I made some progress on mine. This is as far as I can go on rear suspension until I get a pair of side covers. I will mod the subframe to keep stock sides, but thats it. After that, I can mount my cross member and shock linkage. So if anyone has a set of side covers for a 77 KZ650 for a good deal, hit me up! It currently has a 2002 GSXR 100 motor hanging in the frame, minus the head. Working on assembling a complete motor for it right now too. Then onto the injection, and coolant system hiding lol.

oh yeah.

leon

New gages arrive today !

Finally have my wiring under control,... What a headache. Bike fires up on the first kick if I use the starter she fires up before I can let off the button ...been waiting months to hear her sing again! I will probably do up the swing arm swap over the winter as I want to ride this beast while there is still time!

Next on the list is to get my new tires mounted,front and rear brakes buttoned up and she will be rideable . Once I get the gsxr front wheel on I will post some photos of the bike outside.

Horn is set back about 2" from the exit (rear) of the oil cooler so you cannot see it.

Gages ordered :

www.z1parts.net/product/kawasaki-kz900-k...hometer-assembly-mph

Horn installed and working.

As far as I know the very early ones were bullet proof, there were rumours of camshaft issues but my brother (he owned one) never experienced any problems.
You are buying an old bike so check the usual -
Compressions, rust in the fuel tank, anything to do with hydraulics (brakes & clutch ensure fluids were changed regular). swingarm bearings (hard to see but grab the swingarm and push from side to side), bounce the shocks, they do have anti dive on forks.
Check if engine is sludged from short runs, camchain / tensioners were another weak point, if in good condition there should be no rattles. They claim the chain tensioner should not be pulled apart but we always did so the tensioner was still original at over 200K kms.
If its high millage the carby diaghrams can need checking ( the can be costly to replace),
If setup correctly this bike is not only a weapon but also a good tourer, they handle really well.
ENJOY

Another view:

This is before I finished, so never mind all the loose wires. I figure if you are like I am and your trying to figure out a good way to mount the tail light and blinkers, you are probably looking at hundreds of KZ photo's. Hope this idea helps you if that is the case.

Here is the final product:

Well the brake light is working.. I don't have a clue as to what was wrong, but I works on both the front and rear stop switch. So I made the final refinements to the rear tail light bracket, and this is what I came up with.

I found an old bracket in my scrap pile, cut it in half and added another hole for support (the black brackets) to hold on to the signal lights. They now hang just below the tail-section.

Drilled all the mounting holes one at a time, then test fit everything. Took it all apart again, and added the wiring routing holes, then de-burred the whole thing. Took all day. It will be another month before I spend an entire Saturday working on the KZ..So how do these projects end up taking 10 years?

On to the head light. Anyone have a suggestion for the headlight brackets? As a last resort I will go to the Streetfighter stamped steel ones that wrap around the forks, but only as a last resort.

The bracket mounts to the same two holes which are in the underside of the tail section, they thread directly inot the frame.