new and on the verge of burnin it!

I have this 83 kz650 that's givin me fits. I noticed there's not a lot of 83 650 owners that I've seen. Are they garbage, hard to find, or does just nobody like them?

Been to www.kz650.info ?

They're fine bikes, but there weren't that many made because the KZ750-4 was available. If yours isn't working well you need to figure out what's wrong and fix it. Keep in mind, many of these machines have seen untold abuse for many years from owners who don't know the difference between a wrench and a wench. Hang in there, describe the problems and ask advice, and above all - get a Kawasaki factory service manual for your specific year/model (eBay usually has them). Good luck. Ed

Howdy. Yep, any problems are not the bike's fault... blame the previous owners.
If you're in the US, I'll assume the bike is a KZ650-CSR which is nearly identical to the 81-82 CSRs. The cast alloy wheels are the same as the KZ550-Ltd; the front wheel is also the same as the 550A & one or two late KZ440 models. The earlier CSRs have spoked wheels that are a direct swap - all of the parts are the same.

The 82-83 CSRs have BS32 carbs. The choke on them can be kinda fiddly: reference the owner's manual for its use. New airbox ducts are available at Z1Enterprises.com... other stuff & oem parts are avaialable at Z1 as well - contact them if something isn't listed. The CSRs also share a number of parts with the KZ750-Ltd-4 - they have the same frames.

An 81-83 KZ650 factory service manual might be hard to find: I've seen only one or two of them listed on ebbaayy. The 81-82 manual seems readily available (I've got one for sale in the classifieds here). I'd guess that an 81-82 manual would work fine. The CSR info in the Clymer manual is primarily in a supplement section in the back. Personally, I find it kinda cumbersome to use.

Here's my 81 model w 550 wheels...
..

JB...

As already mentioned, nothing wrong with any of these old KZ's as designed but considering what these old gals have been through with previous owners, maintenance neglect, riding them hard as though they where race bikes, mickey mouse repairs etc... who knows what you have...

You need to ask yourself a few questions here...
Do you love tinkering, tuning, repairing and restoring the old girl back to her glorious days....

Or....

Do you just want to ride...

If you're the latter of the two, then you won't enjoy owning/repairing/restoring a 30 year old KZ that has been beat to shit...

Even with a decent running KZ, tuning and wrenching is a way of life and you have to enjoy that with an older technology bike... It's what what we do...

It's not like new crap where you just put gas in it and go. Computer handles elevation changes to fuel injection system versus out with the screw driver to adjust the carb slow jets/pilots... Long trips, oil usage not a problem but on a 30 year old KZ, oh yeah better have a quart with ya.... List goes on and on...

Again, It's what we enjoy, what we do, we love making these old girls live again... It's a passion and most often then not, an obsession...

If you just want to ride versus learning the ins & outs of that old girl then go get yourself a newer bike.... Not trying to be an asshole but it's the fact of the matter...

OMR

and if u want to dump it and are close to anyone on here (including me) we will be glad to take it off ur hands.LOl.bj

No I'm not really wantin to get rid of it. When it runs its awesome. But I just can't keep it runnin.

You could say what the problem has been, there are lots of people on here with great knowledge for help with the bike.

The collective(sounds like a BORG description) membership like to help struggling bike owners, just tell us what it's doing and not doing and we'll diagnose as best we can.

And when you do reply the symptoms, someone here will inform you to install the Coil Mod.... :pinch:

That baby fixes everything, even flat tires.... :whistle:

Old Man Rock wrote:

And when you do reply the symptoms, someone here will inform you to install the Coil Mod.... :pinch:

That baby fixes everything, even flat tires.... :whistle:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Yes, it evin made my speling beter. :silly:

so whats it doing?