I'm still not getting a ton of time to really dedicate to the bike but parts are rolling in and we are close to making actual progress. I have been tinkering with the idea of an LTD rear swingarm since it adds a little wheelbase. The internet says a couple inches but I see a little over an inch. In this pic you can see the LTD arm is wider as well as longer so it adds some complexity with the chain side shock mount on the frame. I have just enough threads to tighten down the acorn nut when the shock is positioned correctly but I may still consider welding on an extended stud for beef status.
I ordered some new shouldered hoops off of ebay from Italy. Sizes 2.15x18 up front and a 2.5x18 out back. I decided to go more conservative as these sizes are more in line with what vintage racers would run and should still give me the look and performance I'm after. When I got sent tracking info I was shocked it was through UPS and even more crazy was they said in two days I would receive them. Of course I thought that was a mistake, but sure enough they dropped at my doorstep in two friggin days. After looking at the hole pattern for the front wheel I may have to do some head scratching.
I then spent a lot of time narrowing down what tires I would run. Continental has come out with some newer Classic Attack series tires aimed at the vintage crowd looking for some modern performance. They are a bit pricey but I figured the money I saved on a cheap donor justified the purchase. So up front we will have 90/90/18 and out back a 110/90/18. I wanted to run a 100/90 or 100/80 out back but they don't have any narrower options so we will see how this goes.
The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a couple more items in the pic above. One of the biggest purchases I've made is carbs. After looking at the mess the PO left me, I decided to start with a fresh set of vm30 Mikuni roundslides. There are a bunch of kits out there that supposedly come prejetted but I've been warned there will be tinkering ahead. I'm okay with that. A common suggestion from people in the know was to contact the folks at SUDCO and ask for a baseline setup before buying any off the shelf options. So that's what I did. After reviewing the jets and slide I was a bit dissapointed. There are a few parts houses selling the same setup for less. Wah wah wah.....
Either way, they look purty and it should be a fun exercise getting the setup ideal for my application. Notice the new carb boots as well.
Then on to the headlight bracket. I plan to make my own similar to my old bike way at the top of this thread, but for now some cheap adjustable ones from Amazon will do the trick. If it didn't have the hole for a signal stock I'd probably just keep them.
The parts list is getting way shorter. Once I have decided about the swingarm stuff, I'll be able to pick out some shocks as the length will have to change. I'll probably go with some Hagons but have heard good things about YSS for a while. I could also drop some coin for a set of Ikons (Koni) or some big buck on Works. Not sure I'm at the baller status yet. The biggest hurdle I see on the swingarm is contact with the exhaust. I'm not keen on the idea of buying a new exhaust right now and I believe it will contact the top of the mufflers in full droop. Some cut and weld may have to happen for clearance.
Had I kept mine the mikunis were on the short list of upgrades.
In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
For years I wanted to get a set for other projects but never could justify the expense. Same with shocks. Gonna go a little fancier on those as well.
Awesome buy, love seeking old small displacement ujms come back to life.
My first bike was a KZ400. I eventually got confident enough as a rider to discover that if you really banked it hard into a turn the rear wheel would hop like crazy, and you would go off the road. Fortunately, I went into a freshly plowed field, and the only damage was a scratch on the gas tank.
Like everyone else, I give you credit for resurrecting that bike! I'll be following this thread.
Not much done last night other than installing the new petcock and fuel line stuff. I'm not super happy with the outcome but it should work just fine. The petcock outlet is larger than a lot of the aftermarket ones which often have issues keeping fuel in carbs when giving it the beans. I see no reason why this shouldn't be up to the task. Also only cost about $15 so hopefully it doesn't turn out to be junk 100 miles away from civilization.
I also spent some time tinkering with the swingarm stuff again. Pretty sure I'll just keep the original one and leave the LTD one on the shelf. It introduces more problems than it's worth and I confirmed is only 1 1/4" longer. The juice is not worth the squeeze. More time was also spent measuring for shocks and front fender stuff.
I would trust a good welder to extend that plate on the back of the original swing arm an inch or two. Looks pretty robust.
In reply to 1SlowVW :
It is on the list of options. I stared at both pretty good last night and considered sleeving as well as rosette welding a bit of both to extend enough. I'm not in a rush, but it would hold me back from final decision on rear shock length. What kinda made me say "why bother?" was swapping between both swingarms, it was difficult to really see a significant enough difference. Running the chain another link or so would set the rear wheel almost to the same position I desired which seemed way easier.
