TheTrout's 78 KZ1000

On Saturday I finally got around to replacing my clutch cable.  I used the PJ cable luber to lubricate BEFORE installation.  WTF, I must have been doing something wrong because I ended up with more on my hands than probably went into the cable.  What a completely amazing night and day difference!  Just like it ought to be!  Went for a nice long ride yesterday and had zero issues.  The smooth easy clutch really made my ride so much better.  I can't wait to take it out to the dragstrip now!

While I was working on the bike Saturday I fixed a couple of minor issues:

Had a broken bolt on the chain guard that I replaced. 
When I did the chain conversion I f'd up the riveted master link, the ends were slightly broken/crushed.  I replaced that with a good ole master link with a clip. 

Me thinks somebody wacked my bike pretty good in the garage because I had a bent headlight bracket.  So I took off the bucket and straightened the mounts.

I also changed the oil, hadn't done that in a while, like 2 or 3 years!  There probably wasn't more than 2k miles on that oil, but it looked like Hersey's Syrup when it came out.  Maybe from being left in the bike for all that time?

I am now at the point where there's nothing left to do on the bike.  It's in the best shape it's ever been in since I've owned it (27 years)!  I will think about a seat upgrade, but my original stock seat is in great shape with just 2 little pin holes.  So maybe a Corbin is in my future.  I guess now I just need to ride it more!

I recently lubed new throttle cables before installing using my new PJ cable luber. Same result - more lube on the outside than the inside, and there's two of them!  Probably better than without the tool, though.  Halfway through the job I hung the cables vertical and had better luck, a smaller mess and it was easy to tell they were fully lubed when it dripped out the bottom end.  Hope I remember that trick next time.

Scotty

Yes. Cable lubrication in my shop involves hanging the cable (vertical), wrapping masking tape around the top shield to form a small "funnel", and dropping oil (your choice, I use 3 in 1) into the funnel. from time to time, I slide the cable inner up & down to assist the oil in it's journey to the other end and add oil as needed until it appears at the bottom.

Usually this is done in conjunction with some other motorcycle task... changing oil & filter etc. 

Slayer61 - I knew I wasn't the first to come up with that.
BTW, It just came to me where your quote is from!  haha
( Oh, just a little bunny, 'e says! )  

Scotty

slayer61 wrote:

Yes. Cable lubrication in my shop involves hanging the cable (vertical), wrapping masking tape around the top shield to form a small "funnel", and dropping oil (your choice, I use 3 in 1) into the funnel. from time to time, I slide the cable inner up & down to assist the oil in it's journey to the other end and add oil as needed until it appears at the bottom.

Usually this is done in conjunction with some other motorcycle task... changing oil & filter etc. 

 

Same here. I’ve also just dropped the 3 n 1 down the inner cable. It will run down into the outer. Once it drips out at the bottom your done. I let it hang till it stops dripping. Done. Simple. 

As documented earlier I was having some issues with 2 cylinders cutting out.  I thought maybe I had a bad coil.  The suggestion was made to swap the coils.  Well I did that a while ago and I have been waiting for it to fail again, but I don't think it's going to.  I took a 6 hour ride yesterday.  One of the best rides since I moved down to North Carolina.  I rode the "Devils Whip" which is a small 10 mile section of NC80 just south of Micaville, NC.  Once I got to Micaville I went east to 226a (aka the snake or diamond back or something like that) and took that south of Little Switzerland, NC.  I had zero issues and my bike performed perfectly!  What a fun day!  I had that bike flopping from side to side through the turns.

I can only guess my "coil issue" was a bad connection, probably on the ignition wire.

After being in the mountains and reading a post here about brakes, I think my next task is to go over my brakes.  New pads and new brake lines are probably a wise thing to do.  Either of those failing on the kind of ride I took yesterday could spell disaster.

I went for a long ride last week, on the way back the bike starts cutting out.  I'm thinking it's the fucking coils again.  I park it, a little disgusted that I've been fighting this problem so long.  Last night I decide to fire it up and see which 2 cylinders are cutting out.  It starts up and idles just fine.  I make a run to the local biker bar for a beer and find that it was cutting out only over a certain rpm.  Get to the bar, pop the seat to grab my ball cap and looky there, I forgot I had bought a tshirt on my last ride and stuffed it under the seat.  In order for my bike to run right and get enough air I have the snorkle and top off my air cleaner off and run a k&n stock air cleaner replacement.  The bag from the tshirt was sucked into where the snorkle would fit.  My wife was away all weekend and the only thing stopping me from a long ride into the mountains was me thinking the bike was having coil issues again.....

It's always the simple things that catch you out

 

Sadly it's not the first time a tshirt has found it's way into the air filter!
 

Mr. "TheTrout",
plenty of time to make plans to bring your bike to Zukey Lake on Oct 28th weekend.  
Hope to see you there!

Thinking about my trip to Sturgis this August.  I have given up on the idea of riding the whole way, stopping every 90-100 miles.  The guys I am going with will not want to stop that often.  So it will get trailered.  My next concerns are replacing the brake lines.  I like the looks of braided stainless steel lines.  I checked Z1enterprises and I think just the lines will cost me about $100.  Will I need all new banjo fittings or can I reuse the ones from the original lines?  I can't tell if they come apart.

Yes, you will need new fittings unless your bike already has aftermarket lines that use the same ones. There are other companies out there that sell fully assembled lines, thus eliminating the threaded junctions and their possibility of leaking.