Topic: Terry's new Kawasaki Z1B build, the OCD special...........

[bear]

I fired the bike up with the Mikuni 33mm smoothbore carbs and was disappointed with the result, so decided that today I'll install the new Mikuni RS34's.


I could never understand why people would want to run CR's on a road bike.
They have very rudimentary low speed and idle circuits. Their good enough for period road racing but there are much better options for road bikes these days.

[Terry in Australia]

I fired the bike up with the Mikuni 33mm smoothbore carbs and was disappointed with the result, so decided that today I'll install the new Mikuni RS34's.

I could never understand why people would want to run CR's on a road bike.
They have very rudimentary low speed and idle circuits. Their good enough for period road racing but there are much better options for road bikes these days.

Thanks Brian, and I have to say, the RS34's are magnificent. I walked out to the patio a few minutes ago, pulled the choke, turned the key, and VROOM! Away it went. It's a nice warm day here, so I pushed the choke in, snicked it into gear, and took it for another lap. I need to check my valve clearances as I haven't done them since I swapped out the cams, but apart from a couple of loose clearances, it's going really well. I don't know if Mikuni smoothbores are the same as CR's, but regardless, the RS34's with their inbuilt accelerator pumps are fantastic.

My plans have changed. Whereas I was going to fly to Hervey Bay this weekend to ride the new(to me) BMW R1100RT the 1400 miles home, via my Ma's place in Bairnsdale, the "Sunshine State" (Queensland) and Northern New South Wales are flooded, and some of the towns I'd planned on riding thru are 10 feet underwater. I've just re-booked my flights and accommodation for 2 weeks time, where I'll fly to Hervey Bay on the 17th, pick up the bike, overnight there, then ride to Toowoomba (currently underwater in places) on Friday, Dubbo on Saturday for the Z1 50th anniversary shindig, somewhere between Dubbo and Melbourne on Sunday (maybe Brian's place, but I haven't asked him yet) and back to Melbourne on Sunday.

Before Spotty reads this and replies "Hey that was my idea!" it was, but in my defence, your honor, it wasn't flooding a week ago.

[spotty]

 

[bear]

All good mate your welcome anytime.
Just let us know and we'll lower the drawbridge.

[Terry in Australia]

All good mate your welcome anytime.
Just let us know and we'll lower the drawbridge.

Thanks mate, I've changed my accommodation booking for Dubbo to Saturday night, and I'll be heading to your place (you better message me your address) on Sunday.

[bear]

OK we've got you booked in for Sunday 20th of August?
It's a bit of a shame you can't be here on the Thursday, we do "Thirsty Thursday" out at the bike club it's usually quite a pleasant little soiree.
MSG sent.
 

[PeWe]

OK we've got you booked in for Sunday 20th of August?
It's a bit of a shame you can't be here on the Thursday, we do "Thirsty Thursday" out at the bike club it's usually quite a pleasant little soiree.
MSG sent.
 

Terry, document that with photos. This build thread or open forum

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, yep, I’ll be posting here and in Franks “22 rides in 2022” thread, I should be able to post some pics of different scenery than my usual pie run pics. Hopefully all of the flooding will have dissipated by then.

[Terry in Australia]

Wow, hard to believe that almost 6 months has gone past, with no progress. Steve asked in another thread for a video of my Z1-B running so he could see the oil pressure. Today was a magnificent day but I had a ton of little jobs that I needed to do, culminating in my making a valiant attempt at mowing my rain soaked lawn. I was lucky I was wearing gumboots, the yard was super sloppy after the rain we've had lately, but Spring is on the way, and as previously mentioned, today was probably the best day we've had this month.

I decided that a quick and dirty lap on the Z1-B was in order. I'd bought 10 litres of fresh gas so I syphoned as much as I could of the old crap out of the tank to run my mower, and tipped in 5 litres of 98 RON, that had a few ml of fuel system cleaner added. As usual the bike started immediately (gotta love the Dyna 2000 ignition and new RS34 carbs) and as soon as it fired up I pushed the choke in and let it settle into a lumpy idle. I remembered that Steve wanted to see a vid so I just let it idle as it was pretty cold and hadn't warmed up. In hindsight I should have blipped the throttle to show the increase in oil pressure, but I was too excited about finding my helmet, changing out of my gumboots and going for a lap.

I only went for a short ride, but it's an absolute beast, I gave it some stick in second gear and the front wheel came up off the ground a little and once past around 5K RPM it went absolutely crazy, and wouldn't have too much trouble keeping up with some of my modern bikes. I better finish it off, (will definitely do a valve clearance check after seeing some pics on FB of a guy whose mint Z1-B spat a shim and smashed the casting on both his head and cam cover) I need to plumb the oil cooler, remount the horn to clear the oil cooler, and I think it's just about right to go for it's Roadworthy Inspection.

I've also ordered a new pair of YSS rear shocks and a new chain as I'm worried about snapping the cheapie 630 that I originally put on it. I'm getting really excited about getting this big beastie on the road (legally) so I can enjoy some highly illegal speeds on a big Jap 4 again, should be great fun.

[ken65]

sweet, sounds tuff.  well done Terence.

[PeWe]

Sounds good Terry!
But, no chain rattle at all!!
Carbs  (slides) will sound nice at lower idle, 1000-1200 rpm?

[Terry in Australia]

Sounds good Terry!
But, no chain rattle at all!!
Carbs  (slides) will sound nice at lower idle, 1000-1200 rpm?

