KZ305 Rebuild...attempt

I found a new one. I suppose I could go used, but do I want to?

I should've bought that beauuuuutiful, "running but not running right" KZ400 that just came up for sale for $500 and was gone within hours. At least I can find parts for that.

Now the bike machinist I was sooooo happy to find has backed off on his previous comments that he's sure it would be fine as is saying that "there are no guarantees" the bore is OK, and he got audibly upset that I wanted him to measure it because the Kawasaki specs are metric. "This is why I don't work on metric bikes...". You see, he's a Harley machinist and metric is so hard.    Good freekin grief. Now he says its right at the limit "it might be OK and it might not" so I guess that means I need to rebore. He's already done the head work, which I didn't tell him to do. He was just supposed to tell me how much it would cost. So now I'm pretty much locked into this $600 job, and counting, with a set of piston rings that I can't use.  At least I didn't order the piston...



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I should've bought that beauuuuutiful, "running but not running right" KZ400 that just came up for sale for $500 and was gone within hours. At least I can find parts for that.

Now the bike machinist I was sooooo happy to find has backed off on his previous comments that he's sure it would be fine as is saying that "there are no guarantees" the bore is OK, and he got audibly upset that I wanted him to measure it because the Kawasaki specs are metric. "This is why I don't work on metric bikes...". You see, he's a Harley machinist and metric is so hard.

   Good freekin grief. Now he says its right at the limit "it might be OK and it might not" so I guess that means I need to rebore. He's already done the head work, which I didn't tell him to do. He was just supposed to tell me how much it would cost.

So now I'm pretty much locked into this $600 job, and counting. 



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Geez.. Man, tell him to measure in inches. We will convert it for you

wrote:

wrote:

I should've bought that beauuuuutiful, "running but not running right" KZ400 that just came up for sale for $500 and was gone within hours. At least I can find parts for that.

Now the bike machinist I was sooooo happy to find has backed off on his previous comments that he's sure it would be fine as is saying that "there are no guarantees" the bore is OK, and he got audibly upset that I wanted him to measure it because the Kawasaki specs are metric. "This is why I don't work on metric bikes...". You see, he's a Harley machinist and metric is so hard.

   Good freekin grief. Now he says its right at the limit "it might be OK and it might not" so I guess that means I need to rebore. He's already done the head work, which I didn't tell him to do. He was just supposed to tell me how much it would cost.

So now I'm pretty much locked into this $600 job, and counting. 



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Geez.. Man, tell him to measure in inches. We will convert it for you
 

I'm not a Harley machinist, I know how to convert measurements.

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I'm not a Harley machinist, I know how to convert measurements.

I know you can I was just suggesting to tell him that 
Not sure why they do that (work before estimate). As a matter of fact - my head is at the shop right now and guy told me 2 times they don't do work until they call and confirm numbers. For some reason I think I may be in your situation still

Well new oversize pistons and rings are even harder to find (and I won't pay $140 for the one set of rings I found) so I guess I will proceed as planned with one new piston and no rebore and hope for the best. Its either that or abandon ship. I've already spent 300 bucks on the head, gaskets and rings, so whats another 80 for a piston? Then I'm done putting money into this bike, other than filters and fluids. If it wants to break down again I'll take it out back and shoot it.

Have I mentioned how much I wish I had jumped on that 400? 


BTW, the piston I found is a 13001-1279, which apparently superceded the original part#. But I could only find one, in Germany.

My Kawasaki manuals have both metric and imperial specs.  But they are for Z1's.

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Checked my strainer just now - not too bad. I didn't see the problem plug that was mentioned in the other thread, so let me know if you find it. 

 

 

Uhhh...so I'm inside (thank you impact tool!) and I'm looking right at the scene you pictured....where is the strainer???

 NVM. I knew I'd find it 10 seconds after posting, that's why I posted.

The oil strainer. Doesn't look too bad until you look at it under the microscope and see the cylinder shavings and chunks of red plastic from the alternator. I decided to replace it because the plastic at the oil pump end was kind of deformed.


I couldn't find the cursed bolt that supposedly obstructs it, probably have to go deeper than I'm willing. I shined a light into the orifice and couldn't see anything intruding. For braver explorers its probably near the pointy end of the pencil in the image above, in that blind gallery.


Here she is after the honing, for better or for worse. Hopefully it will get me through a season or two while I hunt for my next cheap bike that now I'll hopefully be able to fix. Assuming this all ends well, which I'm not assuming lol.


I'm very proud of my first valve job, even though I didn't do it. They couldn't have done it without me!

And now begins the forever-long process of scraping the old base gasket off... FUN!
 

I think I have it figured out - I'll try to get myself into it tomorrow to get some good pics for you. The general idea is removing the clutch cover (and gasket) as well as the timing cover on the opposite side, then using a long object tapping out the aluminum plug described in the article I shared last week. I've circled the spot that the long object goes into, but I haven't been under the timing cover on my bike, so pics to come. 
 

The article's photo is from an upside-down perspective, but I think I have it right. Hoping my next house has a paved driveway. 

Mixed results from today's work. 

 

Clutch cover off, here's the channel that goes to the back of the aluminum plug. I would suggest getting something long, strong, and not larger than about 1/4" or 6mm. There's a ridge in the middle that blocks anything larger. 

 

Timing cover off; you'll need to take out one gear to see the plug, but it just slides off. The plug itself takes a lot of force to pound out.

 

Beneath the plug. The small hole (hard to see in the photo) is indeed partially blocked by the plug, but as it's on the bottom of the hole, you can modify the plug (once removed) by cutting away only half of it on the inside, which is photographed in the article shared earlier. 

As you may be able to tell, I cracked off some of where the plug sits, but it's because I bent something that I was pounding on in such a way that it could only come out from the left side of the engine, and when I drilled the plug out I did a pretty poor job. So don't try to drill the plug out, just hit it. 

Yikes. This may be above my grade level.