Brake Lever Bent - How to Straighten

I have a 1980 KZ550A that I am putting back together. The front brake lever appears to be bent see picture. I would appreciate any help or suggestions on the best way to try and straighten the brake lever out without cracking or breaking it.
Thanks
Tomas Douglas

Replacements are pretty cheap. I'd be worried about the thing snapping during a panic stop,
but metallurgy isn't my strong suit. :blush:

You can get a new one for like $10. That's cheap insurance.

You can bend it back with heat but as Martincsr says itll weaken it. Not a good idea.Buy a replacement.

Actually if you keep it below the annealing temp of the metal you won't make it too soft. if you heat it up say to about 300-400f you will prevent most dislocations in the metal ( it won't become brittle) . heating softens, cold working/ bending hardens. One undoes the other quite a lot. It's all about doing it so it's not to easy to bend but not too hard. so I would grab a torch, a vise and bend as close to kink as possible to prevent new unwanted bends.
(then again you can pick one up for cheap, just thought I would chip some engineering thoughts on bending metal)

i have heated and bent em back before with good luck.
although i used a press and heat.a vise with soft jaws will work pretty good.
z1r's have model specific front brake levers and are hard to come by so i do what i can to save em.
i have paid $80.00 for a lever from japan.
it hangs on the wall,
i run a brake and clutch lever that i straightened.

leon

Thanks to all for replying. I was hoping I could maybe salvage the lever, as I already have about $2800 CDN in parts that I have put into this bike. Most parts have to come from the USA and with exchange, import duties, and extra shipping costs everything adds up. I am getting to the final stretch and I appreciate the comment as I never thought about it snapping under pressure.
I will try a fix just for the practice and look for a replacement on ebay.
Thanks Tomas

This is a final follow up on the problem. I ordered a replacement lever and it came to $9.99 plus $12.95 shipping. However it is no where near the quality of the original even the hole for the bolt was undersized and I had to drill it out. Eventually I may try to straighten the original or try to buy an original.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

TomasDouglas wrote: This is a final follow up on the problem. I ordered a replacement lever and it came to $9.99 plus $12.95 shipping. However it is no where near the quality of the original even the hole for the bolt was undersized and I had to drill it out. Eventually I may try to straighten the original or try to buy an original.

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Here's a new, NOS lever

Pete

I hit mine with a rubber mallet till it was straightened out. I'm not going to claim it was the smartest thing to do, but it has been working fine for several years now.