Saving a '81 KZ750-E

While my switches are soaking away, I am making progress in other areas. After multiple ideas and suggestions from other board members (Thank you guys, it is ALWAYS appreciated!), I decided to go with the Tarozzi rear sets. It was always the plan to ditch the stock foot pegs due to the controls being too far corroded. The brake lever pivot was frozen in the rear peg bracket, and the rear brake master was shot. I am getting braided front brake lines custom made, since I put 3" riser clip ons changing the length of the stock Honda lines. I went with Galfer for the custom lines, and go figure - they are only 15 miles away from me! No shipping, I get to will call something for once! I should have all of the front brake parts by mid next week. Before I re-assemble the front cluster bracket I am going to get a friend with a lathe to make me some custom spacers to eliminate the stacks of washers I used to get all the positions where I wanted them. I will paint the spacers black so they blend with the other parts.

The KZ900 switches will work but the plugs will be different. You will have to re crimp new connectors on. I agree that they are usually not as good as OEM but finding a good set of used switches is difficult and usually expensive. If you want to spend more money you can get the Z1 switches from PMC. Shipping from japan is crazy cheap these days. All the other PMC products I have used have been very high quality, i would guess the switches are nearly as good as OEM.
japan.webike.net/products/20028915.html
japan.webike.net/products/20028914.html

as far as painting the letters, a trick I picked up from a member here is to lightly pat grease on the flat part of the switches. then paint in the letters the grease acts like a mask. once the paint is dry remove the grease and the letters will be perfectly painted. works well.

Thanks for the tip on the letters. I've tried it the other way around (fill the already painted letters with grease and paint around them) but it was too hard to get the surface around the letters grease-free without removing all the grease. Your way sounds easier.
Just a question about the Z1 controls: do you wire up a hazard light? It's compulsory to have hazard lights here in Germany and the 750H controls have a switch under the horn. It's the only thing missing from the replicas.

The hand controls on my E1 were the later type. Apparently Kawasaki made a running change. The early controls are smaller and more sleek looking so can't blame you for wanting to keep your originals. One issue with restoring those is that the zinc plating is gone on the carbon steel parts. You can remove the rust easily enough but the corrosion will come back unless you replate them.

P1010495 by nessism , on Flickr

Look what I unburied today.


The new top end is ready to go. I had the valves, guides, seals, etc. replaced, and the cylinders bored. I had to go to 67 mm bore, and found a set of pistons in Florida. They are 10.5:1 compression, so all the head studs are being replaced. I still have some cleaning to do before paint on these.

The stock displacement was 738 cc, the 67 mm bore bumps it up to 761.5 cc. With the compression increase it should be fun to ride!

What pistons did you get? 67mm sounds like a good option.

I purchased them from MTC Engineering. They manufacture racing pistons mainly for drag racing. They stopped making pistons for the older KZ's some time ago, but they had one set left in the back room on the "old stock" shelf. I got the last set they had. The shop I had do the top end machining done at gapped the rings for me when they did the cylinder bore and hone. That shop is Thumper Racing. He mainly does single cylinder four stroke dirt bikes, but he agreed to do my four cylinder as he has all the right equipment.

The polished piston dom is a pice of art.

Anyone see an issue with using a propane torch to heat the case around the base of the cylinder studs? The factory studs are not wanting to play nice. I just didn't know if there were any reasons heating the surrounding area would be a problem.

After my attempt to repaint the side cover emblems failed, I am going with the grease method mentioned earlier. I painted the all black, then tried to paint the letters gold using a small brush. I am using Rustoleum spray paint, which is really thin and runny. Bad choice. This time I will spray them all gold, then after a couple days to dry, coat the letters with a light coat of grease. Then spray them over with the black. Fingers crossed that this will look better than my failed attempt to hand paint them!