Need confirmation that timing is set wrong on my 1976 KZ900

You would need to consider the width of the cam cover hump. Adding an axle with both ends nutted would greatly increase the width. I think the simplest is to drill and tap the OEM axle and add a button/truss head m6 bolt 

Mikaw wrote:

Zed1015, not sure if we should continue here or start another thread, mods? 

Have you had any issue with the repaired gears wear on the metal brackets? I had a local machinist make me up some gears, with your guidance. My concern is the full side face of the repaired gear in contact with the bracket. I noticed on the OEM gears there is a second metal sleeve the needle bearing presses into that is .88mm wider than the gear width. 13.23mm vs 14.11mm. This second sleeve would be the thrust surface for the gear and considerably reduced the contact surface between the fabricated aluminum hub and the bracket. I’m thinking of having my gears reworked to have the second sleeve pressed into the new fabricated aluminum. Thoughts?. See photo of inside of bracket. You can see the wear pattern of the second sleeve highlighted with red arrows 



 

I used to make them like that with the wider original sleeve installed (see pic) but it just introduced the increased possibity of runout due to the stack up of tolerances which resulted in too many rejects..
I now make them with the one piece solid ally center slightly narrower so that there's clearance either side and they self center and run clear of the sides when the chain is tensioned.
If you look at the solid Liska, PMC ones ( bottom pic ) they are the same.

 
 

This is the one I modified. The roller was shot and rubbed on the top of the bridge thus the bulge.  

 

It ran well with a used roller until I replaced it with Liska's. Yes I did have to grind the valve cover a bit for it to fit. 
KZ1000 that came with the junk head I'm using today 
 

It's shorter than the Z1 so it's easier to remove the cam cover.  
 

I don't throw anything away just leave it in the dirt.    

 

Steve

zed1015 wrote:

Mikaw wrote:

Zed1015, not sure if we should continue here or start another thread, mods? 

Have you had any issue with the repaired gears wear on the metal brackets? I had a local machinist make me up some gears, with your guidance. My concern is the full side face of the repaired gear in contact with the bracket. I noticed on the OEM gears there is a second metal sleeve the needle bearing presses into that is .88mm wider than the gear width. 13.23mm vs 14.11mm. This second sleeve would be the thrust surface for the gear and considerably reduced the contact surface between the fabricated aluminum hub and the bracket. I’m thinking of having my gears reworked to have the second sleeve pressed into the new fabricated aluminum. Thoughts?. See photo of inside of bracket. You can see the wear pattern of the second sleeve highlighted with red arrows 




 

I used to make them like that with the wider original sleeve installed (see pic) but it just introduced the increased possibity of runout due to the stack up of tolerances which resulted in too many rejects..
I now make them with the one piece solid ally center slightly narrower so that there's clearance either side and they self center and run clear of the sides when the chain is tensioned.
If you look at the solid Liska, PMC ones ( bottom pic ) they are the same.

  
 

Thank you. Never noticed the Liska design. 

Thanks for sharing pics .I now thinking of just using the 1977 type .I like the older type better,but not sure i will start the hassle changing the rollersprocket from the one i just bought. Fond out i will have to modify drill bigger holes in the 4 rubber plates underside to make the larger dowel pins with the flange fit.Since the kz900 shopmanual shows the newer type im okay with that ..ithink...

Now for a new question about the piston to cyl wall clearance. I sent a mail to IMD pistons and asked about the clearance they recomend .
That clearance is .038 mm  .I told them i will reuse the OEM kawasaki pistons.The answer was that they recomend going .040 mm.
I dont think i will take the chance of that because the oem pistons will maybe swell up more like Zed1015 says. I will tell the shop to bore them .060 to .065 .What do you think?  The manual spec is .060-.079mm

My personal opinion (especially when your machine shop isn't round the corner) would be as you say to go with the "low end" of factory spec

Rolf1976_KZ900 wrote:

 I will tell the shop to bore them .060 to .065 .What do you think?  The manual spec is .060-.079mm

Yes! Number the pistons 1-2-3-4 and get the shop to bore the liners to each piston .
Get them to go as close to the lower end clearance specs as possible and plateu hone for the final finish to reduce running in time.
Also get them to bore the block in the sequence of 2 - 4 - 1 - 3 unless they let the block fully cool between each individual bore as this reduces unwanted expansion during the boring process which can knock out the clearance specs.
 

zed1015 wrote:

Rolf1976_KZ900 wrote:

 I will tell the shop to bore them .060 to .065 .What do you think?  The manual spec is .060-.079mm

Yes! Number the pistons 1-2-3-4 and get the shop to bore the liners to each piston .
Get them to go as close to the lower end clearance specs as possible and plateu hone for the final finish to reduce running in time.
Also get them to bore the block in the sequence of 2 - 4 - 1 - 3 unless they let the block fully cool between each individual bore as this reduces unwanted expansion during the boring process which can knock out the clearance specs.

I have put the page from shop manual that explains the boring sequence and clearances in the box  and added a note that i want .060 to .065mm .Also called them.
I hope they will do same quality job like the one the other machine shop did on the FJ1200 .



 

.Maybe not so interesting ,but think i found out why the camchain tensioner acting like it did not work right earlier when tried to set the timing. The problem then was that the chain was too lose.The coned plunger was placed wrong way inside the tensioner .That made it stick
so it did not release right.I remember that when i installed it the way it is supposed to by first push plunger in and then lock the adjusterscrew and install the hole unit.When i then released the adjuster screw it did not make any click noise also no noise when turning the engine on crank. The spring was also weak and had been shorter so have now fitted a new spring.

Today i have recieved  the cylinders from the Machine shop .I am not so impressed that they have used a ballhone to finish !.The shop is a big professional shop that has been in buisness for many years .
The surface looks to rough .Also the angle is a little steep?   Compared to the other shop that bored and honed the cylinders on my FJ1200 they look to rough.the fj cylinders is in the last picture.The price for honing and decking was 930 usd. I have not had time to measure the clearances yet.

 

Just did some measurements and it was not as i hoped.Seems they not have used the pistons and bored from there.,but the clearances is on the small size so that is good.I will do some more measuring later and may switch the pistons in their bores .I can also hone a little