As mentioned, they probably deleted it for cost savings. My 81 1000 LTD didn't come with one either. When I did a frame up resto on it several years ago I saw how bad the swingarm was and installed a zerk fitting in it myself.

Almost ten years later, and this thing is still kicking. Two weeks ago, I had my first crash and I was fortunate enough to miss all the boulders on the side of the road and more or less walked away with a lot of severe bruising. The bike definitely took the brunt of it, but all things considered we're looking at mostly cosmetic damage to the bike, but of course it's all the expensive bits like the exhaust, tank, and instrument housings. That being said, I've managed to find another, this time a 1980 KZ750 that's been sitting outside for who knows how long and while some things are roached (seat, tank, mirrors) the bike is in surprisingly overall good condition and with only 7k on the clock and oil in the engine still, it turns freely! 

So I'm at an impasse - I can use it as intended as a parts bike to fix "my" bike with 26k on it that I love dearly, or I can swap good parts from my bike to this new project. But that's for mulling over some more later perhaps with a few fingers of bourbon and a campfire. For now, I just want to get back on the road. 

That said, looking at part numbers and diagrams most everything should swap fine, but I noticed the gauges on the parts bike are slightly different in terms of what indicator lights are on which pod, as well as the addition of a voltage meter on the tach side of the 1980 not present on my 1981. I know the mechanical tach and speedo will be fine, but am I correct in guessing getting the electronics to work will just be a matter of matching the correct wires to the correct pod? What about that voltage meter? 

The other curiosity was the swingarm on my 1981 has no grease fitting which I always thought was odd - the swingarm on the 1980 DOES have one and I was considering swapping them. Is there a reason it was deleted on the 1981 that anyone knows of?

Glad to have found this community and be a part of it.

I did not feel like wrestling with old tires today so started bolting parts on instead.





Got the inner fender, shocks, lift handles, and swing arm installed.



Also installed the points cover I polished last night along with the oil cooler fittings, and the GPZ starter motor.



I checked the spaced out stock 650 rear brake pedal, it just clears so I am going to trim about 1/4" from the inside edge of the foot platform.





I can still see the oil sight glass looking straight on.



I also got the center stand installed with my custom DIY limit bar.



Not a bad start to putting it back together.
 

Had to wait for new swing arm rollers to come through. Old ones were totally destroyed and. Made no sense to use them with new bearings.
i was dreading this, but getting the bearings in the freezer for a while and lots of oil made it really simple. Moving on….

CAP’N MERICA wrote:

H, if I’m not mistaken? I *THINK* the dimensions are approx. .8” for the 2002 zx6r pivot shaft and 1” for the bushings. Does that sound right? 

All the measurments will be in METRIC not Feet and inches. 

Hello all. This is my first post, I just wanted to show off the work done so far. I’m currently looking for a pivot shaft and bushings. I think I’ve seen a member that does a lot of custom machine work, Les, if I’m not mistaken? I *THINK* the dimensions are approx. .8” for the 2002 zx6r pivot shaft and 1” for the bushings. Does that sound right? Any input is appreciated!

So I finally got around to taking the first step in putting this Z1R back together.  I got the frame painted.  The bare frame has been hanging from a beam in my basement for about 8 years, so it's nice to finally have taken that first step.  It wasn't in bad shape, but it was missing a bunch of paint around the batter drain side (as is typical), and I think it had been rattle can painted at some point which was coming off in places.  I figured a repaint would be nice, but it took me a long time to make it happen.

 

After I got it back I removed the old steering head bearing races.  What a pain in the neck.  They never come out easy for me.  In the past I made a puller of sorts, by machining a slug to fit behind the lower race, and a plate and threaded rod to pull it out.  But even with this setup it didn't want to move, and I even broke the rod once.  Anyway, it came out eventually.

 

Next will be to remove the swing arm bearings.  After that I'm not sure.  I figure I'll go through boxes and figure out what work needs to be done to the next pieces.  I think I had some stuff powder coated about 10 years ago.  I'll seem what I can find.

So I am going to try and add some pics here and I hope I did it right.

So to pickup after my last Post I brought the bike home and worked to get it running again. After some carb work I got it running with my son helping so we jumped to the next generation.

But Life got busy and the Kawasaki sat in the corner as it needed new paint and some more TLC.

Jumping ahead to 2021 and thinking it was time to get the Kawasaki back on the road. When I started going thru the bike and looking at ideas and options I decided I wanted a update front end and went with a 2008 Triple tree off a ZX6R. Found a company making Stems with bearings to match old bikes to new front forks. I had to then build all new mounts for the GPZ550 Fairing I was using and Mount the gauges.



Then I Got it into a roller


Most of you will also notice that I put a different rear wheel to match the ZX6R front wheel. I got a Versys 650 Rear wheel and Axle and brake assembly and mounted that with new swing arm axle plats. (I have not welded together as I am still working/designing how to do it all)

Next Step was to strip it back down. I removed all the wiring and started new with a Mo.unit Blue control and rewired the bike


As I have started to document this I realize that there are many "mini" projects I have done. Its hard to get this into something to share. But maybe I can list what I did so far.

• Swapped out the front forks and triple tree from a 2008 ZX6R 
• Designed and made new Fairing / headlight mount to the ZX6R forks
• Fabricated new Gauge mounts to ZX6R Top Clamp
• Rebuild original Gauges - Speedo is now GPS driven. Built and designed and programmed by me.
  • Used a GPS module with a ESP32 Development board and programed the GPS speed to be converted to a analog signal to drive a small stepper motor to move the needle and added 2 LCD screens to show digital speed and GPS signals to replace analog trip and odometers
  • Tach is still gear driven but with new face
• Switched out the sprockets to a more modern standard 520 chain size (also to match new rear wheel)
  • Broke the transmission case and chain guard getting old front sprocket off...hello ebay)
• Re-wire the entire bike with mo-unit blue, new Rectifier, new Lithium battery, no ignition key as it uses phone blue tooth proximity to turn on.

Think that brings me to current of the engine teardown.

If any one is interested in those other mini projects let me know. I can share my details as I get better at this posting with pictures process for the forum.