Oh NO! What have I done! My new KZ1300

I say you stole the bike also!

OKC_Kent wrote:

That mudflap cracks me up :laugh:

Ha! I have the same one on my old 200x! :lol: :silly:

That bike looks really clean, and I have paid more for less so I agree with the others that you stole it for $800. If it is a basket case I doubt you would have any problems parting it out.

Nice score.

i road with a guy that had a new 1 back in 80. he could wheelie it with ease.
Congrats on a great find.

holy hell that things a monster! i didnt even know they made those... that would make a mother of a drag bike, or streetfighter! either way nice lookin bike how she is, good luck with it dude!

I finally had sometime to tear into the monster and begine the investigation.

I took the carbs off, and the task was easier than on a 4 cylinder bike, the split airbox is nice idea. Kawasaki should have done that an all their bikes. The first thing I did was look in the air box and I was suprized to see the bottom was full of oil. So either the blow-by in the cylinders is terrible, or something else was going on. I removed the breather tube from from bottom of the air box and it was dry, so I don't think the oil is from blow-by. I looked down the intake runners and the valves looked clean with the exception of the number 5 cylinder, it shows sighns of a mild valme stem seal leak.

The carbs were filthy and full of brown varnish. I still smell like old gas after a long shower,and my garage stinks to high hell. I was surprised how gummy they are. I looked in the tank and what I originally thought was rust is infact dried varnish. I rubed off a small spot and the varnish flaked off exposing clean metal undernieth. I will try a rinse with MEK and see what the tank really looks like inside.

The electric fuel shut-off and the emissions air tempering system will probably go into the trash can. I wonder if there are blank plates available for the valve covers? Also if anyone knows which APE part works for the cam chain let me know. I have seen some used on 1300's but I don't know witch one fits.

Three duces.... Just seeing them on the bench makes me smile. I mean how often do you see three two barrel carbs on a motorcycle? Just plain cool



The throttle linkage moves freely but the slides are sticky. The varnish is terrible, after sseing this and the tank I am certian that this bike has been sitting much longer than 4 years, I am in doubt of the story given to me by the seller, he may have been misinformed by the original owner so who knows. It dosen't really matter, one way or another this monster will run again. Its just a matter of how stubborn it is going to be. I have been reading through the manual in my spare time, the carbs will be fun I am sure. I will see in the next few days how much work they will really need.

Here's some information about using accel coils on the 1300's: accel.zn1300.com/

These bikes eat both the ignition coils and the pulsing coils if you have the ignition that is mounted on the cylinder block. I bought Nology coils for mine.

I am not sure what type of ignition is on this bike, the Igniter unit is made by Mitsubishi, I haven't gotten into that yet. It dosen't look like the IC units in the manual or ones I have seen online, the coils and ballancing resistor appear to be stock. I haven't looked at the pickups yet.

In 1981 on the A3 model Kawasaki went to the pickups under the left engine cover and the Mitsubishi igniter. In 79/80 the pickups were on the right side of the cylinder block casting behind the cylinders and a Kawasaki igniter. I believe that the igniters are interchangeable. Looking at the picture of the engine you posted, the engine is a 1981 or later. The shape of your gas tank is also a 1981 A3 and not a 1980 A2. Your pulsing coils are under the left engine cover and you have no harmonic balancer which was on the 1979/80.This also means that the left engine cover will have a little rectangular cover toward the top of it held by two screws. There is quite a bit of difference between the 79/80 model and the 81&up models. They have different service manuals. The manual for your bike would be a -03 or -04 for the 79/80 it is a -01 or -02

Yeah I am figuring that out, yet the production date on the frame is late 1979, so this must be an early '81 model. My title is technically wrong too. The oil capacity is 6.2 liters which also would be found on the later engine. It makes sense that this is actualy an '81 model year bike.

I understand the '81 model is a hall effect type ignition pick-up How were these compared to the other years. Any better or worse? The pickups are completely different than the '79-'80 becasue I have electronic timing advance where the earlier system had a mechanical advancer.