KZ650 rebuild/custom mod project

And here she is. Recently "saved" this KZ650 from a slow death. She was standing outside in a yard gathering sand in the bad Cape Town weather. Some negotiation and $167 later, she was on her way to my house

Now for the fun part of getting her fixed up and ready to ride!

Since standing for almost a year, first thing was to get her home.
Next: put some fuel and spark to her to see if she will fire up. Oil level still ok and did not look like any water in the oil.
Needless to say, dead! :sick:

So I decided to start at a point....

• New set of NGK's - very poor spark on 1,2 and 4
• Removed and cleaned the carb - seriously dirty!
• Checked coils - these were all ok

Replaced the fuel tank, connected all and she fired up

Now that I know she can run, it is the time needed to get her riding ready.....fun times ahead

looking at the swingarm and more modern front end and rear wheel I guess that someone has
put quite a lot of time in to that before it got neglected. Got to be worth that in parts alone.

Yeah, I also think some bits and pieces were added and removed etc, but one can see close up poor workmanship....Will post more pics!

Front end
The breaks seem to be locked so will remove all of this, clean up and replace if needed.
Will also need some new front rubber

Rear end
In a reasonable condition but will need a good clean up and inspection. Rubber still good though :silly:

Motor assembly

Reasonable condition. Will need a good clean up though!

Holy cow; it isn't just the swingarm, brakes, etc. that have been changed. The biggest change is the cylinder head! What engine did that cylinder head originally come on? It looks totally different than any KZ650 head. The first picture below shows yours. The 2nd and 3rd pictures show the KZ650 cylinder head. Notice that not only is the top where the cover attaches different, but the fins near the top are also different. Any ideas what it is? Ed

Zephyr head?
Steve

swest wrote: Zephyr head?
Steve

That might be it! Here's a pic of a 750 Zephyr, and the head looks like a match. Ed

That could be the case....The guy I bought this from did mention that he replaced the head with a reconditioned one.
This is a cyborg bike lol

Welcome.
Nice project bike.