KZ1000 hard to shift

i have been riding my kz1000 around and one of the issues that has come up is it is very difficult to down shift coming to a stop or stopped. it simply will not down shift sometimes even with me rocking the bike so i have to slip the crap out of the clutch to get going in 2nd or 3rd. I suspect it may be something to do with the APE heavy duty clutch kit as i have read others have a hard time finding neutral with that. I also have Tarrozi rear-sets and am wondering if the positioning of the throw is making it difficult to shift, but i have tightened everything up to eliminate as much slop as i can. Thoughts?

The problem began after installing the APE clutch?

Here are the APE friction discs I removed from my bike after a short amount of riding, and having to bang it into gear because the clutch wasn't fully disengaging. See the burnt spots? That's due to excessive thickness variation of the discs. Going around the disc with a micrometer showed high and low spots of about .004". And that was after they were halfway burned in.

As far as I know they've been like this for years. After a while the high spots burn off and it will shift normally. Riders believing this is some kind of normal clutch break-in.

I got OEM discs. They were exactly the same thickness all the way around. Clutch worked perfect when installed.

No joke! I installed an APE clutch on my buddy's GS750 about 30 years ago. And it did the same exact thing.

go back to stock OEM clutch fibers

I beat the hell out of my bike, several 1/4 mile runs at the track power shifting, and at 25K miles the original clutch never slipped.

I adjusted the linkage on the shifter so that both cranks are close to 90 degrees and it made a huge difference. It still is a bit difficult to find first but it is much more ride-able now. Ive been thinking about taking out the extra disks that come in the APE clutch tack to see what happens.

You can easily slap on the stock shifter to eliminate the rear sets. Is the clutch actuator properly adjusted?

Im having problems getting my (KZ1000CSR) into neutral. I eventually pulled the clutch apart to check for warping in the disks but I didnt think about changing the angle on the (non original) shifter. Good idea. Ill have a go at that!

On the subject, I heard today that the old KZs were known for having weak clutch springs. Anybody got any comments on this?

I've run mine 20 years with no problems. Just did my clutch and the springs were still good. When I changed the basket this time I found it was "wankered."
Steve

At some year the Kawasaki neutral finder was built into the main transmission shaft. Any bike with that feature will be cranky downshifting to first past neutral at much above idle speeds. Kaw gear boxes are slick at all speeds and stop at neutral positively at idle. They idea here is to keep noobs from getting to first or floating to find neutral unexpectedly. It's been around for a long time. Built into all the Vulcans I have owned as well. Your problem maybe something different, but figured I would add to the conversation. Peace.

R

I'd try taking out one.
Steve

If you pull the discs please let us know if you see the burnt spots. And I'm assuming you did the rod and cable adjustments as per the manual.

You can't just remove one friction disc. You would also have to remove a steel disk. At that point you may run out of adjustment at the apply rod.