KZ750 LTD shaft/chain compatibility

Could I swap the final drive of a shaft kz750 onto a “normal” kz750 engine with minimal work?

I have an ‘83 KZ750-F1 LTD that I’m considering to do an efi conversion with. Concerned I may blow the motor, I have started looking for replacement engines and parts. I found a “normal” KZ750 LTD stripped bike that looks to be in excellent shape (and cheap). If my conversion to fuel injection goes wrong I want to know how much between the engines are the same. 

so I’ll ask, is there anything else different between the shaft and non shaft versions of the KZ750 LTD engines apart from the final drive? If so, what?

The differences between the KZ750 shaft and chain drive engine cases are minimal but there is a difference.

I put a 1982 Spectre 750 shaft drive engine in my 1978 KZ650 frame, I had to convert from shaft drive to chain drive.

There is a big difference in the width of a shaft drive frame versus a chain drive frame. At first I thought I could just install the shaft drive engine in the 650 frame - WRONG. Its about 5" wider for the shaft drive frame right at the output shaft, there is a lot of extra room required for the shaft drive. They hid that really well on the fully assembled bikes!

There is extra machining on the output side (sprocket side) to get the shaft drive housing installed. It has a extra oil feed hole in front of the clutch release rod to feed oil to the bevel gears on the drive shaft where it turns 90 degrees to put a drive spline inside the swing arm. I had to plug this hole with a 1/8NPT pipe plug.

There is also a difference in transmission output shafts and gearing. The output shaft on the shaft drive does not take a sprocket, it takes a big 3 pronged coupler. It is not set up to take a regular front sprocket. The transmission gearing is different as well because of the final dive ratios required for the shaft drive. I ended up replacing both gear sets for 650 gear sets, so the whole transmission had to be replaced. To do this you have to split the cases.

I also had a issue getting a regular 650/750 transmission cover to fit over the output shaft. The machined surface for the shaft drive housing is slightly different from a regular trans cover. I had to make a thin copper gasket to get it to seal the overlap. There was not issue on getting a regular sprocket side cover to fit for clutch release.

I am not sure what your definition of minimal work is, but it not just taking a drive shaft off and putting a chain on. I am not sure if I ever ran into too many people who have done it. Maybe there have been more KZ1000/1100 conversions?

I can post some pictures of the conversion if you need them.

Here is a link to that build :

www.kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/620398...ouring-build?start=0