Topic: Terry's Kawasaki Z1000 Mad Max Bike, my er, 2020 summer project.

[seanbarney41]

Plus, even after replacing all the electric start parts, the Kawasaki starter clutch ain't always up to the task, like a honda.  Even my kz650s needed a kick from time to time

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, kick starting used to be a real art, my old Yamaha XT500 (another bike I wish I still had) required a dedicated procedure which would reward you if you got it right, or punish you if you fcuked it up. It was never fun on a rainy night when you couldn't see the "Top Dead Centre" marker in the dark, and if it kicked back with a wet kicker rubber your foot would invariably slip off and the lever would smack you in the back of your calf.

Back in those days when I was a poor Army corporal it was my only form of transport, and I had more than one painful encounter of the kick start kind...........    

[Terry in Australia]

Well, back to it. I can't put it all back together until all the missing frame sections and tabs have been glued back on, with heat. Now once upon a time I was a pretty good welder, but as my eyes get weaker, my skills with the welder are turning to poop. Oh well, as long as I can stick everything back on pretty much where it was supposed to go, that's the main thing.

First job was just a test to see if I could weld up some holes that an OP had drilled in the passenger footpeg hanger section that I had to weld back on.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I used a short length of 6mm steel rod to pretty much fill the holes, and poured some hot wire in.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yay! It didn't look too bad. First problem was I don't have much in the way of grinding discs to knock down the weld lumps so I used a flappy wheel sanding disc, which took forever. It did look OK though.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

OK, I supposed that I'd better put them back onto the frame. As I said, the welds aren't too good, but then I looked at the original Kawasaki welds, and decided that they weren't too bad, in fact they could have been "factory".

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was looking better already!

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 4a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The next problem was that the OP "Trimmed" the rear frame section down and removed a cross brace, blinker mounts and the duck tail mount, so I had to cut the last 6 inches off the frame,

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

and weld in a complete new section.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was feeling pretty confident by now, I hadn't fcuked anything up seriously, and I could see some light at the end of the tunnel. I lopped off one of the side rails to replace it with one with some tabs I needed.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And I did the same on the other side.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 9b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Woohoo, I have a frame again!

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Well in fact I realised that there is yet another tab missing, and I need it, so I'll have to fabricate one, and I need to go buy some grinding discs and sanding discs to knock down the welds a tad. I was gonna do it tomorrow, but my Ma is going stir crazy in her motel room here in Melbourne with my sister and her two ratty little dogs, so I'm gonna take a leave of absence to drive her back to Bairnsdale.

I'm not really sure if that's a good idea, the fires are still burning around home, but she's been talking to friends there and they reckon it's safe to come back, so I'm the chauffeur. Oh well, it'll be hot when I come back here the next day, so the paint will dry nice and quick, and then I can start bolting parts back in. I hope the sky is a little less smoky than it was here today.

Mad Max frame fix 6 Jan 2020 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

[PeWe]

Good progress Terry!
Fantastic you could reinstall the missing frame parts.

Here more to read if you have not done it already or know it all.
There are other links there....

http://www.oldkawman.com/oknd.html

[BPellerine]

how did you get the footrest mounts in the right place terry?bill

[Terry in Australia]

how did you get the footrest mounts in the right place terry?bill

G'Day Bill, yeah I bought some magnetic welding "clamps" off FB awhile ago, they're great on square tube but pretty useless on round tube, but were good enough to hold them in place while I did a couple of quick tack welds. I only "eyeballed" them, but they ended up looking pretty good. They're a little bit shorter too, but as my frame didn't originally have this type of footpeg hanger anyway, I couldn't see that there's be a problem.

My Delkevic pipe arrived this morning less than a week after buying it from the US, which is amazing. Hopefully it'll fit!

Kawasaki Z1 Delkevic by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[BPellerine]

looks good terry,I had to put a dummy engine in my ko frame and put one of the pipes on to get the location so they would fit.bill

[754]

 It's all good till someone tries to put stock pipes on that they paid 2 K for..

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, as I discovered with the Delkevic I bought for my K2, I had to trim #1 header by 20mm to make it fit, which was annoying, but if the new pipe doesn't fit I'll be very surprised as I've only trimmed maybe 5mm off the original brackets in the process, and the Delkevic system on the 750 has a plate with a slotted bolt hole for this purpose.

