TOPIC:

So, ordered a new OEM base gasket and picked up a stud from the 750 engine at school (will donate the one long stud to the school motor - that just has to run once a year after the kids rebuild it and it's never under load).
Will get a new OEM head gasket and a set of Vesrah gaskets for the rest as soon as I've sold some more parts
Then I'll pull off the head and the block and go through everything again. By that time, everything else might be done...

I seriously doubt that the engine mounting studs/bolts are anywhere near that hard. They are not under a stretch load, but more of a sheer and vibration load. A different direction of loading.

Sweet, thanks. So I guess we'll just wait and see if the head blows off mine or Ed's bike after a while - I'm pretty sure I saw some freshly plated studs on Ed's thread as well.
Just out of interest, could you please post the lengths of the stock studs from your bike? I couldn't find it anywhere in your thread.

You couldn't find it on my thread because I never posted it! I will go out to the shop tomorrow and post the lengths. I did notice that the thread length on the APE studs are longer than stock, but I think the length is the same.

Did a bit more painting today. Got the speedo/tacho housings done and the clear coat on the control housings. Tried to do the side covers but am having real problems with contamination on one of them. It seems no matter how much I sand and clean I still get bubbles in the paint. Did another lot of sanding tonight and covered it in rattle can filler. Will sand it back and keep coating it until it's covered in the filler, then I'll have another go with the 2k base coat.

Got the grab rail, chain guard and pillion seat on as well. Rear mudguard and tool box have had a coat of paint recently too (cause that's what everybody looks at ). The front seat is just sitting on the frame in the picture - I still need to mount it properly.

Looking good.

Thanks!
Put the tacho back together today to see how it looks. Still need to crimp the ring (have a board with a 105 mm hole and a large hose clamp - we'll see how that goes tomorrow). Speedo still needs a bit of cleaning (100 m rings are pretty yellow).
Realised last night that I completely forgot the actual switches when I clear coated the switch blocks, another job for tomorrow.

Decided to get the tacho finished. Used pliers with tape on the ends to start the crimp (the entire housing was also masked up). Then stuck the whole thing in a 105mm hole in a board I had lying around. Hose clamp around the crimp ring and finished it off with a small drift.







I wonder how long the speck of dust at 2700rpm is going to annoy me I cleaned the glass and the face so I assume that got dislodged when using the drift on the crimp ring. Hopefully it'll fall off over summer



The rev count will be slightly off, too. I thought I put the needle back to the exact same position as before but looking at this picture I guess I messed it up. Only about 100-150rpm and I'm not even sure it was properly calibrated, so no biggie - except when they do the noise test for the exhaust at 5000rpm .

The stud lengths on my '81 KZ750E1 are:
176.4
156.3
139.3

I would have expected them to be whole numbers, but that is the total outside length. Sorry it took me longer than I said to get this to you.

Thanks. No worries about the delay, still not got around to replacing the one long stud. I imagine they were originally 176, 156 and 139. The parts list on Kawasaki.com lists them as 153, 133 and 116 so that's no help.

It's hard to believe they stretched that much, but the numbers you posted are listed as the same on Partzilla for an '81 KZ750e. The APE studs I got from Z1 Enterprises for this motor are:
176.6
158.8
139.5

Cockpit done