Thanks Per, it sounded awful on my iPhone, but with my headsets plugged into my laptop it sounds pretty much how the bike actually sounds. I haven't adjusted the carbs at all (including idle speed) since I installed them 6 or 7 months ago, but once I'm totally sure that nothing's going to explode (I built the engine, so anything could happen....) I'll probably do a little fine tuning.

The flat slide carbs are noisy, I initially thought I had some big valve clearances after installing the milder (but still huge) cams, until I realised that the noise was coming from the carbs. It doesn't bother me now that I know that nothing's wrong with it, and that absolutely brutal acceleration today has reinvigorated my interest in this project, and more importantly, getting it finished.

[PeWe]

My flat slides sounds like castanets at idle. 

[MauiK3]

What a beast!!
You've got quite a monster in that frame, keep the rubber side down.

[Kelly E]

The RS34's we put on the 80' Suzuki GS 1100E sound like that too. We also thought something was wrong at first. If we have any issues with the stock carbs on the 77' KZ 1000 LTD it will get a set RS carbs too.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I'm really looking forward to getting it on the road, then my next job will be the 1428cc 1977 Z1000 (KZ1000 in the US) that I think I started before the Ebay Z1 frame turned up, which kicked this project off. I was worried that I'd never get it on the road because the PO removed the VIN plate with an angle grinder, but there's a guy here in Oz who can make them, so I'm more confident now that I'll be able to scrape it through a Roadworthy. I've decided to buy new RS40 carbs for it, I have an old set, but I think it's worth the extra money to buy new ones with no issues.

[Terry in Australia]

I took my K0 for ride #24 today and loved it, it was sunny and not cold. It was so nice to come home not frozen stiff that I jumped on the Z1-B and went for a short ride. I took this little vid for Steve so he can see the oil pressure surge with throttle blips. The bike was dead cold, so I probably should have allowed it to warm up first.

[Terry in Australia]

Today was the 4th anniversary of my gut surgery. I realised this on the drive home from work today and thought about all that has gone on since. The time has flown, I'm in better shape than I was for years, and I've pretty much completed 4 major restorations (well, "restifications" really) since. Anyway, the weather was much better today than the misery that it's been since Sunday, so after work I decided to plumb the hoses for my Z1-B's oil cooler.

Z1 Wednesday 31 Aug 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd "guesstimated" the cooler hose ID that I needed and bought a pretty long length of it because I'll be running a cooler on my 1428cc bike as well. As it turned out it was a very tight fit, so I had to take the engine adapters off to get the return hose on, but after only an hour or so of hell accidentally punching the engine several times with my poor old arthritic hands while trying to shove the hoses onto the adapters I finally got it plumbed.

Z1 Wednesday 31 Aug 2022 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I didn't fire it up to test if the poor old pump can happily move the oil an extra 6 feet or so, hopefully the weather will be kind to me again tomorrow and I can fire it up while the wife's out  and maybe go for a sneaky ride, we'll see.

[MauiK3]

Looking good, maybe check your pressure gauge while cranking (prior to start) and post a photo or video? I’d be curious to see for obvious reasons.

[Terry in Australia]

Looking good, maybe check your pressure gauge while cranking (prior to start) and post a photo or video? I’d be curious to see for obvious reasons.

Thanks Steve, I had the same thought and the only reason I haven't is that 1. It starts instantly and 2. it's got that fancy Dyna 2000 ignition installed and I'm not sure whether I can just pull the plug caps and crank it without damaging the ignition? I know that with some EI's you need to have spark plugs connected if you're going to crank the engine with the ignition on (unlike a CB750 you can't crank it with the kill switch off) so I haven't gone any further.

The good news is that I fired it up today when the driveway was clear of cars, and went for a quick lap. (raining here on and off all day) Because of your dilemma I can't seem to take my eyes off the oil pressure gauge, so was interested that unlike my CB750 oil cooler installation on my K2 where my oil pressure dropped by around 10 psi, the oil pressure on the Z1-B didn't drop at all. I was further reassured whilst riding up the road, I gave it the berries and apart from the front wheel coming off the ground (scary fun on a wet road...) the needle shot around to around 10 psi. When I got home I left it idling and I was sure I could "feel" the oil moving thru the hoses, which were very warm on one side of the cooler, and not as warm on the return side, and the radiator itself was warm, so it all appears to be working, and with no obvious leaks either.

Next time I go out to start it (the cats have only just calmed down from my tinkering with the noisy beast outside an hour ago so it won't be until tomorrow) I'll pull the plug caps and use some spare spark plugs in the caps while I crank the engine and watch the oil pressure gauge. I'm really tempted to take it over for it's Roadworthy inspection on Saturday morning, apart from re-installing the horn (took it off to mount the oil cooler radiator) I only need to do the valve clearances and I think it's ready.... And I'm getting excited.

[PeWe]

Kill switch on your bike to crank it without starting.

[grcamna2]

Kill switch on your bike to crank it without starting.

Possibly consider removing the plugs and laying them on the head and then crank it over w/o the compression of the plugs installed for faster oil pump pressure check?

[Terry in Australia]

Kill switch on your bike to crank it without starting.

No Per, as I said above, that doesn't work on Z1's.

[MauiK3]

Thank you for thinking of my issue.
Yes, the Z1 kill switch kills it all, no cranky

[PeWe]

OK, missed that.