New member with a few queries

Good evening ladies and gents, I find myself yet again joining another forum for another type of bike. This being the most different type of bike I've owned so far. I have just swapped my Yamaha FZ1n for a custom Kawasaki KZ750 csr (as far as I know). It's a 1981 model and in all honesty I know nothing about it. I kind of like to jump right in with things and the guy I got it from didn't have a clue about it other than he had rode it 60 miles and all his friend got faster bikes and he wants to keep up.

I collected the bike from leeds (a 13 hr round trip) and rode it home. I had 2 breakdowns. The first one was a serious lack of power, followed by an empty fuel tank. It turned out the foam air pod had slipped off, and half had gone back into the intake effectively blocking half my engine and emptying a whole fuel tank in 20 miles. Lol. The second one was a small spit in the wire tripped a fuse. Both of these fixed but has left me with some questions.

1) what size neck do I need to replace the air pods. I can only assume jetting has been done as the workmanship is pretty good. Am I correct with 54mm inner diameter?

2) do I need a specialist tool to rebuild the front forks as the seals have popped, or is there a cheap upgrade that I can swap into its place?

3) can I improve the SHOCKING front brake as this did very little to slow me down, or could they just need a rebuild and bleed?

Thank you and any information on these beasts would be appreciated as its a beautiful looking bike that now has a guy that's not afraid to keep it up together.

Welcome to the asylum! :silly:

1) Look for a brand name or part number on the filters. The easiest solution would be to buy one identical to the roached one. Otherwise, I'd recommend a brand new pair from APE or K&N. This assumes that proper jeting has been done. You can look on the seller's web site for the correct filter for your bike.

2) Yes, no, well maybe. Rebuilding the forks is really not that complicated. Generally, the only difficult bit is removing the hex-head screw at the bottom that holds the innards into the outards. A pneumatic wrench is the best choice, but there are others.

3) The front brake should not be SHOCKING, but it will never equal the R1. My guess is that a rebuild and careful cleaning are in order.

However, before you dive into all that bidness (Texas pronunciation), I highly recommend acquiring a genuine Kawasaki Factory Service Manual, aka fsm. Also, a good set of JIS screwdrivers, or suitably modified Phillips screwdrivers. All those cross-head screws you see are not Phillips and can be really buggered by the wrong tool.
Others here will be along to harangue you about proper JASO_MA engine oil, fuel filters and Japanese Pixie dust..................................

Welcome. If pods, buy good ones. You'll also need one of these.
Steve


And these.

or these--

Ok, so food for thought.

For now I will order cheap filters as I was half way home when I realised I had no filters attached at all. So somethings is better than nothing until I get paid. Then I can replace with some nice shiny new K&N filters.

I will look at rebuilding the front brake, the rear is luckily pretty good, which was shocking as it is a drum brake.

The suspension may take a trip to a shop so it can at least be rebuilt properly.

Am I right in assuming the two clear filters posted above are inline fuel filters?

YES , those clear filters are for your fuel line.

The front brake should definitely stronger stopping power than the rear drum brake. Sounds like it has some issues. But even a perfectly functioning brake on a bike of that age is not going to match a modern bike. However, even a perfectly functioning brake system from that era can be improved upon by replacing the brake lines with new stainless steel braided lines. Also, good quality pads is an improvement. Another option is to replace with a more modern front brake system (calipers / lines / master cylinder). I would think that would be overkill for this bike and look out of place. Do you have any pictures of the bikes you can share with us? We love pictures.

Braided lines was my first thought anyway as the look cool and perform well. As for replacing, swapping with something else, unless I was going the whole hog and getting a dual set up on a new front end I probably won't bother.

I do have pictures, but It keeps saying it's too big. I will try sort that for you all.

I was not expecting that! Cool looking machine though, certainly unique! Your front brake should be fine, sounds like it needs a bleed at least.

Cheers
Hama
82 KZ 305 - Hamasaki cafe racer
80 KZ 750 - banished
06 KDX 200

The PO did a nice job on that bike. Congrats on the new ride.

The 750 CSR Twin should be an 82 model. It would be a 1982 KZ750-M1 CSR.

Rear brake. If it hasn't been done, you should replace the rear brake shoes. the adhesive that binds the linings to the shoes becomes brittle & can fail over time, so a lining can come loose & get jammed between the shoe & drum, locking the rear wheel. It happened to me when rolling the bike off the center stand, so it does happen. I was lucky.

This is the part I'm confused at also. It's a twin, as it has 2 carbs and 2 exhaust ports correct?

The PO had no clue about it and definitely hadn't built it himself. But it has a sticker saying "CSR 750" so I assumed that's what it was. Is there any way of finding out from a frame number or something?