78 KZ650 Project needs serious TLC

I finally brought home the KZ650 I had been looking at on Craigslist forever the other day. It currently doesn't run, but after initial diagnosis, it doesn't appear to be anything major. At least thats what I hope to be the case. It has been kept outside under a tarp by its last owner, but it would appear previous owners did not keep it that well covered. The seat is noting but electrical tape and the engine has a lot of oxidation.

I ordered the Clymer manual and am awaiting its arrival. This weekend I am going to drain the gas, feed her some good gas and give her a quick bath. I'm going to pick up a new battery and see if she wont turn over and start for me.

Anybody got anything else you would recommend checking while I wait to get the service book? I was thinking of getting to work cleaning up the engine and doing cosmetic work. What do you recommend using to clean the engine of all the oxidation? I've got plenty of "elbow grease" but was wondering if there wasn't some compound or trick that might help me keep a good stock of "elbow grease" after I've finished cleaning the engine.

I've attached a couple photos of my new bike. I will take some better shots this weekend. If there is anything you think I should post a picture of let me know. I am going to need all the direction I can get. I've got ADD so an action course would be great!!

BTW I am looking to try to make this into a cafe style bike. If that helps any....

Thanks for all the help.

P.S. If this is by chance in the wrong category, let me know/feel free to move it to the right category.

There's a link to download a FSM in the signature of KZr member loudhvx.
The FSM is imo superior to Clymer.
Routine service schedule should be in either manual.

Would also do a forum search for soda blaster.

Good Fortune!

Take the tank off and petcock off. First flush all debris out of the tank. If you are not worried about the paint, use M.E.K. (can be purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot). But be careful with it and do it outside.Very strong and harmful to your health. Next, do a fresh oil change and filter. Follow this by squirting 2 or 3 oz of Marvel Mystery Oil in each spark plug hole. Do not disturb the engine and let it soak in there a few days while you work on other things. Next pull the float bowls off each carb. Check the condition of the float chamber and do an initial cleaning of the bowls, float seat and float needle on each carb. After a few days you can try starting her up. You can start by trying starting fluid first (don't even need to have any fuel in the carbs). If it starts for a few seconds, this tells your ignition system is somewhat working. You will see lots of some from the oil you put in the cylinders until it burns off. If that works put fuel in the carbs. You can use a make shift fuel tank to make things easier. Hopefully it will start up at that point. Don't put the fuel tank back on until you are sure there is now debris left. And even then, install a gravity inline fuel filter to make sure. If the bike didn't start, you will need to take the carbs off and clean or rebuild.
As for cleaning the aluminum, I like Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish. Works well by hand. You can additionally use a buffing wheel on a drill along with the polish for the hard to clean spots. Or you could get some cutting/polishing compound (for soft metals) to use with the buffing wheel. Good luck.

Cool! The 650 is a good bike!!

The condition is very close to the condition of my 550 when i started, it took me a while but it looks great now(see my avitar pic).

Have fun and keep us posted!

Change the oil and filter before trying to start. You don't know what the heck might be in there (water, gasoline, ??). Ed

Thanks for all the information! I think I did write down somewhere that we were going to change the oil and filter. Ed, is that something that is simple enough to do without having the Clymer book, or should I wait. My dad (who is the brains behind this project) knows motors and motorcycles pretty well. Do you think its something that between he and I, it would be a pretty simple thing to do?

Rory Byrd wrote: Thanks for all the information! I think I did write down somewhere that we were going to change the oil and filter. Ed, is that something that is simple enough to do without having the Clymer book, or should I wait. My dad (who is the brains behind this project) knows motors and motorcycles pretty well. Do you think its something that between he and I, it would be a pretty simple thing to do?

Below is a link to the Kawasaki Service Manual for the KZ650-B1. Your bike is newer, so the stuff related to the alternator and charging system doe not math you bike. However, the oil & filter change is the same. Be sure to use the appropriate torque (and torque wrench) when tightening the fasteners or you may end up with stripped threads like many others have found. Also, only use oil that is marked on the bottle that is meets the JASO-MA standards; that is important for our bikes because of the wet clutches. Be sure to have the bike on the center stand when you fill the oil and make sure the level is between the two lines on the little round window - don't over or under fill.

