First KZ project…. 1980 KZ1000

Its been to many years but my memory says that when my cousin owned the bike he used to fill the crankcase to just above the sight glass because otherwise the oil light would occasionally come on.
The only thing I know for certain is he always filled it that high, I may be making up the oil light thing...Im getting old and theres too may memory floating around in there...LOL
He had some strange ideas on certain things.
I can't wait to go through the carbs because I also know he ran the jets really rich and lowered the floats really low which seems crazy and the plugs are BLACK BLACK, I am not looking forward to jetting this thing those carbs are horrible to get off and on.

aquaholic wrote: on my 1981 KZ100 J1 you can shift from neutral and 1st gear but not any of the higher gears without the bike moving. You Tube video link from a motorcycle Technical School attached below to explain why. Let me know how you make out but looks good from your pictures. Well worth the watch. Hope it helps, it helped me out of a jam. Let me know. jon

This is some of the best info I've got off this site so far, this would have drove me nuts while building my 1100...

Joe

What I find most interesting about that video is that in more than 20 years, that tech has not bothered to find out what those balls are for or what the mechanism is called.

Thought I wold post my horrible attempt to put it in the oil gate….. :blink:

Looked at all the posts on gates and figured this is a snap, found a small hinge that would work with some mods and a small bolt and went for it.
It didn't go well although the end result will work. ( I hope)
For some reason, although I really thought I figured it all out, I managed to drill to close to a fin on the oil pan..UHG!
So I ground out the fin a bit and flattened the area for the bolt, used some epoxy ,then I installed the modded hinge and found that it would not close when doing a water test unless the hinge was at the same angle as the stock baffle channels. So I used a old feeler gauge for a stop.
All in all it will be fine but I wish I could do it over ….Maybe someday. It opens and closes with easy as water passes by it , It didn't leak with water or gas in the pan.

Should have mounted it with the screw holding the gate into the web so that you don't need to puncture the base of the pan.
David

Oil pans are pretty easy to find and cheap. I would think that is going to leak after some heat cycling. R

I looked at mounting it to the web and played around with the idea. I even held the hinge in place there and did a water test I could not get the gate to close unless it was almost closed from the start. It had to be at an angle that caught enough fluid to close the gate other wise the fluid flowing behind the gate wouldn't let it close until almost all the fluid was past the gate. And the gate moves so easily you could blow it shut with slight puff of breath from your mouth. I even polished the hinge pin and installed it facing the pan so it cannot come off unless the hinge is removed so it didn't need to be staked to stay in place. I wanted really free movement.
I looked at the bottom of the pan and found a nice flat spot where if I placed the bolt it would work as a stop and hold the gate at an angle that allowed it to open and close as the water passed by it. I was not afraid of leaks a bit a little 1104 sealant ..no problem…
Ya right !!! until I somehow managed in my head to screw up the location of the bolt hole :sick:

I know the oil pans are cheap that is why I continued on..it was too late and I will replace it if I have to.
I would have the same thought as you rr on leaking but I do have epoxy holes in both my GS and my H2 (neither of with where my fault ..LOL )
The GS has been epoxied for nearly 30 yrs now and the motor has been rebuilt twice (those where my fault :evil: ) and Im still on the original epoxy with no leaks.

Time will tell and I am glad the pans are cheap and relatively easy to replace,
Making mistakes is part of life but stupid ones SUCK.


Meanwhile I hope to have it back in the frame next week and start on the carb rebuild.

Yeah, it will probably hold there, no high high oil PSI there in the pan. And no one sees that side, most of the time. HAhahaha R

rrsmsw9999 wrote: Yeah, it will probably hold there, no high high oil PSI there in the pan. And no one sees that side, most of the time. HAhahaha R

Ya..just don't look :ohmy:
I went and looked at the epoxy on my GS, the big difference is it is not in the oil bath, it is on the upper case above the oil line and it wasn't a hole but a crack , And on the H2 it is on the cylinder intake and it was a pin hole, not in oil at all just under pressure and vacuum which I did a pressure test when I built it and it passed, and also if that one leaked I would burn a piston quickly I think. So they are both different than this, but the epoxy has held nicely . I also have the intake ports epoxied on my GS and it holds fine, if that falls off it will be spectacular!!
SOOOOO , I may be looking at a leak, we will see.
I have made worse and more costly mistakes

Any advice on getting the aluminum on the carbs back to the factory aluminum look,
I have read a lot on the pinesol thing…and even concrete etching, dip it quick and rinse. I don't want a polished look just clean aluminum.
maybe soda blasting??

Berryman's Chemdip. The gallon jug won't submerge all of them but it worked great. Nice and clean stock look. R

Chem dip is great BUT do not leave it in there for a long time lol. Forgot mine was in there and a month later it was a nice grey color lol

Best way to brighten up the carbs is media blasting. I do them all the time but it is time consuming. Carb dip will darken the metal if you leave the carbs in for too long. Ultrasonic cleaning brightens the metal but nothing looks as nice as media blasting.