My first bike, an '82 KZ440

I just bought my first bike, a KZ440 from 1982, but from the beginning it has been quite the project to take on. I've been working at a local moto repair shop as an intern, so I've been reassured that I have I a well capable of doing a good job, but I like to know what other people think and if anybody has any ideas.

I bought this bike not running, needing a newly upholstered seat, and a new wiring harness. I was able to successfully rewire the bike with the exception of a little trouble with my turn signals and headlight not working simultaneously. Any ideas what I could do with that? I traced the problem to my main power leg that goes across the whole bike, I cannot figure out if I need to rig it differently or if I am missing something.

Other than that, this project is rolling smoothly. I painted the bike, made an aluminum cowel for the seat rest, and put on some custom drag bars that give it sort of a cafe racer feel.

I'm open to any suggestions and/or constructive criticism. Let me know what you think.

As I was earlier having a lucky experience with my first project/first bike, I am now experiencing some tuning difficulties. Has anybody else ever had a problem where one of your cylinders is running lean while the other is running rich? All the jets are factory sizes, meaning both are identically sized, but still without air filters/pods I show up with similar results.

When I originally bought this bike, the stock air filter unit was hollow and had no restriction, so I had to buy pods for it.

Also I was wondering if anybody else has seen needle slides that are not adjustable for a bike like this? There is no air/fuel adjustment screw, only throttle and choke. Has anybody ever had this problem?

Is it likely I will have to tune the carbs for the individual cylinder rather than as a pair?

Please comment or question. thanks.

You may not get an answer here. Try asking over at the KZ400.com site forum section.

is that tank original to the bike? I'm loving it!! I have been thinking about a gpz750 tank but one like that may be the ticket!

It is the original stock tank, as far as I can tell there have been no mods to the mounts so therefor I am inclined to think it is original.

And I'm not too familiar with the GPZ750 tank, I have however seen the tank from the '82 model and I did like that for a cafe style bike. The other GPZ750 tanks looked like they go best with the stock side panels.

I've also always thought a good cafe tank would be one of the old, I think 1980's, Yamaha XS500 tanks, those are somewhat square but I think they would look good on a restoration bike.

If you look up "yamaha xs500" in google images, one of the first images is a restored silver xs500.