found my vintage! got questions

ninjaracerchick wrote:

whatcha think?

Not that bad... especially for three hundred bucks - I say get it! Looks to be a complete, un-molested (stock) bike. Let us see the other pic's...

heres a full shot

Welcome Ninja Chick.Go buy that bike if you dont I will.IT RUNS!!!!.The rest can be sorted out.Lots of GOOD help here.(Just kidding.I wont go buy it)But if I had that deal anywhere close to my local Id be all over it.

ninjaracerchick wrote:

heres a full shot

Put a Cafe style seat/tail piece combo, superbike bars (unless you really like the clubmans) and clean'er up... and you'll have an old school Cafe Racer. Of course, when you can afford it -- new tires, shocks and a fork brace will have it handling/looking better. You already have other bikes that really handle & go fast, so I'd stop there.

btw, those are mikuni slide carbs there. on a 650 they should be 24's
not to hard to clean at all but you will need more then a can of carb clean. got to assume that's all the po did was spray them down.
make sure all the passeges are clean. compressed air is great for this.
get it that far and we can walk you through the rest.

check the fuel filter. it may be getting rust from the tank and reclogging the jets. i've had it happen on a kz650 i had a few years ago. i had to replace the filter twice before it finally cleaned out a little.

grab it the pipe it has would be worth close to that if it's in decent shape.

The carbs are mikuni vm 24mm roundslides.you can tell buy the ribs.When i have to deal with a set of carbs that have been sitting forever.I take them apart,not a complete DA I leave the bodies attached to the frame.take out all jets screws and anything that has to do with air or fuel passages.I usually leave the mechanical parts on the top alone.after Ive DA,D them to the point where all fuel and air passages are expossed.I get a big pot of water boiling and throw em in and let em boil away for a couple hrs,then take em out blast away with 100 psi air,then throw em back in and repeat until the juices run clear.After cleaning I baist with some WD40 and again with the air.IF these carbs have been sitting forever the floats may have old fuel/water in them youll be able to tell just buy shaking them and listening if you hear shlosh thier done(however they can still be repaired).I cooked up a nice set of 24 mms for christmas dinner and my family just loved them.However I kept a wouderful set of 29mm mikuni smoothies for me and the wife to share.I love the vintage stuff

The 1981 KZ650-CSR came stock w VM24 accel pump carbs.
But it didn't have the kickstarter: maybe someone added it.
You can check the engine number at the KZ650 Info website.
KZ550-Ltd cast alloy wheels are a direct bolt-on. You can swap the complete wheel/hub assemblies, or just get the 550 rims & front disk, then use everything else from your CSR.

Ninjachick, what you called rust on the engine is actually fuel residue, indicating one or more float needles aren't sealing properly. That stain will wash right off if you spray it with carb cleaner.
Looks like a good project! Have fun!

Grab that bike as fast as you can . Here in the UK on ebay 2 sets of carbs in reasonable looking condition fetched around $100 each 2 days ago . That bike in that nick over here would set you back around $1000 .

Go for it before someone else does and enjoy .

C3