Retroactive KZ750E Project Thread

Service manual calls for 1.0mm max valve seat width, but one side of the intake valves were at 1.5mm and the other 1.0. Kawasaki apparently was really sloppy with their machine work. Was trying to figure out what Neeway cutters to order when I decided to see that a 75* Suzuki cutter would do. Low and behold, it was the perfect size to narrow down the seat width. Learned that the valve seat angles for this head are not consistent because the 75* cutter only contacted the seat on the area as needed. Call it a gift from God on Christmas day. Happy now!

A local shop called Costa Mesa R&D cleaned up the valve faces for me. The owner is awesome and has lots of nifty videos on You Tube. He did the valves on the spot and only charged me $20. He had to cut them more than I thought they would need because they were not properly concentric. They are good to go now though...

Ditched the clean air injection system...

Rebuilding the clutch hub...

Some guy on the KZ650 site sells these nifty neoprene clutch hub bumper thingies that really tighten up the clutch action. With the stock bumpers the clutch had quite a bit of play, but none with the new bumpers.

Polished the engine cases. Restoration process included the following:

- Glass bead blast the cover. Was hoping this would remove the corrosion pitting but no. Had to go to step two...

- DA sander with 220 grit paper to remove corrosion pitting.

- Sisal wheel on buffer with black cutting compound, Not going for a mirror polish job, so no need to use rouge compounds and fluffy buffing wheels.

- Mothers polish by hand (quicky job) to remove any buffing marks.

- Mask and paint the background color with VHT engine paint. Baked the paint for an hour and then used sandpaper to highlight the lettering.

Primary drive cush hub dampers were crushed/shrinked some so there was play (lash). Had a dickens of a time getting my hands on these little buggers but had success in the end. I actually wound up with two sets (a long story)...

Bottom end back together.

Starting to look like a motorcycle.

Was considering a Supertrapp header system at that time but went with stock pipes in the end...

No photos for this entry...

Struggled to get the charging system working as it should. Even though the no load AC voltage from the stator was over 70 VAC the stator output to the battery was only 13.7 volts at best. Wound up trying a couple different stators before realizing they were all bad. In the end I would up with a Ricks stator and bingo, 14.5 volts just like it should be.

First test ride.

Note the GPz750 oil cooler...

Sent the pipes out to get ceramic coated. They look good in the photo but in truth, there was a fair bit of rust on the underneath side.

While waiting for the pipes a second set of carbs was done out of boredom mostly. I've become an expert on redoing these Keihin's...

Black pipes...