Topic: Terry's Kawasaki Mach III 500 build. Let the smoke begin.....

[jgger]

I can remember going to some local flat track races in the 70's where there were a lot of Bultaco,s and other two strokes racing and can still remember the wonderful smell of what was possibly  castor oil filling the outdoor arena at the drop of the flag.

All those "bean" oils had a unique aroma that was way better when run through the bike, as opposed to running the "beans" through the human machine!🙈🙉🙊

[simon#42]

the ones that smoke either use cheap rubbish two stroke oil or have the injection pumps adjusted wrong .

[Zunspec]

the ones that smoke either use cheap rubbish two stroke oil or have the injection pumps adjusted wrong .

If they are smoking it indicates they are not being thrashed hard enough on a regular basis  .

Cheers Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks men, the owner of the RZ350 explained that it was running synthetic oil, (not premix, the pump was still running) but had only been around the block a couple of times recently, and when Jeff rode it back into the shop after the mandatory “couple of Kilometres” that’s part of the inspection, it wasn’t smoking at all.

I found the same thing with my T350 and T500, they’ll always smoke a lot when having sat for awhile (I’m about to fire up my T500 today to take it out of the garage to install new tyres for it’s roadworthy inspection) but after a short ride, they’re smoking a lot less.

[ken65]

Well we all know that I'm an idiot, but it's not often that I'm happy to admit it. The last few days I've been worrying about the engine number not being correct for the '74 frame, and I even asked Keith Davis to reach out to his Kawasaki buddies to see if they had a "numbers correct" set. I was sitting outside having a smoke and saw the cases so took another look at the number, and for the first time, saw that there was a 9 in front of the 3?

I jumped back on the website that Steve posted a link to, and fcuk me sideways, they're a match for an early 1974 H1-E! According to the chart, by my calculations the engine and frame numbers are only 201 apart. Woohoo! I sent a message to Keith apologising profusely, but I still need some other parts, so if he's still talking to me, it'll be fine. Dion told me that these cases came out of that frame, I'll never doubt him again! Sorry about the small pic of the frame number, the battery on my iphone was almost flat.

H1 Frame number 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

H1 engine number by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

H1 engine and frame number reference by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The H1e i just sold Terry was also 10/73 build and the frame # was around 200 away from yours. They would have been able to wave to each other 50 years ago.

[ekpent]

Hey Ken or Terry any idea if those were domestic bikes to Australia or maybe imported sometime over the years ?  Being the numbers are so close maybe a possible shipment to your continent from the mother ship Japan ?

[Terry in Australia]

G’Day Eric, yes mate, definitely brought in from Japan as “Australian Market” bikes. We get lots of US “self imports” in recent years, but it’s possible that Ken’s and my bikes were shipmates from Japan to Oz in late ‘73 or early ‘74.

[ken65]

Mine was actually a US import . Bought in by that Coffs harbour dealer about 6 years ago. The US bikes to the best of knowledge didn't have the rear mudguard. They look better without them IMO.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, I won’t be putting one on mine, and as Dion laced a 3” Borrani rim to the hub I’ll run a fatter tyre.

[HondaMan]

Yep, I won’t be putting one on mine, and as Dion laced a 3” Borrani rim to the hub I’ll run a fatter tyre.

Hey, that might actually LAST for a while, too!
The OEM tire was a bit small for the HP in those beasties...

[Hondell]

Try and stay with the electronic ignition system with the early 500's. There is a reason Kawasaki and all the other Japanese companies had to do this with advancing high perf 2 stroke technology.... not necessarily voltage but risetime spark requirements. Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and other street bikes had points but the race versions had magnetos and later on, CDI ignitions. Plug fouling and misfire was a real problem on GP racebikes. Kawasaki had this problem on the early H1 bikes. that's why the CDI on it. The later H1's had points but also different (milder) cylinder designs. I raced Yamaha TZ's back in the day and H2R Kawasaki's... no points to be found !!  No Kettering ignition on my alcohol dragster or my dragbike thank you.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks mate, yep I’m not planning on going back to points, I don’t know diddley about H1’s but I know that Dave rode his 1973 H1 for over 20 years without removing the ignition cover and that little beast hammered. He only stopped riding it when the cancer treatment got too hard for him to keep riding sadly. Keith Davis in the US Is collecting some H1 parts for me so I’ll do a search of the parts manual and see if I have everything I need for the ignition, I can see a pickup and the black boxes, but I haven’t seen a rotor yet. No biggie, I’m working on getting my Suzuki T500 on the road in the next couple of weeks so there’s plenty of time to hunt for missing H1 parts.

[Hondell]

I have a set of standard bore H1 cylinders in the loft I'll never use. If you're stuck FYI the early H1's had true battery driven CDI, You could hear the oscillator singing when you turned on the key, Aside, I met Geoff Perry. a Suzuki factory rider from down your way back in the 70's. Different class than me. Rode 500's then the triple 750's. great guy. Sadly, died in a plane crash going to a race.

[Terry in Australia]

Hey thanks mate, I’ll keep that in mind. Yeah it’s sad that so many really talented people’s lives are cut short by freak accidents, I always wonder how Mike Hailwood would have gone on his return to racing if not for his tragic end.

[PeWe]

Hey thanks mate, I’ll keep that in mind. Yeah it’s sad that so many really talented people’s lives are cut short by freak accidents, I always wonder how Mike Hailwood would have gone on his return to racing if not for his tragic end.

I had to search when I did not know how Mike Hailwood passed away.
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/heritage/driver/Mike-Hailwood/

[scunny]

I think they had gone to get fish & chips.

[Terry in Australia]

I think they had gone to get fish & chips.

