Does anyone have experience with a Honda pro link unit type rear suspension? I saw a picture of this when I was searching for upper shock mount ideas. I am intrigued with the possibilities. It would be less intrusive to the frame and it would be easy to get a good solid mount for the top of the shock. Please let me know your thoughts. I have a 2006 gsxr swingarm that I believe could have an upper shock mount fabbed on to it relatively easily.

Your input is requested.

www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_Pro-Link

Unlike some of the large KZ's the frames on the KZ650s are excellent and do not contribute to wobble. If your bike has wobble there is something wrong with a component, because the KZ650 doesn't wobble at all unless something is wrong.

I bought my KZ650-C1 new in April 1977. After break-in I often took the bike up to full speed - 120mph. Once, riding next to a friend (who had a faster bike) I rode at that speed for 10 minutes straight - 20 miles worth! I didn't experience even the slightest wobble at any speed.

Several years ago my KZ650 developed a high speed (above 90 mph) wobble. It was a scarey bad wobble at that speed and trying to go faster made it worse! I'm sure you can relate! There was no wobble at normal highway speeds, but I knew something wasn't right. I already had very high quality shocks (the originals were always marginal at best and were replaced early on). I tested my swing arm bushings and found they had a little play. There should be none, so I replaced them. Your newer KZ650 will have bearings rather than bushings, but you should check them by unhooking the rear shocks and with the back of the bike off the ground grab the top and bottom of the tire and try to twist the tire left and right There should be no play. After replacing my bushings the wobble was dampened a little, but mostly still there. I replaced the steering stem bearings with tapered roller bearings and that helped a little, but the wobble was still there. I replaced wheel bearings - no improvement. I balanced the tires - no improvement. I changed the fork oil (you should do this if you haven't), but that didn't change my wobble.

In desperation I changed tires. The ones on the bike were Michelin Macadams that had low miles and still looked great. Plenty of tread and very even wear. I put on Pirelli Sport Demons along with new tubes. To my surprise the wobble was totally gone. I couldn't believe that tires which looked like they were fine were causing the wobble, but they were. Now there is absolutely no hint of a wobble from 0 mph up to the top speed of my bike - just around 120 mph.

I would highly recommend that you check everything on the bike until you find the source of the wobble. It can be a frustrating task, but until you find and correct it a fork brace, steering damper, etc. will not correct the root cause of the wobble. Ed

The MKII uses a 18" rear wheel as well. The Z1R was the only model (besides KZP) to come with a 18 front wheel. The easiest way to adapt the 18" police front wheel would probably be swap the whole front end. Plus you get beefier forks and triples.

Tavo is correct, that the swingarms are the same. if it is a 1980 or earlier 18 rear wheel it uses the same sprocket carrier as other 18" mags. check kawasaki.com parts diagrams. you can look up brakes, spacers what ever and see what other models they were used on. not sure how to identify the difference between the KZP wheel and the Z1R and MKII wheels. maybe someone else can chime in here.

When i swapped to wire wheels on my LTD i ended up getting the whole rear hub, spacers, sprocket carrier, and brake setup to get it to jive. but once i had everything it was a direct swap.

The pivot shaft on GSXR 600 Swingarm that I have is 22 mm. The pivot axle on my 1982 GPZ1100 is 16 mm. I have found flanged bronze bushings on McMaster.com. They are only 20 (little more than 3/4") while the highhats that came with the swingarm are 42 mm long ~1-1/2". First, will the bronze oilite bushings work? Second, will the shortened length be adequate. I plan on keeping the existing high hats in the swingarm and I have space for the flanged bushing as the GSXR swingarm is narrower than the gap between in the GPZ frame. Any input is welcome. I imagine the bushing is rated for shears commensurate with the shear strength of the shaft that it is sized for.

www.mcmaster.com/#6659k35/=rw4vl1

Awesome project! looks great will ride nice!
I have been working on mine for 3 yrs. been togehter and apart about 4 times. always find something else that i don't like or want to change.
Heres a couple pics ofhte last time it was together.
Have the same ZRX1100 rear swing & tire set up.
Used a 2004 636 front end. THat was a PROJECT!! cut out old steer tube that was damaged, fabbed my own and installed. Alignement tooks months of measurements!! ARGH!
I am sure I will have many questions for you on your wiring as that is NOT my strong point!!
great looking ride you have created! Thanks for sharing!

