Here are some tips that you may find helpful:

Many newbies and not so newbies run into or issues with their bikes which could be easily avoided with a little preparation or information. Here are a couple recommendations that I hope you will find useful.

Before riding your KZ you should take a little time to become familiar with it. Simple things like checking the oil, tire pressures, etc. are explained in the Kawasaki Owner's Manual. If you bike didn't come with one (they normally are in a little holder on the bottom of the seat) you can usually find one on eBay - be sure to get one for your exact year/model.


MANUAL

You really should consider buying the Kawasaki Factory Service Manual for your bike. The factory service manual provides instructions on the various maintenance procedures and schedules for your bike, procedures for diagnosing problems, proper torque values for the various fasteners (VERY IMPORTANT), and insight into how each system on your bike works even if you are not repairing that system. Studying the manual before you attempt performing service on your bike will impart an understanding of the system you are working on which will increase the odds of success.

The manuals usually are readily available for most models on eBay and other sources; but be sure to get one that has your specific year and model in it as there are differences between the various KZ650 models. I do not recommend Clymers, Haynes, or other aftermarket manuals as I have seen instances where they provide inaccurate advice. You may decide to use those to supplement the factory manual, but in my opinion they are not a suitable substitute. If you have trouble finding one for your model ask us to help.


TOOLS

WARNING! Do not even try to use Phillips screwdrivers on the Kawasaki cross head screws. Despite their appearance they are not Phillips screws. They are Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) screws. The tips of Phillips screwdrivers are too long & pointed to allow the 4 blades of the screwdriver to properly engage the screws, so when you apply force the screw head slots will deform and look like crap. The fact is that Phillips screws were deliberately designed to have the screwdriver bit "cam out." This was done to prevent production line assembly from over-tightening, stripping, or breaking the screws. JIS screws do not have this problem. A proper fitting JIS bit can tighten a JIS screw to and beyond the torque spec without camming out. Here's the good news - you can easily modify standard Phillips screwdriver tips to fit the JIS screws.

I have ground down the tips of DeWalt #2 and DeWalt #3 Phillips to make them fit JIS screws. The large crosshead screws on the cases take modified #3 bits (or genuine #3 JIS bits). To modify the DeWalt bits you need to grind the very tip a little, then test fit, then grind a little more and test fit, etc. until the bit no longer "rocks" back and forth in the screwhead. Picture 1 below shows how a DeWalt #3 bit fits the case screws of my KZ650 after being ground properly. The #2 DeWalt bits can be modified the same way to fit smaller JIS screws. Pictures 2 and 3 below shows DeWalt #2 and #3 modified bits.

I did find a place that sells authentic JIS bits. They don't list the #3 bit, but if you contact them they can provide the #3 JIS bits even though they are not listed on the website. These folks were very easy to work with, and the authentic bits do work great. Here's their site:

www.rjrcooltools.com/shop_item_detail.cfm?subcat_ID=89

Pictures 4 & 5 below show a comparison between my home made modified bits with the authentic JIS bits.

PICTURE 1

PICTURE 2

PICTURE 3

PICTURE 4

PICTURE 5

Before reaching for that wrench or ratchet consider the following. The bolts are steel, but your engine and front forks are aluminum. The bolts are much tougher than the aluminum and if over tightened will strip the aluminum threads. Although these can be repaired, preventing damage by applying proper torque will save you grief, time, and money. Tightening fasteners properly requires torque wrenches. Various vendors, including Snap-on, CDI, Sears, etc., market torque wrenches. The two most popular types are the bar type and micrometer type. Either will work, but the micrometer type is a bit easier to use, especially if you are tightening several fasteners with the same torque - such as cylinder head covers. You will need a torque wrench calibrated in INCH POUNDS for many of the bolts. You will also need a torque wrench calibrated in FOOT POUNDS for the larger bolts. Don't try to use the foot pounds wrench on the smaller bolts as it will not be sensitive enough at low torque settings to provide accurate torque. There are many fasteners that require low torque. These include such things as 6mm oil pan bolts, cylinder head cover bolts, etc. for which the torque in 61-78 inch pounds. These low torque bolts require a wrench that is accurate at low settings and this wrench should be graduated in inch pounds. In addition, there are numerous high torque fasteners such as the front axle nuts (51 - 65 foot pounds) or swing arm pivot shaft nuts (58 - 87 foot pounds). These require a wrench that is accurate at higher settings; this wrench should be graduated in foot pounds. Using the proper torque wrenches to correctly tighten fasteners will help prevent damage and contribute to a safe bike. The Kawasaki Service Manual will list the various torque specs for the bolts. I suggest you get the manual before buying the torque wrenches so you can decide which wrenches best meet the torque specs.

Consider buying a can of Kroil penetrating oil and use it to soak stubborn fasteners for a couple days before trying to loosen them. Remember, the original screws and bolts were installed on your bike when Jimmy Carter was President, so many of them may be hard to remove. Kroil can be bought online, at guns shows, and at some other venues.


MOTOR OIL
The ingredients in oils have changed over the years. For example, today's Castrol GTX oil (and pretty much all other AUTOMOBILE oil) is not the same as it was in the 1980's. Back then it worked great in KZ bikes. But, things have changed. Early AUTOMOBILE oils contained zinc phosphorus compounds (ZDDP) to protect engine components from metal to metal contact. This was good for engines, but it was found to be destructive to catalytic converters. Consequently, in AUTOMOBILE oils ZDDP was virtually eliminated and replaced with different chemistry generically referred to as "Friction Modifiers." These work fine and offer good protection for normal AUTOMOBILE engines. However, today's AUTOMOBILE oil "Friction Modifiers" are destructive to wet clutches. KZ bikes (and many other brands) have wet clutches. As a result of these oil chemistry changes a distinction needed to be made between those oils which are suitable for wet clutches and those which are not. That distinction was documented by the Japanese Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel (JASO). JASO developed a number of different oil specifications for different applications. The specifications that apply to 4 stroke motorcycles fall under the "4T Specifications." Within the 4T specifications the JASO MA class oils are specifically formulated for 4 stroke motorcycles with wet clutches.

There are synthetic, semi-synthetic, and non-synthetic oils that meet the JASO-MA standard and any of them will work ok. However, using oils that are not designated as meeting the JASO-MA standard is destructive to KZ clutches.

Good luck with your bike. Ed

The Z1-900 was purchased with out a frame needs to be rebuilt so far I purchased and installed a set of all balls racing Bearing conversion set only problem I had was length ongoing the stem by 1/2 inch this was done my cutting it in half slugging it and rewelding it together had a custom spacer made and counter bored the head nut to fit inside hole in bottom of top triple and dropped the fork cylinders 1/4 inch as for frame Horizontal brace was replaced (the one center stand is attached to after rear of frame was stretched to 9 1/16 wide to accept the gsxr rear swing arm and a 1x1.5 thick walled rectangle tube replaced it and a second one above it both will serve dual purpose as rear engine mounts and mounts for mono shock mounts had six bushings turned drilled and Welded and custom brackets made for mounting motor front of frame stretched 2 inches to fit motor inside of frame and extra support just below exhaust outlets in head and the only mod done to the rear ended was a 9/ 1/16 long bushing with od of swing arm bushing and Id to match original swing arm bolt and will run an off set sprocket to line chain up so motor can be centered

I chopped everything off the frame today.



Taped off everything that was being removed.






It came out very clean, I was able to grind off every bit of the tabs and floor boards, it's like they were never there. It took me about 3 hours using the angle grinder and a dremel.





I also cleaned up some tabs that I cut off previously.



Here under the seat I'm going to make an aluminum tray that will hold the electronics. The tabs are in the perfect spot for this.



I chopped the tabs off the swingarm however I don't have access to clean them up. I'm going to be pulling the swingarm and put in new bearings, I will clean it up then.



I cleaned up the kickstand as well.




I ran out of abrasive discs for my angle grinder so I'll come back and finish this up once I get more. After that I'll sand everything and make it all nice.



Here is everything I removed.



The frame is looking so nice that I think I want to powder coat it. A custom bike shop down the street showed me this metallic blue that I really liked, I'm thinking it would look sweet with the stock white tank and I could always repaint it later on. The bike is practically 100% disassembled anyway so I might as well make it into something awesome and unique.

