New Here...New KZ Owner

Hey guys. Just drive 9 hours round trip today to pick up my 1st KZ. It's an 81 550 and is in pretty good shape. Has 25k miles on it and seems to run decent. About the only issue I can see is a oil leak from the head. Looks like it has been weeping for a little while now. It has a slight noise at idle that to me sounds like maybe a loose cam chain. As soon as you give it any throttle it goes right away. I'll get her cleaned up and some pics posted soon. I'll post the CL ad to hold you over till tomorrow.

81 kz550

Welcome Very nice. Sync the carbs and check the valves.
Steve.

swest wrote: Welcome Very nice. Sync the carbs and check the valves.
Steve.

Will do. Are all the sync ports on the intakes supposed to face down? I think 2 are facing up on here.

They were for the emission control.
Steve

Wildman1024 wrote:

swest wrote: Welcome Very nice. Sync the carbs and check the valves.
Steve.

Will do. Are all the sync ports on the intakes supposed to face down? I think 2 are facing up on here.

Here's the diagram. Ed

Don't try to turn them around unless they are new ones. Once the seal is broken, they can't be sealed correctly. You may have to get new ones anyway but for now, leave them be.
Steve

650ed wrote:

Wildman1024 wrote:

swest wrote: Welcome Very nice. Sync the carbs and check the valves.
Steve.

Will do. Are all the sync ports on the intakes supposed to face down? I think 2 are facing up on here.

Here's the diagram. Ed

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Thanks for this. I guess they are on correctly.

Welcome Wildman!

Super nice looking KZ550a man. Looks so good in that red.
I went through this in February - all of your questions - with my 550a too. Lots of fun since and I've managed to learn a few things too :laugh:

That rattling sound at idle which usually goes away once the engine is warmed up?
The sound it seems is coming from the primary chain inside the engine.
Cleaning, confirming and synchronizing the carbs was mentioned to you for this reason.
Once the carbs are synchronized, that sound will be nearly gone. Mine still rattles a little bit at bone-cold, choke on, start but nothing like it used to and I reckon, I could probably give the old carb sync another whirl (my second attempt) and probably do better! Getting the carbs cleaned and adjusted helped mainly for me to know what their baseline state is so if someone asks...

Look closer at your bike's oil leak and identify exactly where it's coming from.
There are a few common places which in my humble opinion is a good reason to see an oil leak:
Maintenance was being done on the bike! :laugh:

Common oil leak spots:
The cam plugs -
Those black rubber, half-moon shaped pieces - between the valve cover and cylinder head.

The valve cover itself -
what looks like the top of the bike's engine, has to be unbolted occasionally to check valve clearances. If the gasket gets old and brittle it could leak from this gasket.

The tachometer cable connection to the engine. -
Not really a maintenance issue except you have to check this gear when you deal with the exhaust camshaft for shimming the valves when needed. However, this little spot where the cable connects to an internal gear can sometimes be weepy.

Anyway. Great motorcycle. I enjoy the heck out of mine. Show us some pictures of yours at home when you can and if you can or wish to, edit your profile, put your bike in your signature and your location in too. This helps folks here to answer your questions about something technical. They see you have an '81 550a and can visualize the issue at hand more accurately. The location city/state, just helps to know where in the world you are and if you are close to another member. Cool if you can ride over to antoher member's garage or meet up for an ale or burger joint/event.

wrenchmonkey wrote: Welcome Wildman!

Super nice looking KZ550a man. Looks so good in that red.
I went through this in February - all of your questions - with my 550a too. Lots of fun since and I've managed to learn a few things too :laugh:

That rattling sound at idle which usually goes away once the engine is warmed up?
The sound it seems is coming from the primary chain inside the engine.
Cleaning, confirming and synchronizing the carbs was mentioned to you for this reason.
Once the carbs are synchronized, that sound will be nearly gone. Mine still rattles a little bit at bone-cold, choke on, start but nothing like it used to and I reckon, I could probably give the old carb sync another whirl (my second attempt) and probably do better! Getting the carbs cleaned and adjusted helped mainly for me to know what their baseline state is so if someone asks...

Look closer at your bike's oil leak and identify exactly where it's coming from.
There are a few common places which in my humble opinion is a good reason to see an oil leak:
Maintenance was being done on the bike! :laugh:

Common oil leak spots:
The cam plugs -
Those black rubber, half-moon shaped pieces - between the valve cover and cylinder head.

The valve cover itself -
what looks like the top of the bike's engine, has to be unbolted occasionally to check valve clearances. If the gasket gets old and brittle it could leak from this gasket.

The tachometer cable connection to the engine. -
Not really a maintenance issue except you have to check this gear when you deal with the exhaust camshaft for shimming the valves when needed. However, this little spot where the cable connects to an internal gear can sometimes be weepy.

Anyway. Great motorcycle. I enjoy the heck out of mine. Show us some pictures of yours at home when you can and if you can or wish to, edit your profile, put your bike in your signature and your location in too. This helps folks here to answer your questions about something technical. They see you have an '81 550a and can visualize the issue at hand more accurately. The location city/state, just helps to know where in the world you are and if you are close to another member. Cool if you can ride over to antoher member's garage or meet up for an ale or burger joint/event.

Thank you for the nice write up. Now that it is clean I hope to see where the oil may be coming from. I hope to dive into the carbs and get them tuned the end of the week. Se what happens from there. I have to work the front half of this week starting tomorrow so wont be able to do anything till Thursday. I work a compressed schedule. 3 days 1 week then 4 the next then back to 3. Always the same days so its pretty nice.

OK. Well here is a quick video of it running. I did it with my iphone so hope you can hear what I was talking about.

1981 Kz550


Here are some decent pics of it washed and waxed.

Nice gold color to the pipes. That's what they should look like. I ruined mine by running too lean.
Carbs are out of sync. You'll be surprised how quiet it will be once you get them dialed in. Worth the $100 for the sync tool.
Steve

Yeah that is exactly what my KZ550a sounded like too when I first got it in February. I think the term I heard here was "can of nuts and bolts". :laugh:
Steps I took, In order:
Dismantled and cleaned the carbs
Replaced the carb mounts (originals didn't have vacuum ports for sync anyway)
Adjusted the valve shims
Finally, carburetor synchronizing.

It wasn't until the sync that the primary chain rattle sound was reduced 80-90%. If my idle falls below 1100 it is more evident. I assume this means I could do better at the sync process - it was my first and only time synchronizing 4 carbs and I went totally ghetto-fabulous on the meters with a bungee cord across the handlebar hanging 4 vacuum gauges I bought from HFT and a box fan running to cool the engine because it was taking me so long.
I was too impatient to order a manometer set online and have to wait. In the end, the cost of 4 at HFT was same as most online units anyway.