Bucket swap, possible?

Let's say I want to make things a little easier for myself, since Kawasaki didn't.

Is it possible to swap out the shim-under buckets on the KZ650 series bikes to the more easily adjusted 900-1000 shim-over design?

I know it would take time setting it up, and 8x bucket cost and 8x shim cost is a factor. But is it possible, due to my desire to make far less work for myself regarding cam removal requirements when adjustment becomes necessary.

My guess someone in this forum has loose pieces parts and can test this theory for me. Help is appreciated.

ive used the 650 style buckets in 900-1000 style heads,i think i had to change to 650 style retainers to do it.im not sure if you need to run the 900-1000 style retainers if it will change clearances due to the differant height of the retainer or if its just a design issue to hold the shim in place under bucket.might want to check with APE or somebody who does a lot of heads to make sure.

Don't see why it wouldn't work.

Jay

Bout time to use that gun wireman, your starting to stutter.

nads.com wrote:

Bout time to use that gun wireman, your starting to stutter.

:laugh:

they dont give no no bullets!:blush:

Thanks to y'all so far. . .Wireman you raise a really good point that may stop me from doing this thing. The shims currently act directly on the valve, and if I swap only the bucket, it will act on the retainer, instead of the valve. I don't think that would be good for any length of time. So the project may get shelved until maybe a major rebuild. Which is what I am trying to avoid if I keep the valves adjusted. I was hoping to do it all with the next adjustment. Maybe I could still do it if I stuck the smallest shim available in the existing retainers, then did the final adjsustments on the outside shims with the new buckets in place.

Why did you go to the under-bucket design?

It least the consensus is that swap-over is possible.

Is this even a good idea? Flipping burgers is lots easier than flipping checkers in and out when you have to jerk cams and reset chains to do it.

:blink:

keeps the shims from spitting out at higher rpms also works with bigger cams for same reason;)

Yes you would need the KZ shim on top style retainers also.

Jay

Found this thread when searching for info about shim orientation.

keeps the shims from spitting out at higher rpms

So what is required if I want to do the opposite to prevent the above from happening? Just curious what is involved, such as changing valve assemblies, buckets, and so on. I've been collecting parts in advance for my '78 KZ1000-A2 project, and was wondering about the cost/benefit of switching to the under bucket set-up.
Any info appreciated.

dkmk wrote:

Found this thread when searching for info about shim orientation.

keeps the shims from spitting out at higher rpms

So what is required if I want to do the opposite to prevent the above from happening? Just curious what is involved, such as changing valve assemblies, buckets, and so on. I've been collecting parts in advance for my '78 KZ1000-A2 project, and was wondering about the cost/benefit of switching to the under bucket set-up.
Any info appreciated.

you can run a .510 lift cam and spin it to 11k

ape says no more than .425 lift on the shim over design.