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

[MRieck]

That fellow "Oink" is he a pig farmer who has a vintage Kawasaki business also ?

I bought a busa airbox from him....broken inlet flange. He sent another....broken inlet flange. I just threw both in the dumpster I'm renting. His packing sucked.

[754]

Terry I should remind you that the shear strength of a cast iron ring is wwwwaaaayyyyyyy less than steel , so you take your chances..
 Mike, I bought a lightweight rotor and carrier off Oink, like very light drag wheels use..it and carrier wre dished.. I mentioned it to him.. I think he did not even reply.. so I'd you buy rotors insist of picture with a straight edge across the surface.

[Terry in Australia]

Hey Terry...sure woulda been nice to vapor blast that case first, anyone do that in your area?  Seem to now recall you will be painting it black?

Oink is not not bad eBay seller, right? I've bought from him too, it's amazing the amount of good Kaw parts he has.

Thanks Steve, I decided to leave them "natural", one day my kids will probably sell it, and a prospective buyer would probably prefer it original-ish. I could have had them vapor blasted, but we're now in stage 4 lockdown, so no way I'll get them to him, and I don't know if he's open anyway? No biggie, the engine covers will be shiny, and the cases actually look pretty good in the flesh.

Oink Johnson (Real name Brad) is a great guy, he packs his stuff really well and everything he's sent me (a KZ1000 frame, KZ1000 engine cases, Arias big block, crank, gearbox guts, clutch etc etc, have all been excellent, he's my favourite Ebay seller. There's nothing worse than buying something from someone only to find it damaged on receipt, but I've had no issues at all with Oink.

It's a pity the arsehole who threw that head, cams, loose valves etc in a box with no packing doesn't have the same attention to detail as Oink. Anyway, that turkey will get his tomorrow when I hand the complaint over to Ebay.    

[Terry in Australia]

Terry I should remind you that the shear strength of a cast iron ring is wwwwaaaayyyyyyy less than steel , so you take your chances..

Thanks Frank, I didn't use that flimsy cast iron Honda ring, I used a steel ring from an outboard motor piston that came with my boring bar. It'll do the job fine.

[RAFster122s]

Terry, saw this and recalled you lived in Melbourne...
Right. Must be hell living where there are bugler's about...

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yeah mate, I might own a 106 year old cornet that my Grandfather carried for 5 years in WW1, but that doesn't mean I like buglers!

But I digress. I was ratting thru tubs of Z1 parts looking for bits I'd need to assemble the bottom end, when I came across a starter motor I'd bought, that the cable had broken off. I'd remembered that somewhere in my garage I had a starter for a Suzuki GS1000 that I'd bought when I blew up the starter motor doing a speed trial many years ago, at just over 120 MPH I'd bumped the starter button with my thumb, and "Boom!" no more starter motor. Anyway, I pulled out a tub from under the lathe, and found not one, but 6 starter motors.

Z1 starter motor Tuesday by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Hmmnn, I realised that they were Honda CB750 starters, so I pulled one out and compared it to the Z1 starter. Can you see the difference?

Z1 starter motor Tuesday 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yep, you picked it, the starter cable is in a different position on the CB750 starter, than the Z1 starter. So, can the body of the starter motor be rotated, so that the wire exits out at the same angle is the Z1 starter? Well, sort of. I undid the two screws and I could rotate the body a bit, but not as much as the Kawasaki. Hmmnn, I pulled out the end caps from the dragbike and compared them. Hmmnn again, there is a difference!

Z1 starter motor Tuesday 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So I swapped them over and was able to rotate the body as required, and I did a quick test fit to make sure it was good. Honda to the Z1 rescue! (again)

Z1 starter motor Tuesday 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

With that headache put to bed, I decided to swap out the gear selectors from the black engine to the Z1. When I was ratting thru my parts bin I found another set of gears and a selector drum, so all I had to remove from the black engine was two selector forks and their shaft, and as I have an idea for another Kawasaki build after this one, a "bitsa", I'll keep an eye out for some more parts to put the black engine back together eventually.

Z1 gearbox guts 4 Aug 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By this stage it was getting dark, and was bitterly cold, so I packed up and came inside for the night. No worries, little by little is good enough for me. More tomorrow.