Sunday Redneck engine swap 29 Dec 2019 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm not worried about what future buyers might encounter Frank, if I ever sold it, it won't be sold as "original" as it's obviously far from original with a 1983 GPZ1100 head, Suzuki GSXR carbs, braced frame etc, and by the time I finish with it, it'll have later model forks, wheels, tyres swingarm and brakes. My sons both tell me that they'll have it when I fall off the perch, but if I was ever to sell it, I'd sell it for what it is, and that's about the best I can do. I could have bought an entirely new (old) frame, but I made this one work for what I need, so I'm happy.

Anyway, it was a magnificent day today, and pain in the arse that it was to have to drive my Ma back to Bairnsdale (Bushfire Central) again, she did send me home with 4 pounds of the local sausages, which have always been my favourite. I topped my breakfast egg, cheese and bacon muffin with one before I started work. 

Zed bracket 9 Jan 2020 brekky by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Suitably fed and watered, I got stuck into making another sidecover mounting bracket, from a piece of one of the sections that I'd cut off. This is slightly out of sequence, but shows how it needs to sit on the frame, I think. I say "I think", because I've only seen pics of the original bracket, so the length might not be right, but I guess I'll find out when I go to install the sidecover. Luckily the PO left a little evidence of where the old bracket was located as he didn't completely grind away the outline of the old weld, so at least it's located in the right spot. Also, I'm using all Z1 panels and not KZ1000, so I might have to move some things around anyway, but I'm confident that the stars (and the sidecovers) will align, and it will be good.

Zed bracket 9 Jan 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Here's a pic of it held in place with one of those magnetic clamps I was talking about. Once again, not really good for round tube, but better than clothes pegs and glue.

Zed bracket 9 Jan 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

A little wobbly weld so as not to burn a hole in either piece, and I called it good.

Zed bracket 9 Jan 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then ground off all my dodgy welds, degreased and sanded the frame, and found a couple of half cans of Rustoleum paint (one satin and one gloss black) so I gave it a first coat of satin, and a final coat of gloss, and being as it was a pretty warm day, it was touch dry in 30 minutes, so I flipped it over and did the underside, let it dry a bit longer, and set it back in place. Tomorrow I'll lay the frame back over the engine, as it's a lot harder to pull the Zed engine in the conventional way, than it is to pull a CB750 engine, and I imagine it'll be just as much a PITA to shove it back in. More tomorrow.

Zed bracket 9 Jan 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[spotty]

If there was any sort of God I'd have a day off tomorrow and I'd scuttle over and help but I have a feeling life is gonna conspire against me and I shall waste another day at work
I will have to at least spend a portion of it trying to get the other non functioning brake parts of my car apart awaiting new shoes and slave cylinders
Beats working I suppose

[Terry in Australia]

And don't forget it's gonna be a scorcher tomorrow Spotty, 100 deg F (+) so not a real good day for working outside, but I'll do what I can then retreat inside.

[PeWe]

What about your burning country?
Stopped for this season?

[Terry in Australia]

Well it's been raining for the last couple of hours Per, so I doubt if there are any fires burning nearby, but the big fires hundreds of miles from here are still burning out of control. Hopefully they'll get some good rain soon.

[spotty]

Just had a quick look, doesn't look like the current precipitation is going to hit the far east before it buggers off to Antarctica
Poor bastards

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah mate, sometimes Mother Nature is a real b1tch........

[PeWe]

I did not notice the tasty sandwich earlier 
Food and bikes are connected!  
I look forward to see where you stop when having the first test ride on this bike, and what you'll order.

[Bankerdanny]

Are you going to order yourself a Toecutter fairing?

https://www.airtech-streamlining.com/kawasaki-fairings-seats-fenders-parts/MadMax-JimGoose-kwaka-replica.htm

[Terry in Australia]

Nice! i wonder if they're paying Bertrand Cadart royalties for his designs? He's not in the best of health I believe, but his company "La Parisienne" made and sold lots of those fairings off the back of Mad Max. I do have a tiny Chinese bikini fairing that might work on it, but no, my bike won't be a copy of any of the bikes in the movie, and it will evolve into something more modern once I get it on the road.  

[seanbarney41]

Those sure do look very similar to Don Tesco rabid transit fairing.

[seanbarney41]

Stoked...just talked to my painter and he is cool with clear coating this ratty old school custom mess

[Terry in Australia]

That looks pretty shiny in the pic Sean, I have to think about paint for my tank. Mine's a Z1 tank I bought cheap so I could use the pingel tap, the tank had been possibly "custom painted" then someone's sprayed flat black over the top, but I can see some pinstriping underneath. Even if the paint underneath was good, I probably can't save it, so I'm thinking some nice gloss black rattle can paint will do for the time being.

