Topic: Terry's NEW big Kawasaki build, the "Lockdown 1428" special.

[Terry in Australia]

Ok, so I haven't finished tweaking the Mad Max bike, so I will be updating that thread with a full engine strip so I can replace the crankshaft with a NOS Eagle crank that's been indexed, balanced and welded, so I can install an alternator and starter clutch, and I'll also install a ported KZ1000 head and mikuni 33mm smoothbore carbs (with pods) so I don't have to worry about rats crawling into the GSXR carbs that are on it now, that I can't add filters to, with any sort of elegance.

To explain the reason for this second bike, well, we all know that you can never have enough parts for a bike you're building, and especially when good aftermarket hot up parts are so easily obtainable, big Kawasaki's dominated motorcycle racing for a couple of decades, so there are lots of good bits to buy, that will still work fine, and aren't outrageously expensive.

When I bought the old Kawasaki Z1000 (KZ1000 in the US) dragbike that became the Mad Max bike, the owner told me that "it blows smoke, due to scratches in the bores". Hmmnn, that's interesting, it didn't blow any smoke when he fired it up, and every time I've started it, it didn't blow smoke either. But there was almost two years from the time I bought it, to when I started work on it (various surgeries, recuperation, the swamp rat build and some Army work in Darwin got in the way) so during that time, I found an Arias 1428cc "Big Block" going for cheap in the US, used, but in excellent condition.

Arias 1428cc kit 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Arias 1428cc kit 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course, you can't just bolt a 1428cc cylinder block onto a set of stock cases, there are various methods that can be used to make the holes bigger, but once again, trawling thru Ebay, I found a set of bored cases that were surprisingly inexpensive, so I took a chance that they'd match my Arias block, and bought them.

Terry's bored Z1000 cases 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

They fit! Here's a pic I took of them with the block on top, sitting in a CB750 K6 frame when I thought about a 1428cc Hondasaki hybrid

Terry's Kawasaki Arias Big Block 1428cc 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm glad I didn't. But as the engine in my Mad Max bike is in good condition, I felt guilty about stripping it and harvesting it's guts to use to build the 1428cc engine, so I continued to amass other engine parts, in the hope of building a complete engine that I could just drop in. I found a bare GPZ1100 head that had been ported, and I'm still not sure why, but I was the only bidder, and I think I paid 18 dollars for it? (shipping was a heck of a lot more) Thems big holes.

Kawasaki KZ1000 ported head 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Kawasaki KZ1000 ported head 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, not to labour the point, more engine parts trickled in as funds were available, and some parts that I bought for Max ended up as "spares". The pile of "spares" grew until I realised that if I only had another frame, I had enough of the big bits to build a second bike. I put the word out that I was looking for a Z1000 frame, but couldn't find one in Oz, so went back to Ebay, and won an auction for 4 frames from a guy who sold mostly drag bike parts, who was more than happy to just send me one.

1428 Ebay frame 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

1428 Ebay frame by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The frame was cheap, but shipping wasn't, especially as COVID-19 had just stopped all international domestic flights in and out of Oz, and for reasons best known to money managers (something I obviously don't do very well) the Aussie dollar dropped to around 54 US cents, the worst it has been since the early 2000's. Still, the frame was unmolested, unlike Max's, so while I will be doing some welding, it won't be to restore missing sections, like it was with Max. On Wednesday, there was a knock on my front door, and a visage to excite this would be Kawasaki builder.

Terry's 1428 frame has arrived! by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'll add more tomorrow, and it'll be slightly out of sequence, but I'm old, so bear with me, there's lots to tell.

 

     

[spotty]

Where will this madness end up ?

Not sure but it should be fun to see

[dave500]

Terry thats fantastic,but surely a cardboard framed bike?ive heard of recycling n all but what about if it rains?

[onepieceatatime]

Terry thats fantastic,but surely a cardboard framed bike?ive heard of recycling n all but what about if it rains?

He just hasn't coated the cardboard with epoxy yet.   
I wonder if he will get fancy and add fiberglass or carbon fiber?

[ekpent]

"Lockdown 1428" sounds like a cool title for a prison flick movie, maybe one with some biker chicks or something ! Looking forward to see how this one goes. Did you get that frame sent over from the USA Terry ?

[754]

 I get you got the frame from Oink.. am I right ? 
Are you going to blackout the Arias  letters ? Be a true sleeper bike..

[BPellerine]

oh oh,

[Henning]

You must have a very patient and understanding missus...

[BPellerine]

a box section frame!haha

[bear]

I'll add more tomorrow, and it'll be slightly out of sequence, but I'm old, so bear with me, there's lots to tell.

