Ground through the frame!

Was grinding on the fram of my 80 KZ1000 and went through.


What would you do next? Or what have you done: pics would be great.

I thought about just welding it, but it would be very thin there now. Wish I would have heated and beat with hammer, or squeezed with a C clamp. Running a Zephyr swingarm with a ZX-11C rear wheel, and 5/8 offset sprocket and it is very close everywhere. If I turn the master link around I think I will be OK.

May have to cut into the tube and weld in some metal, like a channel from cut square tubing.

i had to do that on my drag bike it is pretty typical all i did was heat it up and beat it with a hammer for now this winter i'll notch it and add a plate.

So just notch it, and add a flat plate about the same thickness? That should work, and be easy to add, I was thinking of cutting a piece of 1" square tubing in half and adding it in, but probably not needed.

Anyone have pictures of their "notch"?

Also has anyone used a C clamp and heat, not sure if it would work, but might be easier as it would be hard to swing a hammer in this area.

heating and c-clamping has been done and works,as does heating and beating.you are pretty much passed that now:P .so what i would do is take a piece of rectangle tubing that u can cut a channel piece out of and weld it in the notch after you cut it out to fit the notch.remember that you are going to need more up and down clearance for your swingarm to go up and down,so the notch will need to be taller than you think(prolly).take your shocks off with the bike blocked up and move your swingarm up and down with the chain on and watch the chain movement to see how much you need to clearance.mark1122 has some pictures (i believe)in his thread showing where he clearanced it.hth,

leon holmes

Thanks for that Leon. I'll see if I can find them through the search engine.

Have a good idea on what to do, but pics of a finished product are always nice.

Turtle wrote:

Was grinding on the fram of my 80 KZ1000 and went through.

What would you do next? Or what have you done: pics would be great.

I thought about just welding it, but it would be very thin there now. Wish I would have heated and beat with hammer, or squeezed with a C clamp. Running a Zephyr swingarm with a ZX-11C rear wheel, and 5/8 offset sprocket and it is very close everywhere. If I turn the master link around I think I will be OK.

May have to cut into the tube and weld in some metal, like a channel from cut square tubing.

how ever you fix it id add a gusset of some sort between those 2 down tubes on each side to take some of the load off of that area this give ya any ideas?

Cut it out. Grind it back. Weld in new flat wall.

Thanks guys. I like the gusset idea, makes sense while your there anyway.

If you planning on keeping the MKll sidecovers as per the bike in your avatar,make sure your gussets won't interfere with 'em going back on. Most gusset pics are Z1/KZ frames up to 1978 with the much smaller sidecovers than a MKll- I know I almost made that mistake....

Thanks for that Jack, great information!