1983 kz550 ltd

This is where im at now with this project.
Frame ready for prep work



Found rusty shocks. Im not too sure if this is okay?




If you look closely you can see a crack where the carb boot mount is on the first cylinder top. Also two of the other top bolts were broken off inside and left there. Someone jimmy rigged up screws with jb weld or something. The bike had been worked on by a dealer at one point.

The shock is not a problem, the rust is just from the retaining clip, Wire brush it and oil it. It'll be fine.

I would take the motor to any decent machine shop. They should be able to extract the bolts for a few dollars a hole. DIY is risky with that unless you have a lot of experience extracting rusty steel bolts from fragile aluminum bosses. That aluminum likes to break off. Use plenty of silver antiseize when putting in new bolts.

The crack might be able to be welded by a good aluminum welder.

Thanks I will look closer at the shocks and clean them. As for the aluminum and broken bolts I can fix them with the help of a business partner who is fantastic at that sort of thing. I have a bridgeport in my shop too ( I build cabinets and furniture). I will only be delegating the chrome work out. Everything else I will do myself. It was a "reputable kawi dealer" that f#ck+d this bike up, and my personal experiences have been negative so id like to turn that around into a positive and do it myself. Here's some more pics!





Question:
The steering bearings felt good until I took the tires, handlebars, and forks off. With no weight on them they felt a little bit notchy. I disassembled and they were pretty dry. Should I get new ones?

It is very common for those manifold screws to shear off... steel in aluminum, so I wouldn't really blame the dealer for shearing them off. I wouldn't necessarily trust them to remove the bolts either... but JB weld etc is not acceptable, obviously.

All-Balls, ironically, has a tapered-roller bearing kit for the 550's. I think it will fit the shaft drive models. The adjustment for tapered roller is a lot more critical, but they last a lot longer.

CoreyClough wrote: Are you really going to keep the emission air valve system? It tens to be a great source for possible vacuum leaks, and doesn't guarantee you any better gas mileage.

Exactly what ,tu es are you talki g about? Just the big ones going to the metal breather. Or the 2 that comeoff the carb and go into 1 tube. And how come there is a cap on one carb?

Vacuum leaks would be at the carbs, or where the vacuum lines attach at the other end.

One goes to the vacuum petcock, and one is capped off. The other two go to the vacuum valve. You can loop together 2 and 3, then link 1 and 4 to a "t" fitting, running it to the petcock. I don't trust the rubber caps. Had one pop off before.

During normal running, none of the vacuum nipples should exit to open air, as doing so creates a massive air leak.





On some carb designs, one of the 4 carb-holder vacuum nipples is attached to a hose running to a vacuum-operated petcock.

Other carb designs include a 5th vacuum nipple on one of the carbs that's dedicated for a vacuum-operated petcock. In event the vacuum-operated petcock is replaced with a manually-operated (i.e., non-vacuum petcock), the 5th vacuum nipple should also be capped/plugged.


Good Fortune!

Wow thank you guys so much. This is really helpful. That is what I needed to know. Btw-more pics now:





I have been wet sanding aluminum. I think that I may try the polishing wheel next? What do you think.

You'll get carried away polishing things, then the the whole bike will be polished, and you'll start with something from your neighbor's house, and before you know it, the front door will have a line of people wanting you to polish something... :laugh:

Lol funny you should say that. Look what I did by hand! I can live with this.

Now I am polishing the forks. In the picture you can see that one fork is polished to 600 grit. And the other to 1500 grit. I will finish them with 2000 and then polish.



Spark plugs came in today too.

Ok, got the rubber toe kick piece for the shifter a nd brake pads in. I started cleaning up the frame too.