I have too much time at work to think about these things and not enough time at home right now to actually do the work..

I am preparing for putting a monoshock mount, as part of a swapping in a new swing arm, on my 1982 GPZ1100 and the new shock and mount will be displacing the battery which is located below the 3 section airbox. To gain real estate for the battery, I am contemplating removing the air filter element section and the intermediate section and putting in an appropriately sized 22 degree bend to connect the stilling box to a rectangular K&N type Universal Air Filter.

I am not looking specifically for performance gains as much as I am looking for space to put a small battery between back of the air filter and the subframe where the existing filter is. Unless I want to change over to a microsquirt so that I can scrap the existing ECU, I don't have any real estate in the tail section. I do plan to put in an Eastern Beaver PC-8 Fuse box to replace the existing main fuse box and I plan to not discard the air temp sensor that is mounted in the middle section. I like the look of he existing airbox at this time, so, for that reason, I am not looking to discard it and put in pods. I just want to know if you all think this will work or not.

Yes , a running bike for $250 :cheer is always worth it. Just perform all the regular maintenance
including fork seals, brakes, steering stem bearings and swingarm pivot point. This will give a solid
foundation to build upon.

.

Alright. So we got a bit more done today. We almost got the offset fully finished up, but ran into a clearance issue before we went to tack the sprocket together. I'm scraping the frame a slight little bit just above the swingarm. We're going to get this sorted out tomorrow- shave down the cush drive hub a little bit to give me the needed clearance.

First up- the inner sprocket all machined down and welded into the tube. We didn't torch the outer edge off of the sprocket, so it took a little longer to machine down. Thanks to Leon with the genius mandrel idea- I took a hex cap bolt and machined the head of it down to accept the ID of the sprocket. Locked it down with the nut, and we're good to go.


The drive sprocket locked into the lathe to get opened up.


All machined and slipped over the tube.


Cut the tube length down a little so we could lock the sprocket in place. Chain locked on, time to give it a spin.


A quick peek at the frame clearance. As you can see, using the O-ring chain was probably not the best idea. It's a little wider, so it scrapes a little but. It's not too bad, but definitely needs to be fixed. Off to the lathe with the cush drive to get spun down a little...


Having the chain on the bike really gives a good idea of how much longer the wheelbase now is. I believe it's 4.5" over the stock wheelbase.


As you can see, the rivet is JUST brushing the frame welds- this is right above where the foot rest is welded in.


One more quick peek. I think that an eighth of an inch should make for plenty of room on the frame and tire side. More pictures will be up with the progress from tomorrow's work.


ALMOST there.... Finish the sprocket up, then get the steering stops and foot rest mounts welded in. One more thing to check off the list of things to do...

Hey all this is my first post here. So bear with me!

I've got a 78 kz650 SR model with 10,000 original miles that seems to be burning oil and I cant figure out why.

Motor mods:
MAC 4-1 no baffle
Dyna electronic ignition
Pod filters with crank vent ran to behind the swingarm

Ive checked all 4 plugs and they are all perfect tan color which makes sense because the carbs have been jetted and synched darn near perfect. The oil level is dead center between the marks on the window. The bike still pulls hard and has no issues running whatsoever. I also just ran a compression test and came up right at 155 psi in all cylinders. I have correct timing etc.

On to the symptoms:
ive been riding the bike for about a week now with no problems or blue smoke. However, today I noticed at a red light that there was blue smoke steadily coming from the pipe, not like a two stroke but enough you can see it, it puffs more every time I goose the throttle and a friendly driver caught me and said he could smell something burning behind me.

My question is, if I have solid compression on all cylinders and the plugs look fine, what would make me burn oil while riding? normally i would think valve seals if it just smoked on startup but it worries me that it smokes after its warmed and all. partially blown head gasket maybe?
sorry for the book guys but I would like to get to the bottom of this quickly

Leon,

Thanks, this helps me a lot. 3/8" is the most that I can do but I think it will help with getting the chain aligned. Have you heard of putting a 525 chain on these bikes? The existing wheel came with a 525 sprocket on it and the horsepower of the 600 GSXR has to be comparable to the old GPZ. I guess the other option would be putting a 630 sprocket on the rear wheel and keeping my stock sprocket..

Jeff