Z1-KZ camshaft install tool. (Brilliant!)

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationCame across this looking around. Simple engineering. Looks like I have another project.
From Australia, Cheap too!
Great idea for not stripping your head out.

or you can save yourself about $60... just get a piece of 6mm all thread, 8 6mm nuts and washers. cut the all thread to the necessary length, install in the head, put the caps on and pull the cams down with the nuts/washers then replace the all thread one at a time with the bolt. i'm also looking into bottom tapping the holes so you can use a 50mm length bolt instead of the factory 45mm bolt for more thread engagement

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

z1kzonly wrote: Came across this looking around. Simple engineering. Looks like I have another project.
From Australia, Cheap too!
Great idea for not stripping your head out.

Much sexier than a big vice grip!

:whistle:

I use vice grips. Two pair.

Hmmm I just have always followed the FSM advice on this not spent a penny, nor damaged any caps or fouled a cam bearing. Just lucky?

Trying to idiot proof a simple procedure. It will be interesting how much it will go for.
Steve

swest wrote: :whistle:

...cheaper and useful for other things.

Done hundreds and hundreds of "Z" cams in my professional career and never had a problem or done any damage by just going by the book.
It's a cure to a problem that doesn't exist otherwise Kawasaki would have produced a similar tool for their dealer workshops.
If you need a tool like that you are doing something very wrong and your money would be better spent on a mechanics training course.

It is a problem when working with high lift camshafts and heavy springs that require more frequent service and SOB buckets, no training course or service manual is going to change that.
Not to mention the threads in a 30-40 year old head that is being used for something it was never designed for have often already been compromised or destroyed by less than skilled mechanics. Add to that the fact that properly repairing the threads with an insert (not those problematic helicoils) is difficult if not impossible with the head/engine in the chassis.
Yes there is a certain installation sequence, no that doesn't solve the problem when working with non-stock components and threads that may already be suspect. I have a little bit of experience myself and IMHO the cam cap threads in Kawasaki cylinder heads do need special attention. Why put unnecessary wear on a thread that's difficult to repair, to each his own.

One of the threads in the ported GPZ head below was damaged (not by me) but I managed to salvage it by bottom tapping the hole and using a stud. I'll have to properly repair it the next time the head is off. Bathtub heads are getting more expensive and harder to find.

Thanks James! Point made. Same here, I never stripped my own parts ever. Same as I never used a torque wrench to tighten them.
But have done other peoples work and fixed their mistakes. Plus purchased piles of unknown condition Z1 KZ parts since the mid-80's.
It is just an idea. Any backyard mechanic with a stick welder, drill, hacksaw and a vice can make the same thing similar.
Of course I was not going to purchase it!

I think it's a cool little tool I could build with stuff in the junk metal box.
Like James said in a race motor with heavy valve spring's when you pull cams
a lot I see using something like it.

Hell I got a spare head with cams I think I'll build one and see how it work's.