216,000 miles................FINISHED

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robin1731
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216,000 miles................FINISHED

#1

Post by robin1731 »

......on a one owner 1973 Kawasaki Z1.

You read that right. I am rebuilding the top end on this one owner bike. It did have new rings put in at ~105,000 miles. The head was rebuilt 3 times. If you know These bikes the 73 head is a pretty bad piece. Bad as in bad, not good. ;)

I am putting a different head on it. One from a 77 KZ1000. It is getting bored out .020" over. The crank is still in good shape. The transmission shows very little wear. Even second gear, the most often worn gear on these is in good shape. Same for the shift forks. The owner is pretty gentle on this. He gets ~20,000 miles out of a rear tire. Unheard of.

He had the bike in for it's initial 1000 mile service one month after he bought it. Rode it 9000 miles the first year. He was a salesman and used the bike a lot for that.

I'm just the lucky guy that get's to do the work.

(don't ask for pics, it's not my bike ;) )

.
1976 Goldwing Super Sport
1985 Honda Elite
1976 KZ900 Dragbike
1992 ZX7 Dragbike (KZ900 style motor w/NOS)
and a rotation of various purchases
Randakk approved Carb Rebuilder
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#2

Post by Lucien Harpress »

I'm guessing it's a '73? (reading between the lines here) Pretty impressive, moreso that it's a one-owner bike. That's 4800 miles a year, EVERY year, since it was new.

Crazy stuff.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- It Runs (Poorly) and Doesn't Leak (Mostly)
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Broke the Chain And Ate the Motor
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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robin1731
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#3

Post by robin1731 »

Yeah, 73, I'll fix that.

.
1976 Goldwing Super Sport
1985 Honda Elite
1976 KZ900 Dragbike
1992 ZX7 Dragbike (KZ900 style motor w/NOS)
and a rotation of various purchases
Randakk approved Carb Rebuilder
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HOTT
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#4

Post by HOTT »

...And 20k on a tire?!?!
Well you piqued my interest. What kinda problems did the earlier heads have?

HOTT
If we can't fix it, we can fix it so no one else can.
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robin1731
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#5

Post by robin1731 »

HOTT wrote:...And 20k on a tire?!?!
Well you piqued my interest. What kinda problems did the earlier heads have?

HOTT
The 900's used bronze valve guides. Of course in performance heads we also use bronze guides. But the guides Kawasaki used were pretty soft. Lucky if you got more than 20-30,000 miles out of them. Then the castings weren't that great either on the early 900's. While they fixed the castings they still used the bronze guides. Starting with the 1000 heads they used cast iron guides, like a GL. Those hold up very well.

The 73 also used a one piece head gasket. If you know KZ's it can be hard to get them sealed at the front where the head meets the cylinder. They went to a big o-ring around the valley there on later years. That made a big difference.

On this head after changing guides twice already it wasn't advisable to do it again. The guide holes would be wallowed out and even oversize guides would be hard to make work. 1000 heads are easy to come by. And except for the exhaust stud size most people would never know it wasn't original with the cam cover installed.

I will add I am putting in a new cam chain too. That's the biggest reason for a complete tear down of the engine.

.
1976 Goldwing Super Sport
1985 Honda Elite
1976 KZ900 Dragbike
1992 ZX7 Dragbike (KZ900 style motor w/NOS)
and a rotation of various purchases
Randakk approved Carb Rebuilder
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HOTT
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#6

Post by HOTT »

thanks Robin. Knowledge I'll probably never have use for but, that kinda stuff fascinates me.

HOTT (easily amazed)
If we can't fix it, we can fix it so no one else can.
the Condor BOTY 2011
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robin1731
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#7

Post by robin1731 »

HOTT wrote:thanks Robin. Knowledge I'll probably never have use for but, that kinda stuff fascinates me.

HOTT (easily amazed)
Go back and read that again. I was editing when you posted. ;)

.
1976 Goldwing Super Sport
1985 Honda Elite
1976 KZ900 Dragbike
1992 ZX7 Dragbike (KZ900 style motor w/NOS)
and a rotation of various purchases
Randakk approved Carb Rebuilder
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HOTT
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#8

Post by HOTT »

The 73 also used a one piece head gasket......
Ahhhhh.. That's insider stuff experience gets ya'.
Quite an improvement there. Now your talking smart upgrade. Cool.

thanks tumb2
If we can't fix it, we can fix it so no one else can.
the Condor BOTY 2011
Ol' Sparky BOTM Dec. 2011
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flyin900
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#9

Post by flyin900 »

The new retro Kawi K900RS was on view at the recent Toronto bike show in the original colours. Really nice looking bike with lots of modern and retro touches. Apparently pretty well sold out production availability already in Canada anyway.
Current Bikes:

1966 CL77 - Honda 305cc - Dual purpose - "Gentleman's Scrambler" was a period moniker.
1967 CL175K0 - Low production number with #802 engine serial- winter 2019/2020 full restoration.
1972 CB350F - Baby Four with low mileage - Cosmetic refresh to the next level 2021/2022.
1978 CB550K - Very original bike with only 7499 Km. from new - light cleanup and refresh done.
1983 CB1100F - Canadian model - DOHC Supersport in pristine low kilometre condition from new.
1984 GL1200 - Standard model in showroom condition - two owner bike from new.
1984 CX650E - Restored summer 2017 - a rare Eurosport model - excellent one owner bike.
Gowing
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Re: 216,000 miles................

#10

Post by Gowing »

Back in 1984, a coworker had a first year 900, the brown and orange one, it had 30k on it. No helmet law back then. You could hear the valve train clacking away, now I realize why the motor was a little noisy.
The baffles were out of the pipes and it sounded so good. Fast as heck. Had we known the value to be,
he would have taken better care of it, I’m sure. There was a half a dozen tearing up Spokane streets back then. Good memories.
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Dave

1975 GL 1000
1980 XS650
1981 ct110
1972 F7 KAW 175
2000 moby blaze 40cc
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robin1731
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Re: 216,000 miles................FINISHED

#11

Post by robin1731 »

All done and ready to ride. I actually had about 20 hours in it start to finish. But the machine shop had the cylinder for 2 weeks. Another one in the books. dancr dancr

.
1976 Goldwing Super Sport
1985 Honda Elite
1976 KZ900 Dragbike
1992 ZX7 Dragbike (KZ900 style motor w/NOS)
and a rotation of various purchases
Randakk approved Carb Rebuilder
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