Z1 gearbox guts 4 Aug 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

The engine is looking cleaner from the front

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, it’s very clean from every angle actually, just not as shiny as it’d be if I had it vapor blasted. That’s fine, I’m happy to have a 45 year old bike that looks like a 45 year old bike.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, it’s very clean from every angle actually, just not as shiny as it’d be if I had it vapor blasted. That’s fine, I’m happy to have a 45 year old bike that looks like a 45 year old bike.

A little patina hides the 'jewel' inside;it matters how it runs.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, yep, as I’ve said before, this isn’t a restoration. I have absolutely no interest in building a show bike, I’m happy to have a hotrod Z1 that looks nice. It’s more about go, than show......

[Stev-o]

Hey Terry....side note:  OZ and Melbourne in particular, is making National news over here about the "2nd wave" of the virus and there is now a lockdown?   True??

[Terry in Australia]

G’day Steve, yep, our stupid state government dropped the ball a month or two ago and hired private security guards to enforce the isolation of returning international travellers in 3 hotels in Melbourne, rather than using police and Army, like the other states did.

The guards who had no training, no PPE, and in some cases no grasp of the English language, allowed the covid-positive people To go shopping, wander around the hotel and in some cases, were even hving sex with them, then spread it throughout the community.

We went into a 6 week stage 3 lockdown (again) 3 weeks ago, but as the positive cases spiralled out of control, we’ve now gone to stage 4, for another 6 weeks. The real victims have been the oldies in the various nursing homes, around 150 have died in the last 3 weeks, but a 30 year old man died yesterday, along with a couple of 70 year olds, so it’s proving that everyone’s at risk right now. Our numbers are still tiny compared to the US, but our economy can’t sustain mass business closures for extended periods, so it’s important to reduce the cases to zip ASAP.

No real biggie for me, I’m still working from home and sneaking out to do bike stuff. No riding of course, but still winter here, so I’ll stick with spending my spare time building, so I have something nice to ride when I’m allowed out again.

[Trevor from Warragul]

I read that the horny security guard is the "ultimate pants man", because he f*cked an entire state!

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah Trevor, I worked part time for one of those security companies currently under investigation back in the 1980's, and they were cowboys back then too. They loved to hire Army guys because we were reliable, wouldn't turn up looking like a bag of sh1t, we'd arrive on time, stay awake during our shifts, not steal everything not nailed down, not assault members of the public, (well I did, because he was trying to break into my site, but that's another story.....) and not piss off halfway through our shifts, leaving the sites wide open, like most of the "New Australians" who were the majority of the guards, many of whom couldn't even speak English.

Anyway, back to my happy place, the sheltered workshop. I had an awful day yesterday and didn't finish work until it was dark outside, which sucked big time. Today I knocked off working from home early(ish) and cracked the cases, cleaned the mating surfaces with acetone then dabbed a very thin smear of gasket sealant onto the bottom case, let it cure for 20 minutes while I cleaned up the main bearing bolts, then lowered it onto it's mate. Time to torque it down. Kawasaki are very thoughtful, they mark each bolt hole with the torque sequence so you can't c0ck it up.

Z1 bottom end button up 6 Aug 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I bought this torque wrench 37 years ago when I was rebuilding my first K1, it was expensive and I wondered then if I'd ever need to use it again? I reckon I've used it at least once a year since (twice so far this year) and I reckon my son will be using it long after I turn up my toes. Just random thoughts.

Z1 bottom end button up 6 Aug 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The 8mm main bearing cap bolts were easy enough to find, but the 6mm bolts that are 5 different lengths were a pain in the arse. It was probably overkill that I bought hundreds of Kawasaki bolts, but hey, I might use them one day..........

Z1 bottom end button up 6 Aug 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I eventually filled all the holes and was happy that there were no stripped threads. I do need to pull them out and clean them up on my pedestal grinder with the wire wheel attachment (the face smasher) tomorrow, then oil them and torque them down properly. Anyway, it was good to sort the OEM Kawasaki bolts from the Honda bolts and generic metric (and a few AF) bolts that were in the huge pile I bought from Oink.

Z1 bottom end button up 6 Aug 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Tomorrow and on the weekend I'll crack on installing the alternator, stator, and all the external covers, then start thinking about doing the top end. That'll involve some paint stripping, which might involve getting the cylinder block and head blasted, but I'll try paint stripper first and see how that goes. More soon.

