Getting started on my 1981 KZ440 Ltd.

Hey friends,
Decided to start a thread on the bike. A little background, it's been sitting out in the cold and wet for something like 7 years. Not ideal but it was the only way I could keep 'er. Now it's garaged and being shown some love. No more rats!


First order of business was having the carbs rebuilt (still not synced), new petcock, completely cleaned and recoated the inside of the fuel tank, new battery, redid the brakes. The nuts and bolts were like clay so I went through and replaced most of it. Learning a lot.
There was oil in the starter so I cleaned it up, rebuilt it and found out the magnet had cracked in half. I read that I could industrial epoxy it back together and it should be usable. Is this true? At any rate, I bought another one and it works great.
Took off the old shocks for some shiny ones I had laying around.




Now I'm trying to get it to idle properly. It sputters and I heard a pop or two. I saw a post where someone had rigged up two 1" chrome pod filters in place of the ever-elusive filter box setup. I thought that looked pretty cool so I'm about 90% done with installing that.


As you may or may not see, the wiring is in pretty bad shape so that'll need to be addressed. I bought some led's for the front/back turn signals and tail light (which also has turn signals.) DC12v 32LED For the tail light, as you can see from the picture, it has wires for two turn signals, main brake, and running lights. The original tail light wiring is all good (no brake lamp indicator flashing here!).


I replaced the old flasher relay with a new one (CF12ANL 2 pin) that is compatible with LEDs.
I'd really like to have a decent amount of running lights but would like some input on what kind of trouble I might run into.
I read that I'll need a diode kit to stop "feedback" from burning out the leds or something to that effect. I don't know if that's for a single indicator light but I don't see how or where I would connect the diode y as my bike has a left and a right indicator light.



Also, the turn signals I bought are two wire. What would the best way to make these double as running lights? Voltage: 12V; Wattage: 2.16W/bulb (0.18W/LED) 12 LEDs. I understand I'll need some resistors but I don't know the exact details on the wiring.

But am I crazy to want the additional turn signals to be running lights too?? Am I going to run into some problems here or can I just wire a y from the original lead? If anyone dares scribble up a diagram, I dare to use it.

So that's it for now. My goal for now is to get it running tight and have all the lights wired up correctly. Also, the clutch bar sinks right down to the handle. Have to fix that too. First thread, how'd I do? Enough pictures? Ok one more.



- T

Nice 440 man!
Glad you were able to pull it in from the cold and give it some of that rare commodity - time

I did the same thing as you - I bought new replacement signal lights even though they do not include the so-called running light for the front side. Basically, they're all just rear signal lights.
I'm not extremely happy about it but I'm also way underwhelmed right now with used/original sellers on eBay so... I went with new.

With my 550 I was able to adapt an LED reflector into circuit. I has worked out great. See in the attachments

This got me thinking. I want to use these LED reflectors instead of the original reflectors on all my bikes. Definitely more visible and they flash with signals. I just ran the wires to parallel the front signals on each side.

I was looking at that LED strip you got too. I had an idea (don't know yet if it will work with the new signal-only light stems I just ordered) BUT, I was thinking of using that LED strip to run around the inside perimeter of the signal stem - right at the point the lens screws onto the bulb-holder/boldy so I could have "running lights" at all four corners.
It would be the exact same wiring as the reflectors - parallel the ground and running light wires into the bike's existing setup.

I've read on the forum here that LEDs present a problem for the older KZs because their charging systems were designed to provide an output wattage made to service the bike running. IE: there isn't an OFF or Trickle charging mode on the bike. Full tilt charging, 100% of the time. LEDs don't consume even 1/4 of the power of their ancient incandescent bulb brothers so the charging system ends up overheating...
Thus, my thoughts have always been to add LED lighting to existing but not out-right replacement with. Hopefully I'm not wrong in this understanding.

Good luck with your restoration. A super nice looking example and will always be my favorite KZ.

Z1's didn't have running lights so I bought these at Z1E. Due to the extra load I went LED's.
www.z1enterprises.com/product/KS25-2195


For my top box I got LED arrows so I could have running lights, brake lights and turn signals.
Went with a HID headlight too. All the light were over taxing the system. I replaced everything, all good now.
www.z1enterprises.com/product/KS25-2195





Steve

Just would like to point out that those LED tail light sets aren't DOT approved. If you live in an area where they are uptight about that you will be installing something else anyway.

There isn't much concern for DOT or local equipment laws around here and you see all kinds of stuff but if you run across a cop or inspection station that decides to blow the dust of the regs book it's a PIA scrambling to get your vehicle registered or worse avoid a fine and/or impound.

Far from where it needs to be but I'm learning a lot about this bike and love riding it.
Got a ton of rust off with arm and hammer toothpaste!

I took out the side reflectors and put in some more turn signal indicator lights. I had to sit there and file out the old screw holes because the new lights were slightly bigger.
The lights came with three wires for the option of a half-brightness (running light) but I thought that might be a little much. These things are really bright. Check them out in comparison to the back signals.

They're white in color when not lit up which makes them subtle.

Replaced a bunch of the old wiring and cables. Need to replace the headlamp bucket. I don't know what I'm going to do about the tail end of it. If I do some cutting away I can get the non-DOT approved LED tail light looking good on there but then the plate placement becomes an issue. I do live in an area where they're very uptight about vehicle regulations but I''m not too worried about getting a fix-it ticket on the tail light because I don't plan on riding it on these busy streets too often.