How about steering stem bearings,swing arm bushings and other general maintenance.
All the shiney stuff is fine and dandy but worthless if it doesn't go down the road.
I suggest you aquire a repair/shop manual and read it.
There are to many 'builds' getting posted on the net showcasing the look but not the function.
A motorcycle is far more fun when it's ridden than posed with.

.

Update finally.....! Hunting season is over for me, which allowed me to travel up to the shop and work on the KZ. Got the exhaust done and I like how it turned out. Need to add one stainless clamp and then off to have it ceramic coated (probable satin black).

Here is the midpipe with the first welded bead then ground down to smooth it out.



Here is a shot of the mounting system I made.



Back side view, which shows it is pretty tucked...



Final weld with O2 sensor bung added. Forgive the appearance of the welds.....



Final look with pegs in place.



I also got to try out all my custom lines. Turns out the rear will need to be remade, about 3 inches longer.



Stainless clamps that fit the lines perfect for routing. Drilled and tapped the lower triple for 6mm x 1.0 and added a clamp there. Everything turned out routed nicely.




Now lets talk about what the next challenge is..... I am going to need a chain guide / roller.

I think I am going with this one : www.dimecitycycles.com/vintage-cafe-race...mon-weld-on-spr.html but make it a fixed position. I am finding I need to make a gusset system that mounts it rear of the drive sprocket to ensure the chain always has clearance over the swing arm pivot tube. Thoughts on this? Anyone use these rollers before?

My only concern is that at times, the roller will be preventing the tension side of the chain (top) from going completely straight, and so it will be taking forces from the torque of the engine. i.e. when you throttle the bike, the chain will try and be pulled straight, but this roller will prevent that from completely happening. Concerns? Other than that, having my rear hub milled .200" for alignment and ordering a PMF drag plate for my hydraulic clutch conversion.

Cory

wireman wrote: Welcome back to z-jungle,Ive been drooling over that red turbo for a long time also! :woohoo:

I've seen the parts list for the turbo bike and I know the swingarms is custom made, but I'm not spending 2K on a swingarm. I'm thinking of a GS1100E swingarm.
I'm not sure what front end and wheels I need though. Any ideas?

This is where I found the parts list, but with the miss matched parts, I don't know how a triple tree could be made by leon? I think I should stick with a rear wheel that matches the font end I choose. I'd like to run a wide rear tire, but nothing crazy like a 300.
I'll just wait for the experts to chime in, so I can start looking for the parts I'll need.
pnwriders.com/motorcycle-talk/4705-nice-turbo-kz.html

I put a 81` KZ750E swingarm on my 77` KZ1000A, had to add two .100" spacers on each side to make up the difference in width, and square the swingarm in the chassis. Only needed a .020" shim on the countershaft sprocket to align with rear sprocket..

Why you ask, it is 1.5" shorter, makes the steering feel muck quicker, and I wanted to have the factory mag wheel rear and keep the 18" instead of the 16" LTD wheel. Plus the weight savings between the total package, about three pounds lighter.

FWIW, hope this helps.

My work in progress...
82 KZ 750H

It started as a really nicely kept, well used, stock daily driver that I picked up for $100. All the chrome is good, paint is pretty nice still. The previous owner was a good owner fortunatly for me. Basically all I did was clean and adjust the carbs and flush the old fuel and she ran pretty well. It currently has 33k miles.

Im short on cash for a while with a toddler and another on the way, so the wife is ok with me spending money on a "$100 bike". I had been looking at building a kz1000 for a lot of years but never found a decent one to start on, so Ive been planning this for some time.

First order of business was suspension. The ole 750 had to much frame flex and wimpy suspension compared to the sport bikes ive had over the years, granted this is not going to be a track bike with factory suspension etc etc im just building it for the fun of it. Ive managed to pickup some pretty good deals from random local sellers, ebay, etc. The front end assembly is from a 04 CBR F4i. It was just dumb luck that everything has matched up so well. I just swapped the KZ stem to the CBR clamps and have some new tappered roller bearings on the way.
The rear end is an 06-07 GSXR600/750 assembly. Ill need to grind down the inside of the frame 1/16" or so to fit the swingarm and fab a shock upper mount. Still have several small items to get yet, some rear end parts, upper triple clamp, clipons etc.