Another thing - the screws on your KZ are not Phillips (I know they look like Phillips, but trust me; they are not!) Read the following posting regarding the screws:
kzrider.com/forum/21-tools/532335-budget...ewdriver-tips#532335

KZ650-B1 Kawasaki Service Manual:
www.scribd.com/doc/48655900/Kawasaki-KZ-...B1-77-Service-Manual

So over the weekend we finally got to work! We went to the the auto parts store and bought oil filter, 4 quarts of oil, a new battery and some chain lube. We threw the battery on the charger, removed the tank and we were just about to start changing the oil when it started to rain. The garage currently has a 1958 Dode pick up truck project in it so bike work is outside at the moment. So Saturday ended up being a bust, but on Sunday, we were finally able to do something. Got the oil changed, and the tank drained. We took off the petcock and saw it was in decent shape. Once the oil was changed, we threw the good battery back on the bike, but as soon as we touched the leads to the terminals the motor tried turning over. Looking into the electrics, we found the starter solenoid to be a FORD part!!!! A FORD PART!!!??? Are you kidding me!? Naturally we never installed the battery and have now got a starter solenoid on order! Hopefully, putting a new solenoid in will get this puppy up and running so we can get to work on the rest of the project!

We have decided that once she is running, we are going to strip the bike, paint, do any frame work, and rebuild with the look we want. But I think I might just re upholster the seat and ride her for the rest of the summer before trying a full on rebuild.

We'll see how this weekend goes with replacing the starter solenoid and go from there.


And in case you were wondering who "WE" is, this is a project I am doing with my dad.

Well, what I thought would be a rather quick fix to get running has turned into a lot of tinker to discover and then wait on parts! Install new parts, tinker some more, then wait on more parts.

Its not exactly what I expected, but its what I got.

Over the weekend, I replaced the FORD starter solenoid with the right KZ solenoid and that got the starter working. After we saw how gunky and gassy the oil was, we decided before we try to start her that we were going to take off the carbs and give em a good cleaning. Once we got the carbs off we saw that the previous owner, or a previous owner had removed a lot of the gas lines/plugs and not replaced them.

The air box is in pretty rough shape so I think we are going to put individual air filters on each carb. I like the look and think it will be better than the clunky box.

We also noticed the throttle return cable was in poor shape and we need to order a new return cable. So this week I am cleaning carbs and waiting for more parts! At least I have something to do while I wait for my parts and wont be sitting idly by.

I will take some pictures tonight to show you guys what we've found or not found in some cases.

I believe you would be better off getting the bike to run well using that "clunky" airbox before you install pods. Otherwise you may have a difficult time trying to figure out why it runs like crap. If you get it running well with the airbox first and then switch to pods you can spend your time just trying to find the magic pod jetting combo with the understanding that there is not some other problem (valve clearances, ignition, etc.) that is making it run flaky. Using the airbox first will give you a baseline from which to start and judge pod related performance changes. Ed

BTW, here are some pics of KZ650s with those hideous airboxes. I don;t know how anyone could stand to own such a thing....










Ooops; how did that one get in there? :blush:

Ed,

I take it you are a Kawasaki purest? Stock is the way to go, right? There is nothing wrong with the way those bikes look. In fact, if my bike looked like any of them (especially the last picture) I would be thrilled.

There is another contributing issue leading me to the pods and that is the (?ports?) coming from the airbox to the carbs are all cracked. And to replace them is more expensive than the pods I found. If you know of somewhere I can get those parts for under $30 then I am happy to keep the airbox. I was just trying to keep it simple and inexpensive.

You have some great input and I really do appreciate it. I'm new to this so forgive any ignorance. LOL.

The air ducts are still an active Kawasaki part. The full set runs just under $40 at Ronayers.com. You need 2 part #11015-057 and 2 part # 11015-063 but check the part numbers before ordering.

Yes, I guess you could say I'm at least a semi-purist on my bike (I have made a few mods that don't show), but you will notice some of the bikes I pictured are far from stock. I was serious about using the airbox to establish a baseline. If your bike currently is running poorly it could be caused by any number of things. Sorting them out IMHO is best done by beginning with a full tune-up. This eliminates a bunch of variables and may even solve the problem. However, if it does not solve the problem you may need to try a bunch of tests (compression, charging system ignition system, carb issues, wiring, etc.) before you locate the source or sources of the problem. If you install pods before you get the bike running well you introduce yet another variable that must be considered. Further, it is well documented that the KZ650 (and pretty much all KZ's) will not run well throughout the rpm range with pods unless changes are made to the carbs. Doing this requires making jetting or other carb changes then testing the performance, and if the performance is still not quiet right repeating the process until it runs well. Trying to do this on an engine that already is running poorly will make the chance of success near zero because even if you get the jetting correct that will not solve the original problem that is causing the bike to run poorly, so you won't know you hit the right jetting combo. If you don't want to buy new air ducts you may even consider temporarily taping over the cracks in the old ones (not pretty, I know) until you can get the bike running properly. Ed