'82 KZ440 Low Miles Also My First

Hello everybody!

Last weekend I completed my MSF course and so of course the next day I bought my first bike. I found a 1982 Kawasaki KZ440 D LTD which is basically the belt driven variant of the KZ440 A.



The bike has 3000 original miles as well as one owner and garage kept it's entire life in a low humidity area. Last registered some 16 years ago.



The owner had the carbs rebuilt, new battery, new tires, and was saying it is ready to go. It starts up nice but I don't want to drive it anywhere as I drained the gas tank and found pieces of rust that had been accumulating in the empty tank while it sat in storage. I threw in a bunch of airsoft bb's and water and shook and rolled the tank for a good five minutes each way. The plastic bb's got a lot of the loose crud out but there is still a rubbery coating that is coming separated from the tank.



I ordered the POR 15 tank repair clean kit which should strip the tank down to the metal and bond the rust to seal it so no more debris hits the petcock filter.



I plan on installing an in line fuel filter from auto zone in order to assure my newly rebuilt carbs don't get clogged up. This bike is going to remain bone stock save for the in line fuel filter. I do need one of those right? The petcock filter that sticks into the gas tank will not be sufficient?

My Clymer's is in the mail and I have an electronic version of the FSM. I am itching to get on the road. I have the gear, the bike, just waiting for the damn DMV now.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated

Smash

Nice find!

Change the oil on that puppy right away of course.

If it runs great, remember to not start tinkering and playing with things (engine/carbs) until after a good few hund miles. It has sat for a long time, and still needs some "storage break-in".

You should use an inline fuel filter, it can save from carb headaches and causes no problems.

Don't forget that a tank will flash rust quickly, so after rinsing, spray a generous amount of WD40 in there and roll/slosh it around everywhere.

GL.



Oh yeah, take that silly sticker off your tach! :laugh:

Doh! Forgot to mention, the previous owner had the oil filter changed as well as the oil less than 10 miles back on the odometer.

Great advice about not "fixing" it if it isn't broken haha yes this is a machine that when properly configured doesn't need constant tinkering...I just prefer constant checking to make sure everything is within spec of course

What is this?


From what I can see it is a magnet that is supposed to catch small rust particles? If I could remove this the in line filter would just take it's place and be very easy. However the question is would the inline filter catch everything the magnet one does?

I am going to go read in the FSM and see if I can answer this question myself, but feel free to help me out if so inclined

Will spray with some WD40 today, thanks for the heads up!

I want to remove it but the damn thing is glued on! Afraid of scratching the plastic with a blade or marring with solvent.

What you see there in the pic is an inline fuel filter (stone type).

If the oil is more than 3 months old, then chuck it

Awesome, thanks for that ID Tek9ine. The previous owner said he had just had it done but who knows...I'll end up changing it in a month anyways just so I know it's been done.

Lucky you, wow, that is a beauty find. :woohoo:

Your going to have a great time. They are a quick and fairly strong bike, they corner well, they're light, they putter along in 6th with two up on the highway all day without blinking. (insert personal experience here) They will also scream and work if it pleases you to do so, or you need it in a situation. Belts are awesome is all I can say on that. Heh.

Only advice I have on one of those is they run hot, specially if doing a lot of city running around. I've always ran Castrol 4 stroke high temp oil in all my bikes, since dirt bikes, yes it's been around that long.. hehe, but I found it particularly helpful in those 440 motors. I'd say at least a 20% drop in temperature, and it won't turn into water like most other oils.

Sorry to hear about the messed up tank, I hate it when peeps put H2O in them and crappy tank liners. It's like the death of a tank.

It's a fairly common bike, I'd think you could probably find a tank in mint shape that would cost you less coin and grief than messing with liners, etc. I mean you have a good cap/petcock/emblems already, a tank without those in it would run 50 bucks or so here. Black, now there should be a hard color to find.. LOL
Good luck with the DMV.

Capt America, thanks for the good advice! Did an oil change last night and am now just waiting to be able to take it out for a spin.

I will keep my eye out for a replacement tank which is the long term solution to rust in the fuel lines. I have the POR 15 ready for the new tank that has not been sealed previously when I find one.

Yesterday I started her up but would not stay running unless petcock was set to prime with the choke applied. After trying to get her to stay on for about 10 minutes I checked the oil level and was all the way high and smelled of gas.

I drained the oil, which definitely had at least two different liquids in it. I drained the carb floats by loosening the screw and letting the fuel run out of the over flow tubes and clean gas came out, maybe a tiny bit of water but no debris.

With the petcock set to prime and the drain screws loose, gas slowly dribbles out of the overflow tubes.

I checked the plugs after this and they looked like



So that makes me think that the idling issues are coming from the contaminated and overfilled oil?

I'm not going to start it again until I can ride it around the block because I feel like I will just be chasing my tail looking for problems that probably aren't even there.

I'm just wondering how the oil got contaminated in the first place.

Thanks

If it were me, I'd check the input voltage to the ignition coil. Remove the gas tank, and with the key to the "On" position have the run/stop switch to "Run", get a multimeter set on VDC(Volts D.C.)range of 20.

Put the RED probe of the meter where the RED wire goes and the BLACK meter probe on either a good frame ground or the battery Negative(-) post.

It should indicate within a few volts of the battery, if not, it's time to start cleaning the connectors and switch contacts.

The right handlebar has the mentioned run/stop switch, also the start switch is mounted there too.

The headlight housing has a majority of the main harness connectors inside that will need cleaning.

For many years, I've been usung a good brand of electrical contact cleaner/preservative called "De-oxit"
on my bike and other electrical contact surfaces.

www.deoxit.com is their website.

Thanks for the tips MFolks! The bike's electrical all looks clean and reads within spec with the multimeter.

The petcock needs to be rebuilt but for now I just switch between Prime when running and ON when..off

The bike behaves perfectly until I put more than half throttle; then, all power cuts just long enough to push me forward in the seat then comes back just as quick, but is very slow to rise in rpms. She really prefers to shift between 5 and 6k rpm and is very hard to get her to go past 7k rpm in any gear. Going slight downhill grade today in 6th with open throttle got me to 55, then barely 60 in about a quarter mile. I am 6'5" 185lbs but that shouldn't have an effect on the speed.

I am STILL waiting on my Clymer's manual, but I think my diaphragms may be cracked, or maybe the timing adjuster is catching, or maybe the carbs aren't opening fully.

I think that the problem is a lack of proper fuel / air ratio past the 1/2 or maybe 3/4 throttle and one of those jets are clogged.

PO said carbs were rebuilt, but if they were "rebuilt" correctly, this issue wouldn't be here now would it?

To paraphrase...I think that that a lean condition past 1/2 or 3/4 throttle is causing loss/lack of top end power and that the lean condition is being caused by 1) Old diaphragms or 2) Timing Adjuster or 3) One or more of the primary or afterburn(forgot the term lol) jet passageways are clogged and need to be cleaned.

I now wonder if cleaning the carbs is possible without having to resync / calibrate them?

If not, so what? I saw a super cheap method using a yardstick and some tubing that makes it easy to sync the carbs. Is that all that needs to be done after taking apart and cleaning carbs? If so, I will make a weekend project of it and dismantle the carbs and clean and resync them.

Ramble ramble...