eBay KZ - Speedo not correct??

One thing I noticed is that both bikes are in Wisconsin, and could be Canadian? Maybe that explains the speedo's?

The seller of the first bike already discreited the milage. He said the motor and carbs were gone through. Why would you "go through" the motor on a z900 with less than 10K on it? That dosen't make sense. I wouldn't buy a any bike on ebay ( unless ti was dirt cheap) without looking at it in person.

I call the speedo as wrong on both of them.

RonKZ650 wrote:

I call the speedo as wrong on both of them.

By God Ron you are correct I just looked at a pic of the speedo from the 76 KZ900 I sold last year and it does not have any blue KPH lettering on it at all. Here is the pic from the one I sold.

Compared to the second one for sale on ebay.

ltd/jardine exhuast on 1st bike with cherry bombs stuffed in the ends! :laugh:rototiller bars probably came from same ltd as exhuast

RonKZ650 wrote:

I call the speedo as wrong on both of them.

You might be right. But being so close to Canada maybe they put the KM's per hour along. Especially on the 1977 KZ. The guy selling it knows KZ's because he sells polished parts all the time. That second bike is very nice! If he parted it together he went to alot of work to do it. Also if it was parted he would have changed the rear fender and the chrome throttle chase from the 6 out of 10 to a better one. Even the paint on the engine, start, and light control is mint. It still has the rubber type cover on the brake handle....Russ

On Bike #2 it redlines at 8500 not 9000. Maybe it is a fake also?

79MKII wrote:

This 76 KZ900 has a 140mph speedo with the blue kph scale under the mph - this isn't correct is it? I didn't think they added the kph until years later. The seller claims the mileage to be original too...:dry:

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Kawasaki-KZ-900-...C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Everything appears suspicious about this bike...the seller may not know much about KZ's...paint is wrong, instruments wrong, pipes wrong...I'm smelling rebuild after accident, unknown mileage.

Yep, the first bike's paint is not correct and the striping isn't even close. Exhaust, seat, handlebars, and speedo are wrong. Decent bike, just not that original. The second bike is really nice. The kph on the speedo could be a Canadian thing, not sure. The tach on KZ900's had a 9000rpm redline, but I've read that the 1977 KZ900A5's were built from leftover parts as the KZ1000 was released. Maybe a KZ1000 tach got installed at the factory? FWIW, my A5 has a 9000rpm tach.

The second one is extremely nice, but for sure in 1976-77 they did not use that speedo. Still nice though. Also I never can remember the correct redline on the KZ1000 and 900. Was it the 900 had the 9000rpm, and the 1000 had the 8500? In gringos picture of his 76 it has a 9000RPM redline, where the nice 2nd KZ900 for sale has the 8500? I'm comfusing myself. It looks to me like 1979 KZ1000 speedo and tach on the 2nd one there.

Yes, 900 was 9000rpm, 1000 was 8500rpm.

Russ Jackson wrote:

RonKZ650 wrote:

I call the speedo as wrong on both of them.

You might be right. But being so close to Canada maybe they put the KM's per hour along. Especially on the 1977 KZ. The guy selling it knows KZ's because he sells polished parts all the time. That second bike is very nice! If he parted it together he went to alot of work to do it. Also if it was parted he would have changed the rear fender and the chrome throttle chase from the 6 out of 10 to a better one. Even the paint on the engine, start, and light control is mint. It still has the rubber type cover on the brake handle....Russ

On Bike #2 it redlines at 8500 not 9000. Maybe it is a fake also?

The second bike is very nice but as Ron called it the speedo is not correct for that year. Since Kawasaki used different distributors for Canada and the US that pretty much blows the theory that since Wi. is close to Canada it may be a Canadian thing out of the water. If it was a Canadian bike it would have come with a KPH only speedo from what I can remember. I just looked at the speedo on my 77 1000 LTD and it looks just like the speedo on the 76 900 I posted. The 78 KZ1000's looked the same also. So I'm thinking that this speedo is off a 79 LTD 1000 since it reads to 160 but has the KPH scale as well. IIRC the 79 MKII used a different speedo setup. I believe in 1980 they went to an 85 MPH speedo at least that is what my G-1 has. So I'm going to say that speedo is from a 79 LTD 1000.

Also the way Kawasaki works their parts, superceded parts are commonly listed as the correct part used in many cases and the original part number is not even mentioned. You about need the original parts fiche for a specific model to determine what is correct. Case in point here.
1979 KZ1000 used a 25006-1031 speedo. (mph+kph)
1977-78 KZ1000 used a 25006-048 speedo. (mph only)
1976-77 KZ900 used the same 25006-048 (mph only)

Somewhere along the road many moons ago Kawasaki discontinued 25006-048 and superceded to 25006-1031 so anyone that bought a new speedo for a KZ900 or 1000 from then on could only get the 1979 piece. Later Kawasaki don't make any of these but they still list the superceded number. So you go to Kawasaki and look up the speedo for a 1976 KZ900 and it will list the 25006-1031, same as a 1979 KZ1000. Not what they used originally and can throw a curve ball into correct parts being used. Heres the 25006-1031 of a 79 KZ1000MKII