Swap bars, drop tach...now losing power

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum so...Hello!

Picked up my KZ650 yesterday (78 LTD). City streets, freeway (up to 90mph)...ran just fine...seemingly perfect, fast and peppy!

So, today I'm swapping the bars to a clubman...removed the tach and speedo and am subsequently stuck with a huge bundle of wiring to address later. I haven't reattached the wiring to the headlight or other electrics yet.

So I replaced the bar and the ignition switch and killswitch so it would start. Starts right up like yesterday, no smoke, no smell.

Goes through the power band in 1st seems fine. give it a little more in 2nd/3rd, the revs pick up, then the power/speed drops. It will go into all gears fine, pick up in the lower end, but when the RPMs get mid-high, it drops out the acceleration in speed and just revs up without any power.


Any ideas? I rode the thing this morning and it was beautiful, spend an hour in the garage swapping bars, and it becomes a sissy.

Any help would be amazing.

welcome, when you changed the bars, did by chance change the clutch cable adj? sounds like you might have and now you are not fully letting the clutch release and it is slipping

i had thought that, but i don't remember even touching that adjustment. i went to the bike to check, and it's still tight, not loosened.

you know...i loosened up the clutch cable a bit from where it was, and it definitely got better! kinda strange, but hey if it works it works. hopefully it stays that way.

looks like a new clutch might be in the works soon. i'm just glad

Tried the push rod adjustment?

Also replacing those old clutch springs may do it, and you can check your plates then.

Clutch slipping go back and start over by backing all clutch cable adjusters in. then turn clutch actuator screw in till it just touches then back off 1/2 turn tighten lock nut. now go to adjuster in middle of cable and take up the slack till you get most of but NOT all play out of cable i like to leave my lever somewhat looser than others. this should set you in the right direction and buy the way if you put the low handle bars on is much nicer to install the shorter cables off a Z1R you can get them from jeff at Z1 ENTERPRISES makes for a nicer job and cables work nicer W/O all that binding.