I decided to swap out the oil filter now that I've got a new sidecover gasket but ran into a snag. Someone gacked up the threads on the oil filter bolt. First attempts with large vice grips didn't work. Heat wasn't helping. The oil filter assembly has some ribs beefy enough to handle a cold chisel and hammer beating, so I tried that. I managed to get it to loose enough but the bolt wouldn't turn. So I hammered on a multipoint socket and used the breaker bar hoping it would let go. At this point I had wasted over a half hour, but this finally did the trick. Many success! Unfortunately the destroyed oil filter bolt means I have to wait to finish the oil change while waiting on a replacement. Progress is progress though. Hoping this weekend I can knock a bunch of stuff off the list. Valve lash adjustment? Maybe try and strip the paint of the engine? Front fork cleaning and fresh fork fluid? Removing old tires and unlacing current rims? Wiring? I may throw a dart at the list and see what the galaxy wants me to tackle next.
Not as much done over the weekend as I'd hoped. I scraped the old gasket off the alternator cover but need to get some carb cleaner and gasket maker before install. No time to get to the parts store so that's where I left off.
Sunday my new seat came in. I found one on ebay that was removed from a bike brand new at a dealer and kept in storage. I paid a little more than I wanted but hard to beat what's essentially an NOS seat. I almost bought an inexpensive cover but the foam on mine was eroded away pretty good on one side and the new seat was a solid easy button.
New seat looks nice.
What's the drive for extending the swingarm or sourcing a longer one? Stability?
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
Pure vanity really. I've seen other 400s with a 110 out back that just looks a bit crowded. I was thinking a little added length would help with that but for now it's on the back burner. I may revisit it down the road though.
Hey Captain', I'm about to haul a 1976 KZ 750 away as junk. I got it for free and am keeping the carbs, headlight bucket and cluster. It IS junk, but the engine turns and MAY be restorable. There may be bolts and tiny parts that you could find useful. I'm a little over an hour drive from Fayetteville/Springdale/Bentonville in NE Ok. Do you want it?
Picture from the guy I got it from:
Picture now, ready to take to the junkyard:
Probably hauling scrap Monday or Tuesday.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
Definitely interested! Shoot an email to dh318x@gmail and let's see what we can do.
Email sent. Worst case, I can dump it on the side of hwy 412 next time I head north and you can grab it from there.
You aren't saving that sissy bar???
pres589 (djronnebaum) said:
You aren't saving that sissy bar???
Removing it requires taking out 4 more bolts than I have patience for. I bet captainawesome will sell it for $249.95 plus shipping.
No tinkering on the kz400 this weekend but I did manage to meet AAZCD-Jon Sunday evening for the free kz750 twin bike. It took some effort to fit it in the Montero and still be able to close the door. This may have required a sawzall. Can't thank Jon enough for the generosity of both the parts bike and the time/effort it took to load it all up. I think there are some stuff that could be useful on the 400 just gotta get some measuring and head scratching started.
Note: A '76 KZ750 does *not* fit in the back of a Montero. Next time the Sawzall comes out a lot earlier in the process. Nice to meet with Captainawesome and looking forward to future updates on the bike and cars.
Still tinkering.
Mostly head scratching.
Some measuring.
The weather got a bit cold for a few days so priority one has been to fit BOTH cars in the garage and the kz400. I thought for sure I'd have to tarp up the kz750 and sit it outside in the gravel next to the garage, but nope. I managed to tuck everything nice and neat into their places.
In order to fit the 750 I needed to remove the engine guard to narrow up it's footprint. After that a couple furniture dollies were utilized to allow some movement.
Of course the spare k24 block on the engine stand had to be tucked away but other than that, it all started falling into place.
So one of the reasons I was keen to take on the free kz750 was the larger front forks. The 400 has only 33mm and the 750 leaps up to 36mm. Originally I planned to just stay stock but this deal became a super low cost way to upgrade.
In order to make these work with the 400 I needed to swap stems on the triple trees. The 750 stem is about an inch longer than the 400 which can't be rectified without machine work, welding, magic, etc.
The bottom of the triple stem is welded so we gotta grind off the weld and then press the stem out. You can kinda see the crusty weld here.
A little flap disc action and some sketchy press work later we have this.
When it came time to do the 400 stem the fricking thing just didn't want to press out. Apparently the weld goes a little deeper within the bottom yoke so when it let go it was pretty violent. Luckily I was wearing safety glasses and tucking myself behind objects while applying the last bit of effort required at the bottle jack. But it is now out so onwards to the next step.
Well frick! The stem diameter is actually larger on the 400 where it presses into the yoke than the 750.
