New member

Hello... I am Dozer. I have been riding and wrenching for many years. I have been in aviation for the past 51 years and recently retired. I currently ride and maintain a 05 Yam Road Star Silverado and a 2000 Honda Valk Tourer.
I joined the site hoping for some info I can use. I just acquired a 78 ZR650SR and I am restoring it for a friend. Its been under a tarp in a garage for the past 20 years or so. It has 4000 miles on the clock and it looks like it was just parked yesterday. The frame, tins and paint are excellent but the tires, even though they hold air, are suffering from hardness and age.
Externally, the tank looks like new but there is some rust inside.

My goal is to bring it back to life again. I have a PDF of the Kaw maint manual and a copy from Clymer but I dont have a copy of the owners handbook to answer some of my questions. This looks like a good place to get it provided I can get past this captcha code. Those distorted words/letters are very difficult to read for a human let alone a bot not to mention the unintelligible MP3 voice. Anyway, I am looking forward to meeting y'all. So, here it goes...maybe

Welcome aboard! "78 ZR650SR" Typo? 1978 KZ650-SR which is officially the KZ650-D1 or KZ650-D1A depending on which carbs are on it. If it has the carbs with the orifice in the 10:00 position as shown by the arrow in the image below, it has VM22SS carbs and is a KZ650-D1A. If the carbs do not have that orifice it has VM24SS carbs and it is a KZ650-D1. This is important to know if you get into tuning the carbs. Also, here's a link that should be helpful when working on a KZ. Ed
kzrider.com/forum/10-new-members/589649-...r-savannah-ga#594587

650 ed...thanks for the welcome and the advice. Yes, sorry, it was a typo. Dyslexic fingers! lol KZ 650SR is correct. There is some confusion on my part about that too. The data decal on the neck simply ID's it as a KZ650D. It was mfg 10/78 but according to the serial number brackets I have seen, its actually a 79 D2! So I am not sure what maintenance manual to use...its very confusing.
I just looked at the carbs...there are only two "orifices"...one at 3 o'clock and one at 9 o'clock. I think its safe to assume these are not VM22SS's. I didnt see anything else on the carbs except for Mikuni Kogyo
I'll attach a pic of the bike once I figure out how the forum format works

Just curious Ed...is there anyway to get around that captcha thing every time I make a post? I have to scroll 10-15 times thru the list before I find a distorted word/letters I can recognize?
Thanks again

Since your bike was build in 10/78 it is a 1979 KZ650-D2. It will have VM24SS carbs, the 22mm carbs were only used in 1978 and only on some bikes. The model years start sometime around August or so very similar to car models. That's good to know since you will want to get a D2 manual. One easy way to tell that your bike is not a 1977 or 1978 is to look at the rider's footpeg mounts. The 1977 and 1978 mounts are fastened to the frame with 1 bolt each. The 1979 and later have 2 bolts holding each of the rider's footpeg mounts to the frame. Regarding captcha; I've never run into that here. Are you coming into the site from a PC using Internet Explorer or Firefox? Ed

More good info! Thanks! I knew this would be the place to come! I just looked at the foot pegs. There are two bolts holding the foot pegs to the frame. I guess I need to find a D2 manual. I dont know what the differences are between the different models yet...hopefully not much.
What I am trying to find out now is the ign switch functions. What all is operational in the "park" position? I have a battery ordered but in the meantime I hooked up my small battery charger to check the lights. Everything seemed to work in the "on" position but "park" is kinda intermittent. The manual I have doesnt discuss. I have heard that the owners handbook does though. I was kinda hoping to pick up a freeby that links to one.
I am using win 7 with firefox mozilla 25.1 Is there something else I should use? I see captcha is still prompting me....
Last question...should I start another thread for this topic? I dont want to violate any rules.