650 Mod's 78 Fighter Build

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationBTW, he has a version that goes all the way around the headlight too but I'm putting on road lights under my headlight and that wouldn't work for me.

Dyna S are made for 4 OHM and up. You set the timing at full advance with a light then lower the idle.
That's it.
Steve

GPZ- Those look pretty nice on the bike. I might just have to swing this way as half of my mirror is also cut off by my shoulders... What's the point of having a mirror there if you can only see your shoulder, right? I'll have to check them out and snag a pair. I'm running a set of superbike's on my bike, so I have roughly the same issue as you with the drags. I'm interested to see how the bike looks with the signals on the bar ends, that's a pretty good idea actually. That other flyscreen looks like it would surround too much of the light and really close off the front end, might look good on a full fairing bike, but on these bikes, I find just the upper lip does the trick.

Steve- so I'll be fine running the coils I am with the Dyna and shouldn't have issues as long as my battery is decent? I've just statically set the timing up right now, and it seems to be ok- fires up quick, snappy on the throttle, smoother idle.

I borrowed a timing light from my buddy, but I think I can only use this one to time dynamically. So I came up with an idea for a static timing light. I grabbed a spare 12 volt auto interior bulb, some electrical tape, and a few lengths of wire and MacGyver'd myself a sweet little functioning unit. It's not the prettiest thing, but she does the trick. I peeled back the connector tip on the coil line, and held one end of the wire in place with an alligator clip. The other end just got grounded to the engine.



When I turned the engine and lined the F mark up to the case marking for cylinder 1-4, up came the light and I tightened the plate down. I then moved to 2-3, and did the same thing. Lined up the F mark for 2-3, and had to shift the dyna pick up just a hair to get it to line up.



I have to adjust the float in one more carb tomorrow too... I came home to a small puddle of fuel on the garage floor... I'll have some time tomorrow to do a dynamic time on the bike, and then can take her for a spin to see what it's like. From what I've experienced in the change over so far, I like it. Quicker cold start, smoother idle, quicker throttle response.

I'm still wondering what wire I need to splice into in order to run my tach, It's leveled off a little since switching to the Dyna, but it's still a little jumpy.

One more step in the right direction on this one. There's slowly fewer things left to do before I get the bike to right where I want it to be. For now, I just care that I have a sweet ride that I can get saddle time in

Devin

You have to set the timing at full advance with a timing light to get it right.
Steve

Steve- what RPM do I have to have the bike running at to get it to hit full advance? I'm assuming it's pretty well the same full timing set up that's in the FSM, just apply it to the electronic ignition? I'll get the book out in the morning and take a peek, refresh myself on things before I fire it up to dynamically set the timing up.
Thanks Steve!

Devin

From the Kawasaki Service Manual - KZ650 timing advance finishes between 3,000 - 3,400 rpm. Ed

Thanks, Ed! I just did a refresher read through the FSM to check this. I'm just about to head out to the garage to check static timing once more then fire it up and check dynamic. Thanks!

Devin

Make sure you have plenty of idle adjustment room so you can turn down the idle. The advance will go back down to the F mark if the advance is working properly.
Steve

So this morning when I went to the garage, I had a nice puddle of fuel under the tank (I had it off and sitting on a saw horse so I could check the static timing) The fuel tap STILL doesn't want to seal off properly and fully shut off when the bike is turned off, and the tap is in the ON position. I've recently replaced the diaphragm skin itself, and stretched the spring a little to tense up on the plunger. Today I took the tap off and replaced the o-ring on the tap, and the round rubber gasket that lets the fuel run to each setting. The tap STILL doesn't close off fully, so I'm thinking this is where my float bowl issue is coming from (not just having floats slightly too high). I'm considering a few options- one being to find a replacement used stock petcock and try that out, I like the simplicity of setting it to ON and not having to worry about shutting the tap off every time. Or I'm considering an aftermarket petcock now. What are people's experiences with stock units, as in have you had issues like mine? What else could I try to do to save my stock unit? And if you've run an aftermarket petcock, what do you think? I'm starting to think that this is why my cyl #2 is still running a bit rich as there is still a small amount of fuel making it past the diaphragm.

At idle, the F mark is just a hair to the left on both 1-4 and 2-3. I think this means my timing is slightly advanced at idle? When I set the idle to 3,000 RPM, the timing marks to the right of either 2-3 or 1-4 line up. Should I then adjust my low idle timing? It idles super smooth and doesn't hiccup on take off.

After letting the bike warm up, I went out for a 10km shake down ride, Gave it a few hard smacks on the throttle to check to see what response would be, did a few slow roll ons, and it all seems to be fine throughout the full range to redline. What I can say from the limited number of KM's so far is what a difference. Easier cold starts, snappier throttle response, and it picks up HARD throughout the rev range. I'm impressed so far.

Here's what the plugs look like at idle after being ridden for 10km. From left to right is cyl #1 to #4. One is ok, a little rich if anything. 2 is where I'm having either the leaky valve stem seal or the damn petcock issue over fueling the cylinder. 3 is pretty well right on the money- a nice coffee and cream tan. And 4 is a little lean it looks like . BUT #4 I'm running a Champion N3C plug on right now because I don't have 4 NGK B8ES to run. The N3C is the equivalent to the B8ES, but could be a little hotter of a plug, I'll be picking up 4 new NGK B8ES today and I'll do a shakedown with it later.



I'll post pictures up after I get some mileage on the new plugs. Any input with my issues is always appreciated.

Devin

WAIT!

NGK-B8ES is NOT the correct plug! It's temperature range is too cold for the KZ650. The correct spark plug is NGK-B7ES or ND-W22ES-U. The very first issue of the Kawasaki SHOP Manual (printed April, 1976) showed the wrong plug type. Kawasaki discovered the error and every later issue of the Kawasaki SERVICE Manual shows the correct plugs (see image below). I learned this the hard way having run the wrong plugs for years and then always wondering why they tended to foul. Ed

There's so many conflicting posts between which plugs to run on these bikes I just re-checked my manual as well and see that it is, in fact, a B7ES that I should be running. Thanks for the save, Ed! I'll pick a new set of B7ES up today then and give them a go. I'll have to do a few plug checks after to make sure I'm not running hot with this new plug. I'm sure it will work out just fine on my bike I'll also re-do my pilot tune after.

Ed- are you still running the stock petcock on your old girl? Have you had any issues like what I'm going through? I remember last year you were really helpful in getting some issues sorted out with the over fueling I was having issues with.

Devin

I'm still running the stock petcock, but the ones that came on the 1977 KZ650 models are manual, so they tend not to leak. The later, automatic ones, with the diaphragms tend to have problems. I suspect the problems with the diaphragms can be attributed to diaphragm age and ethanol fuel. Ed