1978 KZ650SR D1

Hey all,
While waiting to get my KZ400 frame back from the powdercoater, we found this 1978 KZ650SR D1 non-runner with under 21,000 miles yesterday. It was on Craigslist and located about 85 miles from home and we got it for what we feel is an excellent price.

After my husband got the bike home, we unloaded it and did a very quick evaluation;
The good:
Clean NJ Title
Engine turns over smoothly and has seemingly good compression.
It's mostly Complete. Only missing the air box and rear turn signals at first glance.
Carbs look good (aside from the black paint on the outsde) and the slides all move very smoothly. Both the push and pull throttle cables are still there)
Has fresh oil in it.
Clutch springs feel good.
All 4 plugs have nice, chocolate brown insulators and just have some light carbon on them, as opposed to being soaked with oil
Tank has been sealed, but from looking inside and feeling around, it's quite smooth, so it probably wasn't all that rusty to begin with.

The bad:
The owner who had it before the man we got it from went nutty with the flat black spray bomb without removing any parts or masking anything. (engine, carbs, shocks, fork legs, exhaust, dash, etc)
A bunch of wiring gremlins (a few wires cooked, missing some insulation, head light and tail light don't work, 8 gauge batt cable that's supposed to go from Batt. + to solenoid was bolted to the frame, blade fuse wired in with wire nuts, etc)
All 3 calipers and both master cylinders need to be rebuilt.
Needs fork seals
Ape hanger bars have got to go (They even painted the bars!) :blink:
Fugly seat!
One side cover has one of its mounting nubs cracked off.
Faded original paint.

Last night we couldn't resist correcting the 8 ga. cable, gingerly hooking up a battery and checking for signs of life. Dash lights work, the starter works and it has spark! :woohoo:

After a day's worth of wiring repairs, cleaning and setting the points, checking and re-gapping the plugs and a quick carb clean and bench sync on the VM24SS carbs, it's alive!!! It runs surprisingly well, too. (Only runs on the choke since it doesn't have air filters on it yet.) The black paint smoked like a chimney during the first heat cycle but we expected that. We were also able to flush the front brakes, added fresh fluid and they work great! The head light and tail light now work, too. We heat cycled the motor 4 times. No smoke out of the pipes and seemingly no leaks either.

Now we just have to decide what we want to do with it.

Here are some photos of this diamond in the rough:

We've decided to make it road worthy and as presentable as possible while trying not to break the bank. We considered parting it out, but being that it's an SR and seems to run very well, we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. So begins the refurbishing.

So far we've ordered:
Service manual
Rear caliper rebuild kit & pads
B7ES Plugs
UNI Pod filter kit
105 Main jets and 20 pilots and a 35 for the pumper carb. (It had 97.5 mains and 15 pilots with a 30 in the pumper),
Lower handlebars
Rick’s Regulator #10-304 (As expected, the stock regulator wasn't charging, which may be the reason the bike was parked to begin with.) The stock reg gets nice and toasty while the bike is running, so we assumed the stator is working properly. We tested it with the voltmeter to be sure, and the stator is definitely good. Whew!!
Battery W/Acid Pack
Battery Strap
Front & Rear Turn Signals
Horn
Mirrors
Grips
Tachometer Cable (The cable was broken but we tested the tach itself with another cable and it works fine.)

We didn't order new points and condensers since the ones it came with look to be practically brand new, and we're interested in the Dyna ignition kit if we decide to keep the bike for any length of time.

Appearance wise, we need to get the paint off the carbs and we'd like to get it off the motor, exhaust and forks as well. We're hoping for a method that requires little to no elbow grease. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

We're most likely going to order a flat style seat cover and trim the foam on this behemoth. The pan itself is in excellent shape with no rust or problems of any kind.

We ran the motor 3 more times yesterday and it ran even better than it did Monday. We tested the clutch and it seems to work as well. We'll know for sure when we get it out on the road and heat it up a bit more. All in all, we're very glad we bought it and if all goes well, we'll have a decent "rider-quality" bike for less than $800 and a few days of work.

Sounds like you have found a good one.
The seats are too big on the D models, so good decision to cut it down.

New parts are starting to arrive. Thankfully the new regulator didn't come yet or it might have gotten toasted. Foolishly I decided to press my luck and run the bike one more time today. The stock regulator finally let go and took a few wires with it, but that led me to strip back all of the "aftermarket" electrical tape that had been done by the same person who put the dopey ape hangers on it and spray bombed the bike. I found a few bare wires, lots of poor connections, etc. Two wires were nicked where they came out of the bars. No shock there. (pun intended)

So we're redoing every bad wire and bad connection to get the electrical system back up to 100% and updating the styling a bit on the bike. We don't plan on cutting the frame or doing anything radical like on my KZ400, but we do want to bring the bike out of the 1970s.