Once the suspension is done ill ride it a bit to work out the bugs (frame gussets, bracing) Then its on to motor work. Ive got a Wiseco 810 kit and some zx 750 cams waiting to go in hopefully this spring. Nice to have a place to see others ideas!

I dont know if i have the ability to change the swingarm. I am thinking about buying an original swingarm and using the bushings tube and cutting the rest off and welding the back of my racing swingarm to the original tube. or if anyone has a pivoted swingarm they wanted to trade for my racing one i would be interested.

The swingarm can be modified to take bushings and a sleeve so it can be used with shocks, I have done a few.

Les

Kitten Tooth wrote: Today was pretty warm before it started down pouring like crazy here in Sioux City. I figured i would pull my 81' KZ1000LTD out for a little spin around the neighbor hood just to get it out of my system. I turned my fuel on and fired the beast up after it sat for a few weeks. Of course it fowled a plug on startup and i had to start touching pipes to see which cylinder was still asleep :whistle: Found out it was cylinder 1 for once so i pulled the plug out, wet and stunk like gas. Wire brushed it off and stuck it back in the bike.
Needless to say my bike wanted to fire off into space after i cleaned the spark plug I took off and started up the street. Roared up the block and got way into the neighborhood when suddenly, the engine started to get all fluttery. After a backfire my bike rolled up to a stopsign dead. I got it started again and revved it a couple times. The motor seemed to take off on all 4 for a second and then poop out again on one or more of the cylinders and then the bike died again. I got it going again and sputtered and backfired up the street, neighbors laughing and all. Even had one guy start a rev competition with his little impala :woohoo: of course my bike died again and i started pushing it home. Dumped some gas in the tank and it ran like new again. I really gotta fix that damn gas gauge and start watching how much fuel is in the tank. Going until it wont go no more might really bite me in the ass one of these times when i get far away from home

Tim,

Since you mentioned fouling a plug.......

Here's a simple little job to assure you're getting good voltage to the spark plugs.

Next time you have the tank off, do this.

Unscrew each plug cap from the wire. Make sure you won't short yourself on wire length first, then if you're OK, trim about 3/8" off the end of the wire and screw the plug cap back on. They go hard at first so make sure it's biting in.

If you have a meter, you should check the plug caps for resistance while you have them off. You'll see about 5K ohms. If any are low, get yourself 4 new NGK caps when you can swing it. Make sure you get the right caps. Call Z1E and they will help you or look them up on NGK site.

Thats pretty nice !!

These are so hard to find in decent shape.

Ok so its been a while since I last updated this build page. I finally got my bike in to work to get the rear suspension mounts welded on so the bike can sit under its new rear end so I can see how she sits. I think the rear might be a bit high but I can fix this by making some slightly longer dog bones, hopefully this wont affect the the rise rate to much on the shock. sitting on it and bouncing around it feels about right for me but I guess I will get the real feel when I eventually ride it.

I have put some pics up of how its all come together, the sponden framed bike at the bottom is how I would like the rear end to look on mine apart I want to keep the original tail end off the KZ1000, I guess I,m going to have to make a new seat as the original isn't working for me. Im not going for the cafe racer look but I might be tempted to go for flat bars, I will have to see when she is all back together










I made these a while back and forgot about them till just, I CNC'd some 'End nuts' to tidy up the swing arm nuts......





Ive got my USD forks also from a Hayabusa...



here is how she last looked all together, I was still very undecided on the rear end so thought fuck it and chopped the whole lot off in favor of a bolt on subframe, that way I can play around with it to get it to look right



This pic shows almost all the mods ive made to the frame, the holes where I cut off the subframe need filling and the lugs for the new subframe need welding on then its off to shotblasting and powder coating



I decided to design a new tail and seat as I couldnt get the look I wanted with what I had, Ive tried to keep some of the design ques from the origanal



I did some programes and got a friend to machine a mould for me, this will form the tail and I will play around with some foam for the seat when its in place



the mould inline with the tank for an idea of scale



an idea of how it will look...



The frame is at the welders, Ive go to pick it up later then off to the powder coat place, frame and wheels either candy red ot titanium grey with flat black tank and tail, what do you guys think?