1978 KZ750 twin cafe build

so after not nearly as much work as i would have hoped, i consumed perhaps 1 too many bottles of liquid bread than i should have and inadvertently destroyed my beloved heatsource/floodlight combo halogen lamp. but managed to get most of the front end apart aside from the gauges and center light cluster. hopefully tomorrow proves to be a slightly more fruitful day. on another note, i have a fresh welder and brand new grinder that are going to be put through the paces tomorrow whilst making short work of every nonsense mounting tab and bracket amongst this old bikes skeleton. shes not fat... shes just big boned.

if you dont know what it is.... atleast try and label it....


more progress.... without the beloved halogen... sorry for the poor pictures.



more to come tomorrow.

Hey James where's the updates? I want more pics. I'm finishing up getting my '82 running and have been considering doing a rear swing arm mod to a monoshock so I can do a wider tire and want to see how this plays out!

GA Joe wrote: Hey James where's the updates? I want more pics. I'm finishing up getting my '82 running and have been considering doing a rear swing arm mod to a monoshock so I can do a wider tire and want to see how this plays out!

Sorry for the delay! Been busy at work lately so i havent gotten around to throwing my updates on the thread. Picked up a new welder to start going to town on the frame and lately my house has been Christmas all over again with all the parts coming in the mail. Got the late model gsxr shock in and mocked it up, seems to be the perfect size. I am excited to start tearing into the frame and swing arm here pretty soon. Will try and get some pictures up as soon as I'm off work today.

can't wait to see the fab work! :evil:

leon

So i managed to finally crank some more work out on the ole KZ tonight. recent death in the family put a damper on things there for a bit but at long last, im back to it!!!

made some good progress on the tear down, should be ready to pull the engine in the next week or so and start grinding and welding my favorite part

took the entire wire loom off the bike as well as basically anything attached to the front forks. looks like i am going to have my work cut out for me when it comes to getting this damn thing wired properly. looks like a birds nest.











more beer induced progress to come on wednesday

so as promised, i came home and immediately began work on this old powerhouse. with the help of my friend pabst of course. made some serious progress on her. removed the rear wheel, the swingarm, cleaned up and de-tabbed the swing arm (cleanliness and simplicity is going to be a key factor in this build), then moved on to the subframe. which i decided wasnt even remotely the shape i wanted it to be ultimately. so i did what any self respecting man would do.... i chugged a beer and cut it off. finally some fabrication begins going to take the remainder of the frame into work with me on friday to begin bending and shaping (and maybe welding) the new rear subframe and start mocking up the modified monoshock rear.

leon

got some more work done this morning after driving to 4 different local metal supply companies and being completely flabbergasted at how difficult it is to find 1" DOM tubing.... you would think that would be a commonly enough used diameter. kinda bummed i couldnt find any, really wanted to start bending some tube today. anyway....

got the front forks off



and i started attempting to remove the engine from the frame with no success.... has anyone on here had any experience taking one of these motors out? im curious if i actually have to disassemble the engine.... it doesnt seem to be small enough to fit out the side of the frame. i wrestled with it for about an hour before i got hungry and decided to call it quits for now. any advice from you guys would be appreciated, wasnt really wanting to take the engine apart unless i absolutely had to.

These links provide some downloadable service manuals, which will most likely include detailed instructions for engine removal.

kz750twins.com/?p=15

biquetoast.com/cgi-bin/750ManualList.cgi

Good Fortune!

great!!!! thats just what i needed, ill check it out. maybe ill get some more work done tonight and have a motorless frame to play with

another question for those of you more experienced kz guys out there.... i have decided to either rebuild or replace the carbs and i was curious if you thought it was worth it to just buy all new ones or attempt to save a little money in exchange for a little headache and just rebuild both of them?

BIG price difference if you were to buy new carbs vs rebuild your current ones. You would have to change the jetting in a new set of carbs to suit your application as well. Most used carbs you can buy you would likely have to rebuild anyway. Its actually pretty easy. Now that you have the service manual just follow the steps and replace any o rings or needles that look worn.

If you are planing on mono-shocking the stock swingarm, i think you might want to add a under-brace of some sort. They were pretty floppy to start with and certainly not designed to withstand the torsional force that a mono shock will put on them. Most folks that convert to mono-shock swap the whole assembly.