KZ750E1 to ??? project

I've never started a project bike thread because I usually end up switching horses in mid stream and they never get finished

But this one's different, it's "The" bike, the one that just grabbed me and said "Come on, let's go with it and see where we end up", and I have been working on it slowly and steadily.

Probably should have called this thread "El Cheapo 750 Project, because it is being done on less than a shoestring budget, as in unemployed and living by myself. But hey, if it was easy anyone could do it, right?

To start at the beginning (good place I guess), I bought the bike from a former member that lived in WI and bought the bike on eBay for $250. As it happened, the bike was 45 miles from here (Eaton IN), and about 350 miles from him, and he didn't really want the bike anyway. So I Reimbursed him the $250 and went and picked up the bike.

Turned out to be a sorry excuse for a 1980 KZ750E (but I already knew that), this bike had been sitting outside so long that the chain had rusted into a solid bar. Ever trying pushing a KZ750E with a locked rear wheel? Good thing I had GPzIfested with me, he picked up the rear end and I steered it with the handlebars, sure am glad that boy took up weightlifting

So, that was last year (never claimed to be fast), and I have slowly been accumulating parts since then.

Parts list and prices as near as I can recall.

KZ750E $250
GPz750 cams $30 (eBay)
Standard GPZ750 rings ($35 eBay)
.020" Oversize GPz750 pistons ($45 eBay)
.020" Oversize rings ($55 eBay, took me a year of searching)
Wiseco 810 kit ($300 minus head gasket)
3 (I think) sets of 4 into one headers ($??)
4 or 5 mufflers ($??)
99 GSX750 forks and wheels ($100)
GPz750 swingarm ($??)
3 KZ750 motors and 2 GPz750 motors ($100)
MegaSquirt $140
GPz750 Turbo throttle bodies ($35)
Steering stem adapter bearings from All Balls ($32)
KZ550 six speed trasmission (??)

That's all I can recall at the moment.

Motor turned out to be from a 81 KZ750H and was in decent condition aside from the 5 pulled carb manifold screws, don't know how anyone could strip out 5 of the 8 screws, but they did.

I'm building this bike to be comfortable for me, to ride the way I want to ride it, and doing 99.9% of the work myself (Can't afford to pay anyone).

The Plan (yeah, right):

I did sorta have a plan, until I saw a pic of a ZR750 and realized I was building a clone

That rankled a bit, I've never been a follower and have no intention of starting now! Kawasaki did a fine job of designing the ZR750 (wish I could afford one), and I'm not going to build a poor imitation!

So now where?
Well, since the power train and running gear are going to be similar to the ZR750 and there's nothing I can do about that, that leaves the body. How about a handmade tank/seat/sidecover one piece fiberglass body like the Tracy but in a cafe style? Hmm, have to think about that since I don't know much about building stuff out of fiberglass.

Enough of this, my two typing fingers are getting tired, I'll go take some pics so I can show you where I'm at now.

To be continued

Ever trying pushing a KZ750E with a locked rear wheel?

hahahahahaha...

Shit I've been there, try pushing a heavy ass locked rear wheel KZ900 up a ramp into a truck. I even cut the friggin chain off and it still didn't roll. Had to pick up the rear and carry the old bitch. Nearly broke my old ass back. :woohoo:

We need pictures of this beauty...

Old Man Rock

First pic is of the (lowbuck) shop (part of it anyway), if it works, otherwise I'll have to upload them to photobucket and link them (probably a good idea anyway).


Hey! It worked!! Too bad I can't put more than one pic per post though

damn, for $250 she looks in fairly decent shape. Obviously unknown regarding the mechanical aspects but for $250... Seems like a true bargain.

OMR

Old Man Rock wrote:

damn, for $250 she looks in fairly decent shape. Obviously unknown regarding the mechanical aspects but for $250... Seems like a true bargain.

OMR

That's GPzInfested's 85 GPz750 Turbo in the foreground, with my 79 750 twin behind it, and GPzInfested's 79 KZ650 SR with GPz750 motor and suspension behind it.
Tack another 0 on that $250 for the Turbo

Here's the 750E, as you can see there is no comparison

99 Suzuki GSX600/750 front end.
Went on easy, $32 for adapter bearings for the steering stem and stick the top clamp upside down in the mill to face off .125" of the boss on the bottom. I used 750 twin rubber gauge mounts to mount 750 twin pedestal handlebar mounts in the GSX top clamp, tapered holes were already in the top clamp so all I had to do was run the threads on up the mount shaft then cut it off shorter. Superbike bar was on my 750 twin when I fell off last time, it's a bit bent but it works to move the bike around.

99 GSX750 wheel (17x4.5) on the 83 GPz750 swingarm mounted.

Swingarm was a fairly easy install, just had to shorten the sleeves on each side to fit between the frame. GPz750 pivot bolt is 17mm while KZ750E is 16mm, and it has a 16mm bolt in it at the moment. I'll either drill the frame out with a 17mm drill bit (that I have), or bore it out with a boring bar (that I made for that purpose) chucked in a 1/2" drill motor. Probably do one or the other tomorrow.

99 GSX750 axle is the same diameter as the GPz750 axle, so the wheel went right on, only problem was that the sprocket set out about 3/8" to far. Took me a little while to figure out how to cut the sprocket mount back since the bearing was in the way. Finally made an arbor that was a tight fit in the hub, in the lathe. To make sure it was true I made the arbor on the lathe and fitted the hub to it without ever removing the arbor. After it was mounted it was simple to cut 3/8" off the face.

Still have to do spacers, but right now I'm looking for a laser pointer to borrow so I can make a sprocket alignment tool. Once I figure out how much offset I am going to need in the front sprocket I'll make the spacers out of a chunk of titanium I have. There a 5/8" offset sprocket on there right now, and that's too much.


It's looking like I'm going to have to pay someone to weld the shock and brake stay mounts on the swingarm (dual shocks), bummer

Couldn't find the laser pointer so I just used a long piece of key stock to align the sprockets after centering the wheel. Looks like I'm going to need a 10mm offset front sprocket. AFAM has a 10mm offset sprocket in 520 chain size and 17 teeth, and a 520 would sure help out on the tire clearance, 530 would be really close to the tire.

Chucked the piece of titanium in the lathe and started to make the spacers today (forgot to take pics as usual), but had to stop as the pain from the injuries from my last fall off got too bad. I can only work about three hours at the moment, but I'll heal sooner or later.

Discovered HSS (High Speed Steel) tool bits work really well on titanium