1976 KZ900 two year off and on project.

Time to take it home to my garage now.

I had to cut some off my carrier as well. i dont think u need to get completely hunge up about the rim being centered. I did, but i have heard from lots , since that they run fine off center .

Yeah, I'm kind of a perfectionist I like everything to lineup and work just right.

Dirk

I just went through the centering of the rear wheel on mine with a zrx swingarm.

If you are interested, I will give you a photo of what I came up with.

I ordered a sprocket from sprocket specialties for the ZRX rear wheel I am using. They removed .050" form the wheel side of the sprocket, I am using 1.330" axle spacer on the oppisite side of the sprocket, with a 5/8" offset countersprocket.

Those numbers need to be confirmed, as the Japanese it is said had a large tolerance for the steering neck centering, so every bike is a little different.

If you read the old articles, the racers would remove the steering neack and reweld it on the centerline, sometimes it would be up to 1/8' off center from the factory.

I built a jig which captured the rear rim, (no tire)with two straight edges reaching all the way to the front rim.
Measure the width of the rim and make spacers the same width as the rear rim fit between two straight edges all the way up to the front wheel.

Once you have the two straight edges parralell to each other, you can center the rear whell to the front. This is where I got the 1.330".

All said and done I was within .005" of perfect center.

The whole swingarm set-up is at a friends shop, or I would post a photo today.

TexasKZ900 wrote:

Doug, I would like to know how wide is your back rim because I was going to have to cut alot off my sprocket carrier to center the wheel. My rim is 5.5 by 17 with a 180 by 55 tire.

I'm using a 160/60-17 Conti-Force on a 4.5" rim from a ZX6D. I lucked out as I just slotted the rim into the swingarm and used a 5/8" offset sprocket and everything lined up. The only machining needed was to the spacers as the ZX axle was smaller diameter than the Gsxr so the spacers needed the ID opened up.

I'm not going to be as lucky with the 6" Busa rim going in the '91 Gsxr750 arm that's mounted in my 900.

Later, Doug

really nice project, the color looks good. I have a question what type of bike lift are you using at your buddies house? im interested in getting one. thanks

Very informative, thank you for the info this should help a lot of people just like me out there.

Dirk

The bike lift is the one that Harbor Freight or Northern Tools sales.

www.harborfreight.com

www.northerntool.com

I've been having lots of trouble with termites attacking my frame, is anyone else having this problem? :laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: