The bracket bolted to two bosses already on the underside of the top clamp, works.

So with my little band saw, and small drill press and a couple hours with a file I finished the bracket. Then I milled a slot in the bracket so that the wires from the tach and speedo had a neat place to go. This also lightened up the bracket considerably.
I had to saw off the ignition switch boss from the Suzuki top clamp, so much massaging was needed there. Now the whole set-up looks like the factory did it.
Next I will have both the bracket and top clamp powder coated satin Black.

For your steering stem use tapered roller bearings. Here's the All-Balls kit:
www.allballsracing.com/22-1014.html

Dr. Gamma is correct about the swingarm. Here's the diagram:

I'll add Fork Brace. This is the single most improvement I made on the front end of my 82 KZ1000 LTD.
Upgraded springs, emulators, new internal bushings, of course seals and oil for the forks.
New stem bearings, with the correct pre-load.
Swing arm bearings, and you can under brace it easily if you can weld.
Rear shock up grade. Well I bought a set of progressives, one failed rather quick, out of warranty and not rebuildable. So I went with a set of Fox Racing Shocks off of a snowmobile. No problems so far, and $100 bucks shipped, fully rebuildable and tunable. Lesson learned.

as turboking said.
i have custom machined tophat bushings to take up the difference on the swaps i have done.
these are on a zx6r swingarm to kz.




leon

Now that I think about it, the '77 KZ1000 already has two needle bearings in swing arm stock. I think the '78 had four needle bearings (two per side) in the swing arm. No need for the bronze bushings.

Check the amount of play between the frame, and the stock swing arm bolt. If its over a few thousands thats too much. I had my local machine shop make up some oversize swing arm bolts to take up that extra clearance. I had to tap my swing arm bolt into the frame. I then honed the stock inner swing arm sleeve to fit the new oversize swing arm bolt. I left just enough clearance for just a coat of grease on the bolt.

If you have 15 or 20 thousands play at the swing arm bolt to frame. Just think how much play you will have at the end of swing arm!!

Dr. Gamma, That's the direction that I'll probably take. I have a set of bronze bushings and sleeves from a H2 project that I didn't use. I'm pretty sure they will fit the KZ1000 swing arm or would you happen to know?

If you are planning on riding the bike hard, I would install some type of steering dampner.

I would not ride any motorcycle without a steering dampner. I broke one of my outer sparkplug caps with my knee one time when my KZ1000 went into a big wobble coming out of a corner on some slightly rippled pavement!!!

I have both an oil cooler and steering dampner on my KZ1000. It took some planning, and a fancy bracket on the frame and lower tree to get it to clear my oil cooler. You can get by with using the copy of the original Kawasaki steering dampners like what came on the old triples.

I would go with the tapered bearing in the steering stem, better rear shocks, bronze bushings, or needle bearings in the swing arm, and a steering dampner to start with on your KZ1000.

And your probably right. I haven't even yet pulled the swing arm off yet to even look at it. Just trying to do a little homework before. In the past I've used bronze swing arm bushings on my H2 and RD. Seemed to work well. Do they offer these bushings for the KZ or is the needle bearing kit all that's out there? What about steering head bearings?