'81 KZ750 LTD Cable Lengths After Bar Swap?

I know this might be a long shot. I swapped out the mini apes on my '81 KZ750 LTD with a pair of Emgo low rise bars (2.5" rise). I need to to replace the throttle/clutch cables. Has anyone already done this? What were the lengths on the cables? I don't have enough knowledge yet to figure out how to cut and resize my stock cables. I can't seem to find a shop near me that does cables. I also don't want to spend the money motion pro charges for custom cables ($140....ummmm no). As always thanks for reading.

Im in the process using those bars on my Kz1000 project. It can be done with some basic knowledge. You can buy kits with cable ends but I make my own. So far I have the clutch cable made and waiting for my head to come back to fit the carbs and then I can do the throttle. Once you have the bars in place you can run the cable that has the least amount of bends and looks good. On the clutch I modify the end at the lever. You kinda have to measure with the cable in place and mark the outer cable estimating on the short end of the length as the adjusters will make up any slack for proper adjustment. You have to be creative cutting off the metal end that fits into the lever adjuster. Use a Dremel with a cut off wheel. You can cut off the inner cable end first and remove that. You need to keep the metal end that fits into the adjuster at the lever and reuse it. The metal sleeve is normally crimped. I normally grind the crimp away and pull out the wound wire inside. That metal sleeve does not need to be crimped when re-using.  When you're good with that time to measure the inner cable. Cut the cable so you have a little slack for adjustment. Now you need to make the end. My clutch cable is a 8mm round end with a hole in it where the cable is inserted. So I find an 8mm bolt with a shoulder and cut it to the proper size making it the same dimension as the original. It's best to have a drill press or a friends to drill the hole for the cable. Make sure it's centered properly. On one side you need to drill the hole several sizes larger, drilling at least half way through or chamfer it, kinda hard to chamfer so larger is fine. On this end you will flare out the wire into the larger hole. it needs to be flared as much as possible so it can not be pulled through. You may want to practice a bit with the extra wire that was left over. When you're satisfied on the flared wire you can pull the wire into the hole and solder it in place with a bit of heat from a small torch or get a solder pot. Dont worry if you have a few strands of wire sticking out as these will be ground smooth to the cable end. A torch works just fine. I just used some electronic solder that has flux in it. make sure you fill the hole and surrounding wire and try not to have the solder wick to far into the wire. Sounds complicated but not really. Throttle cables done the same. I would probably cut the end at the carb side. If you have a good flare on the wire it will not pull through once you fill it with solder. 
Back in the 70's I used to make cables all the time at the custom shop I worked at in Minneapolis, people were always changing bars. But we had all the ends and wire and outer sleeve plus a solder pot which made things a bit simpler. 

This is the bike im working on
 

I did the same to this Susuki Gs1100
 

estimate the needed L.  then check the cables from various standard/gpz models. 750E/L/R. 700A. ZX550. ZX750. etc. z1enterprises has measurements. don't ignore the slack: not enough might not work, a bit too much is probably ok. z1E has stuff for making or shortening cables.

z1Ent example search: Cable - Throttle - KZ750. ... then do the same search for other kz and zx models. and search specific models. some don't show up in the basic search.

Check GPz750 cables.  Those bikes have low bars.  I'm using the clutch cable on my bike, and I think the throttle cable also, but I can't remember.

Cra-z1 wrote:

Im in the process using those bars on my Kz1000 project. It can be done with some basic knowledge. You can buy kits with cable ends but I make my own. So far I have the clutch cable made and waiting for my head to come back to fit the carbs and then I can do the throttle. Once you have the bars in place you can run the cable that has the least amount of bends and looks good. On the clutch I modify the end at the lever. You kinda have to measure with the cable in place and mark the outer cable estimating on the short end of the length as the adjusters will make up any slack for proper adjustment. You have to be creative cutting off the metal end that fits into the lever adjuster. Use a Dremel with a cut off wheel. You can cut off the inner cable end first and remove that. You need to keep the metal end that fits into the adjuster at the lever and reuse it. The metal sleeve is normally crimped. I normally grind the crimp away and pull out the wound wire inside. That metal sleeve does not need to be crimped when re-using.  When you're good with that time to measure the inner cable. Cut the cable so you have a little slack for adjustment. Now you need to make the end. My clutch cable is a 8mm round end with a hole in it where the cable is inserted. So I find an 8mm bolt with a shoulder and cut it to the proper size making it the same dimension as the original. It's best to have a drill press or a friends to drill the hole for the cable. Make sure it's centered properly. On one side you need to drill the hole several sizes larger, drilling at least half way through or chamfer it, kinda hard to chamfer so larger is fine. On this end you will flare out the wire into the larger hole. it needs to be flared as much as possible so it can not be pulled through. You may want to practice a bit with the extra wire that was left over. When you're satisfied on the flared wire you can pull the wire into the hole and solder it in place with a bit of heat from a small torch or get a solder pot. Dont worry if you have a few strands of wire sticking out as these will be ground smooth to the cable end. A torch works just fine. I just used some electronic solder that has flux in it. make sure you fill the hole and surrounding wire and try not to have the solder wick to far into the wire. Sounds complicated but not really. Throttle cables done the same. I would probably cut the end at the carb side. If you have a good flare on the wire it will not pull through once you fill it with solder. 
Back in the 70's I used to make cables all the time at the custom shop I worked at in Minneapolis, people were always changing bars. But we had all the ends and wire and outer sleeve plus a solder pot which made things a bit simpler. 

This is the bike im working on
 

I did the same to this Susuki Gs1100
 

GREAT post!!  Thank you. I have a solder pot already and plan on making my own bird cage tool for the wire ends. My biggest issues is all the funky ends my throttle and clutch cable have. Reading your post I need to re-use those. All the ends have everything crimped onto the outer black housing.







 

You may have to experiment with those crimped ends. I keep a lot of old cables around just in case I need something I screw up. But like others and me have said some of those ends can be purchased. let us know how they turn out. I would try to modify the ends that look easiest. Those 90 degree ends may be a problem so I would look at the carb ends.

GREAT post!!  Thank you. I have a solder pot already and plan on making my own bird cage tool for the wire ends. My biggest issues is all the funky ends my throttle and clutch cable have. Reading your post I need to re-use those. All the ends have everything crimped onto the outer black housing.

z1enterprises has various different ferrules and cable end barrels and a throttle bend for an xs650. etc.  I assume cables are kind of universal and the parts fit right. 

z1Ent > cables > cable parts.

H1Vindicator wrote:

SnyperX wrote:

GREAT post!!  Thank you. I have a solder pot already and plan on making my own bird cage tool for the wire ends. My biggest issues is all the funky ends my throttle and clutch cable have. Reading your post I need to re-use those. All the ends have everything crimped onto the outer black housing.

z1enterprises has various different ferrules and cable end barrels and a throttle bend for an xs650. etc. 
I assume cables are kind of universal and the parts fit right.  z1Ent > cables > cable parts.

I already picked up a some barrel and pear ends for my cables. Took measurements of mine ordered the ones that would fit. My KZ has 1.5 and 2.0mm cable diameters.

Nessism wrote:

Check GPz750 cables.  Those bikes have low bars.  I'm using the clutch cable on my bike, and I think the throttle cable also, but I can't remember.

While I did buy the needed barrels and pear ends to modify my own cables, I think I am going to order the clutch cable and then just try and mod the throttle myself. Would rather only have to modify one cable versus both.