The Friendship Bike - NobleHops restores a 75 Z1

P.S. to my "thank you" post: Thanks most of all to Steve West for a LOT of help, in this thread and one-to-one. Steve, you're a huge asset to this community, many thanks.

OK, back to the wrap-up. For no good reason other than the infamous "while I'm here" I skinned the starter to see what service I could give it before reassembly.

Found a pretty nominal amount of carbon brush dust and goo, tarnish on the commutator, but in fact everything was in good condition, including the brushes. When I was buying parts I could not find a rebuild for this particular starter, although just about every other KZ bike had a kit available, so I took a flyer and bought a starter rebuild kit for a KZ900 (might have been a 1000), hoping it might be the same. The bad news was that it wasn't, exactly. Seems like the later starter is just a skosh bigger in diameter so the gaskets for the case didn't fit. but the seal and the bearing did. and so would have the bushing in the cap, but the one that was in there was fine, and a PITA to extract, so I didn't use it.

Cap and brush end:

Windings and commutator at right:

Body, permanent magnets, manky sheath.

I removed the sheath altogether (wire was in perfect shape and seemed well insulated as it was,), cleaned each ring terminal and replaced the boot for the lead. Cleaned up everything, paying particular attention to the grooves on the commutator (neglected to photo that). Polished up the commutator surface till it looked like a new penny though. Replaced the seal. bearing and O-ring at the output end, vapor blasted the case, and put it back together.

1 hour and $18 later, it looks and worked like new. Next!

I was ready for a fight from the alternator and I'm not sure why, but that went back together easily. Polished up the end of the crankshaft as prior, scrounged up the woodruff key, and after a minor around of wiggling and puzzling I got the rotor on.

Popped the stator back in, found my original grommet intact and pretty soft, so I sealed its edges and filled that cavity with high temp RTV. pressed the grommet back in place and bolted it up to cure under pressure. Fingers crossed I don't get a leaker, but I know what to do and I have new grommets in hand if it does.

Marty (Z1KZonly) super kindly mailed me a few better connectors for the other end, so (after a bit of puzzling figuring out that the tangs to disengage the wires are on the SIDES on these connectors) I extracted the wires, cleaned and inspected the terminals, and then reinstalled then into the new connector.

Marty's connector, reference for the wire positions:

It's a little thing, but I am happy to have this better connector on there, and the electrical connections perfectly clean and renewed.

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Coupla engine reassembly notes. Got a lot of well qualified advice from several folks on sealing up the engine, but not all of it the same. I settled on the use of a Permatex copper gasket sealant, sprayed on. Sprayed both gaskets, installed the O-Ring, and attempted to use some cheap-ish Pit Posse piston ring compressors to install the pistons.

Got my ass kicked for a bit this way, punted and went back to putting the pistons in two at a time, with my helper on one and me on the other, cramming the rings in the good old fashioned way, with our fingertips. Worked fine

Bolted up the head, following the sequence and torque specs carefully, installed the upper cam bearings for safekeeping. Will retorque the head after a proper heat-cycling as prescribed.

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Can't find my head assembly photos, although I feel sure I took them! Larry Cavanaugh had coached me to make certain everything fit together and the bearing caps fit onto the dowels with no resistance, so I spent some quality time with the thread repair taps chasing all the threads and checking the fit of the dowels before I installed the cams and caps.

Read several threads about the cam installation (including some with sad endings) and went pretty carefully about that. Got the cams installed and timed correctly, and the tensioners and idlers all installed with new rubber damping pads.

Measured and and adjusted all the valve clearances once everything was torqued, twice for good measure. My machinist tipped the valves but even so I needed some pretty skinny shims in a few to get them adjusted, I will check that again after a few outings to see how things bed in - they are on the looser end of the spec for starters.

Installed the new shifter springs, engine oil seals, grabbed a couple of big bucks from the business next door, and we put that sucker in the frame. Always a happy moment.

