KZ650 Sleeper Build (KZ1000 engine transplant)

Just a suggestion. 

I installed the new one piece drop shim for the LH muffler I made on my mill.

 

It moved the muffler closer to the tire and it dropped the center down another 1/2", its now within 1/32" of the RH muffler from the floor. The RH muffler is going to be kicked out a bit further with some shims, but I could not adjust it up or down too much because of rear brake lever interference.

 

I also sealed the joint between the muffler and the head pipe with grey high heat RTV as there was already a sooty exhaust leak there upon first start.

The rail I made to push the coils more forward is a little too much forward so I will drill some holes to pull them back a bit. It did elevate the tight spark plug wire condition. I also need to add about 8" of extra length on the #2 spark plug wire as I need to route the wire around the back of the cam cover.

 

Its a bit too tight on the trailing edge of the cam cover between the top of the cover and the bottom of the gas tank. I am not too keen on having the plug wires sandwiched on top of the cam cover. I need all the air flow I can get between the tank and the head. 

I did buy some reflective self adhesive heat shield foil to attach to the bottom of the tank to try to keep the heat under control. I won't apply it to the tank until I can commit to fixing the petcock orientation and shortening the lever handle to miss the air box.

I am also fabricating some billet aluminum spark plug wire separators. I only need one on each side so buying a set seemed to be a waste of money, I had the aluminum so its just going to cost me some time.
 

Billet alloy spark plug wire separator for 8mm wires.

 

Bolt is a tiny M3, and its only 1/4" x 1/2" x 7/8" made from two pieces of 1/4" square bar 6061.
 

I did some work on this bike today, pulled it from its parking spot to be able to work on the right hand side.

 

Needed to kick my car out in the driveway for a few days so I can get some stuff sorted on it.

Finished the spark plug wire separators and decided I did not want to risk putting the corner radii on the ends because they are so damn small with hardly any material left on them. I think they turned out OK, I admit I am not the greatest machinist, just passable.

I only had some M3 flat head bolts and they were not long enough so I used button head bolt and cut them to fit.

 

 

They will get the job done, will probably have to reapply the number decals on the wires as they might show too much.
 

I was able to get a little bit done today after doing some chores.

I got the RH muffler almost at the same height and distance from the frame center line as the LH muffler (to within 1/16") Its sort of difficult to measure precisely, but it looks OK to me.

 

I used the old drop bracket on my first attempt from the LH muffler and it seemed to be very close to what I needed. I also used some new 1" long standoff's I machined on the lathe.

 

Now I need to fabricate that drop bracket in a billet version as its basically scrap, but it served a purpose.

I went to do a compression check and discovered #1 spark plug was not burning the last time it was running. I know it had spark as I did a spark check on all 4 wires prior to starting it. I believe a valve must be hanging opened caused by a tight shim. I will do a proper compression check tomorrow.

I spent some time pondering how I could take the cam cover off without removing the carbs. There might be enough room to suspend or rotate the cover enough to remove the upper idler pulley, that would give me clearance to get the cover out normally to the side.  

This is a unknown so I just need to work towards that because taking the carbs off would be silly just to adjust a shim. I need to develop a procedure for the future. 

I also started changing the pilot jets on the #3 and 4 carbs, I got #4 complete then quit for the day.

 

I don't know if you will be able to find a way to remove the cover without moving the carb rack, on a Z1/KZ1000 frame getting the cover out without moving carbs is a frustrating routine of wiggling to find the one "sweet spot" and some pretty good whacks with a rubber mallet to get by the idler (and the same to install!). After suffering through this routine for several decades, I now loosen the clamps on the carb manifolds, then tilt the carbs down and back to move the cover back then out. And you have less space above to begin with...

sf4t7 wrote:

I don't know if you will be able to find a way to remove the cover without moving the carb rack, on a Z1/KZ1000 frame getting the cover out without moving carbs is a frustrating routine of wiggling to find the one "sweet spot" and some pretty good whacks with a rubber mallet to get by the idler (and the same to install!). After suffering through this routine for several decades, I now loosen the clamps on the carb manifolds, then tilt the carbs down and back to move the cover back then out. And you have less space above to begin with...

 

Thanks for that information, I did not realize that as I have never owned a KZ1000. There is no whacking involved on the smaller bikes.

Just looking at those frames one would assume the cam cover would come out just as easy as they do on the smaller bikes.

On mine I also have to deal with the oil cooler lines that snake down between the air box and the carbs. Let just say I am not looking forward to messing with my installation.
 

Maybe you can gain a little room by moving carbs back out of the manifolds but still connected to the airbox, then tilt front of carbs down.  But it looks like your airbox connections won't flex as much as the older Z1 one will.  Worth a try, though. 
It's the "tower" in the center of the cover that hits the frame tube when you're trying to get it over the upper idler gear bracket.  Once that gets by the center frame tube there's room.
 

These are the joys of squeezing 10lb’s of s•*t in a 5lb bag  you will find a way 

wrote:

Maybe you can gain a little room by moving carbs back out of the manifolds but still connected to the airbox, then tilt front of carbs down.  But it looks like your airbox connections won't flex as much as the older Z1 one will.  Worth a try, though. 
It's the "tower" in the center of the cover that hits the frame tube when you're trying to get it over the upper idler gear bracket.  Once that gets by the center frame tube there's room.

 

Yes, my rubber ducts to the air box don't flex too much, they are pretty short (OG KZ650 parts) so there is no "extra" room. I also had a tough time pushing the carbs onto the rubber manifolds so it would probably be a "on of off" type of situation.

On my cam cover I milled .05" off the top of the tower portion of the casting prior to installing it knowing I would need extra clearance. I measured about a 1/4" of interference between the cover and the center idler the last time I tried to remove the cover from the head off to the side as normal.

One thing I did not check was rotating the cover off to the front of the engine down toward the head pipes, that may be a idea. 

I also may have a issue trying to remove the center idler with the cam cover suspended (on bungees?) above the head. I am using the stock rubber blocks with the steel upper and lower plates, those plates are very easily lost down the cam chain tunnel if your not careful  

I am now kicking myself for not machining some aluminum blocks (APE clone parts) to get rid of the stock parts. I just might have to fabricate some after all to elevate the chace of any parts dropping down into the oil pan.

 


 

Today I did a compression test to verify if there were any tight shims. I got 180/160/155/175 PSI across the bank from #1 to 4.
Since I did not have #1 spark plug running it was probably down to a plug boot not seating correctly, as I did have the plug wires disconnected to do a spark test prior to that.
At least there are no shims to change yet.

 

Compression is typical for a engine with only a few minutes idling and zero road miles after a complete rebuild.

I fitted the coils to check the new setback and route the wires to see how the new wire separators look. The will do the intended job of securing the wires since they are out from under the gas tank and out in the open.

 

Wire separators.

 

 

Swapping the pilot jet on #3 carb body was a chore, had to disconnect the oil line and push it to the back. No issues but took longer than expected but now I know what it takes to get it done.

 

No chance of rotating the cam cover to the front of the engine, the oil cooler bracket it in the way.

 

Will see how much room I can make tomorrow when I jack up the cam cover to fix the leaking cam end plugs.
 

Button head screws instead of socket head screws for your cover is a different look.