KZ650 cafe-racer

R35. Cool looking bike but they seem to sell for crazy money.

crazy temperature. Be sure to drink lots of cold beer. Cant get dehydrated 

wrote:

So every 5C = 1 cam chain link.   

Never noticed that! So today it was 7 links and one pin above zero.

JR post=850718R35. Cool looking bike but they seem to sell for crazy money.

crazy temperature. Be sure to drink lots of cold beer. Cant get dehydrated 

Parts for them cost crazy money too. I am glad that it's not me who has to pay the bills. However, I am trying to do my best to sort things that are not totally spoiled by rust or chisel and hammer (one of the engines looks like chisel and hammer were main tools during numerous cases of disassembling and assembling) and could be reused/rescued.
 
And I'll definitely have some beer when I sort out things and make a list of parts to buy.

 

Another item in my list of preassembling  works was final transmission assembling. When I was cleaning and checking gearbox, I found out that it’s condition was perfect, the most of measurements were well within not only service limit, but also within “standard” range. The only thing that was without specs was diameter of copper bushing of first gear on output shaft. I received new gear long ago. Here are new and old gears side by side. The stuff on new gear is not rust but remains of  factory applied preservative oil.


 

 

That’s how new gear looks once cleaned.

 

I oiled it with engine oil and put it in the place. Along with it I installed a new O-ring between the output bearing and sprocket collar.

 

 

As for the drive shaft, I had to replace two circlips.

 

This type of retaining clips are hard to control with standard type of special pliers for circlips, so during removal  their  gap becomes significantly larger. It’s hard to notice without new circlips at hand, but it is so and that’s why the OEM service manual recommends replacing them with new rings once they are removed. However, the main issue is not to remove them, but install them without too extensive expansion. For this reason there is a special tool for installing such circlips in the list of special tools for Kawasaki KZ650. However, the tool itself is not available for a long time, so it’s only images may be found in the list of special tools and in the service manual. I did some experiments to find a way to make the installation of circlips on the drive shaft less painful, but  it turned out that the simplest way is to replicate Kawasaki’s special tool. For this purpose I found a piece of 25mm PVC pipe and shaped it similarly to an OEM tool, with constriction on the top and protrusions long enough to pass the first groove for snap ring.

 

This tool has to be installed on drive shaft of transmission like this:

 

Constriction on the top helps to drive circlip on the tool body:

 

As a driver I used a length of suitable metal pipe (stainless steel wheel spacer in fact).

 

As there is no step between the tool and splines  of the shaft (or even if there is a small one) it is easy to push the snap ring on the shaft.

 

Once the retaining clip  passed the first groove, the tool could be removed.

 

And rings pushed further to its own groove:

 

Then it was time to install a second ring in the same way. Sure, some oil was applied to make installation of both rings even more smooth.

 

Special tool and drive shaft with installed circlips:

 

The last assembling movements were to install the bushing of fifth gear in the correct position and to install the last two gears and needle bearing.

 

Transmission was ready and one more item on the list was completed.

 

Well, this series of posts are dedicated solely to the rotor holder I made for the Kawasaki KZ650.

Application of this tool to the KZ650 engine, unlike KZ750 and Zephyr 750, is limited by only two cases:  installation/removing alternator (dynamo) rotor itself and installation of secondary shaft gear (when a non OEM special tool is used). In the case of KZ750 and Zephyrs it is also used to remove/install secondary shaft nut. As I have both KZ650 and Zephyr 750 engines, I decided to make a proper rotor holder.

I didn’t like the idea of making U bent from three pieces of tube. However, after a short thinking I  suddenly realized that I already have all necessary (well, mostly all) components at hand! The moment the idea sprang in my mind I was rummaging through the content of the locker where I store old used (some of them in fact are mostly new) drive chains, sprockets and brake discs. In a matter of minutes I was holding in my hands a perfect blank for future rotor holder. It was a rear sprocket from some Honda. All else was just a matter of simple operations: cutting, hammering and welding. Soon new special tool for Kawasaki rotors were mostly ready and I liked it as it was: bare metal with zones were it changed the colour around welding seams. So I cleaned the handle  with sandpaper and wire brush wheel and treated the tool with rust converting/protective chemicals. After this all that I had to do to finish the rotor holder was to buy two threaded pins with hexagon sockets and slightly modify them on lathe.

Dunno how to properly describe the tool I designed. If there was division of special tools into defensive and offensive, this tool of mine would be for sure classified as offensive. But anyway, let’s stop writing words and take a look on rotor holder:


 

 

 

 

I preferred to use thread pins instead of bolts. The ends of both pins were processed on lathe to fit holes in the rotor. The height of the reduced parts is less than the depth of holes, so magnets couldn’t be damaged incidentally.

 

Position of one pin is fixed by a nut. This simplifies usage of the holder since the user has to operate only second pin.

 



That’s how holder looks with rotor locked in place:

 

What else could I say about my rotor holder? One could have fun with it. Just imagine short advertising:This special tool may be used in hand-to-hand combat, recommended for warriors of 44 and higher levels (for dwarves from 32 level). With patented  “death star” attachment it could be turned into a portable annihilator. Crash the rebellion today, save the Empire tomorrow. Beware of recoil. Do not use it on pets. Smile.

 

 

Photos above shot by Oksana Sakharova