Franken 550

i made a new clutch rod out of some tool steel and got the chain reconnected to the drive sprocket but now i've run into another issue.
Apparently the 550 clutch actuator does not push the rod as far as the 650 version as the bike jerks and stalls when put into gear, The cable and side cover bolt have been adjusted properly. the 650 didnt come with the left side engine cover, so no 650 clutch actuator. I guess ill pick one up on ebay?

Edit: bought a 79' 650 clutch actuator/engine cover, and 81 kz 750 stator / cover. The 650 clutch actuator should fix my clutch issues.

As for the stator: The 750s used the 3 wire stator so it should be compatible with the 550 wiring. The 750 and 650 engines were pretty much the same so the cover should fit. I also know that the 650 flywheel is the correct diameter for the 750 stator. I saw one auction that bundled the 750 flywheel as well, but the stator was in unknown condition so i opted to not buy that one.

We have good news.... the 81 kz750 stator cover fits perfect on the 650 block/flywheel! I haven't started the bike as i'm still working on the 4 into 1 exhaust so i haven't checked the voltages yet.

... and bad news: The 650 clutch cover still didnt fix my issue. I think its better than with the 550 but the bike still doesnt roll freely with the clutch in.
If i pull the clutch, hit the kick starter a few times, and then turn the rear wheel i only see a slight jerk in the crank pully.
If i only pull the clutch and then turn the rear wheel, the crank turns about 1/4 turn before it slips.
Using the kickstart with the clutch in causes the rear wheel to turn, but not the engine.

Perhaps my 550 clutch lever isn't pulling the cable far enough? I should look through the oil fill plug hole and see if the plates are separating. Any thoughts anyone? I think i'll wait till it runs + warms up as it just might be the cold oil.

cold oil, (old oil), has an adhesive bonding effect to the clutch steel and friction plates.
warm up the engine oil and try it again.

Well, I took her for a ride!

Stator is working fine as well as the capacitor battery. I also started swapping all the lights for LEDs and put in new flasher relays. The internet lied so i got the wrong instrument lights, so i have to wait for new ones of those.

Clutch worked fine....Don't mind my panic... I just didn't know what i was gonna do if that didnt fix it.

Exhaust has been fabricated and looks alright for my first time. Needs some paint or wrap for sure. It's also quite loud

the jets were drilled out to 112.5 and 35 from the stock 92 and 32. I still need to do some more testing with these.

Still been making progress. Made a paint booth in the garage and kept it warm with an electric heater while painting and a kerosene heater in between sessions. I decided on a black with red accents design like the W800 black edition. I used regular rusotleum (the quart cans) and laid it down with a harbor freight HVLP. The actual painting went great but the issue is the dang oil based paint. The only way to dry it is to wait a year or bake it in an oven which is obviously not possible for larger stuff. Paint was peeling off under bolt heads during assembly and some paint would come off just from routing the wiring through. I sanded it well and cleaned it before paint so i've learned my lesson. Next time will be 2k epoxy primer (i have two gal of the stuff for undercoating a Saab 95 which i should've used here) and single stage black. Super frustrating after all the time i put into it.


Tank before basecoat. Don't worry i fixed the runs! The tank did turn out nice in the end so ill bake it and hope it stays that way.


Here she is about a week ago, since then i've put the all the wiring and accessories on the bike.


Also checked the valve lash. Before (Yikes!):

After. The kz550 was happy to donate all the shims i needed. neat!


Did the timing with no issues thanks to turns out the 79 650 manual is hard to find online.


Today im gonna take the motor to the car wash and get the rest of the motor clean so it can be painted with VHT. I was doing it by hand with aluminum cleaner (acid) and it was jsut too much of a pain to get all the crap in the fins.

...Paint was peeling off under bolt heads during assembly and some paint would come off just from routing the wiring through. I sanded it well and cleaned it before paint so i've learned my lesson. Next time will be 2k epoxy primer (i have two gal of the stuff for undercoating a Saab 95 which i should've used here) and single stage black. Super frustrating after all the time i put into it.

You can't do good paint without making some mistakes and reworks in the beginning, all part of the learning process. Smaller test pieces are the way to go when unsure.

Careful with the 2k isocyanites - correct respirator, goggles, gloves and no bare skin. Lethal stuff potentially, greater danger is sensitization so things go bad if you are exposed to it in the future.

Paraffin heater might be a bad idea as it puts water vapour into the air, something best avoided when spraying , particularly the bare metal stage. I only paint now when the weather is hot.

