front end trouble...

Hey guys,

Need some help with front end of KZ750e......

Re building a rebuilt bike, took it to a shop to get carbys sorted when i first got it and the mech said there was an issue with front wheel spacing, left caliper was dragging on the disc, so he put some washer spacers in to sort it, not perfect but better he said.

I changed front tyre and putting wheel back in i cant do axle nuts up tighter than finger tight before it binds and stops front wheel spinning freely.................. any thoughts ?????? At that tension spins good even with calipers on, but finger tight dont seem right. I think i read somewhere it should have 90 ft lbs on it....... correct me if im off....

Also with front end together i took top triple clamp off to see if there is any pressure there because looking at bike front on the fork legs look to be tapering in,especially the left side, and now top triple wont go back on as fork legs at top splay out......could it be bottom triple is bent and throwing the whole lot out....upper forks were bought new so im fairly confident its not them.

Any help would be appreciated.....

Cheers guys

Do yourself a favor and find the correct spacers for the front wheel, I wouldn't take my bike anywhere near a shop that recommended or put washers instead of the correct spacers on the axle. Id say that whatever's missing from the axle is probably the cause of the forks splaying at the top clamp. Loosen the axle off at the bottom, slide your forks into the clamps and then fix your spacer problem....
I should add, just make sure the fork tubes aren't bent....

I would also remove the front fender before trying to realign the forks just in case it got deformed. Get the forks properly ligned up, then tighten the lower clamp to spec, then the upper one. When reinstalling the wheel, be certain you have all t he proper spacers and that they are installed on the proper side and in the proper orientation. Pics in the factory shop manual or parts fisch in Kawasaki.com or Partzilla will be invaluable.

Does the bike have the stock triple tree, forks & wheels?

PS: I asked because of the avatar pic & can't tell if that's a 750E or what.

My suggestions were based on having at least both stock triple clamps and forks. If when lightly tightened into the lower clamp. The fork tubes do not lign up with the upper clamp, something is bent or there are mismatched parts.
Martin is right to question this up front. If some of the parts were not designed to work together, you have a higher level of frustration ahead.

Yeah thanks heaps for the suggestions guys......First off, the avatar pic aint my bike....i also have trouble putting pics up on here due to a sizing issue...absolute tech twit here.....but the clamps and wheels are stock items, not sure if from this bike though. The spacers had crossed my mind so i checked out kawasaki.com for some reference and they look to be right....but i did notice a different axle part number for bikes around the same year, so yeah im at a bit of a loss as to what the mis matched part or parts are...... I guess ill pull it down again and run through it checking each step as i go....
Ill report back tomorrow.

Thanks guys.

What year is your 750E? I would remove the wheel & try to eyeball the collar/spacer to see if it's long enough. I guess there shouldn't be a gap between the ends of the spacer & the wheel bearings. If the bearings are new, I guess double-check the part numbers to make sure the correct size were installed.

As for the torque, it can vary, but the front axle nut is typically tightened to about 58-ft/lbs or thereabouts & the rear to about 87-ft/lbs. Also, when tightening the front axle clamp, there is a correct way to do it so that the gap is at the rear. I don't know what the axle clamp nut torque is, but it probably isn't much.

Manual. 750turbo.com --- Index .
1980-84 KZ750-4. 1983-85 ZX750. pdf manual link near the bottom of the list. good pdf scans.

Its an 81 as far as i can tell.... the guy i got it from wasnt really sure but after some checking around thats what he came up with...This is where it kind of falls apart with the part numbers. But ill check out the spacers/ collars and measure it all up to see where im at today. One thing i did notice was the collar in between the bearings floats up and down, when you go to push the axle through the fork leg into the wheel you have to lift the collar up from the other side with a screw driver to get axle into collar.......is that normal ?

Thanks heaps for your help Martin, and that manual link too.

That's a spacer. As long as it's the right one, you should be able to tighten the axle to spec.
Steve

Righto..... pulled it all down, bearings out and all.... the right hand side seems to be all good when put back together and caliper on.... The left hand side needed spacing between the outer of the wheel bearing and the inner of the speedo receiver.....it was the speedo gearbox causing the binding, can now tighten to spec. The spacer between the bearings is just a straight piece of tube....hard to stay if its Kawasaki but it dont look like the pictures on the parts pages for my bike .
So ill order a couple of bits and see if it sorts it out.....

Thanks for the advice and input guys.

Somebody may have buggered the centering flange on the spacer, so he probably removed it. The flange can get damaged when removing the bearings, especially if the left side is driven out first.

Ahhh that makes sense....i was wondering why it wouldnt have a factory part.....got one comin, hopefully will do the trick.