1975 KZ 900 , ZRX Swingarm, 89 GSXR front end

Congratulations on a running project. Slowly but surely some of our hybrid bikes are comming together. I'm looking forward to hearing how the first few rides go!

OOOhh Glenlivet! Now you're talking. I've got a birthday just around the corner. I may have to splurge and get a bottle of that.

I know the feeling of that hair raising ride. It doesn't take long before you will be pushing limits. I know that I had mine in triple digits today. Good idea to go over everthing after the first couple of rides. I had lots of engine fasteners loosen after the first heat/cool cycle.

tk11b40 wrote:

...spark looks weak, running the old points....

If not already done, would:
Clean/dress contacts;
Adjust gap;
Set timing;
Determine voltage being received at coils, and compare to actual battery voltage (ideally should be the same);
Ohm-test both coils' primary and secondary windings;
Assure integrity of plug wires (no cracks or leakage, and good connections at both ends), and caps;
Visually observe spark on new plugs before installing them.

Thanks for information about the battery.

Good Fortune!

Way to go Ted!! Awesome buddy

Damage report follows:

Ok so I got one float that must be mis adjusted, the fuel sounded like it hydrolocked the motor for a fraction of a second.

Then it turned over normally, number three cylinder was firing this time with new plug, fartin and poppin alittle. i think my advance mechanism is malfunctioning.

Warmed it up, shut it down.

Rolloed it off the ramp and inot the street.

CLICK!!!! CLick CLick.....

Battery shows 15 Volts, wierd. Pull battery it loks like someone threw it into the freezer cause its all swolllen up on the sides. A severe case of over charging is at hand.

150 dollar battery is smoked. I was so pissed, I was actually gonna ride the thing had it started, there could not have been 15 minutes between running it and rolling it off the bench and NOTHING!!!!!

I am going to take a break from the project for a month, then look into what happend. I am reasonably sure:

1. The floats need adjustment.
2. The old rectifier is toast,and feeding 100% amperage into the battery.
3. The points are going into a target board to be shot. I will be going with electronic ignition, and rectifier before starting it again.

Those of you reading this could really help me cypher the charging thing. I have had several KZ's and charging is always an issue.

4. the bike is beautiful sitting on the ground, it is so compact, looks half the size of my Ducati Monster. It will be a joy to ride.

AFTER I FIX MORE STUFF!!!!!!

Don't be discouraged man, not even for a minute! You are 99.99999% there dude. Momentary setbacks are to be expected. Fix the issue and drive on brother! This beast will roar!!

Lead, follow or get out of the way! Ain't nothing but a thing....

Ted let me re-enforce what Marneman says. I know that you have been at this long enough to pay your dues, but it seems that we all get our test of faith on these projects. Mine was the paint. In your case it's the charging. One thing that I have learned about these type of projects is that you work very hard to get it right, and I know that you, like me, are a perfectionist. However, the fact that you built it with your own hands means that you will know about every flaw, regardless of how minor. You gotta get past that, and push through to the finish line.

You probably have the same problem with the charging that I had. My voltage regulator had gone south, and it was charging at 14VDC at idle, and 17VDC + at 4000 rpm. I ordered a combo, rectifier/voltage regulator from Z1E for about $100, and that fixed my problems. I fried one of my LED taillights before I solved the problem, and I consider myself lucky that I didn't kill my Dyna 2000.

If I were you, I would get the cheapest battery that fits to get the bike running, and then go through all of the electrical checks in the service manual. I bet that if you take even a week off, you will want to get it done, and go right back to work. Good luck bud, you'll get it, we got faith in ya!

Just like testa says,with these old bikes we all have some issue or another.thats half the fun trying to figure out whats wrong???? hopefully not spending to much time and money to get it right.while farting around with my stock ign. I found my advance seized and the rotor 180 degrees out of alighnment.spent the whole day reading ign. section of forum looking for answers.what a great feeling to finally figure it out and take the bike for the first ride.looking at your bike and your attention to detail that day will come.and it will be well worth it.

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

I am sticking to freezing the project for a month. i seriously wanted to take a hammer to it that day, it would have been very unfortunate.

I want to photograph it next to the Ducati, it is amazing how much smaller it seems than the Duc.

The Ducati monster is not exacly a large frame bike, and it seems to dwarf the KZ. That makes it all the cooler.

i have a reg rec that i bought as a spare from ebay. it says 80 ltd.
its yours for free if, it will help put a on your face.

I wanna do that one day. Way badass, man.

Allright it has been a couple weeks, and still i have not taken a Hammer to the KZ. All is good.

I promised a profile photo, against the Monster.

It is amazing ow much smaller the KZ looks. I lined the two bikes up "bar to bar", to get a profile photo.

The Monster is small compared to most modern litre bikes, the KZ even smaller. So cool, it's like an XR 100 frame.

I hope you can see the difference from these photo's.