Valve springs and cam bearings

Hey gang have some questions.
I pulled my head off to replace the oil seals on my 1977 KZ 1000a1. There was a ton of crusted on carbon so I gently cleaned the valves, ports and combustion chambers. The bike only has 20K on it should I replace the valve springs the motor is stock and will be for a year or so. I also have a 3 cam bearings that need to replaced but Z1 is out of stock. Do you know anywhere else I can find them? Lastly. I did not get a chance to ever do a compression or leak down test before I wrecked the bike so I really don't know if I should replace the piston rings or not. When I bought the bike in 2012 the bike had not been licensed since 1986. Any advice you can lend would be great.

I doubt the springs need replacing or the rings. Oil getting by hardened seals is probably your problem. I don't think you check that year bike by measurement on the springs . Got a manual ?
Did you measure the cam bearing thickness or are they wasted with deep cuts? How are the cam journals ? Did you measure them ?

Put springs in it while it's apart. VS900K will work fine. Valve Springs

Before you assemble it, have the seats touched up, especially the exhaust. The factory valve job on the exhaust side is horrible. It's way down on the valve face and doesn't come close to utilizing the potential of the 30mm valve size.

FWIW guys look too close at the cam bearings most of the time. Unless they are seriously gouged or bubbling up they can be cleaned up with scotch bright or 1500 paper and put right back to work......

I agree with larry on the springs.

On your cam bearings, the clearance for a 1000 motor should be in thousands 0.020 to 0.070 using the green plastic gauge. I did mine a few weeks ago and found them all around 0.030 but one that was 0.056......replaced it.

On other stuff, this is the time to do it while things are blown apart. Check cam gear, rollers and idlers.

Have head cleaned......dipped or blasted. The last time I had it done was $40 to have blasted. Check for cracks between valve seats or spark plug holes. Repair any stripped threads. Valve job, new seals.

Thanks for the input guys. Three of the bearings have gouges in them yet the cam journals are fine. I was curious about the valve job. That is something I can not do myself, I will have to make some calls. Thanks again for chiming in.

I forgot to add that yes I have a shop manual. Service limits on the springs are done with a spring compressor and I do not have access to one. I have not measured the journals yet or the the rest of the bearings. I just notices the 3 with gouges. I will post picks of them tonight after work.

My local NAPA shop/store (not just store) will check springs for a fee. Any place that can do basic machine work should probably have a spring compression tester.

Partzilla has them, I just bought a full set. There not cheap though.
www.partzilla.com/parts/detail/kawasaki/KP-13034-030.html

4TheKZ1000 wrote: On your cam bearings, the clearance for a 1000 motor should be in thousands 0.020 to 0.070 using the green plastic gauge. I did mine a few weeks ago and found them all around 0.030 but one that was 0.056......replaced it.

I'm pretty sure you misplaced the decimal point. I believe it should be 0.002" to 0.007".

0.070" would leave the cams bouncing up and down and probably break the cam caps

Why use aftermarket springs, with the increased seat pressure, if using stock cams?

Nessism wrote: Why use aftermarket springs, with the increased seat pressure, if using stock cams?

You don't have to. You can screw around and test 40 year old springs but you better do it after the valve job is done and know how to check the actual retainer height in the tappet bore so you're testing seat pressure accurately and then compensate with the correct shims...

To check retainer height you put the retainer on the valve with two keepers and pull the retainer tight. . Put the valve on a true flat surface upside down. Measure from the bottom of the retainer to the flat surface and note the measurement. Then install the valve and measure the installed height form the bottom of the tappet bore to the top of the stem. Then subtract the first measurement from that. That will be the true installed height of the retainer. That is the height you check them at for seat pressure.

Chances of your local automotive shop doing that are slim. You'll be lucky if they set all the installed heights the same after the valve job

Larry do I have to go through all that if I buy new springs?