KZ750 H2 1981 FRONT WHEEL TIGHTENING PROBLEM

hi riders

please can you advise.

having now replaced the tires to bridestones. we tighten the wheel axle nut, following by the clamp nut. we don't have a torque wrench. the wheel is too stiff. you can loosen it off, but you can't have the wheel too tight and definately not loose.

is there some harry potters magic to correctly tightening a front wheel guys?

guess who has never done this before. i'm a student and can't afford big $... taking it to my local bike shop.
i want to learn to do it correctly. not rely on other well paid mechanics!.. our local shop charges $40 per hour plus VAT!

any advice greatly appreciated!. i will always think of all of you, when i service my bike!.. supervised of course by my dad!..

best wishes to all of you!

angie

No matter how tight you tighten the axle, the wheel should spin freely. If not you probably have the speedo drive not installed correctly. There are 2 tangs that have to go in 2 slots when it's installed correctly. If you've tried to tighten the axle with the drive not lined up correctly it may be damaged so look there first.

hi

many thanks for your message. i've slotted the speedo in place. in between the two tangs.

cheers buddy

hog

hi riders

does anyone have a photo please of how the speedo gear (with tangs) fits into the stops? are these located on the base of the forks please?

i've had a good look and can't see where the tangs engage into the stops etc? i've a strange feeling that my forks are not kz750 h2 ones?

many thanks for helping us.

regards

angel

If your axle has a big nut at either side and the wheel is held in by a clamp at each fork bottom with 2 8mm nuts there is no need to touch either of the big axle nuts. If you have tightened them up you are simply tightening the taper wheel bearings, hence the wheel going stiff. Put the wheel in the forks loosly (not flopping about) and loosen the big axle nuts slightly and the wheel should free off. Taper bearings should be adjusted by just taking up the slack in the bearing by tightening the nuts and then back the nut off 1/4 of a turn, it's all by feel though really.

If it's the later type with one nut and a pinch bolt on one fork leg then make sure the speedo drive is square on the wheel and is located on the peg on the fork leg.

Joe Fabulous wrote:

If your axle has a big nut at either side and the wheel is held in by a clamp at each fork bottom with 2 8mm nuts there is no need to touch either of the big axle nuts. If you have tightened them up you are simply tightening the taper wheel bearings, hence the wheel going stiff. Put the wheel in the forks loosly (not flopping about) and loosen the big axle nuts slightly and the wheel should free off. Taper bearings should be adjusted by just taking up the slack in the bearing by tightening the nuts and then back the nut off 1/4 of a turn, it's all by feel though really.

If it's the later type with one nut and a pinch bolt on one fork leg then make sure the speedo drive is square on the wheel and is located on the peg on the fork leg.

Joe, what the hell are you talking about??? Tapered wheel bearings?? Loosening the axle nuts??? This is a Kawasaki not a Ford (or hardley). Buy a manual dude before giving advice that might kill somebody. Ed

Yea don't be leaving stuff loose on your bike, that was really bad advice!
You do have your Service Manual to consult on this, correct? I think in 1 of your threads you said you have one.
I think you will find Most of the guys here will try to give correct advise for you to follow.

I think you'll find on the older Z's there is a threaded front axle and a large nut to hold it all together at each end, there is I believe a tube between the bearings and if the axle is tightened too much the tube can crush, the wheel will tighten slightly and become difficult to turn, my terminology may not have been correct regarding taper bearings but the idea is the same and obviously the nuts shouldn't be left slack once the problem is sorted, I honestly didn't think I had to write down tighten them afterwards as it seemed obvious to me but to diagnose the problem you have to start with things loose and if the wheel locks up as you tighten the nuts up then you start to get an idea where the problem lies. I may not be the best at writing it down and for that I apologise but it's a job i've done many times over the last 25 years. We all give advice on forums such as this but to be honest the best advice any of us could give is 'if you don't know how to do it then ask someone that does to either do it for you or physically guide you through the process'

Here is the front wheel mounting procedure for the 1977 KZ650. Your bike may be different, so it is imperative that you consult the manual for your model/year bike before installing something as important as your front wheel. I am only providing this so you can see how different it is from the advice given earlier in this thread in which you were advised "there is no need to touch either of the big axle nuts."

From KZ650 Kawasaki Motorcycle Shop Manual Part #99931-539-01:

"Position the front wheel in its place between the front fork tubes, and slowly lower the front fork tube bottom ends onto the front axle.

Mount the front axle clamps, and tighten the nuts loosely (these are the clamp nuts, NOT the axle nuts). The arrow at the bottom of the clamp must point toward the front (Fig. G3).

Turn the speedometer gear housing so that it points to the two o’clock position. Be sure that the small projection on the gear housing does not catch on the lower part of the left tube.

Tighten the axle nuts with 7 - 9 kg-m (51 - 65 ft lbs) torque, and position the speedometer housing by turning it counterclockwise until it stops.

Tighten first the front axle clamp nut and then the rear nut with 1.6 - 2.2 kg-m (11.5 - 16 ft lbs) of torque. There will be a gap at the rear of the clamp after tightening.

WARNING - If the clamps are installed incorrectly or improperly tightened, the clamps or the studs could fail, resulting in loss of control."

hi gang

'guess whos birthday it's today! MINE... Angel is 47 today!.. still looking gorgeous! p-)

many thanks for your info here!

my bike is a kz750 ltd h2 1981. i cant find the tangs on my folks guys! does anyone have a photo of the speedometer gear and how the tangs fit into somewhere.

i've one front axle and only one clamp.

many thanks and birthday cake is offered with a coffee to all of you!

kind regards

angel ((( hugs )))
:laugh:

Reference the diagrams at Kawasaki.com or the factory manual to verify that everything has been installed correctly. I've never investigated to see if it matters, but maybe you have the right side collar in backwards (pinch bolt side).

As for the tangs, I'd guess the stock forks only have one. My 81 650-CSR has one, as does the left fork from an 82 750-H3 (the bikes are very similar to yours). The little nub kinda acts like a positioning stop for the speedo drive.

Installing the front wheel should be fairly straight forward.

hi rider

many thanks for your reply!

i don't have a full OEM manual, some pages are missing.
this is one of the them.

i was hoping that one of the kzr's might take a photo of the speedometer insitue wink¬.

many thanks

angel