Topic: 77 kz1000

[carl550k]

 hey all, i have a line on a 77 kawasaki kz1000. the bike hasnt been on the road since 03. last time ran about 3 years ago. claims it needs tlc. i havnt seen the bike in person yet just talked by phone. seller also says the bike smokes a bit on start up but clears after 5 minutes. i dont have any experiance with kawasakis, never owned one. anything to look for or know about? thanks carl.

[Aaron J Williams]

They are really fast and sometimes the cam chain tensioner can come loose and bend valves.

[DarkRider]

well...if it helps...the model was made famous by the first Mad Max movie....yes..im refering to gooses bike..among others in the movie lol

[Jeff.Saunders]

They are really fast and sometimes the cam chain tensioner can come loose and bend valves.

Somewhat true.  On the Z1/KZ900/KZ1000 engines through 1980, the cam chain guide at the front of the cylinder block can break and end up in the oil pan.  Rarely does this cause bent valves.  Bent valves are usually a sign of maintenance neglect - i.e the owner not manually adjusting the cam chain, or running the cam chain past it's typical end of life, or just over revving the motor.

Those engines are incredibly tough, easy to work on, and very easy to get parts for.  Many of the performance companies STILL make parts for them after 30 years.  Go to a drag strip on a saturday night and you'll still see these bikes being thrashed down the track.

Those engines are not very susceptible to many problems.  2nd gear can be a problem if the transmission has been abused - but this is solvable by getting the dogs undercut.  The engines run very low oil pressure and rarely have any issues with oil supply.  The clutches are very strong.  You have replaceable cam bearings, no primary chain, and a cylinder head you can take off in the frame.

[bryanj]

The first 1,000's into UK suffered if run in too carefully!! They "glazed" the bores and then used oil and smoked--official cure was rebore with OS piston kits and run in at 3/4 throttle through gear changes up to legal speed limit (70MPH)

Also there was more than one instance of the crank pin tollerence not being tight enough and one cyliner would "spin" resulting in one up two down and one half way instead of two up two down!!!

The ones that had no problems are basically bulletproof if serviced properly at the correct intervals

[Aaron J Williams]

They are really fast and sometimes the cam chain tensioner can come loose and bend valves.

Somewhat true.  On the Z1/KZ900/KZ1000 engines through 1980, the cam chain guide at the front of the cylinder block can break and end up in the oil pan.  Rarely does this cause bent valves.  Bent valves are usually a sign of maintenance neglect - i.e the owner not manually adjusting the cam chain, or running the cam chain past it's typical end of life, or just over revving the motor.

My mistake, it was the KZ1300 that had the adjuster which could go loose without warning.

[Jeff.Saunders]

Also there was more than one instance of the crank pin tollerence not being tight enough and one cyliner would "spin" resulting in one up two down and one half way instead of two up two down!!!

The bikes impacted by this problem were the 1981 kz1000-J1's - when Kawasaki redesigned the engines for the new J motors, they had tolerance issues that did result in a number of trashed engines.  The 1977 cranks were (are) nearly bulletproof.

The 77/78 KZ1000's are one of the best engines Kawasaki produced - they are pre-emissions engines, so none of the smog stuff was on the motors.  The cranks are VERY heavy - they don't rev as quickly as the earlier 900's, but the engines have much more torque for cruising around.  The carbs on those bikes are really too small - they are just 26mm carbs with 102.5 or 105 main jets.  Replacing the carbs with a set of VM29's or a set of VM28's of a Z1 or later KZ1000 results in far more top-end power.

[bert96]

 Is it true that parts for old Kawasaki are harder to find than a honda???

[Jeff.Saunders]

 Is it true that parts for old Kawasaki are harder to find than a honda???

The reverse - they are way easier to find parts for...

Just check out our web site to see the massive number of parts for the KZ's...

[bryanj]

Here in UK kawi parts are expensive and not easy to find ---especially exhausts--- Probably was the later cranks but that was toward the end of my pro spannereing and I wasnt at a Kawi dealer then, but my mate was one thats where my memory comes from