Show us a picture of the "Z1-900" we would like to see if it really is a Z1 since that would be a valuable machine but if the engine is ripped out and put in a KZ650 frame the value of the Z1 would be greatly diminished and have you considered the modifications necessary to the KZ650 frame since a large displacement engine can be installed but it will require changes that should not be attempted without the person doing the mods having a solid understanding of the engineering of motorcycle frame dynamics and I don't say this to be negative simply because I like KZ650 bike since I have owned one since 1977 as I have seen at least one big engined KZ650 that looks like it was done very professionally and with good results but also keep in mind that the gsxr front forks and rear swingarm will no doubt change the bike's geometry which will affect the bike's handling to some degree so have you considered mapping the geometry of the modified bike to that of the original to determine what the overall affect on handling will be or maybe it doesn't matter if you are more interested in simply fiddling with and displaying the finished product rather than riding it and it seems odd to call the project "the ton" since the stock KZ650 will very easily exceed the ton that is 100 mph without any mods at all so maybe a better title for the project would be Frankensaki

531blackbanshee wrote:

tk11b40 wrote:

jaw dropper

leon

Thank you!

I saw a post about gathering a KZ Rider rally.

Is this an annual event?

So here's a better overview of the bike and the project.

It's a 75, was lightly molested by some or other of the previous owners. It's missing the stock turnsignals and mirrors, rear chrome fender. Has a Dyna ignition and coils, badly installed, coils are shorting madly when the bike is running due to some really poor wire construction. Has a period Kerker 4>1 that was repainted at some point, it's solid and looks good, but I can't get it into Switzerland with that on it, so there's a Doremi repro exhaust in the attic that will go on when we're done. Wiring seems "ok", there's some weird vampire tap under the tank doing nothing that I can see, and the starter cranks slowly even with a full battery, so that may need rebuild in addition to cleaning and renewing all those connections.

Has pod filters, will be returning to factory airbox and filter. Have not determined what jets are in it, carbs are on the bench though getting a mini-cleaning while I assess the condition of the bike. Fuel lines were cracked and leaking, carbs leaking and plugged, petcock leaking, tank mildly rusty. Missing the centerstand spring. Seat recovered. Single disk front, will be converting to a double.

Plan of attack is to quickly get it running as well as I can without spending a ton of time on it to assess the health and condition of the engine and transmission, see if it needs to come apart. I did a cold compression test yesterday, found the following values:

1 - 125 PSI
2 - 140 PSI
3 - 125 PSI
4 - 125 PSI

Cleaned and replaced the plugs and was able to get the bike running on three cylinders for a few minutes, discovered the bad coil wire, and repeated the compression test - everything but #1 went up about 10 PSI. I removed the carbs and float bowls last night, blasted the jets clear and gave the float needles a quick wipe. cleaned the nasty pod filters and left them to dry overnight. Will set the float heights and reinstall today.





As above, today I am going to recrimp the sparkplug wires and see if I can run it a bit longer, repeat the compression test and see if it's smoking to any great degree, see how noisy the cam chain and head is, how it shifts, etc. Then I'll make the call about going into the engine. It is showing only 6700 miles on it, so unless that's BS, it may not need anything other than a good servicing.

The chassis will get the full teardown for sure:

Rebuild all brake calipers, new pads and parts, brake lines. Converting to dual front disks. Rotors will be sent to my pal Tom at TrueDisk for resurfacing.

Fork will get teardown, replace the seals and wear parts, new springs and some flavor of cartridge emulators, either Racetech or Ricor.

Steering head bearings will be replaced.

Swingarm bushings/bearings will be replaced and I'll put a modern zerk fitting on it while its apart.

Planning a set of Hagons for the rear, sprung to match the front.

Wheel bearings will be replaced.

Wheels will be re-laced, probably with new rims.

Frame and swingarm will be refinished, still mulling paint or powdercoating for that.

Anything steel will get replated, most anything alloy will get vapor blasted, and anything chrome will get replated or replaced.

Seat will be recovered or replaced.

Gauges will be replaced with repros, in KPH.

The bodywork is all going to be replaced with the reproduction stuff that Z1parts.net and other vendors sell. We're returning the bike to a correct factory color scheme for a 75 - blue.

So that's the overview. More later after I see what I learn today.

Just sent a long e-mail to Cycle World to see if they are interested in photographing it.

I feel like I am auditioning for a movie part here... a little out of my league, BUT..if you never ask, you'll never find out.

Ok.

Now it's done.
If I wanted to go to a show with it who knows of some good stops on the west coast?

Does KZRider ever get together in the western U.S.?

Freakin' Awesome!! :woohoo:

tk11b40 wrote:

jaw dropper

leon