  [/quote]

I'm with ya Uncle Tez, I with ya.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yep, I bought the frame from "Oink" Johnson, Brad is a top bloke, and I've bought heaps of stuff from him in the last couple of years. He wasn't able to send it directly to me, so I had him send it to MyUS.com in Florida, who re-packed it and sent it to me. Unpacking it was almost as big a task as casting my own frame, there was layers of cardboard over layers of plastic wrap over layers of cardboard over even more layers of plastic wrap. Oh well, at least they didn't break anything, which is ironically unusual for the turkeys at MyUS.com, who have managed to break/lose several of my purchases. I haven't thought about whether or not I'll paint over, or highlight the ARIAS thing Frank, but as there won't be many stock items on the bike, it won't be much of a sleeper anyway.

Months ago, I bought some Lester wheels to put on a future CB750 project, but discovered (with the help of some guys here) that the back wheel was for a CB500F, so I had to then buy the guts for a CB500F rear hub once I realised that CB750 Parts (of which I have plenty) don't fit. The next thing I discovered, was that the biggest rear sprocket I could find for a CB500 was a 38 toother, which is way too highly geared for an 18 inch CB750 wheel. Bugger.

Monday Lester Rubber 6 Apr 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I put the Lesters aside and didn't think much more about it until I was buying sprockets for the Mad Max bike, and realised that CB500F rear sprockets (ranging from 32-38 teeth) are ideal for Kawasaki's with the same gearing. Hmmnn, 20mm rear axle? Check. Oh but wait, a Z1000 has a disc rear brake, not a drum! Well that's true, but the old drag bike that I harvested most of the parts for Max from had a Yamaha rear wheel with a drum brake, so I ratted thru the parts I'd kept and yep, looks like he'd installed a Z1 swingarm, with the anchor for the brake stay arm underneath, not on top, like the Z1000's rear caliper stay arm mount, which is on top. He'd also "braced" the swingarm by welding a length of angle iron to the top of each "leg" which I may or may not leave. I assembled the hub's guts, installed new brake shoes, and trial fitted it to the swingarm.

Good Friday Z1428 10 Apr 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Good Friday Z1428 10 Apr 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

To my surprise, with just a few "speed shims" (washers) and a CB750 rear axle spacer in place of the CB500F item, it all fit fine, and the chain alignment, when using my index finger-o-meter, appears to be very close to that on Max. I will make some more elegant spacers as the build progresses, but for the time being, I was happy.        

[Terry in Australia]

When I got the news that the frame had arrived in Oz, I thought I better sort out the front wheel too. Vik put me on to a guy selling drilled cast iron brake rotors on an exchange basis, so I sent him 3. I'll have 2 on the front of the 1428, and one will go to Vik for his auto. This left me in a bit of a predicament, as I don't have any other discs to mount on the wheel, to work out what I need as far as spacers go, so I can mount some wicked GSXR1000 6 piston calipers, cheapo Chinese braided lines, and another FJR1300 master cylinder, like the one I'm using on "Max".

Wednesday Omega Man Zedding by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Frank alerted me to a problem I hadn't thought about. The Kawasaki's ran 17mm front axles, and of course, these wheels were meant for a Honda with 15mm axles. The Kawasaki axle was also a bit longer, which was good, as I had to space out the discs from the hub (the Kawasaki discs have a deeper offset than the Honda ones) so the big arse calipers would fit, without hitting the "spokes" of the Lester wheel.

Easter Monday 2020 1428 axle bodge by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So what to do? Try to find some bearings that would fit in the Lesters hub, but for a 17mm axle? Make a longer 15mm axle with ends that will fit the Kawasaki forks? Or do some sort of a bodge that would achieve most of the above? We know that 15mm axles are fine for bikes this heavy (a CB750 and a Z1 were about the same weight, and I discovered that Kawasaki went back to 15mm axles for KZ1000's after 1980, including all the police models, which were heavier again) so I took some measurements, and came up with a cunning plan. A plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it, and call it a fox......

Easter Monday 2020 1428 axle bodge 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Easter Monday 2020 1428 axle bodge 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Easter Monday 1428 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was an "interference fit" (i.e., driven in with a punch) to drive the Honda axle into the "Kawasaki adapter". I thought about welding it in place, but seriously, that aint gonna move.

Easter Monday 1428 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I measured it all so that the wheel ran in the middle of the forks, and was happy that there was just enough room left betwixt the hub and fork slider for the Honda speedo drive. The honda axle's threaded end is 12 x 1.5mm, so I bought a 10.5mm drill bit and a 12 x 1.5mm threading tap on Wednesday (all I had on Easter Monday was a 12 x 1.75 and 12 x 1.25, which pissed me off) and machined up a "nut" for the other end, and a spacer the same width as the speedo drive, which I may, or may not use.

