Camshaft mixup

Ok here is my problem, I have taken the engine apart to do a ring job and valve job. However when i took the cams off of the head, i did not keep track of whick is intake and whick is exhaust. Kawasaki show two different part numbers, but there are no numbers on the cam. Both cams look identical. Both have "R2" and "L" stamped on them, but one has "3" and the other has "V" stamped on it.

Can anyone help me to indentify them, or are they the same exact part.

The machine shop needs them to adjust the valve clearance of the valves.

PS, I am dont have a motorcycle machine shop in the area. So its a Napa that is doeing the work. They dont know how to tell which is which.

If more info is needed, please ask.

I don't know much about your engine as it is too new for me bwhahahaha sorry... but look at the sprockets. They will be marked for setting cam chain timing. One will have an arrow like this... >

That will be the exhaust cam and the arrow is used to align with the front of the gasket mating surface on the head (points to the front).

The other cam (intake) will be marked for counting links between the mark on the exhaust cam and itself. It will have something like:
^
|
28

The 28 signifies 28 links and the thing on top is supposed to be an arrow. You count links from the mark on the exhaust cam counter clockwise to the mark on the intake came at TDC. Your number of links may vary but the theory should hold. See the article about setting cam timing for an idea of how to do this. Oh yeah, one more thing... the cam's sprockets will show these marks when viewed from the right side (#4 cylinder) so if your sprockets have similar markings, align them so you can see them from that side. 900/1000 cams have L and R stamped towards the respecitve left and right ends as well and the exhaust cam has a worm gear for driving the tach but yours likely doesn't.

Post edited by: wiredgeorge, at: 2006/03/01 15:26

Hey Meekrat. If I am not mistaken your '83 750 should have a tach drive gear cut into the exhaust cam in the middle of the shaft. This runs the gear that spins the tach cable. The GPZ cams do not have this but all other 750's should.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

Unfotunately this bike does not have a speedo drive on the exhaust cam and both cams use the same part # sprocket according to Kawasaki, so no way of telling this way. There has to be way to tell and I'm sure it would be in the service manual, which I don't have. It should be pretty easy to tell though by simply laying the cams in the head so the marks are basically lined up in the correct position and look at the lobes on the #1 cylinder. Do the lobes make sense in their positioning for the #1 cylinder at TDC? Reverse the cams and look again. Reversed, I'd think the lobes would be pointing somewhere you would not be expecting them to be at TDC on #1.

Hey there RonKz650- If I'm correct the gear drive for the speedo cable runs off the front rim gearing on my bike which is the Custom with mag wheels and double disks up front. The tach drive is driven off the exhaust cam on my '77650. I am quite familiar with this area on the top end as I had to replace my o-ring on the tach gear seal twice last summer due to leaking. A little "Seal-All" around the collars threading finally took care of the leaking tach drive which could be traced back to a bad o-ring from Kawasaki that had dried out and lost its pliability. A quick trip to the hardware store and I had a new replacement o-ring for about 1/10th of the Kawasaki price!

From my 810/650 research upgrade which included learning about the various Kz750/4 series on Kzr, I believe that the GPz's cams were different from the previous Kz750's in that the Gpz's cams were hotter and lacked the tach drive since their tachometer was electronically-driven instead of mechanical.

Check with www.buykawasaki.com for parts numbers to be certain.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

So the cam IS the same part #, but the sprockets are bolted on a little differently placing the timeing marks in a different place. And that using the timeing marks I should(hopefully) be able to identity the INT and EXT cams. Because placing them side by side, the lobes appear to be the same. I did not think about the sprockets being oriented the same. Good thing I left them on.

BTW, this bike has an electric tach so there is no gear on either cam. That would have been nice.

What markings do the sprockets have? Do they have 4 holes with two bolts? -Duck

There is a link in the KZR links section to a GPz750 site. At that site ther is a FSM for the 83's. You specific model isn't covered but the camshaft-sprocket arrangement should be similar, if not the same...-Duck

The sprockets have 6 holes and are held on with two bolts. Now that i look at them, the holes are slightly countersunk. 2 are square,2 are round, and 2 are hexagonal.

One cam is bolted in the round holes and the other is in the square holes. I only have Clymer book, and it doesnt mention this. Or I missed it. Il go back and look again.

Post edited by: meekrat, at: 2006/03/01 20:08

Post edited by: meekrat, at: 2006/03/01 20:10

Is 'IN' stamped next to one of the holes that are being used on one of the sprockets? This would be the intake. -Duck

750-4 Manual is at this site
kz.mbsween.com/

AH-Ha!!!

found a reference in that manual, and a different book from a friend that shows the round holes are for the intake. So the square ones are for the exhaust. Two different references and they both agree.

This is awesome, now i can have piece of mind that the cams are identified.

Thanks a bunch guys, one problem solved that now allows me to continue the rebuild.