'78 KZ1000 Ugly Duckling

I've been putting the lump back together, using a few very specialized tools:

 

And now I find myself a bit confused. I've never undertaken a full, bottom-to-top rebuild, and as I've gone along it's gotten steadily more difficult to turn the motor by hand. Now that I've got it put together except for the top of the timing system and the head, I almost can't turn it at all. So, my question for those who kow is: should I tear it back down because I did something wrong (and, if so, what did I probably do wrong and should I figure on a new set of gaskets) or should I put 3.7 litres of oil in it and a little more oil into each cylinder and crank it until it eases up?

Thanks in advance

Hi Buz, couple of suggestions ​​​​

• has the timing chain dropped down and bunched up?
• is it in neutral?

if both of the above are ok the problem lies deeper. Don’t force it to turn or you will probably damage something 

It's in neutral. I'll check the chain with a light, but I don't think that's it. Thanks for the fast reply

Okay, update:

It's not so much that it's getting harder to turn as that it doesn't want to turn past a certain point (about 30 degrees of easy turning forward and backward. Clearly, I need to tear it down again. I'll post what dumbass thing it turns out I did—in the meantime, predictions are welcome.

So I put on my favorite video:



(I keep trying to place the narrator's accent. Upper Midwestern Polish American?)

and tore the motor down again step by step, trying to give the engine a gentle turn by hand at each step. After I removed the clutch, it turned easily. I reinstalled the clutch, and it still turns easily. Not sure what the issue was, but it was the clutch. So, back up I will build it, racing against UPS, who are bringing my parts from Liska tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the insights!

Good to hear it’s resolved with no damage 

Definitely operator error. I WAY overtightened the clutch spring bolts—pretty sure I must have gotten inch pounds mixed up with foot pounds. 

I decided, as long as I had it apart again, I might as well tart up the cylinder block with a little high temp paint and a bunch of sanding. Get a load of those jugs:


 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and my parts just arrived from Liska, so now I can build the whole motor.

Looking good Buzz, well worth the effort 

A colleague at the school I work at was going through the old inventory for our robotics program and brought me about 10 of these boxes, dismayed that we were saddled with so many of the same size machine screw:

 

I quickly assured him that I could find a good use for a whole bunch of them:

 

 

Apologies for the artsy B&W picture; I'm still getting used to my phone.

I'm not sure how much it would have cost me to buy that many stainless 6mm socket bolts online, but to do it at the local hardware store (the only game in a rural Utah town) would have required a 2nd mortgage. I'm so happy that I no longer have to overcome dozens of 45-year-old JIS screws to get into this engine.

I received a perfect cardboard cube in the mail today:

 

And it was full of timing goodies from Liska

 

It looks like I'm out of excuses to not put the motor together.

I looked at getting a set of head nuts, since the ones I've got look pretty gross, and I got a bad case of sticker shock. In for a penny in for a pound and all that, but I've got real misgivings about spending a C note on 12 nuts. Has anybody got insights about these—maybe stripping the chrome and then zinc plating them? As always, thanks in advance for any advice.

 

In anticipation of future horsepower, I got the frame brace kit from Half Evil


 

There weren't any instructions, but I slowly realized it didn't really need any. Each piece is scribed with "top" and an arrow. Again, I was a little slow to realize that the arrow meant that should be the direction of the front of the bike. Most pieces can only really fit one way, and the tube steel parts mostly fit just by jamming them where they go (no magnets or vise grips). Overall, I'm impressed by the fab work of this kit.

 

I'm in no danger of being mistaken for a welder, but I did get good penetration, and anyhow that's why I buy the family pack of flap discs:

 

And on we go.