       

 

[RAFster122s]

Does the fische/parts diagram lists provide bolt size information like Honda does in their lists?
Honda has several odd length bolts throughout the CB550 I have noticed. Makes sourcing new bolts problematic if not using the dealer.

Sounds like an intriguing story might be there about your time working for the security company.

Congrats on the progress with the work. It is coming together nicely.

What year was the Z1B originally built?

Has it been rainy this winter in Australia?
Tucson has been having a very hot and very dry summer. Usually we are having monsoon rains but this year they have been very spotty and infrequent leading to a deficit in rainfall of about 3.75 inches. Significant amount of rain when in the desert, naturally we are in a drought. The monsoon rains normally are a time of year we receive much of our annual rainfall. The winter as another of those times. Parts of Tucson had rain last week and it provides significant heat relief, 20 degrees temperature drop last week after the rain that day. When the rain happens early enough in the day it becomes quite humid and sticky afterwards as the temp rises afterwards. Last week it was around 107f before the rain and temps dropped down to 87f afterwards but it then climbed back to 94f and was much more unpleasant.
At my place it has been about two weeks since any rain has fallen and the last rainfall was way above predicted dropping about 2-3 inches nearby. Even with that kind of volume we remain in significant deficit. As you would expect, getting that much rain all at once it doesn't replenish the water tables, it creates flash flooding and flooding and the water flows south and is not absorbed quickly .

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, yeah I've got a genuine Kawasaki parts manual for a KZ1000 which is pretty much the same engine, although some bolts are slightly different length. It is a great help though. We haven't had much rain at all really this year, which isn't a good thing after the massive bushfires we had over the Christmas/New Year period. A few years ago the government spent a fortune building a desalination plant here in Victoria which they can use to top up the state's water supplies, but doesn't help the farmers much. Oh well, maybe we'll get some more in Spring, and hopefully not have more fires this summer.

Yesterday was a beautiful winters day, very spring like, and not even that cold in my sheltered workshop. I pulled all the 6mm screws and shortened them all by 3 or 4mm as I wasn't comfortable with them as they were. I lubed them all up and torqued the cases down, and all was good. I installed the kick starter spring (way easier than on a CB750) and cover, the clutch cover, and ignition cover using fancy MLS style gaskets that don't appear to need gasket goop as they have a soft outer layer either side of the metal gasket.

Z1 bottom end button up 9 Aug 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

On the other side there's a steel sleeve spacer that goes over the final drive sprocket shaft, that I didn't have, so I machined one out from a piece of CB750 front fork tube, and then was able to bolt on the gear selector shaft cover. Today I had to do some more machining, because I didn't have enough parts to assemble the starter clutch/alternator assembly. I needed the thrust washer, below.

Z1 starter clutch thrust washer by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The price? $70 AUD (about $45 USD) with postage from the US, and the wait for USPS to get it to me. Buggar that, I made my own.

Z1 bottom end button up 9 Aug 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

That was all good, the alternator rotor went on, but after I buttoned it all up I realised that  someone has welded the oil hole in the crank, so tomorrow I'm gonna remove it and drill a new hole, no biggie. I'm presuming that the drag bike that the crank came out of had an outboard starter, hence the reason to weld up the oil hole. The good thing about cordless rattle guns is they make parts removal very quick.

Z1 bottom end button up 9 Aug 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

Anyway, all the covers are on, so apart from the alternator removal/oil hole drilling tomorrow, the bottom end is finished. Tomorrow I also have to decide which cylinder block to use and whether or not to get the cylinder block and head bead blasted. I've got a bead blasting cabinet in the garage, it's not very big, but might be okay, we'll see.

Z1 bottom end button up 9 Aug 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Tintop]

if it wasn't for your stash of CB750 odds & ends you'd be treading water for quite a while.

[Terry in Australia]

if it wasn't for your stash of CB750 odds & ends you'd be treading water for quite a while.

Thanks Brian, well I can do without them, but they do make the job easier. It really is handy to be able to rat through my bins of parts and either find the exact same part, or something that I can modify to fit. (usually the latter)

Anyhoot, yesterday I quickly popped the alternator rotor off again, and drilled out the weld on the Z1 crank's starter clutch bearing oil hole. You'll all be surprised to read, I'm sure, that Z1 cranks are really, really hard, and I actually had more luck using a centre punch to push the errant blob of weld out, than I had drilling it. No matter, a combination of both methods eventually worked, and I could almost play a tune by blowing compressed air up the crank and "fingering" (in musical parlance) the hole, so I knew it was no longer blocked.

