Katit's 1978 KZ650 project

Tubed tyres need rim locks to stop the valve getting ripped out. 
A non locked tubed tyre will creep around the rim and the tube will go with it eventually ripping the valve stem out the tube. 
Even if you don't use them you'll need to plug the holes and have breakdown cover as a mate of mine found out on the way to assen motogp several years ago. 
Khi wouldn't have added the cost of rim locks for no reason. 
Your choice. 

That happened to me on my BSA in busy traffic and it was all I could do to maintain control of the bike while the back end swung wild, wide arcs back and forth (and of course some a-hole in a car was on my tail blowing the horn thinking I was doing stunts)!  In my case I managed to hang on and keep the bike from crashing; who knows how many other similar incidents that did not end in a wreck.  Isolated incident?  I don’t think so.  When I told the folks at the dealership about it they said they laughed and said they had seen and experienced the same problem firsthand.  They said it was particularly common in racing and in aggressive street riding (guilty as charged).  They even had a solution – drill small holes around the rim and run short sheet metal screws through the holes and into the bead of the tire.  I did this and no more slipping.  Several of their bikes already had the treatment.  My large tire may have provided more traction than the friction between the bead and chrome rim could tolerate.No doubt this is why Kawasaki provided rim locks on the rear wheel of many of their bikes; the sheet metal screws did not contribute much to a polished look.  Ed

Of course there is horror stories

New rim doesn't have hole for rim lock. Also, I hate to mount tires in general and rim lock not looking like fun. Also, rim lock has rust on bolt and need to be plated. Also, I hate to balance it. So yeah, I've been just lazy. But safety is safety. I understand physics. None of my other bakes had/have it, so.. If anything - I think those will be helpful in case of slow air leak as well.

Small steps. Of course I somehow threw away bottom bolts for forks so now waiting for package. Started to blast/clean  hardware and small bits prepping for plating.

Swingarm - had to make bearing install tool. Packed with grease and installed. Also installed Hagon shocks (btw, not really excited with quality but oh well..). Nothing permanent yet, just sorting through plated and other bits and put it in places.

 

Does that photo of the swing arm pivot with grease gun show grease coming out of the swingarm bracing plate behind the pivot tube?  Grease is not supposed to come out of the there!  Maybe that's just a blob the fell off the gun before it went onto the zerk fitting?

 

Nah. It’s neither. I was looking at this photo myself wtf It is plastic cup that covers grease gun nose. 

Calipers look sad. But definitely rebuildable. I did bad thing, took off one nipple and looks like thread got damaged. On second caliper I heated with torch and it came out clean.
Don't know, will try to chase threads and it may work. Or maybe I should try and do 8mm threads right away

Found two lower hoses at z1-parts. But I can't seem to find top one. This is one with rubber dust cover and spring over it. Any suggestions where I can buy it? (I know I can buy aftermarket..)


 

Nipple? Do you mean Bleeder screw? If then that’s a pure random thing never had that happen. The dust boot is a separate item, www.partzilla.com/product/kawasaki/49006...c598d659766d264f4f19  not part of the upper hose. These are about the closest thing I have found to OEM. You’d have to email them to see if they have hoses for your bike.

item number 234024998157

wrote:

Nipple? Do you mean Bleeder screw? If then that’s a pure random thing never had that happen. The dust boot is a separate item, www.partzilla.com/product/kawasaki/49006...c598d659766d264f4f19  not part of the upper hose. These are about the closest thing I have found to OEM. You’d have to email them to see if they have hoses for your bike.

item number 234024998157

Not sure where Katit is located but they are certainly "bleed nipples" in UK land  

I had a heck of a time finding hoses for my 650 project.  I finally went after market, but I'm still having issues bleeding the lines.  

wrote:

wrote:

Nipple? Do you mean Bleeder screw? If then that’s a pure random thing never had that happen. The dust boot is a separate item, www.partzilla.com/product/kawasaki/49006...c598d659766d264f4f19  not part of the upper hose. These are about the closest thing I have found to OEM. You’d have to email them to see if they have hoses for your bike.

item number 234024998157

Not sure where Katit is located but they are certainly "bleed nipples" in UK land  

I am in US, but english is not my native language. It's interesting. I am reading lot of forums and watching youtube. There is UK, Australia content in addition to USA. So, there might be some words I picked up in different variations. 

Calipers were pretty crusty. Bleeder screw was corroded in caliper. I should have stopped right away and torched it like I did with second one. But oh well. Will see, will first chase those threads and see how it goes from there. There is enough meat to go M8 if needed and I can machine new screw worse case scenario. Buying spare used caliper would be easier but quick search on ebay proved to be confusing.

Right now I think I am on a right track to get proper combo. See, issue is - I had parts bike which is 1980(?) "special"? with double disk. This is what I am going with. Dual calipers going on spoked wheel. I had pictures posted where I mocked up everything and it all falls together nicely with calipers, disks and fork bottoms.

Then, I got this master, looks to be good quality and it is matching one I had on a bike 100%:
z1parts.net/kawasaki-kz650-kz1000-front-...-5-8-oem-43015-1009/

But it's listed for dual-disk which is perfect for what I am doing.

Now, those two calipers have 43mm pistons (not 38). And when I search eBay I do see kits (with pistons as I need them) but they say for KZ650B (single??) So, now I am confused.
Btw, any recommendations for caliper kits (with pistons) other than eBay? 

Back to the subject of just buying caliper. Not much part numbers on it. I see all kind of calipers on eBay looking like what I need, but then I have no clue what's inside. So, trying to order one is a crap shot. I will be better dealing with what I have.

On a side note, I plan to re-use pads that came out. They look like a lot of meat left. Any objections?

wrote:

I had a heck of a time finding hoses for my 650 project.  I finally went after market, but I'm still having issues bleeding the lines.  

I do see two bottom ones available no problem. Just a top one I need to find. Bleeding should be easy I would think. But I always use pressure bleeder. Will see how it goes with this one.