I hate morons

I hate morons, but more than that, I hate morons that are allowed to play with tools.

Last fall I bought a 79 650 SR off of ebay. I really didn’t need it but it was cheap, had low miles (14,000), original paint looked pretty decent, and best of all it was close. The guy I bought it from told me he had cleaned the carbs and replaced the coils. I hauled it home and started doing the normal checks that I do whenever I buy a new bike. I changed the oil and filter, installed new plugs and checked the voltage at the coils. Coil voltage was of course low so I knew at some point I’d be doing the WG coil re-powering mod. I was able to get this bike to start with difficulty and rode it around the block to make sure the clutch and trans all worked fine. The problem was, this thing had no power and was backfiring. I decided to pull the carbs and swap them with a different set I had here. I must have had a sticking float valve because when I tried to start it the bike backfired through the carbs and set the leaking gas on fire. I was able to get this put out before it did much damage but it did melt the right side cover a bit as well as the rear brakelight switch. At this point I was pretty much disgusted with this bike so I parked it and went back to working on My 750 LTD.

I had intended to put this bike on the front porch and work on it over the winter but that never happened. On Saturday I did the coil mod to the 80 KZ650 that I recently picked up and now it starts instantly and runs great albeit too loudly due to the un-baffled pipes on it. The weather on Sunday here was beautiful so while the procedure for doing the coil mod was fresh in my brain I decided to bring out the 650 SR and git er done. Over the winter I was able to find a replacement side cover cheap and while I was at it I made a deal with the seller for the coils and brakelight switch too.

I’m sitting on a milk crate on the sidewalk in front of my house doing the coil mod and replacing the coils. When I went to pull the first coil off I find that this moron had the coil that should have been firing #2 & #3 was firing #1 & #2 WTF? Same thing on the next coil except this was firing #3 & #4. I could probably teach a freaking chimp how to change a set of coils. To make matters worse this idiot had a shop manual, I know because he gave it to me when I picked up the bike! The coils he used were off some other model of Kawasaki because they have the plug wires that unscrew and they are too long to mount properly. This means in order to screw this up he had to change the plug leads where they enter the coils, un-freakin believeable.

Now that I got his mess straightened out I figured the bike would start right up but no dice. I’m thinking that he probably had to do something with the timing in order to make this poor bike run at all wired the way it was. I looked at the point plate and it appears to have been messed with. I tried to just loosen it up and get it close and see if it would start but it looks as if I need to start at square one and re-time it with a light. Since my jump battery was getting low I just decided to call it a day.

Forgive this long rant, but I guess the moral of the story is NEVER, NEVER, trust the work done by a previous owner because it will bite you in the arse every time!

Pic of the SR from hades.

It is a nice looking bike though.

It reminds me of a buddy changing his wires on a Vega way back. He pulled them all off, then proceded to put the new ones on.
Once all the wires were installed, he tried to start her up. No luck.
He ended up taking the Vega to a shop, who finally figured out all the spark plug wires were going to the wrong cylinders! :laugh:
Everyone has to learn at some point. Some never do.

If feel your pain.
I'm saving up some pics from some pieces off my different bikes.
I'm going to make a KZR essay entitled:

Dear Previous Owner....WTF?!?!

I've bought a few bikes where the previous owners didn't have a clue as to how stupid they were...

I bought a rough, but running KZ1000 - the previous owner replaced all the case screws with allen head bolts. But when I tried undoing them, none of my allen wrenches fit... he'd used "inch" bolts in all of them and destroyed all the threads in the cases.

I bought a butchered MK II KZ1000 - the previous owner had installed a Harley Fatbob split tank - to get it to fit, he'd completely chopped out two of the three top frame tubes..

Well it is no fun to buy stuff that has been messed around with but for sure is a great way to get a great deal. Personally I wouldn't mess with it unless the deal would be stupid cheap but with the kz's any more they are hard to find in decent shape. I got lucky with my 7k mile 80 ltd 1000 and it doesn't even smoke and looks better than some bikes just a few years old and the price..... hahahaha just goes to show that when someone who messes with a bike and can't get it back together is willing to give it away just to get rid of it. It was in California and my brother worked the guy over. I have seen basket cases sell for twice the money. Mine all I had to do was to put all of the chrome back on. Came with a box of new progressive springs, new tires and battery and many new nos parts and cheaper than a proper tune-up! That is it in my picture.:woohoo:

Maybe that guy wasn't too bright, but the fellow who cut the rotor off the wheel has got to be one of the all-time dingleberries. Stupid... . JMK.

I got a truck off a guy once that couldnt get it to run after he did a tune up,, it was way cheap, hauled it home, after trying a few things I figured out he left the rotor out of the dist.. 5 bucks and away we went

JMKZHI wrote:

Maybe that guy wasn't too bright, but the fellow who cut the rotor off the wheel has got to be one of the all-time dingleberries. Stupid... . JMK.

I have to agree that guy has my vote for a Darwin award as do the two examples Jeff cited. Having been around bikes since 71 I've seen so many examples. I just thought of another one from back in the day a few minutes ago. I once had a customer who chromed the entire freakin gas tank on his 77 KZ 1000 A-1. It wouldn't have been so bad except it had a good size dent in it that he neglected to repair prior to having it chromed.:laugh:

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My first car was a 74 nova with a 350. Was sitting in someones driveway forever, and my dad spotted it. he didnt care it was a nova, just thought he could get it cheap, and $200 later we drove it away. Ran like shit tho, and when we got home dad opened the hood messed with a few things, then closed the hood and said he thought he knew what it was. He took it to the mechanic who had it for a couple days. I remember him pulling up out front and warning me that it wasnt the same car. The PO had given it a tune up and crossed the wires. i got in that car and laid a strip of rubber a block long.. Ive had 6 Nova's since then..
Which brings me to the next point.. The TRUE definition of a moron is NOT KEEPING at least one of them nova's.. :blush:

I bought my first car, a 1972 old cutlass supreme, off my aunt who said she didn't know what was wrong, but it was over heating, 200 bucks and I could have it. I drove it home. Rummaged through the parts in the trunk and found the right cap for the radiator! That car always ran great! My aunt was sorely disapointed that I fixed it so easily and with the parts in the car!

True story... I was called to a neighbors house one day to fix a vacuum cleaner. She told me it was broke and could not get it to turn on- i grabbed the plug, plugged it into the outlet and whaddya know, the dern thing turned on. One of my favorite sayings is "some people are overrated" I think it derived from that incident.