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So I'm rebuilding a 77 KZ1000 that I just purchased and the odometer says it has only 14K miles. From the outside, and after getting the head and cylinder block off, it looks like the odometer might be correct. The head gasket and base gasket were leaking so I'm trying to replace everything that makes sense along the way. I've been reading quite a bit of the archive posts which has helped a lot....I love this web site and thanks to everyone for your help. Anyway, after getting the block off, I noticed that the crank had some rust on the surface. BTW, this bike was running pretty good before I started the rebuild. Is this necessarily a bad thing? I'm guessing this bike was sitting for a while which may have caused the rust. I guess I'm afraid of what this might mean for other parts in the bottom end.

as long as the motor isnt filled with water its probably not a big deal,pull the oil pan off and see what everything else looks like in there! goodluck,happy wrenching

The several cranks I have seen have had some surface rust on the connecting rod and counterbalance weights. It doesn't seem to be a problem, may be normal. Does it look bad, i.e really gross and flaking or does it look like just a brown surface film? I would look down at the crank where the cam chain goes and see if that looks nice still. Ditto on the suggestion from Wireman on looking to see in the crankcase if anything looks nasty.

Good luck on that.

I think its mostly surface rust. No flaking or mess anywhere. I inspected a little deeper and everything looks pretty nice. I haven't taken off the oil pan yet but plan to before I complete the rebuild. Thanks for the peace of mind.