I think part of the issue was the clear coat i tried out for UV protection. youre not supposed to use clear on enamel but some people reported success with it if applied correctly.... as in it has to be applied after the coat flashes but not too long after as it peels the paint. I dunno how much this affected the adhesion.

I do have a full face respirator and have read about that nasty stuff. Ill be careful for sure.

Yeah, true about the water vapor... winter has lots of dry air right? haha I am at a higher elevation so its pretty dry all year...Ive left an underbody sandblasted for months and it hasn't rusted! Pretty impressive.

I did get the motor painted last night so i need to let that cure (i'm thinking a giant cardboard box and a heater will do) and then the motor can be dropped (heaved, with lots swearing) in. I'm also waiting on a new chain, mirrors, rear tire and the oil filter

Part 1/2: Time for an update on the assembly of the bike.

First thing to do was get the motor in the frame. The forks should've been put on first, but you know, waiting for parts. I laso got the new tires mounted on the rims...That was fun.


Installed the new chain, They had a red one so why not eh? Had to cut out two links and steal the masterlink from the old chain. This is a stock kz550 ltd replacement chain/sprocket set and will give me a bit higher top speed due to the 650 gearing.


Installed my diy carb boots. These are much sturdier than the first revision so we'll see if they hold up


Cleaned the advancer which was stuck and probably caused some of the weird power loss that I had. I also replaced the phillips with nice allen bolts.


$100 of stainless allen bolts which will replace side cover bolts, turn signal mounts etc.


Bit more assembled

Part 2/2:
Forks installed. It looks fantastic but the LTD seat, ignition cover and alternator cover need some red to tie them in to the color scheme. Tailight needs to go as well. But those can be done later. Paint needs to be touched up, but again, at a later time.


I plan to finish the last few things (clean tank, install exhaust, install front caliper) and start it up today. The bad thing is that i'm already dreaming of the next build! i'm thinking another kz550 frame, newer water cooled 1200 motor, forks/swingarm swap.

Aggghhh this forum. It wouldn't let me post and kept deleting the image links in the post... im guessing there's a picture limit, but it didn't give any errors!

Nice job!
I saw you mentioned the screws in the timing/pickup plate. Some should be brass (non-magnetic) and some should be steel.
They are actually JIS screws (as opposed to philips).
This link shows where the brass ones and steel ones go.
s3.amazonaws.com/gpzweb/Ignition/PickupA.../PickupAndRotor.html

Also, I saw you mentioned capacitor. If the bike is to be wired permanently for a capacitor instead of a battery, there are a couple things you may want to do, or maybe you already did them. For one, the headlight and any other lights should be wired so you can turn them off. Without it, it will be much harder to start with the capacitor. And if your regulator/rectifier has a brown wire, you should wire that to the output wire of the regulator/rectifier to protect the capacitor. Some reg/recs don't have a brown wire in which case you don't have to worry about it.

Ah good point on the screws, i do believe the outer ones are steel, but i will double check. and haha yea, JIS, sorry, i still hate them as half of them are stripped from the previous owner!

My start switch box thing on the handle bars does have the slot for a headlight on/off switch but is blocked off due to gov regulations...Wish i could find one of these switches

Ill check into that brown wire (which i found out to be the battery voltage sense line)

I did get it running last night!


.

Yes, the brown wire is the sense line. In normal wiring, if you shut off the key, the sense line gets disconnected. If the motor continues to turn, not actually firing, but turning as if you are coasting down hill etc, the alternator is still putting out power, but the regulator can't regulate since the sense line has been disconnected. Additionally, there won't be any of the alternator power being used for lights or ignition since the key is off. This will cause the reg/rec to pump uncontrolled, full power into the capacitor, which may then reach much higher voltages than it was designed to. A battery can handle this short-term abuse because the excess power will dissipate as current flows through the battery. But capacitors cannot flow DC current indefinitely, so their voltage just increases. If it exceeds the voltage rating of the cap, it will short. The simple solution is to wire the sense line permanently to the output so the regulator will always regulate.

The brass screws are used because if magnetic screws are used, they will weaken the effect of the magnets in the pickups. This can cause a hard-to-start situation in some cases. (Some sets of magnets were weaker than others in the Kz pickups).

For going battery-less, I use a relay to automatically turn the lights off when the bike shuts off. Then I use the starter button as a trigger to turn the lights on after the motor is running. The relay is self-holding so it shuts off when the motor stops.

I have to bumpstart my batteryless 550. I do sometimes wish it had a kicker. Gravel parking lots mean I will be pushing if it shuts off.