Saving a '81 KZ750-E

Done carefully, the crank came out with the top case half.

There is a lot of debris in the engine.

The main bearings are definitely in need of replacement.

Since I do not want to ship the case halves anywhere (afraid of damage), I have been searching for a vapor blast company near Reno, NV. The only thing I have been able to find is a soda blasting company. Maybe some engine rebuild shops would have a hot tank they can use to clean these up.

Good to see you back into it. Just a note for reassembly: it's a lot easier to follow the manual and put the crank and transmission into the inverted upper case and put the lower on top. This way you can line up the pins on the transmission bushings when the upper case is on the bench and the mating surfaces aren't covered in sealant. This means assembling the halves and then sliding the secondary shaft through the primary chain. It is possible the other way around, but it's really fiddly and quite frustrating - ask me how I know this
With your setup I would suggest assembling the halves on a bench and then putting the crankcase on the stand as a unit.

Edit: If you're going to paint the cases I would say soda blasting would be fine. It will get everything clean and you can rinse out the residue.

I will be using PJ1 Engine case paint to refinish them. Thanks for the tips!

I saw my bodywork at the paint shop today. All the green is layed down, needed to go over the stripe taping with him. Kicking myself for not taking any pictures! Can't wait to get them back! Should be sometime next week.

Pictures or it didn't happen... LOL

Since I forgot to take any, I will post up pics next week when I get them all back from the painter.

All of the debris in the engine turned out not to be metallic. I checked everywhere with a magnet, so it must be carbon deposits. I found similar debris when I drained the oil prior to taking the motor apart. Now I am left with an availability issue on the lower rod bearings. I need p/n 13034-051 Black bearings, and I could only find four of them, but need eight total. I got the last four Partzilla had. I found one (only one) on Ebay, but I really don't trust Ebay for precision parts. If anyone has any other sources they know of, please offer them up. Partzilla and Z1 Enterprises no longer have any.

Any aluminium floating around in the cases won't be picked up by a magnet. If all the bearing/mating faces are OK then that's not really a problem though. In that case, any aluminium is probably due to people like me working on the engine and knocking shit into it like an idiot

Edit: did you try CMS for the bearings? Shipping to the US shouldn't be too horrendous.

Yes I did. CMS is out of stock as well.

I guess I should have been more clear on the debris - nothing on the magnet, and upon further inspection nothing metallic. I am aware that aluminum is non-magnetic.

Skidmark wrote: I guess I should have been more clear on the debris - nothing on the magnet, and upon further inspection nothing metallic. I am aware that aluminum is non-magnetic.

I figured as much it was more for any young folk reading that may have forgotten all their high school physics

Edit: younger than me, that is...

I looked at CMS and they seem to have the bearings in stock but show a different part number. For the E1 (1980) the parts list shows the coloured bearings and the black one (and the newer versions) are available:
www.cmsnl.com/kawasaki-kz750e1-1980-usa-...90.html#.XtwcFW5uLic

The E2 just lists the black ones:
www.cmsnl.com/kawasaki-kz750e2-1981-usa-...32.html#.XtwcgW5uLic

Also, you'll need 10 in total, not 8.

Had a look at partzilla as well and they seem to have 92028-1101 in stock (and they're a lot cheaper than the newer version 92139-1072).