TOPIC:

I’ve browsed the forum over the years and figured I’d sign up. I have my dads old KZ650 SR that hasn’t ran in 30 years, my dad passed away in 2018. He got the bike in the 80’s sometime, someone owned him money and gave him the bike for payment (he did autobody repair / paint and sometimes people didn’t have the money to pay for the work). He did ride it quite a bit, but recall him saying something about bad coils, then getting coils at a salvage yard off a KZ he found there but still an issue, I don’t remember every detail he told me. It’s pretty rough from sitting outside for the past 15-20 years, but I plan to slowly tinker with it to see if I can get the engine running.

I did put some oil into the cylinders about 5 years ago as well to help prolong it and it has never been seized. Finger test indicates it has compression, though not tested with a gauge yet. Coils seem to ohm okay. I cleaned the points and do have spark at all four plugs currently. I took the carb bank off about 5 years ago to clean them but never did, lost the bowl screws during a move since then, so I’ll have to figure those out; that was as far as I got with it then. Oil pressure light goes out after a few kicks, so think everything seems okay to try and fire after I clean up the carbs. Oil is 30+ years old, but at the correct level, I probably won’t change it until I at least see it running briefly. The electric start doesn’t do anything, but I recall my dad saying the starter was bad or something so I already expected to wear my leg out testing things.

Admittedly I don’t really have any plans to get licensed to ride it, just tinker with it when I have time, I mainly just want to see if it will run, it needs a lot of work before it could be road worthy. So far not certain what issue he was having with it yet, suppose I may find that out after a proper compression test.

Anyway, just wanted to sign up in case I have a question or two, I am not an expert.

KZNinja wrote: Oil is 30+ years old, but at the correct level, I probably won’t change it until I at least see it running briefly.

I would change the oil and filter before you run it. Even if you just use the cheapest car oil you can find and then drain it after you get it running, it's going to be a lot better for the engine than what is in there. Condensation collects water in the oil, especially after sitting outside. And who knows what else found a way in.

KZNinja wrote: The electric start doesn’t do anything, but I recall my dad saying the starter was bad or something so I already expected to wear my leg out testing things.

Does the electric starter motor not turn on, or does the electric starter motor turn on but the engine does not turn? The starter clutch on my kz650 went bad and the starter motor would spin, but it didn't turn the crankshaft. You have to pull engine covers off to fix that.

But if in your case the electric motor does not turn on, that's probably just a bad connection somewhere and is likely pretty straightforward to fix. But the kick works fine. I never fixed the starter on my bike and just used the kick.

Good luck. The KZ650 is a great bike. Post some pictures.

Absolutely change the oil. Rotella is cheap...

Okay guys I’ll swap the oil before starting, though was only going to run it maybe 10 seconds and then proceed with that (if I can even get it to run), how I do lawn mowers and other small engines, perhaps I have developed bad habits. Of course I always check the oil level and see what it looks like first.

The electric starter motor does nothing when I hit the button. Not sure if the brakes need depressed or not, I believe I tried holding the clutch down as well. The front brake master cylinder is seized, so can’t squeeze that one at the moment. Not sure if my dad ever told me what the issue was with the electric start, but I do recall him saying something about it. I have not even looked at that yet since it has the kick starter, looked like a pain to get to the starter motor, but suppose I could check some voltages / the switch.

I thought about posting photos, but then I also thought maybe it was a bad idea being the poor condition it is in from neglect. The seat is trashed, the seat pan is pretty rotted, but I “may” be able to weld in some patches if it isn't too bad, but my main goal is to see it running, like I said the front brake master cylinder is locked up, tires do not hold air, the rear tube valve stem is gone as well, so little stuff like that I can work on after it is running. It will most definitely take quite a bit of work to get it on the road, if I do manage to get the engine to fire up.

Suppose I'll post some, even thought about doing some videos of the project. Here is a recent one I took the other day and some misc others. My dad did paint this in the early 90’s, but I think he used whatever paint he had on hand at the time which was a lacquer I believe (he painted cars so had a ton of old left over paint from years prior), but it was very similar to the red that was OEM on these

Oh and the date on the head tube sticker shows 9/78, don't think I mentioned that in original post.












