honda starter in the Kz

Hey Gentlemen,
i remember a while back one of us had a HOnda CB starter motor he was going to try in his Kz motor, anyone remember? How did it turn out, DOES IT TURN noticeably faster than the original Kz starter motor?

For that matter, Z1E sells a Ricks Motorsports starter for our engines, anyone tried that starter? How did it work, its supposed to be a stronger turning unit that ours????

Cheers,
Kt

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The honda starters work great. A little different wire post position but its managable. I got mine off a CB900 custom.

Works great, my modified GPz1100 engine would barely turn over with the stock starter, it acted like a low battery. Swapped in one from an 82 CB900F and now it spins over nice and fast.

EXCELLENT, good info guys AND THANKYOU for the pic of the model numbers, it'll make it easier to identify a secondhand one from a wrrecker down here, just the info i needed, now just got to find one.

Kt

the cbf's used 2 dif starters. look for the 1 marked .8kw. u can see it in the pic above. they also have 1 that is .7kw. i notice a dif when i installed mine. i have read (after i installed mine)that u can remove the outer housing, and rotate it. this will re-align the outer power terminal, to a better location. if u dont do this, u will need to grind some metal from the chain cover to gain clearance. Also install a heavier gauge wire to the starter .
the KZ is .6kw.

Do you remember what guage wire is stock and what gauge you used for the Honda starter?

For a heavier gauge starter wire/cable, use 6 gauge welding cable, it's a lot more flexible, and can carry a lager current draw without overheating. Make sure the terminal contact places have no paint for maximum current flow.

Some welding supply places may be able to crimp new terminals for you, if they can't, try the battery shops. The crimping tool resembles a bolt cutter, but with special dies, or it may be a dedicated machine.

As for the answer about the wire/cable sizes, I believe it looks like 8 gauge cable for the stock Kawasaki starter size.

Thanks again for all the excellent info men! Makes the search a lot easier. It always amazes me how much help you lot are on here.

as an aside, the 0.7kw units from Honda are for their 750cc bike and the 0.8kw appears to be for the 900/1100 in line fours of 1980-1983 vintage. I thought the Z1 starters were 0.7kw as well, if they are in fact 0.6kw its no wonder they struggle!

thanks again,
Kt.

If you use the welding cable and new crimped on terminals, make sure the electrical contact places on the frame,battery terminals, and engine mounting bolt are clean and tight, with no paint or corrosion, otherwise the Negative(-) current path may try to use the other,smaller gauge wires(the Black with Yellow striped ones)as a return path.