and engine? Also, what size nut fits on the exhaust studs? They look to be 8 mm studs but hard to tell from the photo.

Good luck with your project. I'm always amazed at folks who disassemble a bike and then quickly lose interest in putting it back together. Below is an example of a KZ650 that a guy bought in running condition. Then he tore it all apart so he could clean everything spotless and reassemble. Of course he lost interest in it and never put it back together. His loss, someone else's gain (I hope). Ed

I fixed your pics. What is it about the crank and wrist pins? Looks like a fun project. What does Dad say?
Steve

hardrockminer wrote: Humpty Dumpty had a big fall....The easy work (tearing it apart) is done. Now comes the hard stuff...putting it back together!

Engine and related parts look good...just need to be cleaned. From the photos it appears some of your parts are not from a Z1. The seat cover is definitely not Z1.

What are the serial numbers for the frame and engine? Also, what size nut fits on the exhaust studs? They look to be 8 mm studs but hard to tell from the photo.

I got two heads with it. One has larger stud one has a smaller stud. I’ll check numbers on the bike when I get back over there this evening.
Yes and definitely lots of cleaning when I picked it up engine case was coated with blast media.

SWest wrote: I fixed your pics. What is it about the crank and wrist pins? Looks like a fun project. What does Dad say?
Steve

When I picked everything up, the dude told me that the cylinders will need to be bored. He gave me a set of pistons along with it measure 68.4 mm they were yoshimura pistons, no rings. When I was doing my bore measurements and piston measurements, I thought to myself I need to measure the wrist pins (Been down this road before with small block Ford/Chevy). Come to find out the wrist pins on those aftermarket pistons are not the same size as the pin end on the rods.
Dad is so excited, never seen him like this honestly. I think this is the only project that I bought in the past 15 years that he didn’t say, “why the he!! did you buy that junk?“