Crank life, bullet proof

Hi There
Here's some pics (i hope) of my z900a4.Had her 9 years,used every day.Always got me home until the dutch TT 2005.Had just put newer cams in as the old ones were 100,000 miles old and getting a bit noisey.
4th gear 100mph and phut! dead engine.Turned out the screw holding the front camchain guide came out,leapt into the top end,locked the motor for a second causing bent inlet valves and knackered pistons.Glad she didn't throw me off.Only a 16km push home.The screw took 2 years to work its way out.Dont forget the loctite!.All is fixed now.The gearbox,crank and clutch all seem fine.How much longer can I expect it to live for .What's the highest mileage zed you know about.

Sound advice Ian...I have seen a few Z1's pushing 100,000 miles, I'll add yours to the list!

I've got 167,000 on a 1978 KZ650. I've never heard of one any higher. Pretty much retired, so I doubt it ever gets much higher.

With many older bikes, I suspect that the indicate mileage is a fiction. I doubt many that I have owned had the true mileage on the clock when purchased. In any case, if you fixed the crank and replaced the cams and valves and similar, you should have measured clearances on the crank as described in the manual. Did the chain do any damage to the teeth on the crank? If clearances are OK and the teeth are OK, its basically just another rebuild. Use loctite on the fasteners that came loose. I think a Kaw Factory Service Manual calls for it. Also use new rubber bits wherever they can be used in the cam chain tensioning system (and new bits wherever available).

My brother-lin-law's brother has a 1974 Z1 (root beer/orange) with 98,000 miles on it. He bought it when the bike was 3 months old from the first owner. There was 1000 rebuild kit put into it several years back but the bottom end is stock. The bike runs great with the only other modification being electronic ignition and he doesn't ever hesitate to take it on 2-3000 mile journeys each summer to bike races.

He is looking to roll the bike over to the century club this summer and he was joking with me that he will sell it when it has 2 miles on the odometer, kinda like that one that was on ebay a couple of months back.

Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

Nothing worse than knackered pistons:woohoo:

Jay