KZ1100 LTD Shaft swingarm swap help

Hopefully this is in the right place :pinch:

Anyway, I recently was given a 1983 KZ1100 LTD Shaft-drive that was sitting outside for around 15 years. Needless to say it is in pretty rough condition :sick: . After about a week of meticulously cleaning the carbs, It fired up first try. Nearly every piece but the frame, engine, rims, forks, and swing arm are beyond usability. Being that it was free and in such terrible shape I felt it would be a perfect candidate for a custom build rather than try and restore it. As it sits now it is an empty frame with most of the tabs cut/ ground off.

My plan is to do the chain drive conversion and swap in a better swingarm that would allow for a wider wheel. I've spent the last day researching both the shaft-to-chain conversion, as well as the swingarm swap. I've found that the GS1100E swingarm is the most common one used, but I can't find any specific info on fitting it to a Shaft drive frame, which from what I've been able to find is wider than the chain drive models' frame. I also recall reading that the holes where the pivot bolt fit are larger on this frame? Any advice there would be very welcome. I definitely want to retain the dual shocks, so any swingarm I use needs to have those mount points. I have quite a few other questions (mainly about swapping out forks), but I will leave it there for now .

Thanks!

Im not sure how the shaft/chain conversion goes,(though I do remember someone here doin it with an ST. ) I would think that the drive conversion and the swingarm swap would be 2 different projects. Someone else might be able to point you in the right direction on that.
I tried a GS1100 swingarm in my bike and it fit very easily but I couldnt get a 180 tyre into it. I tried a 160 but that wouldnt work either. Someone posted that the GS took a 140 tyre ( I think) which wasnt big enough for what I wanted.
In the end,I went with a GSXR600 arm with a Bandit 600 wheel , which allowed for a 160 tyre. Of course there are other options but this is what worked for me.
Dont worry about shock mounts as you can have them welded onto whatever arm you end up with.
Good luck

Id get ahold of brian kz10006 on here and price a chain drive frame ,much fewer headaches and probably cheaper in long run.
You could also check with him about the parts to convert the output shaft and other parts to a chain drive,you will need to split the cases to do it.

After some more googling I came across this (Amazing) build, which does a chain conversion as well as a swingarm swap.
kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/550823-ret...one?start=260#611315

It seems all he did to fit his new arm is machine some bushings to fit the old mounts and use spacers to take up the slack.

I went with a GSXR600 arm with a Bandit 600 wheel , which allowed for a 160 tyre. Of course there are other options but this is what worked for me.

Wow, those are much cheaper than the GS arms.

the shaft drive frame imho is better to use for a custom because it being wider at the pivot allows more late model swingarm options which are typically wider than the chain drive frames can use.

post up how wide your frame is inside the pivot bolt area.

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: the shaft drive frame imho is better to use for a custom because it being wider at the pivot allows more late model swingarm options which are typically wider than the chain drive frames can use.

post up how wide your frame is inside the pivot bolt area.

leon

I was hoping you'd reply! I saw many of your posts during my searches. I'll get the measurements later once I'm home. One thing I noticed is the left pivot bracket is out further than the right, so for the swingarm to be centered with the frame any spacers would need to be offset toward the right.

Okay the measurement inside the pivot is exactly 11.5 inches. The measurements from the center line of the frame are 6.25 from the left pivot and 5.25 from the right one.

okay thats plenty of room to work with.
are you wanting to keep the stock front end?
stock front wheel?

are you wanting to convert to sportbike wheels and brakes ?

leon

I'll probably go with the forks, swingarm, and wheels from a ZX-6R. That seems like the most common front end swap. From what I've been able to find the 03-04 ZX-6R swingarm is 242mm wide at the pivot, which leaves 50mm to space things out.

With the ZX6R forks, do they need to be modified for the different weight of the bike?

the 03/04 stuff is good to use you are gonna lose some ride height because the forks are a lil shorter and the 17" wheels.
but a carefully selected exhaust and some gullwing type upper triples can negate that .
the front end will need "tuned" for the weight .a call to a suspension house progressive/racetech etc.should sort out a set of springs to take care of that.
a stem swap will make it a bolt on.
machining tophats/spacers for the pivot should sort that.
weld some shock mounts on the arm and modify the brake caliper bracket to lean it back to clear the shocks and the rearend is sorted.

hth,

leon

here is a pic of ramtoughs build with a zx6 arm
although he kept the mono shock.


here is wyocowboy's bike with a zx6 arm and caliper bracket i modified to clear the dual shocks.


leon

Thanks for all the info! I hadn't thought of the rear brake caliper getting in the way of the shock mount. I've got a swingarm ordered and am about to order the front end. Are you available to do the stem swap on the triples? I saw that you've done many of the conversions on the forum. I'm also going to need spacers and tophats as you said.

Also, I'm guessing that I will need to have a custom 20mm pivot bolt made?