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So I took the cap to a welder and he wanted $80+ to do it. He recommended that I just use some JB Weld to hold it together...

Maverick wrote:

So I took the cap to a welder and he wanted $80+ to do it. He recommended that I just use some JB Weld to hold it together...

can you post the name and address of that machine shop so so i can leave a bag full of burning dog crap outside his door? jb weld? the kz caps are pretty common i think the j/gpz caps are going to be a little harder to come by.

I know... I couldn't believe what I was hearing...

So are the '73 - '80 caps not compatible with the J/GPZ head? Don't they use the same bearing inserts? I hear that the aluminum in the older heads is better anyway... My buddy has a '78 KZ900 and the grain of the aluminum looks totally different.

Maverick...I have to know...how did you break the cap? I don't bring this up to rub your nose in it, but rather I also have my head disassembled and I don't want to make the same mistake:)

Maverick wrote:

I know... I couldn't believe what I was hearing...

So are the '73 - '80 caps not compatible with the J/GPZ head? Don't they use the same bearing inserts? I hear that the aluminum in the older heads is better anyway... My buddy has a '78 KZ900 and the grain of the aluminum looks totally different.

im not sure but ill dig up some older style caps to compare.

oops!



Post edited by: wireman, at: 2006/05/16 09:15

Well, I was just tightening the cap down by the two bolts through the doweled corners... I guess maybe that's a no-no. It was going down nicely, no binding or anything... Everything was aligned well. I honestly have no idea what made it snap like that. If it was binding against something, I would expect to see part of the aluminum gouged out, but there was no evidence of that. So next time, I will be tightening in a criss-cross pattern and by a half turn per bolt each time to hopefully avoid another boo-boo.

If it was binding enough to snap that cap, don't you think it would have stripped the threads in the head? I guess not. The fracture of the aluminum leads me to believe that it was just very brittle. There was no bending whatsoever, it just snapped.

Oh! Another potentially complicating factor was that I hadn't removed the cam chain tensioner completely - I had removed the cross wedge, but not the push rod. Still don't think that would matter, but I've been wrong before.

Maverick wrote:

So I took the cap to a welder and he wanted $80+ to do it. He recommended that I just use some JB Weld to hold it together...

jb weld? what an idiot.....that would break just by dropping it on the floor lol

1. Buy some used cam caps.
2. Install exactly as per manual use plastigage to check clearance.
3. If needed (clearance too small) get a real good machine shop to line bore.

or

Buy used J model head. Up here in the great white north they are as rare as hens teeth.

I believe KZ and J/GPZ caps will interchange.

Jay