Intro to me and my new scooter...

Hi all! I've been a member for a little while now, just lurking and gathering information, but now It's official. I just picked up a 1980 KZ1000 this past weekend. I'm including some pics of it as is, before I do anything or even clean it up. It's a lot rougher than the pics show, but no dents in the tank. It has been laid down on both sides, it looks like. Slid a long way on the right side engine gaurd apparrently. Good thing it was there. I probably paid a bit too much, but oh well. I couldn't help myself. It runs pretty rough right now as well, doesn't idle well, and it's ungodly loud. Pops a lot on decel too. PO said it was a Kerker pipe, but there isn't anything on the pipe and the baffel is all rusted out. I only took it a few miles down the road as it had no registration(or insurance) but it pulled hard in every gear. I'll update progress as I go. Maybe start a thread in the proper forum for that. It smokes a bit out of the pipes where they enter the head on at least one cyl, so I'm ordering a manual for it and some exhaust gaskets tonight. After I title and insure it, it may just need clean fresh gas and run hard for a couple hundred miles.

nice bike

welcome

Welcome, VirginaKZ! Yes, the bike looks real nice in the pictures. Is the paint as nice shape as it looks? Sounds like you need to do some rejetting to get rid of a lean condition (popping on decel). I would first replace the baffle prior to attempting to dial in the jets. You should be able to find a manual online here as well. I have bought and its nice to have two manuals to reference.

welcome!

nice bike,keep us posted on what you do with it.

leon

Let the good times roll

Thanks, KZJoe. No, in this case the pictures make it look a lot better than close up. It's been stored for quite a while, I believe, probably in the corner of a garage with a lot of crap on it/around it. Just some rather ugly scratches and chips someone tried to fix with paint that didn't match. Incredibly, there isn't any major bodywork/tank/fender damage other than that. That green color is the bomb. I'll probably try to get it matched as close as possible and spray it myself(eventually). Or, there is a guy here at kzrider that did some serious kick ass green with skulls and ghosty kinda shit that gave me a chubby. He may want some cash side work. When I find his post again I'll see where he lives. Don't know about mailing the tank cross country tho. Other than crud and surface rust junk(got great tips from here, soda blasters and what not), and the chips and scratches, it's in pretty good shape. The headlight bracket is mangled and not hardly attached, just sort of sitting there. Fine for daylight, but night driving would probably be hazardous at best. First things first though. Running properly(yep, probably carb work) full maintenance(I don't care what PO told me, it's getting done), Tags and insurance. Tires were brand new, still got the titties everywhere but the center. Then we'll worry about the bling. Or maybe not. If it looks good from five feet away, what's a screaming green blur gonna look like?

The guy you are probably thinking of is ramtough_63. Here is his build thread ramtough's build . I think hails from Kentucky. Yeah, get her running nice. One of ramtough's paint jobs would look awesome on that bike.

KZJOE900, that link is no good. Goes to a thread about updates to the forum.

Beautiful! My buddy just got his 81 ST (or was it 80?) on the road last week. We are still tinkering with a lot of details, tuning carbs etc.

The popping on decel can be the jetting, or it may actually be the emissions air system. My buddy made some covers for the valve cover ports to seal them off.

Incidently, we've been puzzled by a strange sound in the trans. With the bike on the centerstand, when we rotate the rear wheel, there is a clicking sound in the trans. It's pretty quiet, but definitely there. The sound doesn't sound bad like anything broken, just strange. I was wondering if you had the same sound.

I've never heard it on any chain drive KZ's.

Yep, that's the one! That was one of the first threads I read here! 'Thrown together to ride til winter' It was exactly what I was thinking of when I saw pics of this bike for sale. He went off the hook with that bike.

Thanks, loudhvx. I haven't had a chance to do anything at all with it. I literally picked it up this past Tues afternoon. I work the night shift Wed-Sat, and this Sunday I'm covering someone else. So Mon morning will be my first real shot at it. I'll be sure to put it up and see if I can hear anything strange. I'm not going to fuss too much with things until I get the service manual so I know what's what when I do. As soon as I saw the pipe and the pods, I asked if it had been properly jetted. Of course he said it had, but he had never titled the bike himself in the time he owned it, so, well, whatev. I'll believe it when I see it and not assume anything. It may well just need a full tank of fresh gas, some sea-foam additive, and a couple hundred miles of open highway and high rpm's. The fuel filter, plugs and wires look new though. So as the manual arrives I'll start really checking things close. Does your buddy have an electronic version of the shop manual? I downloaded the kz900 one from here as a place to start.

My buddy's having a hard time getting a manual too. I think he's been using KZ1000A manual, but said he's finding too many differences, so he's looking for an actual ST manual.