1978 KZ1000-A2 "Barn find"

Yea. Came with the kit. Was pretty happy to see that. Meant I could get rid of my cheapo one I had bent up for the other side.

Probably need need to find another center stand now to cut down that kick part. Sticks out way far without an exhaust there.

Yep I see that. I’m sure it could be modified. That’s a good idea for a new post, asking if anyone has and how they did.

Capped off the vacuum line on the petcock and carburator. Left it on prime, and got perhaps one of the tiniest little drisp from one of the overflows, so I'm pretty happy with that until my new diaphragm comes in.

Just took it down the road and WOW! Now that all 4 cylinders are firing properly this thing really pulls. Had it up to 80kms and barely had to take it to 3rd gear.

Sounds great with the new exhaust.

My back brake seems to be rubbing. I've noticed it seems harder than it should be to roll it around in neutral, and after stopping the rear disc was quite hot, so I guess I'll be driving into that issue soon.

Speaking of hot, the engine does seem to get incredibly hot quite fast. Wondering if maybe it's running too lean on all 4 to cause this? It's too hot to pull plugs and check them right now, but perhaps after a beer or two it will cool down enough and maybe they can tell me a story...

I almost asked if you had the rear wheel off. In the recent photo from behind it looked like the rear wheel is shifted to the left. I just thought it was the camera angle. Do you have a manual? You should check the sequence of the spacers to make sure they are correct.

Brakes turn out to be an easy fix. The brake push rod (which is yellow zinc plated BTW) was too tight. Not enough play in the pedal.

With regards to the rear tire, I tightened the chain yesterday, and it seems I failed to get the tire perfectly straight. I guess I happened to stop it in the orientation that shows it most crooked.

Good to hear. Pull the chain guard and check the alignment. Front and rear sprockets need to be in a straight line. Put the bike on the center stand and slowly spin the rear wheel. Watch the teeth of the rear sprocket as they enter (engage) the chain. You want the teeth to land as close to center between the chain side plates as you can get. Then ride the bike in a safe area and briefly hover your hand above the crips and see if it track straight

Thanks for the tips. New chain is on a FedEx truck as we speak, so I don't think I'm going to worry about it too much at the moment. Will definitely use you advice in a few days though.

Checked the plugs.

#1 - rich


#2 - rich


#3 - WTF?


#4 - lean? Or correct?


No for a silly question that I still can't get my head around: pilot screw IN to lean it up and OUT to enrichen? Or visa-versa?

If the pilot screw is behind the slide it is an air screw, in to richen the idle mixture, out to lean. If the screw is in front of the slide it is an fuel mixture screw, so out for rich and in for lean.
Nice work on your Barn find BTW!

Mike

krazee1 wrote: If the pilot screw is behind the slide it is an air screw, in to richen the idle mixture, out to lean. If the screw is in front of the slide it is an fuel mixture screw, so out for rich and in for lean.
Nice work on your Barn find BTW!

Mike

Thank you.
To clarify, "behind" = "engine side", "front" = "intake side?"

Sorry, poor description, behind is airbox side, front is engine side.

Mike