Doctorot's '78 KZ1000 build

On the rust you may want to just use a little oil on a fine plastic abrasive pad. If you use sandpaper or steel wool you will have to deal with removing all the little bits of sand or steel strands. Ed

I have been fiddling with the engine on and off for the past two weeks. I sanded down the paint on some covers. I installed the bottom end in the frame with the new motor mounts. I have put on the shift linkage cover and output sprocket so i can now check for chain clearances when I am bracing the frame. I replaced all those crappy screws with allen bolts.
I went to install the clutch basket and found a large problem. the clutch basket must be assembled on the input shaft prior to the cases being put together. which now means I have to take apart everything I just did. :pinch:
I was pretty bummed when i realized this, so I stacked the rest of the engine on there to see what it would look like. I think I'm gonna keep the head plain, or hit it with clear gun kote because Larry Cavanaugh did a beautiful job bead blasting it. APE blasted the jugs when they bored them out and its a bit darker so i think I'm going to paint that and sand the fins down. Always liked that look.
Also how crucial is this foam thing? I assume its for vibration reduction. I'm thinking about ditching it in an effort to reduce the weight of this bike, should I keep this?

That foam thing is a sound arrester. Ed

i do not run my sound arrester and can tell no difference i could be deaf or just a dumba$$ but i can't tell the diff.

the clutch basket is made to be romoved or replaced without splitting the cases.

what makes you think it can't be?

leon

Well I just held it up to the opening and it is much wider, i dont see how it could possibly fit in there without opening the cases. excuse my ignorance if there is something i'm missing. (i hope there is)

after reviewing the manual i believe that you are right sir.
you will have to split the cases to get the basket in there :pinch: .

leon

From FSM, if needed:





Good Fortune!

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finally made some progress on the bike after 2 months of not doing anything. I cut out the templates for the gussets. I plan on cutting and dimpling holes in a few of them. Just got these for way too cheap,


I'm wondering how they good they are going to hold up for dimpling 1/8" steel. ive heard that the el cheapo ones and cause the sheet to warp when using 1/8" or thicker. I guess we'll see.

I think i need to make the gusset in blue bigger,

but im worried it will make it hard to access the coils or something else. does anyone have dimensions on what they have done? I really want to put a gusset in the front(in green)I havent seen it done yet, but im sure someone has. its probably overkill, but it will look so damn cool.


I'm worried about being able to paint the back of the green gusset once its welded in. Should i drill a hole in this? or can i just cut it out as i will add bracing to the outside that will be doing the same thing. thoughts?

I have also been waiting for my friend in Portland to finish setting up his machine shop. He recently bought a ton of new tools and had to move to a bigger shop. he tells me he has a lathe, mill, and a bunch of sheet metal tools. Hopefully I will head down there with the bike for a few days to to help my buddy crank out a bunch of the more technical things i want to do to this bike.

i've slowly been ordering the electric components for this bike. I wanted to ditch the mechanically driven gauges for something a bit more modern. I will be getting a GPS speedo and a electronic tach from speed hut. I talked to them on the phone and got them to send me the templates for the gauges so i could design them myself with out having to pay their art dept. $80 and hour to do something I am more than capable of doing. here are three designs, wanted to try and stay relatively close to the stock gauges.

this is with the "ticks" that same in the template

this is with the ticks redrawn, to look like the orignal gauges.

kinda like the redline like this. it will be easier to see out of peripheral vision. thoughts?

i like the red bar.

not the red ticks and #'s

leon

started thinking about how i wanted to brace the swing arm. I did two mock-ups.
this one with an x-brace.




Then I thought it might be cool to have a trellis swing arm.


but i started worrying about chain clearance and threw it back on the frame to check. had to move the braces around a bit, but this way there is only one bent brace.



yeah i used clay, dowels, and pvc. its a mock-up, don't judge. :whistle:



what type of room do i need around the chain? horizontal vs, vertical clearance?



right now i have about 1" below, 2" above and a half inch on either side. its hard to tell in the pictures.
I haven't attempted anything like this before so any advice is welcome.