Kz 440

So, I currently have an 82 750ltd. I was searching Craigslist and this popped up.
An 83 or 84 kz440, it has no title. The guy is asking $300...it looks more like $100 to me. He claims it has all the parts with it.

What do you guys think? Should I turn and run, or check it out?

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With clean clear title, it's worth about $50 to $200 around here.
Without title, about 1/2 of that.

That is what I was thinking. The dude says if it isn't gone by Friday it is going to the scrapper. Think I start off at like $50 and see where it goes from there.

I ended up picking it up. I ran the VIN and found out it is an 81 kz440 D.

What can you guys tell me about it?

I got really worried when I saw that it had completely wrong plugs in it, but that was a simple $2 fix.

She is crazy dirty, but fired right up with freah gas and a battery.

I wasn't expecting the stator to be in oil. That really freaked me out. Luckily that accident happened after we had started it.

It also has a MAC exhaust on it, which was a nice surprise.

And a quick video of it running.

First start 81 kz440:

Looks like taking a chance paid off.

dom2570 wrote: I ended up picking it up. I ran the VIN and found out it is an 81 kz440 D.

What can you guys tell me about it?

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You are missing the air intake on the back of the airbox. A thin piece of foam secured
over the 2 holes will basically replicate the factory setup.
The belt drive can be replaced by chain and sprockets for any other model KZ400/440.
It is a direct replacement. Just make sure to get a chain with the right number of links.


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that's a 440 LTD Belt model, 6 speed belt drive and self canceling turn signals. Nice little commuter and fun to drive.

The belt outlast the rest of the bike, if you do decide to covert to chain you can sell the old belt system they are worth a bit of money.

I had one for a while...

Thanks for the info about the belt drive. I was worried the belt was going to be in bad condition, but it actually looks pretty good.

I plan on working on the carbs today. I need to order some new boots and am not sure what to do with the airbox. Am I going to have to come up with my own type of air cleaner? Would pods be easier?

dom2570 wrote: Thanks for the info about the belt drive. I was worried the belt was going to be in bad condition, but it actually looks pretty good.

I plan on working on the carbs today. I need to order some new boots and am not sure what to do with the airbox. Am I going to have to come up with my own type of air cleaner? Would pods be easier?

No, do not remove the air box. The filter that attached to the back above the battery is actually integrated into a tuned chamber. The whole thing is one piece and you can't find them any more. Lost of them got tossed because people though it was a pain to get to the battery, or they though PODS would " soup up" the 440. They actually run like crap with out factory box. Best thing to do is make an adapter to mount a 2 carb oval pod filter on the back of the air box, but you will still have to play with jetting, these bikes are set up very lean from the factory and those carbs are very temperamental.

The plus side is that that little motor runs surprisingly well when you get everything sorted out, that bike will do better than 90 mph if its running right and damn near 100 a good day.

I will have to check out some diy setups I saw a few on kz400.com that looked pretty simple. A lot of people seem to recommend the jetting kit sigma 6 sell. I think I'll check them out too.

I'm going to try and get the airbox on and rig some sort of filter up just to get the thing running.

The carbs looked like that were pretty clean. I just drenched them in carb cleaner to get the gunk off. I'll attempt to do a proper cleaning tonight.

If I fund that I really like the bike, we might try to do a single carb conversion in the future.