Piston rings for kz650 (standard size) ?

I need 4 sets of rings for my z650 and cannot find them anywhere! The only ones I could find are 2 over @ 0.40. Do any other bikes use the same rings? Where can I find these guys???

Thanks all...

I have seen them rarely on fleabay. I know where to get new sets for the 750 twin and 400 twins, but not the fours.

I would try babbittsonline.com and see if Kawi still sells them. If they do, babbitts will sell them about 40% under dealer price.

eBay's about the only spot. Its gonna be really hard to find them. I've heard of sets costing guys upwards of $200 though, it sucks.

$47.94 per set at babbits.standard,first and second.

Have you tried www.vintagecyclepsrt.com ?

SPARKY47 wrote:

$47.94 per set at babbits.standard,first and second.

Problem is, Babbitts lists all the old Kawi OEM parts, and you can order them, and then they try to get them from Kawi and you find out they are discontinued when they cancel the order.

Just did that last week for new carburetor slides.

Thanks guys...
Man, those buggers are pricey!
I only had a problem with one cylinder and the others were consistent with each other and in spec for compression. I also just got a set of four used pistons with rings. I would assume that at least one of those ring sets is okay.

Is there any way to measure the rings to check if they are okay?

My cylinders are being honed and the block flattened at the machine shop right now. Would it advisable to use my old rings that were ok and a set of the new (used) rings on the bad cylinder? Or should I not sell myself short now that I've gone this far? Budget is getting real tight...

Thanks

Get upon www.kawasaki.com and check for your rings...they show the rings as still being available...and if you go that route, check with www.Z1enterprises.com as I strongly suspect Jeff can beat Babbitt's prices:)

HenryKrinkle wrote:

Is there any way to measure the rings to check if they are okay?

The vertical clearance between the ring and piston groove is a critical spec, the manula for the engine will spec it. You actually get more compression loss through that path than blowing by the ring/cylinder wall interface in old pistons.

On mine the spec is .05 mm new, 0.15 mm maximum wear limit.

The other check is to put the ring in the cylinder and then measure the end gap of the ring, that will tell you about cylinder and ring wear.

HenryKrinkle wrote:

I only had a problem with one cylinder and the others were consistent with each other and in spec for compression.

Sure it's a ring and not a leaky valve? I had 77k miles on my 750 and the rings were still holding up pretty well, but the valves had to be done twice in that interval.

Not positive,
yet the compression went from 125 to 150+ when I did a wet comp test..

HenryKrinkle wrote:

Not positive,
yet the compression went from 125 to 150+ when I did a wet comp test..

Save your money and check the valve clearances.

Generally, if it's bad rings then it affects all cylinders near equally, and if it's bad rings then adding oil will generally up the compression to over 180 psi.

The last motor I did a wet check on was a 750 four, 70-80 psi dry in all cylinders, added oil and compression shot up to near 200 psi.