Inner fork tube replacement.....

Might be able to clean them up with #600 wet/dry paper.
Steve

Those forks look like they were attacked by rust worms! Lol.
If it were me, i'd ride the bike and get some fun out of it. The seals & dust covers will cost u under $50 online. Shop around all summer for some forks. Even if just the uppers and then swap & rebuild over the winter.

I'll be going thru this shortly on KZombie. Same problem with heavily pitted uppers in the swept area.

If you ride on those, your uppers will get oily and the seals under the dust covers will wear faster but who cares at this point? Enjoy the bike now!
My $0.02

Thank you for all your opinions.
Just looked on eBay and all the forks have pitting on them so I don't want to replace them with crappy forks. Can the pits on my fork be sanded down to smooth it out and then have the seals replaced with fork oil, wouldn't that last me a long time almost like new?

Unless those pics looked worse than is, i don't think sanding down will fix the issue. They'll still be pitted deeper into the cylinder surface after sanding the bumpy rust off. Think about how crappy a windshield wiper works on bug crusted windshield. Same kinda thing.
As the seal slides over a pitted area, it'll leave oil in the pits. Hence why the fork gets "weepy" with oil. Your forks may work fine all summer or longer if it has good seals now and full charge oil.

Keep in mind when looking for replacements, the tubes needa be clean in the swept area where the oil seal travels. Slight pitting at or above the lower triple is not going to affect performance just appearance.

As example, the forks i just bought this morning have some pitting but it's up higher around headlamp. New fork seals i got won't get worn prematurely cuz the swept portions are clean.

You might be able to use the fork tubes from a KZ440. I'd guess there are more of those available to choose from. I think they're the same diameter (33mm) & use the same fork oil seals.. most of them are Ltds, but I don't know if their tubes are longer than the standard models or not. possibly solved by using different spacers. shorter spacers at the top & possibly added spacers at the rebound springs if necessary. ???

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationNo eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationNo eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationWhile my KZ is still at the shop and awaiting a new petcock replacement I was looking into fork tubes and hopefully replace them while its at the shop and get the bike back in perfect shape (somewhat)
I found these on eBay :







Which one of these are the best to buy and in better condition than mine (pics up top In previous post) ?
And would the ltd model forks fit my 79 kz400 B2?
...... Some of these pics don't show you a complete 360 of the tubes which worries me bc my forks from the front don't look bad until you see the back( rust worms) lol

Get the ones for your model.
Steve

Best to get one for your model but I figured I would put this out there as reference. My 440 and my 305 have the same forks on them even with the age difference. If your 400 has the same ones you may actually have quite a,few to choose from if you can't find ones good enough for your specific model. I haven't dug into it to far but I know everything except maybe the springs are identical between my two.

Has anyone ever use the shock sox? Or dirt skins to protect fork seals , making them last longer?

Thinking about trying this out

m.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/1sgl...a_cheap_fix_i_tried/

Unless you are riding on dirt or leave the bike sit unprotected from rain & snow for extended periods genuine Kawasaki fork seals will last for many decades. Just make sure the dust covers are in place and wipe the upper fork tubes occasionally so nothing that can abrade the seals builds up on them. I use a bit of regular car wax of the legs once or twice a year and wipe bugs and dust off them every couple rides. It takes only a minute to do. If you put gators or other semi-permanent covers over the legs you won't know if condensation, etc. is getting on them and making them rust, and rust will damage the seals. Ed

Salu8819 wrote: Thinking about trying this out

m.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/1sgl...a_cheap_fix_i_tried/

Hmmm. Very interesting. Slow or Thick CA is the gel form of so-called "crazy glue" - which is a brand name for CyanoAcrylate and is available at hobby shops that deal with Radio Control airplanes. However, the thicker CAs take longer to cure. A handy / easy block to make the block sander from is a free paint stir stick from home hardware store. Cut it up into several 3-4" lengths and tape them together to form a mini block appropriate for the size of work.

The only snag to this fix is having to remove the forks from the bike so you can drop the CA into the pits and not have it run down the fork.
Keep acetone handy in case you glue yourself to the work! (Don't ask me how I know this... :blush: )