Was surprised 3 of the lights worked, 4 actually, but one signal is missing the reflector that allows it to ground the bulb.



Points were somewhat dirty, but they seem to be working at the moment after a quick cleanup. I do see spark at all four plugs now, at least for the moment.

Hmm, the photos say "You do not have permissions to access this page.". I tried doing it via the forum.

Perhaps I should use Postimage or Flickr to do photos.

Edit, trying Flickr now, but said I have too many links, lol. Okay I'll try four this time in one post.

Points were a little crusty, but cleaned up okay and seem to have spark at all four plugs afterwards. Could likely use a bit better cleaning, but haven't had a lot of time to fool around with this yet.

Those points look rough, and you can see that somebody has been in there with a Phillips screwdriver and buggered all the screw heads up. I would soak them for a few days in a good penetrant (NOT WD40). Then I would try them with a proper JIS screwdriver or a suitably modified Phillips. If they are really stuck, a small impact driver may be needed.
Are you sure that kick start lever works? It should spring back to vertical of its own accord. Also, it looks like it will hit the brake lever, but that may just be the angle of the picture.

TexasKZ wrote: Those points look rough, and you can see that somebody has been in there with a Phillips screwdriver and buggered all the screw heads up. I would soak them for a few days in a good penetrant (NOT WD40). Then I would try them with a proper JIS screwdriver or a suitably modified Phillips. If they are really stuck, a small impact driver may be needed.
Are you sure that kick start lever works? It should spring back to vertical of its own accord. Also, it looks like it will hit the brake lever, but that may just be the angle of the picture.

The kick start lever will spring back up if I kick it and let go, like everything else, it probably needs attention too, but enough to crank the engine. It does not hit the brake lever, it goes all the way down vertical to the foot peg bracket, if it rubs it would be at the foot peg (I just went out and double checked to make sure). Seems to crank well enough to be able to start the engine.

Yeah I Seen the point’s screws all chewed up so knew it has been fiddled with. I've been hesitant to take them out yet . I mean they move now and makes spark after the quick cleaning, perhaps soaking it would be better. I'll see about making a Philips fit them when I get a chance. I’ve got a ton of random Philips screwdrivers / bits, so should have something to shape to fit good. I do have an impact driver as well (the hand style you hit with a hammer).

I’m working on slowly cleaning the carbs now, one at a time.

KZNinja wrote: ................ I’ve got a ton of random Philips screwdrivers / bits, so should have something to shape to fit good. ................

As TexasKZ mentioned there are NO Philips screws on the Kawasaki, so using a Phillips screwdriver on them may (or may not) allow you to turn the screw but it also will damage the screw. Those screws that look like Phillips are JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard). Notice that the screws on the points plate are damaged. That's because a Phillips screwdriver was used. It will not properly fit the JIS screws and damage will be the result. The good news is that you can easily make JIS screwdriver bits from Phillips screwdrivers. Ed

650ed wrote:

KZNinja wrote: ................ I’ve got a ton of random Philips screwdrivers / bits, so should have something to shape to fit good. ................

As TexasKZ mentioned there are NO Philips screws on the Kawasaki, so using a Phillips screwdriver on them may (or may not) allow you to turn the screw but it also will damage the screw. Those screws that look like Phillips are JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard). Notice that the screws on the points plate are damaged. That's because a Phillips screwdriver was used. It will not properly fit the JIS screws and damage will be the result. The good news is that you can easily make JIS screwdriver bits from Phillips screwdrivers. Ed

Yeah I didn’t word that correctly, I meant that if I don't have JIS I have plenty of spare Philips to file / grind one to shape when I said “shape to fit good”. I may even have JIS type if I sift through some stuff.

I removed your external links and loaded up your pics to this site. The problem you encountered with the permission stuff is caused by hitting the back button while searching for a pic to upload, or so I'm told.
Welcome to KZRider.

Thank you!

I prefer the photos directly on the site / forums in case the external hosts go down, or do what Photobucket did. It looked like it was uploading here fine until I submitted the post. I wasn’t sure if being a noob here didn’t grant me permission to upload photos or not, I knew the Flickr links would work fine as I use them on other forums no problem.

Thank you again, I appreciate it. Thanks to everyone for the info / thoughts on the project.