75' KZ400 Build (pics and vid heavy)

DannyKZ wrote: 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.

I originally thought about doing your idea, but for the sake of visibility i wanted the signals to be right at the rear of the bike.

The signals themselves are incandescent K&Ss from Amazon; the stalks are pretty short (a little under 1").
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GTYOVG

Nice! Mine were from Amazon too... $16 came in 2 days! Man I love Amazon.

The exhaust wrap was fun... but GEEZ you gotta take your time... I had to wrap and unwrap each pipe about 4 times because of the curves and trying to keep an even spacing on the wrap.

As for the carb's (sorry I missed this in your previous post) they're the stock Keihin carbs that came with it. The blue bike had slightly larger jets in it, so I took them to run on this project due to the pods and the exhaust. I also did a little trick to the inside of the pods... I took a milk jug (the plastic type) and cut out two "C" shaped pieces and rolled them into cones to fill in the inside of the pods a bit... this will cut down the air coming in so that hopefully it won't lean out.

I also ensured there was no obstruction for the CV vent and idle circuit air jet... hopefully it all works as it's supposed to.

DannyKZ wrote: Nice! Mine were from Amazon too... $16 came in 2 days! Man I love Amazon.

Heck, yeah! Prime is fantastic.

The exhaust wrap was fun... but GEEZ you gotta take your time... I had to wrap and unwrap each pipe about 4 times because of the curves and trying to keep an even spacing on the wrap.

I plan to use an extra tie every six inches or so until the job is done, then I can remove most of them. Did you soak the wrap in water first? That's supposed to help.

As for the carb's (sorry I missed this in your previous post) they're the stock Keihin carbs that came with it. The blue bike had slightly larger jets in it, so I took them to run on this project due to the pods and the exhaust. I also did a little trick to the inside of the pods... I took a milk jug (the plastic type) and cut out two "C" shaped pieces and rolled them into cones to fill in the inside of the pods a bit... this will cut down the air coming in so that hopefully it won't lean out.

No problemo! I saw that your carbs differed from mine, but there must have been a change somewhere between '75 and '79.

You may catch some grief over the pods anyway, but I hope that setup works for you. Good luck, and don't forget to report the results! :silly:

Pm'ed you

OK.... Been a week or so. Time for a huge update.

1. Got the brakes sorted, it was the pitch of the levers on the cam... WAY off.

2. Checked the valves... exhaust were WAY too tight... everything is perfectly gapped.

3. Checked timing... gapped the points, and then set the timing with a timing light. Mechanical advance works 100% as it should.

4. FIRED IT UP. It cranked right over, and it took minor fiddling to get the idle to level out. After that it would put-put-put-put away with zero fluctuation.

5. Balanced the carbs, and tried to adjust the idle A/F screws... unfortunately, the Pods make this near impossible without a re-jet. I started at 1.5 turns out, then went in and out a 1/4 turn at a time and waited for a change, then blipped the throttle to check for recovery. 3/4 turns out from bottomed out seems to be it's happy place. Not too bad.

6. Modified the Pods. I took it for a ride (WOOHOO) and hammed the thing down the road in 2nd gear. At about 6k-7k RPM I cut the power, shut the throttle and checked my plugs. They actually look perfectly tan around the electrode, with a bit of "chocolate brown" happening deeper in the porcelain. Not TOO bad. This is with 2 pieces of "milk jug" plastic wrapped 1/2 way around the inside of the pods (on the inside). So it looks like I can afford to remove a little bit more plastic.

7. Double checked the charging system. Made sure the Reg/Rec was in good working order... checked all 3 yellow leads against the hot and the ground and got 595-596-595 resistance on the negative, and 594-597-595 on the positive.. PERFECT.


8. ENJOYED! I've put 75 miles on it so far... rolls STRONG in every gear! It's got a lot of boogie for a 400! I almost wish it had a 40T instead of 45T sprocket on the rear, just to get a bit more out of every gear. It's also LOUD.... like, OBNOXIOUSLY loud... Sounds great at idle... but when you're on full tilt it's a cop magnet. May have to re-pack my el'cheapo Emgo Slash Cut's....

Anyway, that's it for now! I'm going to keep tinkering and enjoying it as it sits... crappy tank and all... then this winter I'll take the tank off and do some more work. Finish the body work, etc...

Here's how she sits right now: I'll post more as I'm riding!

What are your jet sizes?

Idle Air 90
Main Air 60
Pilot 35
Main 72

Quick Update! Bike is finally done! Had a couple hiccups to overcome... one being that the stator for a kick-only won't work on an electric start bike... and another being that I installed the throttle butterflies backwards, causing irratic idle issues.

But here's a bunch of pics on the progress!!!