$18 valve stem?

My kz1000a1 has what I believe to be 1979 LTD wheels. The valve stem gaskets are shot. Kawasaki dealer will only order the whole valve stem assembly and it is $18.

What to do?


-Duck
"Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful Green Umbrella."

I'd go back to the dealer and see if they'd let you look through a Tucker Rocky, Motorcycle Stuff, or Parts Unllimited catalog. Go to the tire section and toward the back of the section should be tubes and valve stems. Match one up to what you have and order it. Its gonna be much cheaper than $18.

Later, Doug

I might add www.denniskirk.com to the list of places to look...

Not one of the dumbasses bothers to specify in their catalogs what size hole the valve stem is for. I need for a 0.625" (16mm) Most valve stems are for 8mm or 9mm holes. also, they all have the same catalogs, just different prices. Parts unlimited, tucker rocky, ...

The dealer was about to order the wrong part. I can't find the part on the kawasaki/empart web site.

If the tire shop can't figure out how to get one, I'm just gonna have them put a tube in it. Harley spoke wheels have the same 0.625" hole and 130/90-16 is a common harley size

Kawasaki.com parts diagram shows 1979 LTD wheels having tubes. Am uncertain of model year when tubeless style was introduced. :huh:

Found it! $3.99 at NAPA. "All them old mags need these with tubeless tires..."

Duck wrote:

Found it! $3.99 at NAPA. "All them old mags need these with tubeless tires..."

Will respectfully refrain from comment other than believing you could probably teach the course about risks of going tubeless on tube style wheels.

Duck wrote:

. . . put a tube in it. Harley spoke wheels have the same 0.625" hole and 130/90-16 is a common harley size

Hi Duck, glad to see you got the problem worked out. You were right about the Harley tire size, I had a Dunlop 402 or 404 installed a couple changes ago that said Harley-Davidson on it. I didn't care, it fit and it was a cheap take off that someone had left the tire guy I was dealing with at the time.

For future reference, since you are in the area, there is a guy I found in the Atlanta area who is very good and very reasonable in cost regarding motorcycle tires, since that is all he does.

Ken's motorcycle tire, off 575, near Woodstock. Kind of a drive for you, but maybe the next time you need tire stuff we can meet in the Marietta area for coffee or something, since you are now back to mobility.

I'll post the telephone number when I get it handy.

Just for info, all KZ1000 up through 1980 was tube type wheels except for the shaft drive model. 1981 when the new KZ1000J was released they started using tubeless wheels on all KZ1000 models that came with mag type wheels.

Thanks. It was Ken who couldn't find the .625" valve stem . The $4 NAPA part($8 from Tucker Rocky) fit perfectly and we got the tire mounted about 2 this afternoon. He's really busy this time of year but with the recent bypass, I'm not up to manually wrestling tubeless tires off the rim.

If I had seen this thread in time, I could have told you to talk to NAPA. The rear Morris Mag for the KZ750 twin has a .625 hole also

KaZooCruiser wrote:

Ken's motorcycle tire, off 575, near Woodstock. Kind of a drive for you, but maybe the next time you need tire stuff we can meet in the Marietta area for coffee or something, since you are now back to mobility.

I'll post the telephone number when I get it handy.

Sure on coffee(sans caffeine these days). My work shed is in Canton so I'm through Marietta on the way up and back. Need to order the round backing plate for the front brake pad and should be riding her next week.