My Summer Project KZ750 LTD

Last winter I noticed an old bike sitting behind a house on the way to work ... All I could tell from the road was that it seemed to be a medium size bike and that it was black. It sat there and sat there and sat there and didn't move. So about mid-May or so I decided to stop and see what was up with the old bike and much to my surprise it was this 750 LTD !!!

I asked the old fella if it was for sale and he said possibly ... $600 and I could take her home ... so we put some old lawnmower gas in her and charged the battery a bit and the old 750 fired right up !!! So I went and got the cash and my trailer and we headed home.

Once home I started going over the 750 and discovered quite a few problems. Like very little left for brakes, bad chain, missing gauges, cut up wiring harness, broken stuff, poor weathered finish, etc. etc. So I started my dissassembly for repairs.

I striped it all the way to the bare frame ... sanded and reapinted everything... Replaced a ton of stuff like all new cables ... replacement gauges .... chain ... well pretty much every single sub-system on the bike needed something replaced, repaired or refinished ... here's some pics thru that progress.



As of right now she's almost done ... got some electrical gremlins to chase away. Further along than this pic shows ... the bike is actually completely reassembled at this time.

Some of the nifty little "custom" things I done along the way are fabricated some front turn signal brackets, relocated the rear turn signals, custom paint - black prismatique, and had the uplostery redone, and ditched the stock air box in favor of a set of EMGO pod filters.




The list goes on and on of things I've done to bring this old Kaw back to life ... like I said I still have electrical issues but that's for the tech section. I think I may get to ride a bit yet before winter .... wish me luck !!!

WOW that is looking good. I'm starting to get a little jealous of all the projects that are getting close to being done. Mine is a LOOOOOONG way off.

Thanks Don, I spent my entire summer doing this job .... didn't go fishing, didn't go to the races, didn't even attend one car show (I have a Pontiac Fiero "show car").

All I did was devote the past three months, or so, to this bike .... my wife has been very supportive !!!

I've already got my sights set on my next project ... alas it isn't a KAW .... but a 1984 Honda Interceptor .... we'll see ??? I haven't bought it yet but it's very tempting !!! I do have an 85 Mitsu Montero (in progress)

that I should've been working on this summer sitting in my shop right now. Maybe I'll finish that project up first.

Hi, that is looking really good. Did You fix the existing wiring harness or build a new one?

I repaired and refitted the original harness. But I am having some electrical glitches with it ... namely and mostly ... intermitant and/or weak spark ... and no tail light and no blinking blinkers (they come on left and right but don't blink) except when in 4 way flasher mode.... and then they all blink ! I'll figure everything out but dog-gone-it ... I'm tired of working on it and I want to go ride it !!!! :woohoo:

Where did you get the replacement handlebars? They look to be more comortable than the stock LTD bars I have.

My handlebars were manufactured by EMGO and I bought them new from a motorcycle parts vender off Ebay. They are much more comfortible for me than the stock pull-back type bars !!!

Have You tried the wiredgeorge coil mod? I did it on mine and that removed very much of the weak spark issue. I am in the same situation as You. Have a messed up old harness with several previous owner "enhancements" and I need to tear it up and fix it.

Nice looking bike. It's come a long way and looks great! You probably already checked it, but make sure your blinker relay is good for the turn signals. Most bikes have one for the hazards and one for the signals. Maybe you could switch them and see what happens??

Post edited by: 79MKII, at: 2007/09/19 09:38

What size is the Interceptor? I have two of the V45 (750 ) model an 84 and an 85. My roomate just picked up an 83 V45. The Kawi looks great so far man! Im headed the opposite direction..once my 85 is out of the shop from the repairs im having done to it its off to body work and a new paint scheme while i work on the lil GPz 550 i bought off of my roomate.

Wilde, One of the reasons I signed onto this forum was to find tricks like the wiredgeorge link you just provided me !!! I have already looked at the webpage and saved it into my favorites !!! Thanks !!! I was planning to completely redo my harness over the winter but was hoping to get a little ride time in before the weather turned bad. I just recieved my latest Ebay find in the mail today .... a factory service manual for my bike ! Here's hoping the manual will provide me some more insight into my problems .... the Haynes manual I have is just about totally worthless !!!!!

79MKII, my bike does have the two flasher unit system ... gonna go to the shop and try switching them around to confirm the relay is or isn't the problem ... Thanks for the tip !!!

OutlawGPz, The Interceptor I'm looking at is a 1000cc model, V65 ???, it needs the standard maintenance that any bike that has sat needs ... plus it has some broken body panels ... nothing too major I wouldn't think .... COOL Bike anyways. I loved 'em when they came out way back in the day ... lol ...

And thanks to everyone for the compliments and advise ... I'm glad I took the time to find this Forum !!!!

The V65 was the 1100 cc Magna and Sabre. The VF1000F was the loner of the group same with the VF1000R...If its the F a lot of body panels are interchangable with the V45.