KZ650 cafe-racer

I am inclined to agree with you, I absolutely agree that components that are no longer serviceable should be replaced but these parts aren't cheap and is easy to get into a "spend fest" As long as you can remove any ridges from the housing and the rollers don't reach the end of the tapered cut out in the housing before locking why replace the housing ? I have always found that removing any ridges and replacing the rollers with their plunger springs does the job just fine (to be fair this has been done on other bikes, not Z's)

The price of starter clutch parts may seem to be high, but let’s look at the subject from another angle. The input is next: the starter clutch in question lasts 100000km.  What other maintenance expenses one will have with a bike for the same mileage? I could answer with an example of my Kawasaki Zephyr 750.  I do not include filters, fork oil, fork seals and bushings, wheel bearings, brake pads and other small things. So: 

• The most lasting tire on my bike was Pilot Road 2, which lasted for 20K km. Therefore, let’s consider it will be 5 changes of tires for 100K km.
• DID chain (with X or whatever-rings) along with a set of JT Sprocket (or SunStar) sprockets lasts 30K km. So it’s 3 changes of chain and sprocket.
• Oil changes every 5K km, so it’s 20x2.6l of oil = 52l of engine oil.
• And main: gasoline. I calculate gasoline expenses for my Zephyr as 6.5l per 100 km. So it’s bloody 6500l of gasoline for 100K km.

As one may see, motorcycling is not a cheap “hobby” and the price of clutch starter parts is barely an issue when the task is to ride.  With calculations I show above I prefer to be on the safe side with new parts and leave the “refreshing” method for times when the starter clutch will be unavailable.

P.S. It’s my opinion based on my experience. I have no intention of convincing anyone that this is the only right way.

Cool pumpkin carving skills, too?!  Top notch work as always, Gazzz!

Thanks! We here have no deep rooted traditions of Halloween (Esatern Christianity has a different date for All Saints' Day) but some years ago I tried to carve pumpkins and found out I like the process:-)


And here are special Kawasaki KZ650 edition Halloween pumpkins.


After I finished with the Jack O’Lantern Rider pumpkin, I still had some pumpkins in my workshop. I was thinking what to do with them and then WHOOP! another idea popped in my mind.  So I took a knife, a couple of handmade “special tools” and carved a couple of pumpkins.  Carving one of them I had Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars in my mind, however the result occasionally looked rather like a cross between Jabba and Guy Fawkes mask.


And now imagine the Halloween  story that may happen anywhere: this Pumpkin Block lured that Female Pumpkin in his garage to impress her with his bike-building skills and to  show  her how cool he is. It did impress her, so now he with smug smile on his face is rumbling about his motorcycle project:


“Yea, babe, you wouldn’t believe it but  I built it all on my own, with whatever we  pumpkins have for hands!”


 

Absolutely right, it's "horses for courses" at the end of day and we all make our own choices. You do nice work, I am looking forward to seeing the end result.

Heh, no even likes for KZ pumpkins... Hope it will go better with photos of the assembled engine:-)

Because here we come to the culmination of Kawasaki KZ650 engine assembling: engine covers installation.I had new mounts for  engine wiring, but I decided to install them later.



I also decided to use a new genuine gasket for the starter motor cover.

 

It didn’t take a lot of time to put all the covers on the engine.

 

I also installed intake manifolds, exhaust holders, and fit (but only fit) kick starter lever.  Naturally, I could not resist shooting a complete “walkaround” set of engine photos. And I think this set will be better than any words. I also shot some detailed photos of the engine, but  I’ll post them (along with my comments) in  next posts. 

 

 

 

Very nice work, as always. I imagine it's as clean on the inside too. I'm looking forward to seeing this bike put together - although sunglasses may be in order when looking at it in direct sunlight

That is a nifty looking engine!
Nice work.

/Anders

Thank you!

Man that's clean.....Great work Gazzz