1981 Kawasaki KZ750 Resurrection

[blowerbike]

F ing wow!!!!

[Nessism]

Degreased and cleaned for blasting...


P1010312 by nessism, on Flickr

P1010314 by nessism, on Flickr

P1010315 by nessism, on Flickr



Can work on the engine in the evenings since it's so dark outside...

P1010324 by nessism, on Flickr

P1010325 by nessism, on Flickr

[Vmass]

Engine out and head off. Glad to report the cylinders look good without any internal corrosion. Can't say the same about the brake calipers; found pitting on all three pistons. Need to take apart the masters next, but can't get the screws out of the front master. Tried an impact but the screw heads are stripping anyway.

Geez......at your current pace you'll be taking it for a February ride!!

[Nessism]

Engine out and head off. Glad to report the cylinders look good without any internal corrosion. Can't say the same about the brake calipers; found pitting on all three pistons. Need to take apart the masters next, but can't get the screws out of the front master. Tried an impact but the screw heads are stripping anyway.

[Nessism]

Ed, are the spider's webs really scratchy and crackly?

Not sure I'd use those words to describe the webs Tom. The webs are just like that photo shows in that they are very random, messy, disorganized. Almost looks like the typical abandoned web after a few weeks. These ladies are not good housekeepers.

[tkent02]

Ed, are the spider's webs really scratchy and crackly?

[Nessism]

What kind of spider is it? and is it poisonous? we have lots of spiders, up here and big ones but only one that is poisonous and they are far and few between.

Those cam lobes look good. The spider, not so much.

[azr]

What kind of spider is it? and is it poisonous? we have lots of spiders, up here and big ones but only one that is poisonous and they are far and few between.

[Nessism]

Made some good progress, and some good news. The inside of the engine looks clean. Hopefully the cylinders look similar.

P1010282 by nessism, on Flickr



P1010284 by nessism, on Flickr

P1010283 by nessism, on Flickr


Found a friend keeping an eye on the bike for me. These little buggers are everywhere in my area. Have to pay attention.

P1010255 by nessism, on Flickr

P1010257 by nessism, on Flickr

[Nessism]

I could not agree with you more, Ed. It is a rudimentary site compared to GSR. You are fortunate that Patton, 650ed, and others are there now. Years ago, it was pretty much dead, and virtually impossible to get questions answered.
One word of caution, I purchased 2 kaw cables from Z1E. Both were MotionPro, and both were wrong.
Kaws are not picky about using OEM gaskets like GS machines are. I have yet to purchase an OEM gasket for either Kaw.
Did you see the sites to order from, and how to find the OEM parts diagrams?
If you need any shims, I have a ton of them.

AFA the carbs, you will like them over the Mikunis. You can clean them with spray, and they don't clog up like the Mikunis. And you can buy cheap boots off ebay if you need them, they work just fine.
And they do not have the charging/stator/wiring problems like the GS machines.

George,

I bought an OEM head and base gasket, and also what I'm told is an aftermarket gasket kit as sold though Kawasaki's accessory group. Learned my lesson regarding Athena gaskets. Kawasaki parts seem to be plentiful on ebay and such so I'll stay OEM where possible. It's nice to see what the parts look like before purchasing too. I learned about differences in throttle cables that way.

Bought one of those Shindengen series R/R's for it to take care of the charging system. The existing unit was covered in white powdery corrosion. Must have been running quite hot and burned off all the anodizing or paint.

Since there are so many OEM Kawasaki parts on ebay it's easy to check to see

AFA the carbs, you will like them over the Mikunis. You can clean them with spray, and they don't clog up like the Mikunis. And you can buy cheap boots off ebay if you need them, they work just fine.
And they do not have the charging/stator/wiring problems like the GS machines.

I could not agree with you more, Ed. It is a rudimentary site compared to GSR. You are fortunate that Patton, 650ed, and others are there now. Years ago, it was pretty much dead, and virtually impossible to get questions answered.
One word of caution, I purchased 2 kaw cables from Z1E. Both were MotionPro, and both were wrong.
Kaws are not picky about using OEM gaskets like GS machines are. I have yet to purchase an OEM gasket for either Kaw.
Did you see the sites to order from, and how to find the OEM parts diagrams?
If you need any shims, I have a ton of them.

[Nessism]

I see you picked up a factory service manual. It is organized just like a GS manual. It covers the E models (yours) and the H models (LTDs, their version of an L ).

Yeah, manual on the way. Also started gathering parts like gaskets.

Researching on KZrider is even more difficult than here. Those guys must get a ridiculous number of repetitive topics because the search function spits out posts related to the search term, not threads. In particular was trying to figure out what cables to order, and wanted to see if the GPZ cables will fit on my bike because I plan to use the lower lower handlebars. Seems the answer is the clutch cable will fit but not the throttle cable because the carbs are different. Researching stuff like this is proving to be a lot of work.

I see you picked up a factory service manual. It is organized just like a GS manual. It covers the E models (yours) and the H models (LTDs, their version of an L ).
The baseline is 1980, then there will be an appendum that covers the changes between 1980 & 1981. In the appendix is a very nice color wiring diagram. I blew it up to 11x17 for troubleshooting.