Street/Strip 78' KZ1000

Hi there fellow KZ enthusiast, this is my first time posting something like this on a message board. I'm mainly doing this to get opinions about what I am attempting to build from others who have traveled this road before. Ok, enough with the pleasantries......

I traded my 86' standard Gold Wing last fall for a 78' KZ1000 A2 frame with a 77’A1 engine. Not sure is this is the stock set up, but it’s what I can tell I have from the research I did on Zedder.com. I discovered yesterday after receiving my carb rebuild kit for a 77' A1 engine, that I have carbs for a 73'-75' KZ900. So I have the correct set ordered and on the way.

The plan right now is to build a street-able (drag style) bike. This will be my second one. The first one was stolen back in 08'
I will be sacrificing a lot of comfort and some safety to achieve this style. (My favorite uncle raced funny bikes when I was a child and I've been in love with the style every sense). He used to laugh at me back in 97' when I told him we should start building these strip bikes for the street. Look at all the kids now I digress.........

A list of items that are currently on or apart of the bike.

Stock front end
Raked neck (not sure of the degree)
Vance & Hines Comp headers and megaphone
Engine appears to be stock
All electronics appear to be stock
32" MTC Engineering clubfoot swing arm with built in air tank (Measured from pivot bolt on frame to the furthest adjustment.)
18" rim cut and welded to fit an 8.5" race slick.

Everything else is stock and pretty much needs replaced, updated, rebuilt or discarded.

I'll buy most of the parts I need and will do a few self-modification. I'm sure I will have plenty of questions through this process and welcome all constructive criticism (I do like the funny and am riddled with sarcasm every day, so I can take it just as well as I can give it. : whistle: ) So enough is enough....on with the pictures.

This is how I originally received it.

looks sweet, cant wait to see it done.

Cool looking bike....I myself grew up around drag racing and stretch out kz... Looks like u got a z1r tank and side covers...pricey

Welcome aboard! There is no such motorcycle as a 1973-1975 KZ900. That is GOOD news for you, because the from 1973-1975 the big Kawasaki was the Z1. The Z1 is a highly collectable bike, and original Z1 parts can command high prices. SO, if your carbs really are form a 1973 - 1975 "900" they may be worth a fair amount of $$. It's something you should do a bit of research on before deciding what to do with them. Ed

Thanks for the info. I will do some further research on the carbs. I ordered the carb kit that matched the motor, but it turned out to be the wrong kit. I wasn't able to tell what model and year the carbs came from by looking at them (And I didn't look and research that hard) so I took the bowel gasket and top gasket out and matched them to what was displayed on the sellers advertisement. I know this could bake fire (Again) because the picture is not always accurate to what their selling. The seller is out of Japan and listed the carb set at a 73-75 KZ900. Figured they built the bike, they should know what year there parts are for. But again, there not always selling what their advertising.

I've uploaded a few pics below of the 1st carb set I received

and the listing for the second carb set I believe to be the correct set. I've also attached a pic. of the carb set itself.

1st carb kit I purchased


Original carb gaskets


This is the 2nd set I bought with the questionable advertising (Hindsight)


Carbs that came with the bike that I suspect may be kz900 carbs. (further research to come)

Thanks, I'm not too fond of the tank myself. I love the color. Almost identical in color to my 1st bike that someone wanted more then me. So I am debating between that z1 tank or the LTD tank Here is a pic of the different body parts mocked up on the bike. This stage of the bike is a long ways away though.

Howdy, and welcome to the board. Nice start on the Pro Street bike. Those aren't KZ900 carbs, those are 1975 Z1B carbs, a good 28mm street carb. I just sent you a PM, I might be interested in the carb kits you have. Holler back.

Really love the strip/street style bikes and this is looking like a wicked project. Will stay tuned for updates.

cool build you got on the go.
the blue and white is pretty flashy,which is a good thing :evil: !

keep us posted,

leon

The Z1b 28 mm are good carbs. I still have mine but put on 33's 15 years ago in case I want to go larger than 1015. You can keep them or rebuild them and sell them, with the money you can get some larger carbs.
Steve

Went through the carbs this weekend and cleaned all the ports, change some o-rings, replaced the pilot jet, replaced the gaskets, lubed the slides and documented all the jet sizes and needle position. All in all, with the repair manual (Thanks to my local library) the process is pretty straight forward. The book called for a 112.5 main jet and I found a 117.5 main jet in it. So someone has at least upgraded that in the past. I assume this was done due to the upgrade to the 4 into 1 Vance & Hines exhaust. I'm not sure if the pistons are stock and wont find out (willingly) until this winter. Can't tell if any head work has been done. From the look if the ports I would say no.

While working on the bottom side of the carbs I did find one problem. I could not find a description of the pipe so maybe one of you can let me know what I'm looking at. Also let me know if I should replace it and how, I tried turning it but didn't feel like it wanted to go. It almost looks like a fuel pick up or siphon. There are what looks like vertical hairline fractures on it. See pic below. Thanks all.

Here is the pipe

I also need a #3 or #4 bowl anyone out there have one they would like to get rid off?


Someones trying to make this difficult for me :evil: