85 GPz 750 Cafe Project

I'm not a fan of mucking with the originality of bikes, but when people do and they make them look like this, it's pleasing. Just gorgeous.

Update: I can't read, the center tap in the battery is for electrolyte level and is green with a blue trace, not green. I pulled the pods off and shot starter fluid in, took off running light a bat outa hell. Possibly the paper filter on my baby bottle is clogging the passage of fuel to the bowls? Just getting started here, had some elder care to attend to. More to come.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I like them stock as well, but the owner gets to do whatever they want and he had a clear vision of what he wanted done. This one is growing on me.

Very clean lookin, I like it . Great job !!!!

Someone finally did it! I've always thought these mid 80's monoshock gpz's would make great cafe/brat style bikes, they have the right lines for it, but if you do a google search for GPZ Cafe, you'll see some really unattractive bikes. a lot of people try to keep the original tank, which is a big mistake.

There's a '85 GPz550 in my area for $600 I've had my eye on.
How difficult was it to fit the tank to the bike? Did both the tank and frame require modification?
I think a GPZ550 would look great with a smaller tank like a CB350 or something.

Nice job, great looking bike!

I had to take the rear inner portion down a ways to get the tank low enough in the rear. Then had to move the front mounts as well. After adding the 'lever' in the back I needed to create a mounting on the rear frame.

ajsfirehawk wrote: I had to take the rear inner portion down a ways to get the tank low enough in the rear. Then had to move the front mounts as well. After adding the 'lever' in the back I needed to create a mounting on the rear frame.

So the opening of the front of the tank was wide enough to go over the frame, you just moved the mounts on the frame, not the tank?
What do you mean "take the rear inner portion down a ways", the inner portion of the tank?

thanks!

If you look at the top pic in my last post you will see the lower left and right side of the tank underside you can see where I pounded it down with a ball peen hammer. Yes, I just relocated the mounts to work with the 77 tank. Here is a link to the build photo bucket.
s1264.photobucket.com/user/ajsfirehawk/l...20Cafe?sort=3&page=1

Beautiful work there Ajs!

The green wire for the coils should not get mixed up with the green wires for the turn signals. They are completely unrelated wires even though they are the same color.

My buddy had a Kz650 broken down on the street with blown fuses and had started messing with the wiring. So when I got there I found him a 12v source and the bike started right up... but it would rev and then stall, then rev then stall... backfiring along the way. It turns out we powered the ignition with the turn signal circuit. :laugh:

We found another power source and he rode it home. We eventually just re-wired the whole thing from scratch.

ajsfirehawk wrote: I think I found my bug. The green wire runs from the ignitor to the #1 coil and then operates the left turn signals. The male green bullet connector without a corresponding female...goes to the stock GPz battery. I slipped in my KZ650 battery which does not have the separate GREEN wire female tap. I think I'm missing voltage to the ignitor straight from the battery.

Power for the igniter should come from the kill switch.

Here is the pinout for a 550, but it may be similar to the 750, if this is what your igniter looks like. The wire colors are probably different since the 550 went through some different changes, but the pinout, I would guess, but am not 100% positive, would be the same.



This is the only photo I have of the Zx550 igniter. Ignore the diagram attached to it if it's different from the one above.

After seen tons of bobber builds on ZX750A where the builder shows of his/hers fab mechanical skills like in this good example that is currently for sale here. :sick: The seller has recently dropped the price by 400 USD and is now asking 800 USD.




I must say yours is an absolutely ”Kawai!” build! :woohoo: :woohoo:

The 800 USD bike? Yeah it’s still unsold, three months and counting. . . . :whistle: :whistle:

That is simply a hack job. I will say it again some people just shouldn't own tools.

That's what I'm talking about, while that bike clearly has other issues as well, the original tank doesn't work, at all, on that style bike.
The OP's bike is really great and well executed.

scubaanders wrote: After seen tons of bobber builds on ZX750A where the builder shows of his/hers fab mechanical skills like in this good example that is currently for sale here. :sick: The seller has recently dropped the price by 400 USD and is now asking 800 USD.

I must say yours is an absolutely ”Kawai!” build! :woohoo: :woohoo:

The 800 USD bike? Yeah it’s still unsold, three months and counting. . . . :whistle: :whistle:

Thanks, Baldy, I'm hoping you are referencing the orange one. . Removed and blew apart the carbs today. Reset the float levels to spec. Also found a large glob of black sticky crap in the #1 emulsion tube and main jet. It was completely blocked while the rest of the carbs are pristine as you would expect after a rebuild. I have to believe it was a chunk of that damnable black paint that made its way inside. I'll never paint another set of carbs. One would be wiser to house his 16 year old daughter in a Frat house than paint carbs.
I've got a set of carb wires for cleaning small passages. Removed and checked all pilot jets, clear and squeaky clean. Same with the main jets. All but #1 perfectly clean. Ran a wire (gently) down each brass air pipe. Reassembled and installed them. ZERO change in the symptoms. Screams on starter fluid, but won't stay running. Two quick bursts with the starter fluid, I"ll not get crazy with that stuff or I'll roast the rubber diaphragms.
As a bonus, I yanked the gas filled tuning bottle off its hook and a quart of gas hit the workbench and splattered everywhere. Landed on the front fender and effed that up, now needs repainted. :pinch: A bit flummoxed at the moment.