Howdy from tx

Name is Trin, been riding sporadically for 23 years or so. Hopefully I can get this new project ready to roll by the end of the year.

The project:

I just picked up a 1978 KZ650-D1A that is probably in the worst shape of any bike I have owned.

I picked it up for 100 with no seat, a frozen engine, corroded carbs and gas tank, rotted wiring, oil leaks, rotted exhaust, 2 types of moss growing on it, a composting leaf pile in the battery box, and various other issues. On the plus side, the spiders and red wasps were included at no extra charge.

This morning I drained the oil, refilled with diesel, removed plugs and filled with diesel, poured diesel in the intake and exhaust ports, then topped it off with half a can of pb blaster. As of noon the engine is free and seems to actually have decent compression (in that it is blowing clouds of diesel as opposed to streams).

Gas tank, petcock, low fuel sender have been removed. Tank has heavy scale rust, petcock seems to now be made of white powder, fuel warning sender is permanently open. I removed the carbs, opened one float bowl, and the carbs also seem to be filled with white powder. Have no clue how long everything sat with water in it, but assume at least a year, probably 2-5 with the amount of damage i am looking at.

Unfortunately my current budget for the bike is close to zero, so the current plan is to rewire enough to see if it will fire.

If anyone has a good idea on how to clean the concretion in the carbs, please share.

Welcome Trin...another Texan...who would have guessed. :laugh: Assume the worst in the carbs...get a genuine Kawasaki shop manual (they appear frequently on eBay and are reasonably priced...there are also some free downloads bumping around[perhaps another KZR member will supply the addresses]). The carbs call for a total disassembly and soaking in the cleaner of your choice (Berryman's etc.). Consider the o-rings on some of the jets, etc. a complete loss and replace them. New gaskets on the carbs and they should be salvageable.

Welcome from another fellow Texan. It seems that you can find the dark cloud in any silver lining. :laugh: Just kidding man. Kudos for bringing one back from the brink.

I agree with everyting that McDroid says. I find that mineral spirits usually does a good job of cleaning carbs, and its a little cheaper than buying those gallons of Berrymans Chemtool. Both work well. You definantly want to soak em for a good long while. Sounds about like my bike when I got it, but I didn't get any free wasps. I'm almost back on the road after a good 9 months of sporadic nights and weekends.

So do you have a plan for your rebuild? Get it running as cheap as possible, total bare frame restoration, or wild custom. Possibly something in between.

BTW lets see some pictures, even in her sad state. It will help to remind you how far you have come.

So far I have tried berryman's for 12 hours, vinegar for 8 hours, and an ultrasonic bath for an hour. No joy. My next attempt will probably be with vanish toilet bowl cleaner for 15 minutes, if that doesn't touch it I will hold off until I can soda blast it.

Before I saw it in person, I was planning on either a bobber, cafe racer, or survival/rat bike. After seeing it, I decided a partial restoration is probably the way to go. I plan on keeping the tank and fenders stock, have not decided on a color scheme yet. Will probably replace the missing panels with aluminum tread plate. I have a couple of 20mm ammo cans that I may use for hard luggage and as antenna mount points for the 2-meter and cb. So the restoration part will mainly be the gauges, tank, and fenders; everything else will most likely end up frankensteined.

I took 20 pictures or so, but don't want to overload the post, so they are located here: www.flickr.com/photos/trintek/sets/72157624847387907/

Well Trin, based on your pictures, I'll say that your description was accurate. Your bike is definitely more rusty and neglected than mine was. Ultimately I wound up fixing, refinishing or replacing just about everything that you will. As long as you have time and patience you can surely save that bike.

So what part of SA do you live in? I was born in Hondo and grew up in Kerrville. I know the area pretty well. I try to get back to the hill country as least every couple of months.

heheh I have plenty of time and patience, plus this will be bike #12 or so to be brought back from the dead. The gs450tx was the last one, bought it for 50 in non-running condition, traced it to a wiring fault and had it back up and running in 30 mins or so. That one lasted me the 3 years i spent in terlingua and is being traded for a 1978 volvo 242gt, hence the new project bike.