So now I have to get the 400 stem machined enough at the base so it can press into the 750 yoke. I've got a buddy that has offered his lathe services up but it will be a week or more before I can get that accomplished.
In the meantime I have ordered some parts required to complete the fork package. As received the lower fork clams were missing as well as the front wheel and axle. A lot of Kawasaki parts are like legos so I wanted to see if the 400 front wheel, rotor, etc. would all play nice with the 750 stuff before committing to anything. The bolt pattern on the 400 caliper is different than the 750 legs so I'm super stoked that the parts bike came with the caliper for the legs. I also didn't expect the 400 rotor offset to match with the 750 caliper either, but it did.
Axle with spacers and speedo drive have been purchased. I also found some fork lower caps. Hoping to have it all back on it's feet about the same time my rear shocks arrive. Still more stuff to tinker with in the meantime.
After setting up the throttle cable it was obvious pulling the tank was going to be a bit of a pain for tuning. Mainly because of the way the fuel lines had to be set up. I was never a fan of the routing, and any alternative routing would still be "meh". So I searched for something that would replace what I have with dual lines out. If set up correctly it would fix all of my issues. An afternoon or so of searching yielded a cheapo rd350 unit for similar cost to the single spout one I bought.
Many success....
Also a while back I ordered some shocks from YSS. I ordered from the cheapest place I could find which happened to ship all the way from Zurich. It took a while for them to get here and at this point I wish I would have waited to destroy the kz400 triple trees. Woulda been nice to do some test fitting with everything in place.
I decided I could kinda set up the new forks haphazardly with the longer 750 stem just to get a look. I should have set up the headlight but it seemed like a waste of time and effort. The 750 forks are about an inch longer than the 400 so I'll probably shorten them internally so I don't have to have the upper triple poke you see now. The 750 fork caps and axle setup all fit like they should so it will technically be a bolt on ordeal with the 400 stem machined to fit. The 400 fender doesn't really fit between the forks but I've got an eye on a fiberglass one that should do the trick.
I think they look good like that!
Lots going on the past few months but not much tinkering on this.
I had the stem for the 400 triples machined to fit the 750 set but stuff just wasn't lining up correctly. I don't know if the stem was machined out of round or the yokes were tweaked. The forks don't appear to be bent so I think the yokes are at fault. Pretty sure pressing the stem was the culprit. So I kinda got frustrated and bought a cheap set of 400 triples to just go back to stock. I still have the 750 fork stuff to mess with but it was beginning to be more effort than I had hoped.
Fast forward a couple months and we had some beautiful weather this past weekend. Lots of outdoor and garage time just enjoying the nice temps and sunshine. I've been wanting to mess with lacing up the new wider hoops since that's going to be a huge motivation to get the bike back on the road.
Off with the old tire and tube. I like to use Windex for lube and lots of it. Came off like a glove.
Then I took a bunch of photos of both sides of the wheel and where the spokes land. It's been well over 10 years since I've done any wheel lacing and I remember the last time I got tripped up a bit on patterns. This time I was determined to get it right on the first go. A quick soak of pb blaster on the nipples before starting and away we go. Things came apart easily. I probably went overkill on marking where spokes went and what side but I figured that extra bit of time spent would save me later. I was right.
I cleaned up the hub a little bit along with each of the spokes and nipples. I sorta wish I bought new spokes, but these will do the trick just fine. Anyway, the inner spokes all had to be installed before sliding the rim over it. They started falling into place just like they should.
I was so deep into the outers and snugging them up I forgot to take more progress pics. With them all snugged up I chucked the wheel into the front forks to stare at it. Apparently I took only one pic.
I started truing things up in the fork legs just to see how things were looking. Not too shabby but I need to pick up a truing/balance stand to do it up right. I sold mine off years ago and this is a tool worth having to get it done right and quickly. Rear wheel will be next, I may start the process tonight since I'm feeling pretty stoked on the progress.
Rear tire off.
Clean up spokes and nipples.
Learn that math is real and I'm a complete dunce.
Well I goofed up. I have been tinkering on the kz400 platform long enough that I got cocky. I ASSumed that the rear wheel was 40 spoke but apparently from 78 onward they switched it to a 36 spoke for the rear. So that's a 40 spoke front but 36 rear? WTF? Of course I didn't realize this until I was ready to lace the new rear 18x3.0 hoop that just popped in the mail. I had already bought an 18x2.5 in 40 spoke but then decided to go wider. So now I have two rims that won't work for my rear hub and switching to an early hub is probably more hassle and cost than just getting a 36 spoke one.
Time to tinker on some other stuff while I wait a bit longer for the other 36 spoke wheel to get here. Harumphff!
