1977 KZ1000 LTD

You should be able to just turn the terminal head off. That's what I did.

@Kaylinator some of the heads are removable but some are a solid core. My original ordered batch were the solid terminal type. I ended up finding 2x B8ES and put the BR8ES on the other two, keeping one of the B8ES on each of the firing groups 1/4 and 2/3

@z1kzonly thanks for the list of alternative plugs, and good to know that champions don't live up to their name

@SWest yeah, lucky I saved the last lot I pulled off the bike, looking like collecting, cleaning, and hording the B8ES will be a new hobby for this group :whistle:

The bike is successfully turning over and running. Feels great to have it alive and generally healthy. After starting it the first time I did hear a higher pitched noise, or general chatter sound coming from where seemed to be above the 3/4 cylinders. After verifying that the bike would start and run a couple times in a row, I let it sit and cool down before taking the cam cover off. I did a visual inspection and everything looked in order. I double checked the valve clearances, and they are all slightly on the "tighter" side, but there is room for feeler gauges to slip in and measure.
While looking around I rotated the crank by hand making sure that the timing chain was still correctly set, which it was. I noticed a very small amount of slack in the chain towards one side of the rotations. Loosened the manual chain tensioner and did a full chain of rotation, heard the tensioner move a tick and tightened it again. A few more revolutions and the chain was looking good. Put the cam cover back on and the chatter had disappeared from the engine.

Put 3 miles on the bike and added a couple gallons of gas. Let the bike sit overnight and checked for leaks. There was a small oil dribble coming from the cam cover area but that was likely from having taken the lid off and oil seeping into the gasket. Noticed a very small amount of fuel in the #1 carb overflow tubing. Dropped the bowl off and it looked clean inside, ended up adjusting the float bowl level as little as possible (maybe I didn't even form it at all haha) and haven't seen any more gas in the overflow.

Put another 7 lower speed miles on the bike and then checked the oil pan, cam cover, and exhaust bolts for torque level. Everything was still tight.

I'm up to 25 miles on the bike and am dialing in the idle speed, haven't been over 50mph or around 5k rpm. I need to find someone with the tool to sync my carbs up. I can tell the bike is running a little rough, and can hear a very small miss or backfire at around 3k rpm.

She’s getting really close to earning her badges back

Quick pic of the bike, still haven’t given her a compound/polish/wax treatment yet.

You can also use Ngk bp8es , the tip is around 1mm longer and are fine when using a stock motor, .

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationMy local Lordco (I'm in Canada) still has access to B8ES plugs, but I find the ND W24ES plugs suit my KZ1000 better. They are available as NOS and are cheap if shipped to the USA, $14.95 for 10 with free shipping.
I paid $75 CDN or so to get 20 shipped to me.

I use ND W22ES-U plugs in my 1977 KZ650-C1. I have found that they work a little better than the NGK plugs. Ed

A delayed update...

I put around 150 miles of non-interstate riding on the bike. Most likely after getting up to around 6k rpm and 70mph on a ride I noticed that the tachometer wasn’t functioning, found a place to pull over and checked that the ends were still seated and screwed in. Figured out that the metal interior cable snapped around the middle point. Ordered, lubed, and installed a replacement.

Since then I rented a truck and hauled my bike and life across the USA camping out along the way to the North East.

I have noticed a small percentage of power gain from riding in lower elevation, which is a bonus. I read somewhere that there is a ~3% power change per 1000 feet of elevation. So in theory I am 9% up.

Have put around 300 miles on the bike since the move, consistently getting right around 33mpg. I hope to get the mpg a little higher and also get the bike further dialed in once this prime time riding weather disappears. I’m planning on replacing the rubber on either side of the carbs, as the carb boots on the motor side have a small leak somewhere on 1&4 as evidenced by an increase of rpms when I did a quick small spray ether test.

Today was rainy and I just received a shipment of new LEDs for my tach/speedo gauges and the neutral/high/oil/brake lights.

Ordered a few lights with color lenses too.


Ended up learning the joy of the speedo/tach lights, and am really happy that I went with longer lasting LEDs to hopefully not have to open that can of worms again anytime soon.

Ended up putting red lights in the speedometer and tachometer backs, They are subtle but have a nice glow. Matched the neutral/high beam/oil/brake bulbs with the panel lens color.
While I was in there I put a couple amber LEDs on the turn signal indicators.

I’ve left the actual turn signal bulbs, brake light, and headlight bulbs alone as not to mess too much with the amount of power being drawn.

Will have to wait for a night ride to really see how the gauge faces go, but after that job I don’t intend to change them.

(Forgot to turn the high beam on for the picture!)

Where did you get the led instrument lights?
I need to replace my tachometer speedometer .
And may do the others- hi beam, neutral,, etc.

I ordered them from ‘Super Bright LEDs’ website.

The BA9S bayonet style I ordered are linked here . They come in different colors, and have a 120* beam, and were just shy of $1 a piece.

I just spent last winter converting over to ALL LED's. Just a note of caution, when it comes to instrument and gauge lights, Stay in the warm zone 3000K or they can become to bright and distracting. The 6000K to 7000K are better left for stop and turn bulbs. One other note you can make the bulb appear brighter by using a yellow lens over a yellow/amber bulb or a red lens over a red bulb.

EDIT: Super Bright LED is a great source. Also do you homework on bulb size. I wasted money on bulbs that didn't fit in the center indicator cluster.