TOPIC:

Hey there! This is my first post as I just recently became a Kawasaki owner. I have a 1980 z1 classic in amazing condition that picked up for a really good price. Just needed some electrical things done to it. I’ve got experience with old Japanese bikes as I own a lot of old Honda’s and work on them. I just have a few questions about the z1 classic that I bought. It was converted to carburetors by the previous owner that he said he got off a kz1000 so I believe they’re mikuni vm26ss carbs. There’s a wire coming out of the back of the engine head that I’m not sure what it is or where it goes. I tried to download the wiring diagram for the European model on the file base to see what it was for but it said I didn’t have permission. My guess is that it’s for an oil pressure switch or something but I’m not sure if it’s specific for the fuel injected engine. I’ll attach pictures and if anyone could tell me what it is that would be awesome. If you guys have any suggestions for jet sizes and different settings for the carbs also I’m happy to hear them just in case I have to tear them apart! Happy to be here and hear any advice you guys have!

A picture would help..

I posted it with pictures attached but for some reason they disappeared... weird.

I don't know if you are aware of it, but Kawasaki screws are not Phillips, they are Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS). Using Phillips screwdrivers on the will deform the screwheads and make life miserable.

See www.kzrider.com/forum/10-new-members/609...uy-signing-in#791293

Ed

I learned the hard way about the JIS screws with my old Honda’s haha thanks for the heads up though! I appreciate that. I’ve tried twice now to upload the pictures but for some reason they won’t upload. I got the bike running after changing out the stock coils and getting the wiring right, even without the wire plugged in that comes out of the back of the engine head. I currently have the mixture screws turned about 4 turns out and the bike is still running pretty hot and lean so I think I might have to go up in jets. No idea what’s in the carbs now since I haven’t taken them apart but the bike runs pretty good so it can’t be too far off from the settings I need. The carbs are still burping out from the intake pods. Currently has pod filters and a 4 into 1 exhaust that supposedly came custom made from Japan.

My guess on your wire coming off the head is a prehistoric heat sensor for the ancient fuel injection system.

Mike

Prehistoric and Ancient. Wow! Almost as bad as Back in the day.

Those 1000 classics were some "mad science" as far as I was concerned "back in the day". Even then they had a self diagnostic feature where they would flash a code. I just found a slip of paper going through some old crap that is the error codes in Japanese that someone had translated for me.

Mike

The KZ1000 Classic and the European Z1000-H Fuel Injection bikes didn´t had any self diagnostic feature in the ECU.






The next gen DFI models like GPZ750 Turbo or GPZ1100 UT (ZX1100A) had a self diagnostic feature in the ECU.

The picture of "the trouble code inspection hole"(funny name), looks very familiar. My memory must of been of the 750 Turbo, THOSE were cool bikes! Your knowledge is impressive!(apparently more so than my memory!)

Mike

Thank you all so much for the replies! Those pictures of the way the fuel delivery works are super cool. I’ve been running the bike with no problems so far with the wire just hanging there so I’m not losing too much sleep over whatever it is. I’m definitely glad the PO swapped to the VM26 carbs as they’re much easier to work with lol. I’ve slowly but surely been able to tackle everything this bike needed and now it’s just a matter of jetting the carbs (which I was able to figure out after some research). All that’s left is swapping all the blown speedometer and tachometer bulbs, throwing some stainless steel front brake lines on, and changing the oil and it’s ready to ride after that! I’ll get some pictures posted up here soon. Maybe I’ll have to send them to my computer first