75' KZ400 Build (pics and vid heavy)

loudhvx wrote: Looking great! Yup, my buddy's Kz400 had the same ding in the clutch cover from the brake pedal. We brazed it with Alumaweld. Ugly, but worked.

I'm fond of saying "If it's ugly and it works, it's not ugly".

More parts in! More progress... more pics to come.

Tires mounted, wheels painted, brakes painted and hardware mounted, forks rebuilt with new seals and oil, and painted.

I started final mock-up on the fenders, had to chop and bob a little off the back... not sure of the tail light. I have an integrated LED strip that I may use instead... I'll figure that out when I fab up a license plate mount.

Quick little, picture-less update.

I got all of the electrics run, built-up the upper triple, gauges, bars, switch gear, grips, bar end mirrors... the whole kit.

I then started to push through on the electrics. The only things I had to fabricate were a ground-strap, starter lead to the solenoid, and shorten up the hot wire to the battery. Other than that the entire harness is stock, with the exception of swapping connector ends for the tail light and directional...

The directionals were another fun project... I bought an LED flasher relay, which is controllable for blink speed... it works really great, but unfortunately when I plugged everything in and ran it as it was, all 4 blinkers were blinking regardless of left/right switch placement. I also found that I had a bad ground on my horn button.

A little bit of tinkering and I realized the blinkers were grounding out through the incandescent indicator light. Quick fix with a couple of resistors. As for the horn, it just needed the tab adjusted to touch the housing... now I get a full 12v to the horn harness when pushing the button.

We're close!

I'm actually hoping to get the bike outside, get it into a rolling chassis, and possibly get it started this weekend.

I also got around to wrapping the down-tubes for the exhaust. Just have to polish up the clamp rings, which should be done tonight. More pictures tomorrow!

My list is slowly going down.

Left to do:
- Check the valve clearance
- Check the timing
- Gap the points
- Gap the plugs
- Petcock
- Gas cap seal
- Check/torque all engine and mounting bolts to the frame
- Install exhaust, and drill new mounts for the mufflers.
- Get longer bolts for the clutch cover
- Install the front forks
- Get bolts for the front fender
- Install the wheels
- Install all the cables
- Install top tree with bars
- Install seat-pins
- Fabricate a license plate bracket
- Finish wiring the tail section


About 2 days worth of work if I take my time.

Got to work on mounting the exhaust. Pretty straight forward, just had to drill a hole below the swingarm bolt and drill and tap the hanger. Came out nice!

I also did a "roller" mock up. Mainly because I couldn't get the exhaust on while it was on the ground.

A better one of the exhaust.

So now that she's in a roller, I had to take her outside.

Once outside I finished up the electrics. I also took some time this weekend to completely fab up a new tail light. The bullet light just wasn't doing it for me. So I took some scrap, welded it... heat it... hit it with a hammer and made this. I did use Gorilla glue to hold the lights on... there's no way they'd hold that contour with the 3m tape they came with.

Video of the frame and battery box build:

As of right now I can fully assemble the bike! I cleaned up all the over-spray from my rims and gave them a good scrub with some mother's and 00 steel wool. Finalized the exhaust, just need to clean it really well before first fire-up. Lubed all the cables, polished up the last bits like the shifter and exhaust clamps. Then installed my new petcock and got the whole kit-and-caboodle outside for assembly.

Forks are on, all the electrics are done, and I got the switch-gear all mounted. I may have to re-work my rear turn signal mounts, not sure if I like them mounted to the upper shock mounts. I think just painting the brackets will help a lot.

But EVERYTHING works! All the lights, and the starter! Hopefully one more weekend and I can try to start it!

Pics didn't post in the last one. Here we go:

Few more:

DannyKZ wrote: But EVERYTHING works! All the lights, and the starter! Hopefully one more weekend and I can try to start it!

Woohoo! And I like your notepad. :laugh:

Which carbs did you choose? That is basically what I plan to do with my exhaust.

A tip on the turn signals: I made a fender eliminator kit for my 400. As part of that I made 90-degree brackets that attach to the top license plate bolts and point back toward the front of the bike. The turn signals are mounted to holes in these brackets. The wiring then runs under the back end of the seat and attaches to the harness as usual.

The plate is narrow enough that the brackets are partially obscured by the tail section but they're painted black so they're not terribly noticeable.

I mounted mine to little tabs on the top of the rear shock mounts... I MAY end up doing your idea! I have enough room on the fender to pull that off! The seat will hide the stalk too.