Throttle cable woes

Hey folks I need to find some information. My throttle cable broke last night, and in trying to find a replacement everything seems to point to this bike having the wrong handlebar controls! This came from a 1981 KZ1000J, but as you can see it has a straight feed rather than the typical 90-degree elbow. I *think* it might be from a KZ750?



If anyone can identify what bike this is off of then maybe I can find the proper cable to fit it... however I'm also curious if anyone has pics of what controls *should* be on my bike? If I can get the correct throttle and button assembly it would probably save me a lot of hassle later on.

Thanks!

This might help you identify what cable you have on your bike. Kawasaki always marks their cables with part of their part number right on the cable. Look up near the top of the cable, and see if you have in little white letters like "12-XXXX" That is most of the real Kawasaki part number you need!! Throttle cable part numbers are like 54012-XXXX back then!!!!


See that 12-1030, that means it is a 54012-1030 part number cable.

Cool, thanks. I'm going to be pulling the cable out after work tonight and taking the whole assembly to the dealer, but I'll see if my cable has a number or not. It's a frankenstien and the PO seems to have just thrown together every part they had laying around their shop, so by now I am completely unsurprised by every incorrect part I find.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationThat might be an aftermarket handlebar control. However, possibly from an 83 750 etc

JMKZHI wrote: That might be an aftermarket handlebar control. It looks too generic to my eye. However, possibly from an 83 750 Twin.

The run switch I'm pretty certain is a Kaw, I've found pictures of the same unit on KZ750's, and it has the correct connector to plug directly into the wiring harness. The switch and throttle are all one combined unit though and the plastic certainly looks old enough to be from the right time period. The main difference seems to be in the throttle cable routing. All of the KZ1000's I can find pics of have a 90-degree elbow at the end of the cable, while mine goes straight in and has an internal channel to make the bend.

I edited after posting. The 46091-1214 switch linked above was used on various 81-83 550 thru 1100 models. I looked at the 83 750K diagrams.

Ah clear down to the 550's? OK that will be good info to pass on to the dealer tonight. The pics of the 750's I found were also 83-84, so maybe there was a design change shortly after my bike came out.

I had to check out that ebay listing because the front of the switch looks to be in better shape than mine, but the pics show damage around one of the screw holes. Oh well. I was hoping to find one that is correct for my year but I didn't find anything currently in the listings. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one to come up later.

As mentioned by others that type of hand control was universal for a lot of different KZ's. And there are a lot of different cable options that will all work. It all depends on what angle you need coming out of the control and the cable length. I put low bars on my 750 so I used GPz cable and it works perfectly.

Well thanks to everyone's information I found what I needed to know, and learned something a bit unsettling...

The number on the cable (after much squinting and a few eyes looking at it) are 12-1089. The dealer looked it up, said that number has been superseded, and it is NOT something they can get any more. They were also completely certain that the throttle control pictured above, which I had removed from the bike along with the cable, was absolutely not a KZ part and all of the 1981 KZ1000 models used a push/pull pair instead of a single pull cable. Well guys, I've been looking at pictures online all day, and half the bikes I found clear pictures of did in fact have a single pull cable for that year, including both the J and K models. So I'm rather disappointed that their reference material seems to have had no information to indicate both styles were used around this time period.

What I *wasn't* expecting was for the KZ1000M to come into this discussion... However after looking up the part number and finding many of this exact cable for sale on ebay, it appears that this particular throttle may have indeed come from an M. And I already have several parts from the police model installed on my bike. So I guess my frankenstein now covers all four models of the '81 KZ. I don't know if I should laugh or cry, but I did do my best to pick what I felt was the best quality compatible part whenever I had to replace things to get her running again, so I'll live with that.

One interesting thing -- I decided to pull off the side cover from the throttle, and discovered it DOES have the 90-degree elbow inside the case, as part of the cable. And what I have appears to match exactly with the pictures I'm finding for that part number. If I had a full lookup resource available I would probably try to find a cable that is an inch or two longer than this one, but nobody gives any actual numbers for the cable lengths. At least I know I can route this one without pinching it anywhere so I'm safe getting another of the same.

The dealership DID point me in the direction of another motorcycle shop in town who has the equipment to custom-build cables using the end fittings that I have. So the question becomes whether I should do that, or buy one of the many NOS original parts on ebay which won't be here until next week? I'm leaning towards being patient and getting the NOS part since I don't what quality I'll get from this other place making a new cable.

Anyway, seems like I found the right replacement, so thanks again for all the help.

Motion Pro can make you a custom cable. Not expensive either.

Thanks but they already have a part that is a direct replacement for this cable, why would they need to make a custom?

Changing handlebars is usually the reason for changing a cable other than wear. 81-83 had baby ape hangers, I believe they call them 'buckhorn' handlebars which are widely despised and often changed out.

I cannot tell if you have the bike on the side stand and the steering cranked all the way to the left, but check out the position of your brake reservoir. It should be close to level with the bike upright and the steering straight. Looks like it might need to be rotated clockwise on the bar. The angle on the reservoir is to get in to levelish with the buckhorn bars. Change the bars, change the angle. Not a crisis but check it out.