Hi all, I was recently given a KZ1100 LTD that sat outside for somewhere between 12-15 years, and hadn't run in that long either. The owner heard I had been working on a 72 Honda CL350 and said I could have it if I came and got it. Even got a clean title with it .

Here's where it sat for all that time.


The carbs were completely seized, both the slides and the throttle plates and springs were stuck tight. I read to boil them in water to free the slides, which worked, and to boil them in lemon juice to clean everything else up. After about a week of working on them, they were all free, clean, and rebuilt. I Installed them on the bike, along with a temporary fuel tank and jumper cables to my car battery, and hit the starter.

It started up first try:
.

After letting it warm up and almost catching a rats nest on fire that was tucked up above the exhaust, I hooked up a compression tester. It read between 120 and 130 on all cylinders, pretty low.

At this point I left it there to ponder what to do with it, and to finish up the Honda.


Now that the Honda is done, I've decided to do a pretty intensive overhaul on the Kawasaki. I'm sure I will need some advice along the way, so I figured a proper build thread would be good way to get said advice.
It was originally a shaft drive bike, but I'm converting it to chain drive. I've also got 05-06 ZX6R Forks, Triple Clamps, and Wheels, and an 03-04 ZX6R swingarm. I've been working with Leon on getting a pivot shaft and bushings/spacers made, as well as getting the steering stem swapped out for the new triple and forks.

As I type this, the engine is completely torn down and a few parts have been soda blasted. Once the rest of the parts are clean the whole thing is getting painted satin black except the side covers. The frame has been de-tabbed, stripped, and painted satin black. You can see how much wider the shaft frame is on the drive side in this picture.



I think that's it for now!

650ed wrote: Looking at the parts you show I suspect the purpose those rings welded onto the tube is just to keep it somewhat centered in the swingarm so the swingarm bolt can find its way though it rather than hitting the edge of the tube. If those rings weren't there I think the tube would drop inside the swingarm when the bolt was removed. You did a nice job fixing it! Ed

Yes great job... and I also equally think it is for centering the swing arm shaft bolt during installation....

Finding direct bolt on wheels from another model is virtually impossible. There are a lot of variables - axle diameter, spacing between th forks, spacing between the swingarm legs, drum verses disc brakes, number of front brakes, diameter of rotors, spacing of rotors from the centerline, speedometer drives, sprocket alignment and so on. Some are easier than others. First, decide what your goals are - modern tires, wide tires, spokes instead of mags, or mags instead of spokes,, upgraded brakes and so on. Do you plan to use the stock front and rear suspension, or will you modernize there? Figure out what the end result will be, and see if you can find a similar build and do what that builder did.
Doing something that nobody else has can be very rewarding, but it can also entail a great deal of work, frustration and expense.

Yep, reinstall in the same order they came out, that would definitely be disappointed to screw up. And my original assumption as to the purpose of the rings was correct -- yay!

I thought I was doing good because the washers I used fit easily into the swingarm, so I cut out the centers to fit over the piece of pipe and tacked them in place. That's when I discovered there's a lip inside the swingarm, past the bearing location, and the washers wouldn't fit past that point. Ah well, back on the lathe, and a quick pass with a file to take down the outer diameter and all is good now.

And apparently I should have turned down the juice on the mig by a notch. Made a bit of a hole in the outside of the washers when I tacked them. But again, oh well, it won't hurt anything. And once the bearings are in place nobody will see it again.

Looking at the parts you show I suspect the purpose those rings welded onto the tube is just to keep it somewhat centered in the swingarm so the swingarm bolt can find its way though it rather than hitting the edge of the tube. If those rings weren't there I think the tube would drop inside the swingarm when the bolt was removed. You did a nice job fixing it! Ed

After I finished the repair, I grabbed one of the old bearings to see exactly how the tube sits up against it... It doesn't. The tube is smaller and actually goes inside the bearing. For a moment my heart was pounding as I considered that perhaps the bearings actually sat against the outer rings, in which case the squareness and position of those rings would be absolutely critical! Ack!

Fortunately I realized the width of the pieces was all wrong, and after grabbing the sleeves and sliding everything together on the bolt, I could see what actually happens... The pipe sets the spacing of the sleeves, which then become the contact point on the inside of the frame. The combination of sleeves and this pipe create a slight gap inside the frame for the swingarm to pivot without binding on the frame. So I double-checked that no burrs had been created on the ends of the pipe during disassembly, but it all looks clean.



The new bearings are scheduled for delivery tomorrow. I'll get the tossed in the freezer overnight, and this weekend I can bake the swingarm in the oven for a bit to help set the new paint and have it nice and toasty for dropping in the bearings. Supposedly with the temperature difference they should only need a light tap to fall in place, and I believe the bearings just go flush with the outer edge of the swingarm. Hooray! The first pieces to be reassembled!

Harley-Davidson Sportster shocks are about the same length as the 750E's.
HD oem should be ~!3.5" or so, but there are also lowering & hugger shocks which range from 10-12" in length.
You'll have to swap bushings & the bottom eye is a tad too wide for the swing arm mount, so you'll either have to spread open the mount or grind down the eye 2-4mm.

I have a 1981 KZ1000J, and while trying to knock the bearings out of the swing-arm I seem to have mangled this center spacer (or maybe it was already like that, I never did find all the pieces)... Anyway it originally had a flat ring around each end which were destroyed. From what I can see, the only critical measurement appears to be the length of the tube, to prevent the bearings from working in towards the center. And I believe the flat rings were to keep the tube loosely centered when you slide the bolt through the swingarm?

So, is there anything critical about the size of those flat rings? I was thinking I could hit the hardware store for some washers of about the right size, and cut out the centers on the lathe so they would fit over the tube. A quick tack with the welder, and this pipe should be good as new? Or am I getting too hopeful here?

The paint is done on the swingarm and the new bearings shipped out today, so I just need to get this piece fixed up and I should be ready to put it back together again.

so sorry to hear of your wifes diagnosis copbike1000.

fwiw,
i run the 6 inch wide 190mm rear tire on my 1980 z1r 3/8's of an inch off center with absolutely no ill effects.
this allowed me to run a 3/8's offset countershaft sprocket and "not" modify my frame at all.

someone asked about if top level racers can tell the offset?

let me relate this story to you of a guy that was a mechanic for a superbike team.
he said that when his rider came in he glanced at the chain to make sure it was looking okay.and noticed that there was aluminum shavings piled on top of the swingarm slightly in front of the rear sprocket area.
upon closer inspection he noticed the rear wheel had become "cocked" over to the side enough that the sprocket was cutting into the swingarm.
he asked the rider how the bike was handling and the rider said "fine it seems like it is cutting out a little in the upper rpm range,
but beside for that it was fine" lol.

that's my .02 fwiw,

leon

Update!

New images
imgur.com/a/ov3PO

Modified ZX11 rim in unmodified ZN1300 swing arm. Stock ZN1300 axle used, zx11 rim uses same bearings. Rim is only offset from center by 4mm.

Need to cut into drive shaft housing a little for the rim, and possibly a little on the other side for tire clearance. Then add on some reinforcements to the swing arm.