KZ1100 Shaft to Chain Conversion Help?

I know this is a rare modification, but I could really use some help. I'm currently in the midst of a project that involves converting a Shaft driven KZ1100 to Chain drive. I've done the research and found I needed the output shaft, output shaft cover, shift drum, and sprocket cover from a GPZ1100.

Right now I have the output shaft and output shaft cover from an 81 GPZ1100, and a shift drum from an 83 GPZ1100. I installed the shift drum and output shaft in the case, and tested the shifting ability. What I found is the left (toward engine front) shifter arm with the hooks would not engage the shift drum pins. The right (toward engine rear) side arm works fine. It does the same thing with both shift drums.

Upon further research, I appears the GPZ1100 engine changed from 82-83, but looking at pictures of an 81 shift drum and comparing it to my 83 shift drum, the pins look to be in the same place. :S

I assume you are talking about the shift fork. Make the transmission is in neutral ( none of the dogs engaged ) and the gears rotate freely.
If a gear is engaged the shift fork can be very difficult to install.

don

I'm talking about the arms with hooks that grab and spin the shift drum (i don't know the official term :huh: ). I'll take another look at it today, as I was pretty worn out when I was messing with it yesterday, For all I know I just had it on wrong :side:

Edit: Actually, only downshifts work, the claw won't grab the shift drum pin on upshifts.

In an attempt to eliminate any potential compatibility issues I've bought the whole gear shift assembly from an 81 GPZ1100, rather than try and mix and match bits. Now the only pieces from the KZ that effect the transmission will be the clutch shaft half of the transmission and the shift shaft, which from what I can tell are the same on both models... hopefully.

Just an update in case anyone else ever has the same issue, because I hate when I find a thread on an issue I have, but they never say what they did to fix it.

The parts I had to have from an 81 GPZ1100 were:
Output Shaft
Shift Drum
Gear Positioning Lever + Spring and Circlip
Neutral Positioning Lever + Spring and Circlip
External Shift Mechanism Cover

The KZ1100 Positioning Levers were in the wrong location for the GPZ shift drum, which makes sense in hindsight, but was never mentioned.

The swing arm pivot is different between models. What are you going to do about that?
Steve

Steve,
If the width of the arms at the pivot tube is the same, ( I do not know if it is), then is there a reason why those lovely, adjustable pivots could not be machined to fit the chain drive bearings? Perhaps the shaft drive bearings will fit the other swingarm.....?

There are some things best just left alone.
Steve

Why?

swest wrote: The swing arm pivot is different between models. What are you going to do about that?
Steve

Already got that covered:
kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/599144-ano...fighter-build#684560

Pics of your conversion would help. Checked out the link, looks good.
Steve