Trying to Rescue a Late 1970s (1977??) Kawasaki KZ1000

Thanks howardhb, did the ferrule pull off the cable, or did the steel wires fatigue and break?

Your picture reminds me to put a drop of oil on that drum shaped ferrule at the lever.  Ideally the drum rotates a wee bit in the lever in use.  If there's no rotation, there's a side load on the steel cable.

Where's my oil can.........?

It was actually an aftermarket (Motion Pro?) cable that I had "professionally" repaired on the other end...

However, as you correctly assesed the failure, the cable pulled out of the "drum shaped ferrule".
Oiling that little ferrule regularly is mandatory!
Also, I note the O.E. cables come with a teflon cover over that ferrule to reduce the friction.

Remember to oil a NEW cable before installation.

H.

howardhb wrote:

It was actually an aftermarket (Motion Pro?) cable that I had "professionally" repaired on the other end...

However, as you correctly assesed the failure, the cable pulled out of the "drum shaped ferrule".
Oiling that little ferrule regularly is mandatory!
Also, I note the O.E. cables come with a teflon cover over that ferrule to reduce the friction.

Remember to oil a NEW cable before installation.

H.

This is one of the reasons I intend to go "hydraulic" with the clutch and "electronic" with the speedo and ignition (I know the K is mech/elec from stock) - LESS MAINTENANCE   I love to make stuff but after years as a dealership tech routine maintenance bores the piss out of me 

I use Sylglide grease on the cable barrels, it doesn't wash out like oil does.

I got two chain guards with this KZ1000.

One is a long black plastic job, and the other an abbreviated chromed steel item.

Searched the parts diagrams and my best guess is that the plastic item is from the "standard", and the chrome from the "LTD".

I like the subdued black plastic guard as it seems long (front to back) with deep vertical aprons............both guarding the bike from thrown chain oil.  However, it seems badly warped, and the fit is lousy even with the two bolts in place and the guard's inner edge correctly located into the tabs welded on the swing arm.

Has anyone tried to "re-shape" this guard with a heat gun?

The metal chrome LTD fit nicely, but it's a decoration rather than a functional guard.  Is there a way to make this guard more functional?

Thanks guys..............

If you use ACF-50 on the chain, you won’t have to worry about stuff flinging around.

Riveting on a couple of fabricated aluminium bits could make a big difference in the effectiveness of the chrome guard. Polishing the added bits and it could look nice enough.

I have done quite a bit of plastic shaping on my build with a hot air gun, one thing I found was that there is a "fine line" between getting it hot enough to bend and it developing "a mind of it's own". It take a little while to reach the required temp (a few minutes possibly) but then the change to "too hot" happens quickly !! Keep the heat gun moving to spread the heat throughout the part then "clamp" to a flat board and allow to cool (put something under the clamp to spread the load or you will get an imprint of the clamp in the plastic) it's better to cycle "heat" & " clamp" than to overheat in the first instance to find the "sweet spot"

Wookie58 wrote:

I have done quite a bit of plastic shaping on my build with a hot air gun, one thing I found was that there is a "fine line" between getting it hot enough to bend and it developing "a mind of it's own". It take a little while to reach the required temp (a few minutes possibly) but then the change to "too hot" happens quickly !! Keep the heat gun moving to spread the heat throughout the part then "clamp" to a flat board and allow to cool (put something under the clamp to spread the load or you will get an imprint of the clamp in the plastic) it's better to cycle "heat" & " clamp" than to overheat in the first instance to find the "sweet spot"

Thanks Wookie58, the board and clamp is a great idea, and the "fine line" caution makes sense, like heating aluminum to bend it........whoops melted......and now puddled on the floor.

I'll go with the LTD chain guard for awhile and consider an extension toward the gearbox sprocket.  That extension might be plastic, so if it falls off, the chain chews it up and spits it out rather than a chain lock up.

I found a few file pictures of the 1977 Standard KZ1000, chain guard side.  Some of my ill-fitment might be the weird shocks I have installed where the coil spring goes lower.  It looks like the stock shock's springs don't go below a cut out in the chain guard.

There's every chance I'll want more supple rear shocks in the future, so the current ones might get binned.

Thanks guys. 



 

Had a coffee with Frank, the airframe riveter when he was a machinist apprentice in England.

Frank asked me how the rest of the chain was riveted, and I showed him the pin I had pressed out to shorten the chain.

With that guidance he suggested a punch with a 120 degree included angle (like a drill bit).  That 120 degrees will flare the end of the pin AND push more metal into the pin hole in the side plate for a tighter interference fit.  Frank suggested the same flare diameter as on the original pin, which is a diameter increase of about 17 thou.

Frank loaned me the punch in the picture, and said to "upset" the pin head gradually with several hammer taps rather than one big blow, as gradual upsetting is work hardening, and one big blow is more likely to cause splitting in the flare.

The calipers show my pins at 0.0210  inches and the "Quad-Staked" pin head at about 0.227.  So I'll aim for a diameter increase of 15 to 20 thou.

Those earlier DID riveting instructions tell us to flare a 5.5 mm pin to 5.8 mm.  Or converted to inches, 0.216 flared to 0.228 for a diameter increase of 12 thou.  So same ballpark as the Quad-Staked process.

Some chance I may have overworked the planning of this task.............

 

Cool but not cold in the garage today, and nothing but drizzle outdoors.

I had the cam cover finger tight, so figured to do a final installation.  Put some goop on the head joint and gasket bottom, but not on the gasket top or cover joint.  Might leak, who knows?

This meant the coils could go in place, so did that.

It occurred to me that carbs, exhaust, an IV bottle of fuel, and wire up a simple ignition with test leads , and it might fire up.  But maybe later.

Next note about working of the kill switch.

Small job to get the horn installed, but it took more than an hour. 

The bolt is described as an M8 16 ( 8 mm diameter and 16 mm long under head), but I could not find the thread pitch.  And neither a pitch of 1.25 or 1.0 would catch the captive nut which was clogged with thick paint. But the 1.25 is more common so I went with that, and it went in without stripping so seems correct.