Installed the starter, ignition and covers, clutch cover and gasket, generator cover...

Tidied up the Dyna coils, made some new 7mm plug wires for them, and fussed for a solid hour getting them installed to my liking. Very snug fit to the top frame backbone. Thoughts on that?

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Looks good.
Steve

Put the rear end back together, fenders, taillight, turnsignals, bracket, wiring, dampers, yadda.This thing is looking more and more like a motorcycle.

Installed a new 630 chain and sprockets, stock gearing.

Thrashed for a solid hour getting the rear brake rod, arms, brake switch rid and spring, and lever installed. Should have been 15 minutes! Discovered a slightly tweaky brake lever - that's gonna need a little heat and coercion to straighten it a skosh.

On to the front of the bike: Installed the front calipers, discovering along the way that I had two left brake pipes, and no rights, because apparently the part does not exist! My local Pirtek guys kick ass though, and make me a matching pair using the left that I had as a pattern and they both fit perfectly.

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Installed this lovely Doremi exhaust system. Wow - this is a beautiful set of pipes, and the fit and ease of installation were frankly awesome.

I had to just sit there and stare at these for a while. To me they just make the bike.

Installed the rear grab bar, tailsection. Oh boy, painted parts!

Got my ass kicked again by the seat latch, installing the teeny washer on the actuator rod. Tip for the next guy: Put a dab of the stickiest grease you have on your fingertip, put the washer on that, close your eyes and "use the force" to get it on in the right orientation.

On to the front of the bike. Installed the handlebars, gauges, and finalized the front wiring.

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Installed the clutch, tach, speedo and throttle cables. Using a new modern Nissin radial 5/8 master cylinder to go with the dual calipers. Powdercoated the brake and clutch levers black. Installed the front fender, brake lines and splitter, filled and bled the brakes. Gave 'er a smooch

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Treat the inside of the pipes with high temp paint or grease. Keep them from blueing.
Steve

Onto the painted bodywork! Flat badge, meet compound-curved tank:

My indentured buddy took a short length of 2" steel pipe and used it like an English wheel, gently rolling the badge over the pipe with pressure and checking the fit. Bend, test fit on the tank, bend, test fit. Worked great.

Ditto on the sidecover badge:

Put the tank and the sidecovers on, installed the seat, removed my grubby handprints and tidied up some tools, took a few steps back and saw this

and as you previously saw, we took that stuff back off, hooked up some gas, hit the starter for the first time, and got this (click for the video):

I've got some loose ends to attend to this coming week before I ride it and shake down the inevitable bugs. I need to rebuild and install the petcock, fuel lines, and sync the carbs. That may be as good a time as any to re-torque the head. Brakes might like one last bleed and check for leaks, but maybe not, they were pretty good when we finished them. Ignition was quickly static-timed, and I need to revisit that more carefully and check the advance timing with a light. Clutch and throttle and cables need adjusting. Headlight looks dingy, need to source a new replacement. That's all I can think of, then it's time for a test ride :woohoo:

For sure I will be back shortly with more questions plus some riding and suspension impressions. So stay tuned as this project winds down, and thanks again fellas,

N.

Street Fighter LTD wrote: So Nils
Whats next
Dave

Thank you Dave

There is an '81 CB750F getting started. It's apart, frame and stands are going out for powdercoat this week. It's getting a light restomod, will look like a period bike, but with graphics modeled after a CB900F, 1100F wheels, uprated suspension and ignition, custom seat, black-painted engine. Should be a sweet mild custom with mildly upped performance, brakes, and handling, but will look 100% 'of the era'. I'll post a link to that build thread shortly, just getting spooled up on that.

Then there is another Z1, a CBX, an XS650, two SOHC CB750Ks and a couple of CT70s....

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

pete greek1 wrote: I nominated your bike , for BOTM, It'll be well deserved
Pete

Pete, that is super cool and very flattering too. Thanks for doing that, and for your help with this project.

Nils