1428 build Wednesday 15 Apr 2020  1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

1428 build Wednesday 15 Apr 2020  4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

1428 build Wednesday 15 Apr 2020  5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

Regardless, it all worked well, and the front wheel is secure in the forks. The good thing about building a "special" as opposed to restoring something back to original, is that, you can think outside the box, and come up with solutions. It has caused a couple of sleepless nights, but so far, so good.    

[Terry in Australia]

Well I wasn't going to do any more until some Ebay purchases arrived, but the sun was shining, and I needed to get off my arse before it became permanently glued to my comfy chair. I've been waiting on the new front discs to arrive so I could make up some spacers to move them out from the hub, but I didn't think I had any discs in the garage, then I remembered that I have some K0 discs.

Now K0 discs are different from K1-K6 discs, and I always thought the offset was part of the difference, but as luck would have it after some more scrounging, I found another K1-K6 disc, and after some comparison, discovered that the offset is the same.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Cool. OK, so I bolted the K0 discs to the Lester front wheel and checked to see what clearance (or lack there of) I have between the back of the disc and the "spokes", using the caliper as a gauge. Sliding the caliper around the disc rotor on the speedo drive side showed that it needed around 3mm of spacing out on that side, but on the other side, there was at least a human hair's clearance. I ratted around through my scrap metal collection and found some squares of 3mm thick aluminium plate.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I drilled a 10mm hole in the middle of the plate, then using a 10mm bolt through the middle, I clamped it in my lathe chuck, and using a cut off tool for the entirely wrong purpose, turned a square into a circle.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Twas a bit rough, but with some more work, they (yes I made one for the other side, just in case) were looking better.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course they needed a big hole in the middle too, so I introduced them to the step drill from hell.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

They were a nice fit on a Honda Hub, so I was happy.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And a few holes later, they were done.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So I did a test fit, and all was good.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Lockdown 1428 brakes 9b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Apart from the fact that the disc rotor on the non-speedo drive side is now running very close to the fork lower, so I might remove it, and leave it out. Yes, maybe I should have had a look at them with them in the forks before I started making the second spacer, but what the heck, I've got a spare now, or a template, or something equally handy. The main thing, is I can now move onto making a caliper bracket, knowing that the calipers will work, sweet.

Lockdown 1428 brakes 9c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr



   


 

[754]

Terry all I did was, measure up the width of the spacer, each side of the wheel , then make an aluminium spacer for each side for the 15mm axle but have a 17mm od step the width of the bearing..slip fit into the bearing,  then pop them in and assemble stock axle. At least I think I did.
 Does the Honda axle fit the Z1 fork, GL axle is longer.

[dave500]

nice job Terry

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks men, apart from the fact that the aluminium was as soft as sh1t and was horrible to machine, it all worked out in the end, and I'm very happy with it, so far. Frank, the axle is around 10mm shorter than the Kawasaki item, but it's entire length is contained within the fork lowers, i.e., the "head" is just inboard of the 7mm hex, and the end of the threaded portion runs the full length of the 30mm wide fork bottom on the other side, so it's only the 7mm hex outside of the forks on either  end that sits proud of the axle. I'd be nervous otherwise. Thanks for the tip, I may buy a Goldwing Axle though, just in case I do get nervous......

I'm waiting on lots of stuff, but particularly some phosphor bronze bushing materiel that I've (hopefully) got coming this week, so I can make some swingarm bushes. The Kawasaki's had needle roller bearing swingarm bearings, but I'm not a fan, I bought one of those kits for a CB750 years ago and was disappointed by the slop therein, the ones in my 6 year old Kawasaki Z750L1 fell out in a pile of rusty dust when I pulled it apart to get the frame powdercoated and once again, those parts are mega expensive. The PO of the Max bike, that I'm harvesting the swingarm from, removed all that stuff when he made it into a rigid rear end, so I'd need all the bits I saw in my parts manual, and can't see the need, when I can use (free, because I already have them) good used Honda CB750 parts again. I got excited and found a set of new bronze swinger bushes in a tub, but sadly the ID of the kawasaki swinger is a "poofteenth" larger than a CB750, probably only a couple of thou max, but regardless, it's a no go.