Anyway, I'd ordered tyres a few days ago, so yesterday I drove over to Ace Motorcycles with my tatty old wheels to get them fitted. I had planned last year to get the wheels blasted and powdercoated, but now that I'm intending to retro-fit modern wheels and tyres shortly, I just had new Pirelli Sport Demons fitted, and when I go to fatter 17" wheels, I'll have the tyres re-fitted to my Lesters for my CB750. I added the second disc to the front wheel, and cleaned and re-greased the bearings. I'll need to order some locking tabs for the bolts, but for the moment I've used blue loctite.

Terry's Mad Max Z1000 11 Jan 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The back wheel became slightly problematic when I realised that it only has a 17mm axle, as opposed to the 20mm axle on the Yamaha wheel that was on the bike and the correct size for a Z1000. I'm not worried about it being strong enough, just that I've had to make up spacers and shims to make it all work.

Terry's Mad Max Z1000 11 Jan 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry's Mad Max Z1000 11 Jan 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

This took a lot of time measuring and machining as at least one of the spacers was critical in that it was to space the caliper bracket away from the hub. Anyway, I got them all done.

Terry's Zed Zen 11 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Hopefully the chain will line up, if not, back to the drawing board.......

It was quite cool, so I fired up the BBQ, and grilled me some sausages from my home town, which, almost 60 years on, are still my favourites.

Terry's dinner 11 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Leo decided that I needed some company, so after I had my dinner, he joined me for a snooze.

Leo snoozing 11 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'll wander out shortly and think about putting the engine back in the frame, then I need to pull the forks apart and install the new (old) aluminium sliders as the PO cut the fender mounts off the ones on the bike, and it only had a single disc front end, so with all this power, twin discs will be better until I update the complete front end. More later.

 

[754]

 Looks like you are able to eat a bit more, hope you enjoy the food..

[PeWe]

Your build look tasty as usual, Terry!
 Leo helped you since he look happy and relaxed? He might like a special harness and goggles for a ride?

There are 2k rattle cans to use on your tank. My K2 got that.
The clear (SprayMax) has no problems with fuel. Very hard result.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Frank, yeah, I wasn't able to get it all down, but I was able to eat some of everything, so I'm happy. My wife just brought me a piece of Flake (gummy shark, one of the few seafood items I'm not allergic to) from the local fish and chip shop and I was able to eat about 2/3 of it, so that was great too.

Wow, what a day! I would have been happy if I'd just gotten the engine back into the frame but I worked like a man re-possessed and got a fair bit more done. First of all, I laid some cardboard down, then tipped the engine onto it's right hand (ignition) side. I was worried about damaging the plastic points cover, but it must be pretty strong, because the weight of that big engine didn't bother it.

Sunday Zed Zen 12 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then laid the frame over it, and just jiggled the engine around until all the mounts lined up, and I fed the bolts through and loosely did them up, then tipped the whole plot upright.

Sunday Zed Zen 12 Jan 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Next job was re-attaching the swingarm. This caused me a small conniption when I realised that I needed end caps on either end of the swingarm, which of course, I don't own. I was almost at the stage where I was about to fire up the lathe when I wondered if a CB750 thrust washer/end cap would fit? I tried some on my K1 swinger, but no bueno, too small ID. I almost gave up when I found a later CB750 swingarm and noticed that the end caps were much larger than on the K1, due to the rubber seals, therein. I machined the rubber seals out on the lathe, and yep, they were now a good fit on the Z1000 swinger. Honda to the rescue! Next problem was that the centre hole in the end cap was too small, so I had to bore them out. It turns out that the steel is so bloody hard that I couldn't drill it, bore it, or even file it, so I had to get my new Makita electric die grinder out, and with a nice new sharp bit, I set the cap in the lathe chuck, and bore the hole out with the grinder while it rotated, keeping the hole uniformly round.

The swingarm is on! Next thing is shockers. I have a new set of shocks that I originally bought for my Sportster, but they got lost in the mail for weeks, so I bought new Ikons, until these ones from Germany, finally arrived.Of course they were sent with fittings for Harley mounts, but these came out and I turned up new fittings for the Kawasaki mounting bolts. This took a fair bit of time, so after the dramas fitting the swinger, I cleaned up, and came inside.

Tomorrow I'll do the forks, hopefully without any surprises. In the  meantime I'll drink some Ginger Beer and think about life, for awhile. More tomorrow.

Sunday Zed Zen 12 Jan 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sunday Zed Zen 12 Jan 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, Leo is more like a dog than a cat, so yeah, he might like to come for a ride, as long as he doesn't jump off mid corner, I don't want to go hunting for him in the bush. Thanks for the tip about the paint, I'll take a look at what's available, when I get some spare time.