Step One - Inventory

First an amusing anecdote - my first day owning the bike, we have an Easter egg hunt for my son, and in return he wants to hide some mini chocolate candy bars for us. Well, we only find 9 of the 10 we gave him to hide. Where was the 10th? He put it in the gas tank.

We got it out, but it involved trying quite a few different techniques before I stabbed it with a sharpened piece of metal and fished it out.

Back to the bike, I'm now going through the process of identifying all the pieces, determining what's missing, and trying to figure out an order of operations to start the build. I'm happy to report that there's enough cross over between old cars and motorcycles that I recognize about half the parts, and can figure out another quarter with a little thinking.

Back to inventory. I spent the last couple nights going through all the buckets and pieces and parts. Here it all is laid out.

Frame


Engine Block & Transmission


Tank, seat, exhaust, wheels, fender, and swing arm. No unknown parts here.


Starting in lower right, going counterclockwise: valve cover and head, cylinder block, carburetors, battery tray, headlight brackets, headlight, throttle cables, chain cover, and triple clamps. Took some research to figure all those out.


Ok, it's getting harder now. Some sort of other cable in with the throttle cables, Brake lever, master cylinder, and caliper, clutch lever, lights, coils, uh... a bunch of tiny pieces, some brackets and hoses?


A little easier on this portion. Chain, more tiny pieces, points cover, gauge cluster, rear shocks, rear wheel assembly (took some squinting at a few diagrams online to figure all that out). There's a mystery item to the left of all the tiny pieces, and below it is the brake lever. There's also a hard line to the left side that's a mystery.


And to round things up, we have the speedometer gear and cable, tach cable, rear drum brake, shiny cover thing, front forks (last on the road 15 years ago), main and secondary foot pegs, throttle handlebar, and a huge mess of a wiring harness that makes my heart clench up just looking at it. I'm probably just going to start over with a simplified harness design.


And here's all the small parts laid out.



So far I know the following are missing: gear shift lever, handlebars (I'll be installing a set of clip-ons, so no big loss), all the nuts to hold together the engine block, and the valve cover bolts. The mechanic says he thought he put all those in a bag, and he's going to look around the shop this weekend, so hopefully I won't have to hunt them all down.

So, I guess my big question to you guys is, what else do you guys see that's missing, and what are the parts I can't identify? I left out photos of all the plastic trim and faring pieces that won't be re-installed anyway.

baldy110 wrote: Yes, they a LOT stiffer than the stock round tubed KZ swingarms. I swapped one into my 650 about 20 years ago there is no flexing at all when I am running it hard in corners. The GS SA is boxed aluminum while the KZ is round tubing. The KZ one tends to flex when pushed hard, that is why you see them all braced up or simply swapped out on the early superbikes, My bike handles much better, I am sure the upgraded shocks I put on helps also but I am pleased with the end results and wished I had done this swap earlier.
The shock attachment points on the GS SA are about 2" farther back than the KZ ones so depending on the length of the shocks you choose, the bike can sit a little lower. I opted to have shocks made by YSS and got them 13" from eye to eye, this sits my bike just a little lower than stock.

Normally not too into red bikes, but really like what you've done!!! The black on the swing and pipe almost seem to make them dissapear into the bike!

Yes, they a LOT stiffer than the stock round tubed KZ swingarms. I swapped one into my 650 about 20 years ago there is no flexing at all when I am running it hard in corners. The GS SA is boxed aluminum while the KZ is round tubing. The KZ one tends to flex when pushed hard, that is why you see them all braced up or simply swapped out on the early superbikes, My bike handles much better, I am sure the upgraded shocks I put on helps also but I am pleased with the end results and wished I had done this swap earlier.
The shock attachment points on the GS SA are about 2" farther back than the KZ ones so depending on the length of the shocks you choose, the bike can sit a little lower. I opted to have shocks made by YSS and got them 13" from eye to eye, this sits my bike just a little lower than stock.

(Clevis-Thats the word I was looking for.)
My mistake about the length.They may be a couple of inches longer but what I meant to say was they are the same length from pivot point to shock bottom.
Also be aware that there is a GS1100 shaftdrive.You wont be wanting that arm.

78kzturbo,did you really squeeze a 180 tyre into the GS swingarm? I tried it but couldnt manage.I went for a GSXR600
arm in the end.

the gs1100e aluminum swingarm 80-83 is almost two inches longer also a little wider. however kz shocks are eye to eye shocks gs shocks are eye to clevis mount. it is no big deal just get you a set of gs shocks with you swingarm. i've done that swap many times in the past. mainly because i could polish the gs arm and also run a wider tire. ive actually ran 180 series tires with them arms plus there lighter. good luck to you.

(Yes,Its the GS1100 not the GS1000) .The standard Z shock has an eye on the bottom of it which fits into a fork on the swingarm but the GS has a fork on the bottom of the shock which fits onto an eye on the swingarm.
When I compared the GS swingarm to my CSR swingarm,there was virtually no difference in length.
Good luck

Click on the Phoenix Fighter link in my signature, I used a GS1100e SA on my KZ1000. I have links to products I have used. Feel free to ask me questions or for measurments. What ever you need to help out. Good luck with your build.

hello people; I'm new. In the past a SA upgrade was to go with a Suzuki GS 1000 alum. SA. I believe that was the model and I believe it was longer but did it change the shock location?
IBBY

OK, more progress. Picked up the powdercoat but they had unfortunately filled the VIN stamp, and I can't take the chance that will cause a problem going into Switzerland, so they are trying to remediate that. We went with 80% glos and it looks fantastic. They are very skilled, I'm sure they'll make it right.

Bundled up a little chrome order, dropped that off, and ordered RaceTech cartiridge emulators and springs for the fork. Also needed swingarm bushings and collars and I'm going to tap that swingarm for a larger zerk while it's apart.

Just for fun in the middle of the project we are doubling the size of the shop and I get to move into the new, but not before I do some work to it. Juggling the two is a fun challenge . More later...

I am thinking a set of Hagon shocks would work well. Any advice along those lines?

www.davequinnmotorcycles.com/cgi-bin/web...GON_TWIN_SHOCKS.html

OK, time for a quick update, fits and starts as usual as I wait for suppliers and parts.

All the zinc stuff is back from plating, looks A-. I could have prepared it a little better, pre-polishing or tumbling a few items that had galling on the surface, but it's relatively few items, the rest look awesome and frankly so do they. Don't seem to have a pic but I'll take one, Reconditioned parts look so blingy .

All the powdercoat is done, and I will pick it up tomorrow. Unfortunately I neglected to order swingarm bushings, so that's a hold-up to getting that back together, but I did get started on the wheels. There is tool damage on the rims, and I debated repairing it and rechroming, but there are going to be so many repro parts on this bike I decided it was not worth it, so a new set of DID are inbound and so as soon as those arrive I will relace the wheels and install new bearings. So the hubs got cleaned up and the bearings extracted, and that's on tap for this week.

Need one more push early this week, to order a few key parts like those bushings and get a small batch of chrome replated, and then reassembly of the chassis will begin in earnest.