1976 Kz 900 A4

hardrockminer wrote: By the way, that second one you bought looks close to original sheen but I would use a little bit of Mother's on it to buff it a bit. Not much...just a bit brighter.

Thank you. Looking at the picture 73Z1 posted I can safely leave the hub as is from the Vapor Hone but I should lightly polish the brake plate. I’m going to contact the polish guy and ask how to accomplish that. I’m assuming by hand with mother’s like mentioned.

Thanks for the help. Trust me im not that anal on other parts, but that brake plate is a very visible item that can be picked up quickly. I don’t plan to sell this so by not making sure ever date stamp is correct I’m not pulling the wool over anyone.

Well nothing built last night. Spent the evening getting parts boxed so I could ship today, case bolt off for zinc plate and the brake plate off the have the blemishes removed and then for blasting. Hopefully this will be a permanent two steps forward.

Finally a small step forward. Rear hub bearings installed and rim laced. Not sure I feel froggy enough to true it but I’ll work on my confidence. I wanted to build the front forks but the auto parts store I ordered the loctite 518 from told me it would be in Friday. I stopped by the pick it up and they confessed it was no long available. So I had to find it online.

I spoked and trued my wheels. I just sat on the floor with the hub and rim in front of me and went at it. If you have any marks on your hub from the original spoking just follow them. I didn't put the tires on my rims...went to the local Kawi dealer and had him check the true and then balance them. I have three sets of the original weights but I used the stick on the rim type.

HRM, funny you mentioned follow the old marks on the hub. I did that for almost 3 hours and it was an exercise in insanity. Trying the same thing over and hoping for a different result. I almost gave up. I had the front wheel to set beside the rear as a guide. Trying several times it seamed like the rim spoke dimples were backwards. I could get one side correct but the other the spoke were opposite of the dimples. Finally I gave up following the old marks, and just followed the pattern of the front wheel and everything aligned. I’m at a loss on how this happened. One side followed the old marks and the other side ended up with the spokes opposite of the marks.

Is it possible someone in the past did it wrong?

My local Kawi dealer offered to lend me their truing stand. I might take them up on it.

Does the spoke pattern look correct?

I think as long as none of the spokes are touching where they cross you should be fine. If there is contact / pressure between two adjacent spokes I would think something isn't right. I learned how to lace wheels at the American Motorcycle Institute in Daytona Beach way back in 1976. Never laced a wheel after that. One of our finals was to completely lace a wheel, finger tight only and not trued, in a certain amount of time. This mechanics school was on the other side of the turn 3/4 banking of Daytona Raceway back then. I know it's not at that location any longer, and not sure it's still in business.

I can't tell from the photo. You should have 10 spokes going one way and ten the other way on each side. Here are photos of one of my Z1's. I didn't do these but I believe they are original.

Beautiful bike!

>>>>>>>>My local Kawi dealer offered to lend me their truing stand. I might take them up on it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>Does the spoke pattern look correct?

Looking at wheel (from either side) first set clockwise, 2nd set counter, 3rd set clockwise, 4th set counter.

Skid mark—— no spokes touching where they cross.

HRM—— you have beautiful high quality.

73z1—— looking from one side do you mean 1-outer cw, 2-inner ccw, 3-inner cw, 4-outer cww?