Kawasaki Z500 Project - the rolling jigsaw
While bored one day browsing Ebay (always a dangerous thing) I came across this 1980 Kwaka going for no real money. I fancied restoring a riding an older bike, but not too old, and this seemed just the ticket. I won the auction for just £180 and a few days later up rolls a van containing half an engine, most of a chassis and four cardboard boxes of random, unlabelled parts.
This should have sounded warning bells, but the bike actually seemed to be in quite good nick so I spent a few hours laying everything out and reading the Haynes manual.
The first thing I found was broken piston rings -- not good at all. While ordering new ones in Cambridge Motorcycles, my excellent local bike garage, one of the mechanics glanced at the barrels and said "you're not going to refit those are you?" The barrels and the pistons were knackered, water damage apparently. Fortunately a very odd garage stuck way out in the Fens (think 'Deliverance') had a complete set off a Z550 that had been sitting in a dark corner for about fifteen years. £50 later, problem solved. And 50ccs gained!
The next fun episode was reassembling the top end. Some idiot had put half the collets in upside down. The buckets and shims were all mixed up, and didn't fit anyway because the valves had been ground in. To make matters worse, one of the camshaft bolts holes was stripped. After tinkering for a while I decided to leave this bit to the experts, so it's back to Cambridge motorcycles.
They fitted an expensive thread insert into the stripped bolt hole, and started adjusting the shims. Every single one was wrong. Finally, they had the right shims, but when they torqued it up, two more camshaft bolts pulled out. Two more expensive inserts went in. Then they noticed that once of the tensioner bolt holes was, well, pear shaped. Some cunning work with liquid metal and a lathe, and they were able to bolt the tensioner on. Two weeks and £200 later, the top end is finally complete. Yes, £200, more than the bike cost. Hey ho.
The rest of the job went pretty smoothly -- finishing the engine, getting it into the frame etc. Several parts were missing, but when I complained to the seller, his response was to try to sell me two knackered, incomplete FZ750s before admitting that he must have lost them, tough. Arsehole.
The carbs gave me some trouble, they kept leaking and overflowing. I took them apart and found most of the jets were blocked anyway, so cleaned them all out and reassembled with plenty of universal gasket (I should have ordered new gaskets but at this point I didn't want to spend any more money.)
On went the exhaust, the electrics, the coils. I adjusted the points (Ha ha, points!!), charged the battery and then the big moment came. A little choke and thumb the starter and YES it started first time! Did a lap of victory round the garden.
So am I nearly finished? Am I bollocks. For the MOT I only need to get the indicator flasher, brake light switch and exhaust gaskets sorted, which I will hopefully have done in the next week. Further ahead it needs:
- New clutch cable
- New battery
- Proper round headlight, not the streetfighter nonsense
- New rear shocks
- Brakes overhauled (one bleed valve is sheared off -- more fun)
- Strip hideous silver Hammerright paint off frame
- Proper indicators
- Proper rear mudguard and undertray (currently a piece of tin)
- Nitro (only joking)
Update
The bike passed its MOT with only new wheel bearings and a rear reflector needed, is looking half decent and more to the point it is running.
Seems fine and happy up to about 6000rpm then struggles, which is probably due to running 500cc carbs on 550cc barrels, really they need new jets all round. Now the long wait for some second hand 550 carbs to appear on ebay as I don't fancy shelling out for eight jets and four needles.
Update - goodbye
Sadly I realised that I'm never going to finish this one, and it's time for a new owner! I had put on some GT550 carbs, but this didn't solve the fuelling problem, so ebay it was. It's gone to a good home - this guy has 19 project on the go! He has a Z400 with some very trick gold engine parts, and was planning to use this one for the frame and some other bits and bobs, but now tells me it's too good to break and he's going to get it tuned up instead, horray!