Valve Work

I have a 1980 KZ650 LTD. I recently had some trouble getting the bike to run. When I could get it to run, it sounded horrible, and you could smell gasoline from the exhaust.

So the other night I pull the valve covers and the spark plugs. I do a compression check on the bike. My bike has shit for compression. I used compressed air to fill up the cylinder and see if I could find where the leak was, and just why I have no compression. Its my valves. With both valves closed, there seems to be no resistance for the compressed air going back into the carb and airbox.

So I need a valve job. Where can I get the valves? Any advise or helpful hints for this procedure?

If you need new valves, you can usually pick the up at ebay. Here are some, but make sure they are correct for your bike.
Intake
Exhaust

You'll probably need to do more than replacing the valves, but I'm not really the right guy to answer that.

KZSteelers wrote:

...have no compression...So I need a valve job....

Have cam gap clearances been checked and adjusted? Lack of sufficient clearance (too tight) would cause the symtoms.

Thanks for the advise.

Does anybody know about after market valves for a KZ?

Also, what is a good shop manual to get for a 1980 KZ650LTD?

If you're just trying to get it running, I'd stay with Pattons suggestion of checking the valve clearances first.
No sense throwing money at something that isn't needed, right?

No clue as to who, if anyone, offers aftermarket valves for the KZ650's anymore. The valves from the GPz750's can be made to fit though, and coupled with the GPz cams add noticeable power. With the GPz cams, you'd either need to block off the tach cable opening in the head and go with an electronic tach, or have the tach gear machined into the exhaust cam to be able to retain the original tach setup.

The FSM and Clymers tend to be the prefered manuals of choice - the FSM tends to be to "techy" for some, and the Clymers lists most things in simplier terms.
A good portion of us own both manuals, which can usually cover all bases on anything being needed to know.
To help get you started, there's a spec sheet in PDF form in the filebase that you can download for your bike:
1980 KZ650 E1 & F1 Specifications

Post edited by: RetroRiceRocketRider, at: 2007/05/19 11:53

Without a doubt, the first step should be to check the valve clearances, that might be the only problem.

Unless you have loads of money to spend, and would rather be wrenching than riding

check the lash as stated , also did you run the compression check with the throttle open?

yeah, the throttle was wide open