1978 KZ650 Bike Build

For the last month I've just been cleaning bits and pieces and measuring things to make sure everything is clean and in spec. All the bolts and bolt holes have been tapped or run through a die to help with re-assembly. I also have been taking stock of what I have that I can use on this bike. I have pretty much everything electrical for a Z1, including wiring harnesses, signals, head and tail lights, horn, etc. The coils came with this bike, along with the regulator.

The replacement tail piece finally arrived today. I ordered it on Jan 6, so it took a long time to get here. Most of the time was spent in customs for some reason, as the seller shipped right away. I can only assume covid is tying things up at the border these days. Anyway, the new piece is in fantastic condition. Just what I need and well worth the wait.

Next on the agenda is to have the new piece welded onto the frame. Then sand blast.

Looks like the right tail piece.

I haven’t stopped cleaning. Today it was the horn. Pulled a dumb move. I didn’t test it before I spent hours on it... it works intermittent. I guess it a lesson learned.

iirc the horn grounds though the handlebars. Are you sure you have a good ground?

Does your horn have an adjusting screw? If so, play around with it a little bit.

hardrockminer wrote: Does your horn have an adjusting screw? If so, play around with it a little bit.

It’s off the bike. Hooked directly to a charged battery.

Yes it has an adjustment screw, I tried tweaking it a bit. It will sound for a short time and then stop. If I tap it on the work bench a few times it will sound again. Something in the armature is tight, I have the one off my ‘76 900 LTD and the threaded post (armature)where the diaphragm bolts it’s considerably slacker. I found a $16.00 replacement that looked clean. We’ll see when the post person (lol) drops it off.

I have a spare repro tank and sidecovers for a Z1B that I thought might be fittable for the KZ650 so I pulled them out today to try them on the frame. They are too big, so I guess eventually I'll have to find a tank and side covers. I'm wondering if anyone knows....are the KZ550 series tanks or covers the same as the 650? What about the KZ750 series?

Yesterday I drove to Kelowna, in the Okanagan Valley to see a '78 KZ650 that an owner was stripping down to build a bobber. He said he bought it from an estate where the owner had died suddenly. From what I saw the bike had been carefully tended for many years and I felt badly that a perfectly good bike was being stripped to make a bobber. My only consolation is that I picked up as many pieces as I could get, and got a promise of first dibs on anything else the owner didn't want. The photo below shows what I picked up...sidecovers and tail piece, rear fender (inner and outer) and tail light, signals, mirrors and the bars complete with controls. I looked around the guy's yard and he has a lot of projects on the go, so I'm not sure he will ever finish this one. If not, I have dibs on the swingarm, shocks, pipes (original, in excellent condition) brake assembly and any other parts that I may need.

The paint on the sidecovers and tail piece is original and in very good shape. Now I need to find a blue tank to match.

Currently waiting for a triple tree to arrive via ebay. Then a trip to my sand/vapour blaster to get the frame etc ready for paint.

Does he have rear grab handles? I need pair!

Nice score. What a shame, but like a successful organ transplant some of the generous donor will live on... hopefully that will give you some comfort and allow you to erase the egregious hack job you were forced to witness.

It makes my heart bleeding seeing so nice parts rip off a nice and perfectly stock bike :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

Yes, I have a dull ache in the pit of my stomach when I think about how I would feel if someone did that to one of my bikes. The original owner must have loved riding. The bike had over 45k kilometers on the speedo. The gauges were in first class condition other than the usual faded tach redline. Wish I had gotten the tank, but it was gone when I arrived. I definitely want the exhaust, and I know the new owner won't use it on his project. He had a half dozen other project bikes in various states of disrepair.

The triple tree arrived today in the mail. It came with all the hardware plus the steering bearings, which are in good condition. I need to blast them and repaint. I need to schedule a Saturday with my vapour blast buddie. I usually drive down early in the morning, arriving around 8 AM and then we work most of the day cleaning everything. Maybe this Saturday.

I am wondering....what tanks will fit on a KZ650? Will a 550 tank fit? How about a 750 tank?

Weather was improving so I decided to drive to Chilliwack last week to sandblast my frame and vapourblast my engine parts.  But my friend down there is closed for a few weeks because he injured one of his hands and can't run his shop.  So I'm just waiting until he's ready to go again.

Meanwhile I ordered a few screws and bolts from a supplier, called Japan Moto Nuts.  It's a small company run by a guy named Frederic Drago (frederic.drago@gmail.com)  that supplies JIS products for vintage motorcycles.  This was my first time ordering from them, as in the past I've cleaned and replated old fasteners.  But I wanted to buy a couple of tools from them too.  In the photo you can see a couple of JIS Impact screwdrivers, a small ratchet for tight spaces and some screw extractors for those button head screws with damaged heads.  Currently Japan is not mailing stuff to Canada due to covid so I had them sent by UPS.  UPS wouldn't send them to an individual so I created a fictional company called WM Enterprises.  (My initials!)  It worked just fine! 

The quality of the products I ordered was 10 out of 10!  The screws arrived a couple of weeks ago.  The bolts took longer because he had to grind markings off the heads and then have them re-plated.  They arrived today.  I'm a very satisfied customer!

You can find the company here.   www.japanmotonuts.com/