'80 KZ1000 ST resuscitation

Hey folks. I originally joined this forum a couple of months ago. I bought an old Kawasaki shaftie that was kind of in rough shape, and needed info on how to breath life back into it. As this is my first bike, I've pretty much had to learn everything from the ground up. With the info on this site, it's actually gone pretty well! So let's start out with some "before" photos:






There was nothing really wrong mechanically with the bike, and with less than 10,000 miles, how can you really go wrong, right? So lets see... aside from general cleanup, almost every item on the general maintenance checklist have been done. Carbs were plugged solid with varnish, so they got rebuilt. Old no-name air shocks had collapsed, so new Progressives were installed. New tires, spark plug wires and plugs.



As you can see from this photo, that's a puddle of brake and fork fluid under the right side of the front wheel, so new brakes all around, and a fork rebuild. Bulbs, flashers, and various and sundry other small parts, and it fired up on the first try! This is what it looks like now:







So anyhoo... the work isn't really done, but it sure is fun to ride!

Nice work, nice bike!!

OK, the title is supposed to read KZ1000. My bad.

bls5050 wrote:

OK, the title is supposed to read KZ1000. My bad.

Done!

Excellent save and a handsome bike!

Good Fortune!

Nice bike. Welcome. Roy

nice bike!
makes me want a shaft drive kz myself.
keep us posted as you make changes.

leon

Good Job! Another saved KZ is a good thing.

definetly awesome.... hows she ride ???? gotta love these old kawis.happy motoring...ace.

Thanks for the replies. It actually looks a little rougher than the pictures show. I only posted the really good shots.:dry:

It still needs alot of work, but it rides fine. It handles well, and has plenty of power. It ran a little ragged when I first rebuilt the carbs, but I ordered a Morgan Carbtune, so once I vacuum synched the carbs it was a whole new bike. It still has some issues, like a slight whirring/grinding noise at idle, but that seems to go away at higher RPMs. Or maybe I just can't hear it when the engine starts to scream! Or is this normal for these motors? Or should this be addressed in the appropriate tech forum? So many questions!

Anyway, I'm going to ride it to work tomorrow and rip into the valve cover friday to check clearances, and to see if anything is amiss with the cam chain.

try using rotella diesel oil.. it contains a chemical called zddp. its recomended on this site by the experts of kzs .its all i use now.there are some lengthy forums on here on oil using the search function if u want more details. btw it quited my kz 1000 down nicely!!!

Thats a sweet bike man, I love that tank style. You could polish up the aluminum engine parts to look mirror smooth with some elbow grease, along with other bits of chrome and stuff.

-Luke

That is exactly what the 80 KZ 1000 ST in the next thead looked like when I got it. see 80 KZ 1000 molestation TURBO!