With the new bars on, I put the tank back on and laid the seat back on it to try it out and boy is it comfy! We just need to lower the shifter one spline and lower the brake pedal about 1".

Wow, that wiring was a charlie foxtrot. Yeesh.

Those bars are a nice improvement. My KZ400 had some tall (but not that tall) cruiser-type bars. I swapped them for superbike bars and then clubmans, and will likely replace those with clip-ons this winter.

I bought a brand new one of those in 78 (Same color...Candy persimmon red) and with a high flow intake and a little modifying of the flyweights in the distributor and a 125 pound wife riding, it made my 74 Z1 900 have to hump like hell to catch up if she took a notion to turn up the throttle from a stop.

Nerdy wrote: Wow, that wiring was a charlie foxtrot. Yeesh.

Those bars are a nice improvement. My KZ400 had some tall (but not that tall) cruiser-type bars. I swapped them for superbike bars and then clubmans, and will likely replace those with clip-ons this winter.

Tell me about it.... lol The first pic was the damage from the typical, garden variety regulator-induced wire fire, but the 2nd pic shows just one of 4 examples of bare wire/bad connections/uninsulated connections I found once I finished stripping back the 30 miles of "aftermarket" electrical tape. It's actually comforting to know that the bike was most likely parked because of wiring issues, which tells me the motor is most likely completely solid (fingers and toes crossed).

Thanks. I love the bars. In addition to all the new mechanical parts we have coming, we also ordered a nice flat-style seat cover for which we'll be trimming the seat foam, bar end mirrors, grips, aluminum body turn signals, new right and left switches & Motion Pro push/pull throttle assembly. We'll most likely lower the gauge cluster like we did on my 400, since I think it looks a bit silly sticking way up above the bars. We're also considering a slightly smaller head light and brackets to go with it. Stay tuned!

Barry2 wrote: I bought a brand new one of those in 78 (Same color...Candy persimmon red) and with a high flow intake and a little modifying of the flyweights in the distributor and a 125 pound wife riding, it made my 74 Z1 900 have to hump like hell to catch up if she took a notion to turn up the throttle from a stop.

Hi Barry,
Yes, it is such a nice color. Unfortunately, the paint on this bike es no bueno. We're definitely considering a base/clear respray. My husband rides a KLR650 and we're most likely going to be sharing the KZ650. I do love my 74 KZ400 cafe, but this KZ650 is growing on me real fast. I'm about the same weight as your wife, so I'm looking forward to giving my arms a good stretch when I give it a twist.

I have a seat like yours. My butt likes to go on long trips now.
Steve

I'm very happy to report that we just had our first couple of road tests on the bike after completely redoing the wiring harness, installing a new regulator, new battery, rebuilding the front and rear brakes, cleaning all of the paint off the carbs and doing a full rebuild kit and bigger jets, UNI pod filters, bars, grips, bar end mirrors, Motion Pro push/pull throttle, turn signals, switches, cleaning up the stator cover, sprocket cover & points cover, cleaning and lubing the chain, finning the motor to make the black paint look a little more presentable, etc etc etc

I may be a little manic right now due to the thrill of saving an old bike from the scrap heap, but I really do love it! It's one of the smoothest running and riding "vintage" bikes I've ever ridden, and that's considering that we haven't even vacuum sync'd the carbs yet. (Gotta buy a sync tool) One review that I read from back in the day said "it handles like a 500 and has the power of a 750" and I have to agree.

Still to do:
Vacuum sync the carbs
Check valve clearances
Trim the foam and install flat-style seat cover (coming on Monday)
Install the smaller tail light that we bought for it
New fork springs, seals and oil (Over the winter)
Drill the front and rear rotors (Over the winter)
Replace the petcock with a "normal" style petcock (Over the winter)

AnyWHO... Here's a few pics.

The seat cover finally came so the queen seat is no more. Major improvement IMHO. After doing the seat I had a nice little 20 mile ride and everything is working as it should, so chalk up another vintage bike NOT going to the scrapyard.

I still have to fabricate a bracket for the smaller tail light, remove the clutch cover, get the paint off of it and polish it, perhaps add a Delkevic 4-into-1 and I'm starting to think about a paint job. I definitely want to keep it red, but probably not persimmon. I'm thinking about Ford toreador red metallic. It's the middle color in the paint samples below.

You two are doing a fine job. Good improvements and it's looking good!