While in san antonio, I live in north central, near basse/blanco. The rest of the time I live out in terlingua between big bend natl park and big bend state park, solitario region. The friend I am trading the bike to lives in hondo and I picked up the 65 dune buggy (also doa) in kerrville.

Once I get this bike running and tested on some of the back roads here, I will be taking it up to garner, then hopefully out to the big bend region for a few weeks.

I was looking through my parts bin and may just build a 4-into-1 intake for the time being and toss a 38mm carb on it. Hoping to get the wiring done over the weekend and give it a shot of starter fluid to see if it will fire up. Amazingly enough the inside of the engine looks clean with no corrosion.

Cool man, I have a friend that lived near Blanco and West Ave. I was in your 'hood all the time.

How do you make a living in Terlingua? Beautiful country, but so desolate. I have been trying to figure out some type of way to make a living in the area around Junction, but I don't have the answer yet. We used to go camping in Big Bend National park before our kids were born. I haven't been out that way in a long time I miss it.

I used to work for the san antonio chamber of commerce doing programming, so just did the programming on my laptop, then uploaded at night when the cell towers weren't so congested. These days I do the "jack of all trades" thing, programming was semi-fun, but the stress was getting to me.

When I moved to terlingua, I was pretty much used to every convenience known to man, after living there for a while, I started to find ways to cut my expenses tremendously. As it stands, I only spend around 2-3000 per year while in terlingua. Built a solar and wind setup for less than 500, water catchment system for around 200, and I grow and hunt around 40-50% of my food. Taxes are around 60 per year, poa fees are 250 or so, the rest of the money is spent on food and gas.

I still haven't figured out a way to make as much as I used to, but I am quite a bit happier now than I was then, so it all evens out.

Terlingua, LaJitas, Study Butte...I really enjoyed the BB region...spent time out there myself...we probably have some mutual acquaintances.

trintek wrote:

I used to work for the san antonio chamber of commerce doing programming, so just did the programming on my laptop, then uploaded at night when the cell towers weren't so congested. These days I do the "jack of all trades" thing, programming was semi-fun, but the stress was getting to me.

When I moved to terlingua, I was pretty much used to every convenience known to man, after living there for a while, I started to find ways to cut my expenses tremendously. As it stands, I only spend around 2-3000 per year while in terlingua. Built a solar and wind setup for less than 500, water catchment system for around 200, and I grow and hunt around 40-50% of my food. Taxes are around 60 per year, poa fees are 250 or so, the rest of the money is spent on food and gas.

I still haven't figured out a way to make as much as I used to, but I am quite a bit happier now than I was then, so it all evens out.

I figured you would say something like this. I'm not too sure that I could convince the kids to give up their "things." If I could I would probably be doing the same thing right now. Thats awesome that you can be so self sufficient out there, but I guess you have to be.

trintek wrote:

So far I have tried berryman's for 12 hours, vinegar for 8 hours, and an ultrasonic bath for an hour. No joy. My next attempt will probably be with vanish toilet bowl cleaner for 15 minutes, if that doesn't touch it I will hold off until I can soda blast it....

If not already done, could try boiling carbs in plain water for a while. Maybe add a little vinegar to the boil.

Good Fortune1

McDroid: Possibly, it's a pretty small group, unfortunately the group that I usually bs'd with dropped by 2 members. DB and Frosty are no more, I should probably give richard a call and see how everyone else is doing.

Testarossa: If I had kids it would be a different story. I would probably sign-up with a few consulting firms as a freelance programmer, as well as buying 4x4's from police auctions and rebuilding/selling them. I believe that would actually pull in quite a bit more than I was previously making, but, I would also pretty much be working non-stop.

Patton: I will give that a shot later today, still need to install the new rr on the gs450, then layout the new wiring for the kz. I talked to my brother for a bit last night, he is going to start working on a couple of 2-into-1 intakes for me. The current plan is to try and bring the original carbs back from the dead, backup plan is to strap a couple of 38mm carbs on it. I was going to do a 4-into-1 but it looks like it would run the outer cylinders rich.