I can only remember that the news broke while I was on duty and one of our techs started crying. I knew he was a fan of “Mike the bike”, but was still surprised when I saw the emotion from him, he was a Vietnam vet and usually very indifferent. All because someone did an illegal u turn in front of him.

[Tintop]

I was sitting on the starting grid, getting ready for the next heat race when they told us to shut it down.  It was as the news broke that Gilles Villeneuve had just died in qualifying.  I don't even remember if we raced afterwards.

[BenelliSEI]

I was sitting on the starting grid, getting ready for the next heat race when they told us to shut it down.  It was as the news broke that Gilles Villeneuve had just died in qualifying.  I don't even remember if we raced afterwards.

We’re you thinking Mosport that day?

[Terry in Australia]

Ok, before this thread disappears completely, I’m happy to report that as I’ve now sold my Honda RC51 I’m financial again and I can crack on with the Mach III. I took the engine cases, heads and cylinders across to my vapor blaster last night, and he reminded me that I’d promised to strip his little vintage Honda’s engine so that he could vapor blast it, then I’d reassemble it again so he could put it back in his bike.

He asked me again and said that in return he’d vapor blast all of my parts for free, so I said yes. I’m picking up his engine when I collect my cases next week, and I’ll take my carbs and outer covers over once I’ve gone through them to select the best ones.

Keith Davis in Ohio(?) just sent me a pic of the Mach III kicker, shift pedal assembly and oil lines that he’s found for me, so that’s another step closer. Now I have some bike money again I’ll do an Ebay raid and order gaskets, new pistons and rings, crank seals etc. I’m looking forward to getting this puppy on the road!

[RAFster122s]

The frame you are going to use, is it ready to go or, does it need repainted…

Congrats on the herd thinning to offset the growth and parts find and cash to advance the project.

At least you have a very nice set of blue tins for the bike.

Hope the rest of your week goes smoothly…

[Stev-o]

Keith Davis in Ohio(?) just sent me a pic of the Mach III kicker, shift pedal assembly and oil lines that he’s found for me...

Those oil lines can be like Sandcast parts: hard to find and expensive when found.
I dont know of Keith, but sounds like a good contact to have!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, I’ll take those beautiful wheels over to get new tyres fitted tomorrow, and drop the frame off to get blasted while I’m at it.

I’ll also assemble my other RC51 and order some Chinese plastics for it, as all that stuff was destroyed when the previous owner head butted a Kangaroo @ 60 MPH. It’s only going to be good as a track bike because the frame was destroyed, but I bought an American frame for it, so at least I can build a rideable bike that, if nothing else, I can look at.

Thanks Steve, Keith really helped me out with both the T350 and T500 builds, and even though he doesn’t dabble in Kawasaki’s he was kind enough to go find that “unobtainium” for me.

[Terry in Australia]

Well I still don’t have a lot to show for the $$$ that I’m investing in this build, but it is moving forward. I was going to take my beautiful wheels over to the tyre shop on Friday to get the new tyres fitted, but realised that I first needed to trim the spokes after Dion laced them, so using my electric “finger sander” I did just that but ran out of time, so I dropped them off yesterday instead.

The vapor blaster sent me a short video of the first head that he did yesterday and it looks like a brand new one so I’m really happy that he’s doing such a great job, and looking forward to building the engine with nice clean cases. I’m trying to decide if I’ll pop for a new reproduction wiring harness, over $300 with shipping seems a bit expensive, but I might just fall on my sword and buy one anyway because I hate trying to clean up a crusty old harness, and all of the issues that using 50 year old electrical parts presents someone not gifted with a decent understanding of electrickery.

I’ve ordered all of the engine and brake parts including 2 sets of pistons as I forgot to measure the bores before sending the cylinders off for blasting, but for only $95 a set, it wasn’t a big issue. New fork legs are coming from England, and I’ve received new rear shocks, and new ignition coils. I’m going to build the 10/73 bike as it’s the match for the best set of engine cases, so as it’s the bare frame in the pics I posted I want to try not to have to rat too many parts from the 3/74 roller, which I might put together as a “survivor” I better check the engine numbers on the other set of cases to see if they’re close.

[grcamna2]

Well I still don’t have a lot to show for the $$$ that I’m investing in this build, but it is moving forward. I was going to take my beautiful wheels over to the tyre shop on Friday to get the new tyres fitted, but realised that I first needed to trim the spokes after Dion laced them, so using my electric “finger sander” I did just that but ran out of time, so I dropped them off yesterday instead.

The vapor blaster sent me a short video of the first head that he did yesterday and it looks like a brand new one so I’m really happy that he’s doing such a great job, and looking forward to building the engine with nice clean cases. I’m trying to decide if I’ll pop for a new reproduction wiring harness, over $300 with shipping seems a bit expensive, but I might just fall on my sword and buy one anyway because I hate trying to clean up a crusty old harness, and all of the issues that using 50 year old electrical parts presents someone not gifted with a decent understanding of electrickery.

I’ve ordered all of the engine and brake parts including 2 sets of pistons as I forgot to measure the bores before sending the cylinders off for blasting, but for only $95 a set, it wasn’t a big issue. New fork legs are coming from England, and I’ve received new rear shocks, and new ignition coils. I’m going to build the 10/73 bike as it’s the match for the best set of engine cases, so as it’s the bare frame in the pics I posted I want to try not to have to rat too many parts from the 3/74 roller, which I might put together as a “survivor” I better check the engine numbers on the other set of cases to see if they’re close.

Terry,your build is advancing forward.
I'm glad to hear about the vapor blasting;I love the visual results of that.