Z1 fixing 11 Aug 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I bought the wife a new Hoover dishwashing machine a couple of years ago, to replace the Simpson that had been in the house for the best part of 25 years. We've had a bad run with Simpson appliances so I bought the hoover, but it started playing up a few months ago, so rather fcuck around with getting  tech out, I bought her a new Dishlex machine and installed it last Friday. I'd dragged the old Hoover out into the driveway and thought it might be a good parts washer, if I can get the heater element working again.

Z1 fixing 11 Aug 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I located the heater element, and was disappointed that it looked fine. I did a continuity test with my ohm meter, and it read 26 Ohms which is just what it's supposed to be. The earth lead looked a little loose, so I tightened it a tad, but it made no difference, the "No heater" (error code alarm went off, so I disconnected the garden hose and the power, and I'll think about what else could be the problem. I saw one guy had bought a cheap water heater that he ran inline with his dishwasher to heat the water going in, so that might be an option, but it does piss me off that  it's not a simple problem. Oh well, more tomorrow.
   

[grcamna2]

Terry,is there a troubleshooting checklist online ?

[jgger]

Terry dish washers here in the USA connect to the hot water outlet. Could that be the issue?

Also what Bear was referring to as the thermocouple is a temperature sensor of sorts. I know on my washing machine for clothes if you have the cold connected to the hot inlet it will time out.

[grcamna2]

Terry dish washers here in the USA connect to the hot water outlet. Could that be the issue?

Also what Bear was referring to as the thermocouple is a temperature sensor of sorts. I know on my washing machine for clothes if you have the cold connected to the hot inlet it will time out.

The machine may need full hook-up to power-up ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, the only info I can find on the hoover dishwasher is that I should check the wiring from the heater element, which looks good, to the "control module" whatever that is. The heater was working fine when I bought it, as I remember my glasses steaming up whenever I opened it to get a cup of a plate out. I can buy a cheap little flow thru heater to heat the water up before it goes into the dishwasher, but it won't dry my bike parts like it should. It was raining today, so I left it out in the driveway thinking that a little rain shouldn't bother it, but I'll take a look at it again when the weather fines up. 

The Z1 engine build came to a screaming halt today. My intention had been to use my Z1 cylinder block but drop the 1100cc sleeves in from the dragbike's 1015cc cylinder block into the 900 block, but sadly the 1015 sleeves OD is 76mm, while the 900's sleeve OD is only 74mm. I could bore out the cylinder block to 76mm, but apart from the "1015 cc" casting on the block they're identical, so I took the block and the head to ADA Powdercoating to get the remains of the crappy black paint blasted off. I'd farted around with paint stripper, but the black paint was still in all the nooks and crannies, so I just decided to get them cleaned up nice before I bolt the top end down. I'll leave the Z1-B cylinder block alone, when I snuff it and my kids sell it, the new owner will probably want it to keep the bike all original. I might grind the "1015cc" off just to confuse anyone who looks at it though.....

So that's it. Nick at ADA told me he'll blast them tomorrow and give me a call when they're done. When I get them back I'll put them in my ultrasonic bath to clean any blasting grit out and give them a final clean before reassembly. All going well, I'll have the engine fully assembled by end of play on sunday, then I can think about shoving it in the frame. Oooher, I'm getting excited!

[spotty]

what are you doing out and about ? are we not in stage 4 lockdown ?

ah well, i guess its essential care giving so we'll just consider this a warning sir

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, well, ADA are only a couple of klicks up the road, and if they're open, I'm assuming I'm allowed to go there? But anyway, I wore my mask, Nick wore his mask, and there was no high-fiving, hugging, or any other form of contact. They only take cash, so I guess I'll need to take a couple of 50's and fashion them into paper aeroplanes, and fly them thru the receptionist's spy hole in the glass screen at her desk? Interesting times........

[seanbarney41]

Hi Terry...Here is an interesting thread over at KZR about your pal Oink.  No biggie...just realize he is not really the old bike hobby hero.
kzrider.com/forum/23-for-sale/614000-ebay-lots-of-dragbike-kz-z1-73-84-parts#832771.

You might want to do some hangin' over at KZR.  It's kinda slower traffic than here, but guys would dig your projects.