'75 Z1B from Alaska to Arizona (In a crate!)

Long post alert, but this is my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
I think my brother in law bought this bike used from a dealership in Tulsa OK when it was almost new. He rode it sporadically for a few years, it's showing a little over 13k miles. But then it must've sat outside for at least a while, the way the paint is faded. The seat is almost pristine. So it couldn't have sat out too long.
Then in the 90's they moved to Alaska and took the bike along. He told me he had it running for a little while up there, but mostly it sat in his garage. Eventually, he lost interest completely, and then I came along. I met my wife, and then her family in Alaska about 2010.  I've been mooning over that motorcycle ever since, every time we visit. We go up there to visit quite a lot. At one point, I had visions of getting it running up there and then riding it around a little, so I started fussing with it. The engine was free, but the slide on one of the carbs was stuck. So that year I took off the top of that carb and gently tapped the slide... no love, so I doused it with some spray oil gunk and put the top back on. 6 months later, we were up there again, so I checked it and sure enough, the slide had freed up! woohoo! I put fresh oil in the case, put a little oil down all the spark plug holes, and turned over the engine gently, and it rotated smoothly with no rough spots while all the plugs were out. So I decided to hook up a battery to see if it had spark. With the battery hooked up, all the lights worked perfectly, so I hit the starter button. 
It cranked over just like I hoped it would for about 5 revolutions of the engine before it stopped. That was the last time that engine turned over. It will not budge even a tiny bit, backwards nor forwards. I really think this problem has something to do with the starter and not the engine. Fingers crossed. My brother in law is a little older than me, and his memory isn't any better than mine, lol. He said he thinks he handed it over to a high school auto shop at some point in time to try to get it going, so there's really no telling what's happening in there without just taking it apart. 
That last episode was maybe 4 years ago, and back then we were considering shipping it to my home in Southern Arizona, where all my tools and workshop is so I could get it going for him. I sourced a motorcycle specific shipping crate from a Kawasaki dealership in Eagle River, but the crate languished behind their garage for several years until now.
This last trip up there, My brother in law gave me the Z. We packed it up and drove it to a shipping terminal in Anchorage. About 2 weeks later it's sitting in my workshop in Tucson. 
So now I can stand down from the transportation process and start trying to figure out what's going on with it. 
Guess I better quit blathering about my new toy and get off my butt and get busy with it!


 

Very nice project!  Ten years ago I shipped one from Medicine Hat Alberta to just outside Vancouver BC.  A few years before that I shipped a snowmobile from Houghton Michigan to Northern BC.  

Nice find!  A great platform for a 'survivor'-type refurb, especially if the sidecovers are still present.  Following with interest!

Be gentle if attempting to turn the crank via the large nut at the timing advancer.  The advancer is located by a small steel pin pressed into the end of the crank.  It can be sheared off if too much force is applied to the large advancer nut.  Ditto the timing advancer bolt; we've lost count over the years of the number of advancer bolts we've seen broken off deep in the end of the crank.

Don't do away that badge on the gas cap!  That's a dealer-specific period piece not seen often these days.  Ditto the 'K' badge on the caliper.

The adhesive label on the tailpiece  is unfortunate.  Short-sighted placement by the selling dealer.  They can be removed with gentle heat from a hair dryer, a plastic razor blade and patience.  Likely the label protected the underlying paint from fading.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the handgrips.  They look to be OEM, which are difficult to find these days & much sought after by restorers.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE