Cracking my case . . . help!

Had my project bike on hold for a while . . . until now. I just ordered my seat cowl from France. Sent my rims to a powdercoater, ordered spokes and brake pads/drums from Z1. I will lace up the wheels myself. Got all the parts for dual disks except for the proper MC. I have the color scheme set in my head. Now comes the engine.

The engine has 36,000 miles on it. I rode the bike for a few weeks after my friends and I cleaned and re-built the carbs. The engine runs fine. I originally used walnut shells to blast some of my engine covers to see how well it would clean the cases intact of the heavy oxidation, but it did not clean them the way I wanted. I found that porchev914 had his engine cases cleaned up at a local shop close to my powdercoaters, for a relatively low price and his cases look better than new. I originally did not want to crack the cases as the engine was running well, but the rest of the bike (at least in my head) will look great but I will have a dingy engine sitting in all the rebuilt goodness. Plus I have never taken an engine apart before. I am mechanically inclined though. With a full set of tools, but no specialized ones for taking apart an engine.

Anyways, I decided that I need to dissemble the engine and have the cases cleaned. My question is, what should I look for when I look at the the insides to see if anything needs replacing? I will get a complete gasket kit and shim the valves. I have a FSM and have been reading it lately. Should I replace anything else as a matter of course? I want to keep as much of the original parts as possible to keep my costs as LOW as possible as I AM on a budget and trying to stay in the budget.

Any suggestions or links to an easy step-by-step dissembly process? Thanks for your help so far!

if its the first time you crack cases open, definitely download a pdf copy of your workshop manual. its easy to miss a little hidden bolt and try to pry still bolted together cases.

jpavlov.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/kawk...76fullwith78sup5.pdf

they detail step by step what to do

TG

You will need an impact driver to crack them screws. Look for any metal shavings and good idea to change your clutch bands while you have it open. Points/condenser check. New gaskets after cleaning.

Thanks turboguzzi. I do have a paper copy of my 1978 KZ650B2, the link you sent me was to a KZ750 2-cyl, do you have one of the 4-cy; KZ650 so I don't ruin my book?

Check on the impact driver, I have already removed the covers that had phillips heads. Will probably replace with an Allen head set for future removals. I cleaned out the clutch bands about a month ago when I found that they were sticking. How long are they supposed to last?

I replaced the points with a 1980 KZ750 electronic ignition already. Should I replace the cam seals as a matter of course?

Thanks in advance

You will not believe how awesome your cases will look in person when you go to pick them up. For a second, I thought they weren't mine :laugh: My pics don't do justice to how good some of the parts look due to lighting/shadows....

Kawi // Twin wrote:

Thanks turboguzzi. I do have a paper copy of my 1978 KZ650B2, the link you sent me was to a KZ750 2-cyl, do you have one of the 4-cy; KZ650 so I don't ruin my book?

Check on the impact driver, I have already removed the covers that had phillips heads. Will probably replace with an Allen head set for future removals. I cleaned out the clutch bands about a month ago when I found that they were sticking. How long are they supposed to last?

I replaced the points with a 1980 KZ750 electronic ignition already. Should I replace the cam seals as a matter of course?

Thanks in advance

no problem, I just saw that your nick is kawi twin, so...

Ha ha:cheer: I have a Kawasaki 650R as my daily driver and it is a parrallel twin, thus the nick name.