1979 KZ1300 Ugly yes I think Old yes I bought

[borninabarn]

Ok Motorcycle Techs,
I am 43 years old like to work on things and found this old bike in a barn.Its been sitting for a few years though the tires look pretty new.The Bike will run if you pour some gas in the intake but only doing that(they said)What would be the first thing you would do to this bike that has been sitting for quite awhile to get it maybe to run like it used to??New battery?clean tank?clean carbs out?You know what i mean.Only paid $100?Thanks Born

[richtazz]

Remove and clean the carbs, and take the petcock out of the gas tank and clean it out. Most likely, the fuel separated and left lacquer/shellac deposits in the in-tank filter located on the petcock and in all the small passages in the carbs. A new, battery, clean oil, plugs and clean fuel, and you should be good to go. Check the tires over really well for weather cracks and dry rot, you don't want to blow a tire on a 1300cc, 30 year old motorcycle.

[borninabarn]

Thanks rich that is kind of what i was thinking.What would you use to clean the carbs?Regular carb cleaner?Also I am a auto tech and havent messed around with bikes very much.I can rebuild a motor on a vehicle and do everything else to work at a gm dealership but never got into fixing and tuning bikes they always ran when i got them.except for a few mini bikes in the old days.Should i remove the whole carb system on this thing and pull the bowls off and clean them out this way or what?Give me a clue if you can.I just looked at them tonight(20 degees out and 30 mph winds)so i really at this point dont know what it takes to pull these out.I dont want to mess with any factory settings tearing apart the carbs.I can rebuild a holley but i dont want to start tearing apart something i cant put back together like this.Just wanted something i could tinker on and hopefully fix up and ride up and down the Iowa blackops this summer.Thanks for your help!Born

[richtazz]

I would remove the carbs as an assembly, and take the float bowls off. Remove the floats and needle valves, spray the seat and bore that the needle rides in, as well as the carb slides and air passage. Turn the idle screws all the way in, counting the number of turns until they bottom so you can put them back to the same position after you're done (turn very gently, you don't want to damage them by overtightening). Remove the idle
screws, and clean them and their bores with carb cleaner. When you put them back in, turn them all the way in, then back out the same number of turns as before (each carb may use a slightly different setting). If the bike runs rough or stumbles after re-assembly, inspect the plugs for uneaven fuel metering. If they are significantly different, you may need to re-syncronize the carbs. If you stay organized and pay attention to detail, you should have them close, unless they were off to start with. Good-luck, keep us informed of how it goes.....Rich

[jeffcoslacker]

I can't remember if the carbs on that one use slides....that was the 6 cylinder with the 3 two-hole carbs, yes? If it's been sitting that long, the diaphragms (if it's a slide type) are almost for sure coming apart, or will be as soon as it starts running again. This will cause the carbs to not act in unison when you open the throttle, and it will feel very "dead" on acceleration.

Check the intake boots were the carbs feed to the motor for splitting, any cracks will suck air and make it run very lean, and possibly not be able to idle without an excessively rich fuel mixture and high idle setting....

The old Kawasaki carb needle valve seats and floats were a bit sensitive to carb cleaner...usually if you were able to clean up a non-runner like that and get it running without changing them, very soon the seats would disintegrate and the carbs would start flooding at idle and leaking fuel on the floor when it isn't running, not being able to stop fuel flow into the bowl when they are supposed to and running out the overflow tubes...

Like Rich said, I wouldn't try to run it off the tank until you verify the situation in there....probably full of rust and crud that's gonna find it's way into the carbs and cause problems as fast as you can clear them out...

When I get an old non-runner like that, first thing I'll do is change the oil, obviously, take the tank off and fill the fuel line with spray carb cleaner until it backs up, then try cranking it over. After a few repeats, the cleaner will usually bust the seats loose and allow flow into the carbs, at which point it will start and run on the carb cleaner. This allows it to pull the cleaner through the actual fuel circuit, and sometimes they start running pretty good just from that. But like I said, the seats, floats and slide diaphragms are bound to self-destruct quickly, so once I see that it will run off the carbs, they come off and get a go-through.

I can't remember what year Kaw stopped using mechanical breaker points, but my memory wants to say that '79 still has them. Something you should check before proceeding any farther...when they sit around unused for a long time, the cam that opens and closes the points will corrode, which acts like sandpaper on the plastic block on the points that rides it. It will grind the block off the points very quickly, and the bike will run progressively worse until it won't run once the points no longer open. This happens real quick when this condition is present.

On some the points cam is removeable, but I'm always afraid on something that age that the bolt will break off in the crank, which would just ruin my day, so I clean the cam with a battery post brush if it's real crummy, then dress it up with some emery cloth until it's smooth and shiny again. Setting the points and timing on a bike is a little more difficult than a car, make sure you get a manual and do the procedure as described, or you'll end up with a bike that runs crappy or overheats and pings like mad....

And finally....old Jap bikes do NOT use Phillips screws...they are crossheads, the slot has no depth to it like a phillips, so using a phillips just results in a really buggered up screw that you then can't get out. I just would grind the point off a couple of good phillips drivers, and get you a hand impact driver if you don't have one...it will save you many broken screws an headaches. They almost always will break free after one good whack, but if you just try turning them with any kind of force, they snap off...there is usually a corrosion bond between the screw and the case, the impact driver breaks that as it torques, allowing it to turn without breaking...best tool I ever bought for working on old bikes...

[jeffcoslacker]

A couple of other things....

Replace the fuel line, or it's just gonna start throwing flakes of rubber into your carbs...while you have the tank off, take a good look at the ignition coils...lotta times after sitting around you'll find one or more has burst open (usually on the bottom where you don't see it, so look around) and won't be working for long.

You'll wanna change the fork oil before doing any serious riding on it, that old oil is for sure played out and will not offer very good damping control...the brakes most likely will try to seize up when you start riding it...that's pretty typical of one that's been sitting. I've had good luck with removing the calipers and pumping the brake just enough to push the pistons out a bit, then peel back the dust boots and you'll probably be appaled at how much rust you see....clean as much of it off as you can, then soak with WD-40 and push the boots back over...it will work on the pitting and sometimes allow them to start working without binding once again...

I've always wanted a KZ1300...if you get fed up with it or loose interest, let me know...I'm in Missouri, I'd take a ride up there for one of those...they are getting a bit rare, like the Honda CBX-6's, you don't see them much anymore.

An Inline 6 would make a great chopper project too....

[jeffcoslacker]

I just looked it up...the '79 used pickups and ignitors, so you can forget all that I said about the points...it's electronic.

[jeffcoslacker]

http://www.kz1300.com/techtips.html

This is a little disturbing...apparently there's well-known problem with cam chain tensioners on these models...might wanna consider following the advice....a failure will crunch the valves.

[borninabarn]

Thanks alot guys for the info!It will really help out when i get this bike picked up and start tinkering on it.The thing looks so ugly to me but I used to have a 1974 900 Z-1 20 plus years ago that I fixed up.Lowerd it,geared it right,Header,veloicity stacks,crome,custom paint etc..So thats kind of why I bought it and for $100 of course.It has all of the fairing stuff on it now.Would like to remove all of that and make it look half way decent that is if I can get it operationable.I dont mind eating a few bugs.Hope those old things run half way decent when they are running good!I will keep you posted!Thanks Again Born