For 40 bucks (25 USD) I bought 4 inches (100mm) of solid phosphor bronze bar, that I can carve new ones from, and the OD is 38mm so there'll be enough left over for some enclosed thrust washers to keep the animals out of the 34mm OD swingarm, as well. The CB750 pivot tube will be a little longer (a couple of mm) than the kawasaki's, so I'll machine that down, and all will be well.

phosphor bronze by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The only box that arrived today was another "guess" that paid off. I'd love to buy a new set of Ikon shockers for it, but for $800 ($500 USD) I can buy all of the Z1 plastics I'll be needing, and a few other pieces. I was admiring my Yamaha XS650 the other day, and remembered that it's sporting quite a nice set of 7610 series late model Koni's, and like the Kawasaki, it has a double "eye bolt" setup. The length looked right too, so I jumped on Ebay and bought a cheap set of replica OEM Yamaha shocks, hoping that they would come close to fitting, even if I had to make new adapters for the top and bottom mount like I did on Max.

When they arrived today, I did a test fit, and was 'rapt that the top and bottom bolt holes on the Yamaha are exactly the same as on the Kawasaki! Woohoo! They're 325mm long, so around 10mm shorter than stock, but that's no issue, the shocks on Max are around 25mm shorter, and it actually gives it a very nice stance. What I'll do during the "Mock Up" stage is just use the new ones on the 1428, but when the frame is finished, and painted/powder coated (we're getting into the colder, wetter weather, so it might be easier to get it blasted and coated, funds permitting) I'll swap them over with the Koni's on the Yamaha, strip, clean and re-oil them, and put them back into service. Sweet!

Yamaha XS650 shocks by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

         

[ekpent]

 Didn't know you had a Yammie xs650 in your stash Terry. Keep up the good work !

[Terry in Australia]

Didn't know you had a Yammie xs650 in your stash Terry. Keep up the good work !

Thanks Eric, yeah I bought it just before Christmas, a young bloke had it for sale on FB, with a heap of spares, the 4 piston Brembo brake calipers, a new full floating brake rotor, and heaps of other bits. Like so many young fellers he'd bought it to turn it into a Bobber/Tracker/Brat etc, and had pulled it apart, then lost interest. It was last registered in 2006 and he said he'd never had it running, so it was a bit of a gamble, but I'm usually pretty lucky, so I jumped on it. His price (which was cheap anyway) was "ONO", so I said I'd pay him what he wanted for it if he delivered it, and he was more than happy to drop it off at my place, and take a wallet full of Christmas present money home with him.

Luckily for me he hadn't touched the engine, and he'd kept most of the parts he took off. I did have to buy a few things for it, but all I did at the time was put everything that I could back onto it, put a new battery in it and get it going as I was waiting for a brake caliper and some pads from the US, and a box full of bits from Mikes XS. Once I get both the Kawasakis built, fix my CB750 K2's gearbox, replace my 1973 Harley Sportster's crankshaft, put my second RC51 back together, build my BSA C11G, turn Spotty's old CB750K7 into something sellable, and build another shed, I'll put the old Yammy on the road, I always wanted one, so I'm glad I saved this one.

   

[dave500]

almost sounds like its got one of them 277 degree cranks?

[simon#42]

i would check out the quality of ikon shocks before you buy your next set terry . they used to be great when they were made in australia  but the last set i bought were not so good . when i checked the box it said assembled in australia so i guess they are now made in china .

[Terry in Australia]

i would check out the quality of ikon shocks before you buy your next set terry . they used to be great when they were made in australia  but the last set i bought were not so good . when i checked the box it said assembled in australia so i guess they are now made in china .

Geez that sucks if it's true Simon, the last ones I bought directly from the factory in 2016 and I know they were made there because the ones for my BMW R1100GS were so new they had to make them especially for me. Well if they're made in China, I won't be buying any more, they're way too expensive for Chinese crap.

[Trevor from Warragul]

I reckon the next project should start with you sourcing one of these motors!

[Terry in Australia]

almost sounds like its got one of them 277 degree cranks?

It does sound a bit different from my son's Royal Enfield Dave, and I know that you can convert them, but I doubt it, even though it'd be cool if it was.

[Terry in Australia]

I reckon the next project should start with you sourcing one of these motors!

Thanks mate, I've been a fan of Alan Millyard since the 90's when I used to read about his 4, 5 and 7 cylinder Kawasaki two strokes in "Motorcycle Mechanics" magazine. He started when he was a school kid, converting his little honda Minibike engine into a V twin. What I love about him is that he builds everything in his little garden shed in England, with just basic tools. More skills than I'll ever have, watching him setting the ignition timing for 7 sets of points was mind boggling!

[Trevor from Warragul]

Yep, I was amazed to see him cutting the blocks apart with a hacksaw!