Rebuild of KZ1000J engine

Best thing I have found to remove gasket material without hurting or gouging the gasket surface is a good strong paint remover and razor blades!!! Brush this stuff on the gasket wait a few minutes then start scrapping with the razor blade. I sometimes brush on a 2nd and 3rd coat of paint remover before I start scrapping. You have better control with the brush on stripper than you do with the spray on strippers. All those fancy "gasket removers" are nothing more than paint stripper in a fancy can!!! Most strippers will eat the black paint right off your cases. So make sure you do not get it on your painted parts of your cases. Make sure the paint stripper you buy contains METHYLENE CHLORIDE. Thats the good stuff!!!! The bigger the skull and crossbones emblems on the can are the better the stripper seems to work.

The good stuff!!!!

 

wrote:

Best thing I have found to remove gasket material without hurting or gouging the gasket surface is a good strong paint remover and razor blades!!! Brush this stuff on the gasket wait a few minutes then start scrapping with the razor blade. I sometimes brush on a 2nd and 3rd coat of paint remover before I start scrapping. You have better control with the brush on stripper than you do with the spray on strippers. All those fancy "gasket removers" are nothing more than paint stripper in a fancy can!!! Most strippers will eat the black paint right off your cases. So make sure you do not get it on your painted parts of your cases. Make sure the paint stripper you buy contains METHYLENE CHLORIDE. Thats the good stuff!!!! The bigger the skull and crossbones emblems on the can are the better the stripper seems to work.The good stuff!!!! 

You might want to consider one of these, for under $10 with the blades from Amazon I find it easier to control the blade with a decent handle on it 

I find that gaskets come off more quickly and cleanly with a chisel or some other thicker sharp blade.

I agree on the chisel part. Have used it before and I find it effective now. I spray gasket remover on, wait, then use the chisel, then spray some more and so on. for some tricky areas I complement that with a scraper similar to what Wookie posted. I think the best thing with the chisel is that you can keep it parallel (or almost) with the surface you are cleaning, minimizing risk of cutting into the surface.

EDIT: I bought plastic scrapers after reading some advice somewhere, that was a complete joke.

I did an initial check up on the crankshaft. Side play is good and it feels solid doing the knocktest on the rods!

Ordered a new camchain + guides and some gaskets today, so hopefully I can get the crank case back togheter next week!

Hello again! started working in August and suddenly its mid September

I have been removing gaskets and power washing parts.

Went to the local bike guru with the head and cylinder. He will grind the valve seats and possibly change a couple of guides (he didnt think he would need to after a quick check).
I have ordered viton seals, the 18 mm o-rings for crankcase and oilpump (found they where not included in the gasket kit!).

Cylinder will be bored 0,5 mm, ordered a piston kit from the UK (IMD-pistons, googled them and they seem to have quality stuff). Pistons is currently in the Swedish customs, being examined it seems .

I will try Dr.Gammas paint stripper trick on the cylinder-crankcase gasket. thats the only one I have left, completely insane to get off.

Have cleaned and oiled and started preparing for putting case back together (waiting for the 0-rings):

 

Is Permatex Ultra Blue good enough between the case halves? It says in the service manual to use sparingly, anyone have a picture or something to show how little?

It seems one can adjust the crank a little left/right before torquing down (the axial clearence on the 5th bearing is fine), anything to look for when doing that? the gears or how close the connecting rods is to the case? Maybe just center the play?

thanks!

I’m not 100% sure on the J but on the Kz big fours the oil pump O-Ring that goes in between the upper and lower case is somewhat of a triangle profile with the pointed side down toward the lower case. Up in the position your showing your cases. Experts hopefully with confirm. 

 

I found the reference number (92055-048) on the cmsnl.com webside, and they point to the same o-ring that you show, so I ordered 2 of those. I cant really see that shape on the ones installed now, but maybe they are badly compressed? feels important to get this right though.

I can confirm that the o-ring Mikaw showed also applies to the J-engines. The triangle part on my old ones was so compressed is was hard to determine before hand, but side by side it was obvious.

Engine halves back together with the new Moore camchain in place:

 

Next up is cleaning and spray some paint on it.
I smeared some Loctite 5922 gasket sealant on the engine side of the oil pan gasket, then greased the side facing the pan. I hope thats a perfect mix for sealing and removability Ill report back in due time.

Last weekend I started experimenting on polishing the covers. The alternator and ignition covers where in pretty bad shape with lots of stone shots and blaster. Started with 400-800-1000 wet then polishing compound on the drill. I was surprised by the result in a good way, but I think I will give it another round as it gets a bit addicting The rear covers should be easy as they are in much better shape.
Next to the cover is some allen bolts I picked up today at the local hardware store. Approx 5 USD for all cover bolts! I find it really strange that every kit you see on ebay and such has stainless bolts!? I guess those threads wont survive another 40-50 years?



Its not even close yet, but when the time comes to start it up again. How do you prime the oil system?

I use these for scraping gaskets. They are as sharp as a razor and you can snap them to make them thinner. They also last longer than you think before they get dull. I did an entire four cylinder head with just one two inch knife snapped in half.
And it is impossible to knick the aluminum.

www.lowes.com/pd/QLT-by-Marshalltown-3-P...AvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Engine cleaned with scotch brite then paint prepp and painted with a basic engine enamel paint (that was recommended by the company doing the cylinder):



I then turned attention to the frame that was stripped down for powder coating:

Is there any mandatory frame braces that would be smart to weld in place now? Looks to me that the J frame has extra braces and reinforcements already that previous iterations lacked? One brace I have seen though from pictures is an extra bar in the lower corner of the rear triangle.

Also found that the center stand is a bit twisted. Need to figure out how to bend it back before the coating. I will give it a try in the vise tomorrow, afraid my entire work bench will come flying at me.

If an admin is reading this, maybe this thread should be moved to Projects?

Looking real nice, good work. The "P" appears to have braces between the side rails and the cross tube at the bottom (I will be adding these to mine once the motor is out)
 

Aha, never seen those. Do you have a picture of a P frame with them installed?

Here is a picture from bikeside.de where an extra reinforcement in the rear triangle is visable:
www.bikeside.de/mediafiles/Bilder/newclassicbikes_24.jpg

I wonder if it works with the original battery size and box however, maybe f you put them in low?

/Jonas