New member from England here, introducing myself and my '76 KZ400

wrote:

Heya, your bike looks great! I also have a 76 KZ400 but it's nowhere near ready to run so I'm jealous of yours.

That bird though... and the little "ride" sticker on its tail. I kind of love how in your face it is. I'm curious what you'll do with that in future. Hopefully you make a project thread showing it, that'd be cool.

I'm probably just looking at the photo wrong, does yours have a 2 into 1 exhaust going?

Yes it has a two into one exhaust. I can't remember the name of the brand off the top of my head, but I do remember it says made in England on it somewhere. It sounds great, though I've never heard a standard one. 
Yep the bird has definitely gotta go. I kind of like how weird it is, and would find it interesting on someone else's bike. The guy I bought it from couldn't tell me anything about it, he just said he learned to love it. I'd love to know what reason the person that put it on there had for it.
Well spotted on the ride sticker, it is a clear thing to protect the paint from zips- wouldn't want to scratch that artwork!
I've got some paint for the tank mixed up, just a question of motivation to get the tank off and painted. I am still trying to get it running spot on before focusing on aesthetics.

 

wrote:

I've got some paint for the tank mixed up, just a question of motivation to get the tank off and painted. I am still trying to get it running spot on before focusing on aesthetics.
 

Something to consider: those tanks have a tendency to rust through along the bottom and from the inside out. If you're going to repaint anyway, it might be worth stripping the tank back to bare metal (at least around the lower seam) to determine whether you have good metal or if you need to seal the inside of the tank.

I painted one several years ago that I'd gotten with a parts bike - gave it a fantastic rattle-can job - but never used it before sending it along with my brother. The first time he filled it with petrol the new paint began to bubble from a multitude of pinhole leaks.

wrote:

Yes it has a two into one exhaust. I can't remember the name of the brand off the top of my head, but I do remember it says made in England on it somewhere. It sounds great, though I've never heard a standard one.

 

Pinch of salt because I don't really know what I'm talking about but your carb jetting might be slightly off for that exhaust so that could be worth investigating for your odd running area.
The standards like yours came with a 2 - 2 exhaust and the special (budget ) version came with a 2 - 1 to cut costs and I think they were jetted differently to cope so could be worth looking into.

Mine is a special that I'm restoring so it's getting a lot of standard parts. I'm trying to tot up all the little differences like that but I'm still in the middle of it all.

Agreed, on someone else's bike that bird is kind of cool. I don't think I have the self confidence to actually ride that myself though. Makes a difference if you're the one to actually paint the thing too. You should get a printout of that bird photo and keep it under the seat with you. When you get compliments on your repaint you can be like 'Yeah check out the before!'

It looks like the offending avian is on top of the clear coat. I wonder if you could wet sand it off and then polish the clear back up. In the pics, your paint looks good aside from the feathered abomination.

Welcome to the forum Jack. Looks a good bike, is it a UK bike or an import?
Hope there is a downloadable manual on here to get all the service details from. Just go through it from start to finish and it should do the trick.
Regards

Rob B NE UK

wrote:

It looks like the offending avian is on top of the clear coat. I wonder if you could wet sand it off and then polish the clear back up. In the pics, your paint looks good aside from the feathered abomination.

​​​​​​It does look that way, especially in the picture, but unfortunately it was clear coated on top of the bird.
The paint actually looks much better in the photo than it was, it had already had an amateur paint job, with a lot of chips and crazing, so I'm not too shy about repainting it myself.
I have prepped and primed it, base coat is going on tomorrow.
 

wrote:

Welcome to the forum Jack. Looks a good bike, is it a UK bike or an import?
Hope there is a downloadable manual on here to get all the service details from. Just go through it from start to finish and it should do the trick.
Regards

Rob B NE UK

Hi Rob.

It was a UK bike from new. Do you know if there is anything different about a UK bike? Mine appears to have an unusually long, and to me dorky rear mudguard. And no grab rail, but I assume this was there but has been removed.

I'll have a read through of the manual on here.

At the moment my assumption is the running issue an air leak at the rubber carburettor boot. I have discovered the seemingly common problem of the size of boot I need not being available. I bought an ebay pair supposed to fit 74-77, but they are too small. I am going to try and seal up the cracks until I can find a new set.

Thanks, Jack.

Pinch of salt because I don't really know what I'm talking about but your carb jetting might be slightly off for that exhaust so that could be worth investigating for your odd running area.
The standards like yours came with a 2 - 2 exhaust and the special (budget

) version came with a 2 - 1 to cut costs and I think they were jetted differently to cope so could be worth looking into.

Mine is a special that I'm restoring so it's getting a lot of standard parts. I'm trying to tot up all the little differences like that but I'm still in the middle of it all.

Agreed, on someone else's bike that bird is kind of cool. I don't think I have the self confidence to actually ride that myself though. Makes a difference if you're the one to actually paint the thing too. You should get a printout of that bird photo and keep it under the seat with you. When you get compliments on your repaint you can be like 'Yeah check out the before!

Cheers for the tip. If I can't get it running right with the basic service type bits, then I shall look into the jetting. I like to hope whoever put the exhaust on would have had it running properly with it, it appears to have been on there for some time.