Edmonton, AB

Hey, I live here and I like motorcycles. I get to ride them for 5 or maybe even 6 glorious months of the year. Last summer I bought a 1980 KZ550 Ltd, thinking I could get it running before the snow. It looked like a steal at $500. Yeah, he robbed me blind. I learned very quickly that it was going to be more than a quick flip and on the road. The PO said it hadn't been ridden in 5 years and that it was winterized before never being ridden again. I think those were both lies. I have cleaned up a few pieces, trying to remove rust and cleaning carbs, but my momentum has stalled. Its not even my only motorcycle that needs my attention, let alone my full time job, wife, 3 kids,

Onto the show!

Welcome. $500 isn't a bad price for something that'll run. Pics of the carb bowls?
Steve

Don't you be dissing Edmonton winters. Builds character, I know I lived there for 7 years.

You think $500 purchase price was steep wait till you see what basic maintenance things like brake bits twirly bit things like seals and bearings and so on. Welcome to the money pit.

$1000 to overhaul the engine and chassis.
$500 DMV late fees.


Another $1000 for goodies.




And it goes on and on.




Add valve job, gaskets etc. I stopped counting. Still adding to her.
Steve

Oh, new Kawasaki front fender, $250 from Z1E.
Steve

It pays to shop around for parts, even find a parts bike. I think by the time I sell off the surplus parts from mine, things I took of and replaced returning it to an A model and making some modifications, I will still be in it under $2500 with the new tank and paint. Had I not bought some parts bikes in the past, sold other stuff from them to cover their costs and still had bits I needed to hand, it would have been a much more costly venture. It helped that I got my bike pretty cheap and that it also had some desirable mods and engine work done less than 1k miles before. As I've said many times the best money spent on any project is the previous owners.

Best of luck with your project, take your time finding the bits you need, it seems you can always find something cheaper than you find at first if you take the time to look, bide your time and use the knowledge people have here. Work on one thing at a time and make it the best you can, cleaning, polishing and repairing and pretty soon you will find yourself amazed by how far along it's come from where you started, they seem like little things, but suddenly when you've improved on 10 or 20 things it makes a huge difference to the overall bike. It's amazing how much can be achieved with just elbow grease and Mothers Polish.

Yup, before I had the money for the engine parts, I started polishing and painting things that hadn't been touched in 30 years. The bike was sound but dumpy. The dry starts is what cost me $500 for new pistons. I should have known better. :dry:



Old style cast pistons. One destroyed. Not made anymore. :pinch:

Polished and painted. Being a Z1 even used parts are pricey. Honda front fender. :sick:


The smaller fours, parts are much cheaper. The wheel bearings were 40 years old and the steering head bearings 20 and had notches.


I could have stopped at $1500 but as it took shape, the more little things would stand out. :ohmy:




I don't think I will ever be done with it. In my 20/30's it was about keeping it running. Now it's about having all the little things I always wanted. That list is endless. :whistle: It's a labor of love.


Steve

I bought it because it wasn't seized, it went into all the gears, all the brakes worked and the tank is happily clean of rust.

A friend and I changed the oil, put in some clean fuel, a battery and hoped for the best. Nothing. So I decided to dig deeper. At first, it was very dirty so I cleaned it as best I can, enough that I could remove the spark plugs to look at them and check compression. starting from the left it was 90 - 130 - 130 - 150 cold (obviously). I also pulled the carbs to check them out and then I saw why it didn't just fire up





Some progress has also been made cleaning these things.

That's not too bad. Yes clean the carbs with spray carb cleaner. Check and do a valve adjustment. They're often neglected. Here's my thread on 550 carbs I did. Once done, it fired up, I synced them and it purred like a kitten.
kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/598262-kz-...-will-it-live#672882
Steve

Looks like it will clean up nice. With these older bikes, it is best not to keep track of the money you put into them.

Yup

Thanks everyone, I was really feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of work I am going to have to do. Now I feel like it will be ready for a test by spring