Z1 as a project?

[royhall]

Sounds like Askbrigg will be my new chromer after the disasters with the last guy. I won't name him as I don't want to ruin his business, but he's called Aaron. You could end up  with the mental health doctors looking in your ear after trying to match up all those codes. And unbelievably I bet your bikes worth less as all the ducks aren't in line.

[AshimotoK0]

Shame Roy because that guy up until about 2 years ago was spot on in terms of price, quality and delivery.  Not quite sure who I will go to next time but like you I am voting with my feet.
Thing about the stator and field coils Dave, at least on Honda 750's,  is that the wiring gets very hot in an oily environment. and glass fibre sleeving and cable is the correct stuff for the job and what Hitachi used originally. The way Hitachi soldered the wire to the stator magnet copper wire was with 'tubes' formed from wound tinned copper wire. About six turns wrapped around a 3mm former, from memory.
No I will never get a Z1 or any other  bike for that matter .... my cupboard is full now 

[MrDavo]

My first job this weekend was replacing the lead for the alternator coils.  I failed miserably attempting to solder the little metal sleeves that came with the kit. Basically not enough room for the wire and solder inside the sleeve, and no way to get the tip of the soldering iron in there. I have soldered the copper stator wire to the harness wire, but I'm not happy with the result, especially considering the current that will go through these joints when charging. I'm considering unsoldering, and trying a crimp on the sleeves, as the wires only just fit, the connection should be tight, and better than my soldered effort. Which crimp toll and how tight (to grip the wire firmly but not distort the sleeve too much) will be trial and error. Any of you used a crimp?

I'd bought a cheap rev counter cable from eBay, its going back because it wont thread onto the tacho drive on the engine. Not sure if its faulty or just wrong, it seems a tad too small, anyway I can't start the thread. A real one isn't cheap but sometimes pattern parts can be dirt cheap for a good reason. Hopefully the vendors won't be dicks about returns, if not I can name and shame them.

Finally, how to fit a fuel cap. I've recorded the stages for posterity, in case anyone else finds it trickier than it looks. I dug the tank out from its box in the attic, Its not been tried on the bike before, and its as stable a place as any while I fitted the new cap. Firstly  I put masking tape all round the filler, using craft knives and drill bits very close to my fresh paint, what could possible go wrong  :shock: ? Next I cut some paint from around the hinge mounts so the cap and latch fitted over the hinge pins, I then measured the diameter of the roll pins, and used a drill bit that size to ream the paint out of the holes they go in.

There were no instructions with the cap, so I had to work out for myself how the latch works and what goes where. Here's the parts for the latch, I found the tip for using a strip of cardboard to keep the spring in the right place on a US KZ forum, you pull it out when you've finished.



Then I assembled the latch using a smaller drill bit - before I tried that there was near disaster when the spring flew away into the crowded garage, after a long hunt I luckily found it, in completely the opposite direction from where I thought I'd heard it land. Once I had the parts in place the drill bit was drifted out with the  pin....



Once the latch was in place and working properly, it was pretty much the same process with the cap hinge...



The finished result:




I couldn't resist putting on the side panels, just to see what it looked like. One of the badges has two pins broken, so I have ordered a replacement. Also, although seemingly OEM, the left hand panel may be from a Z1B, as there is no hole for the chain oiler dipstick. I'm not using that system anyway, but its a shame the tank had to go. Now I have a complete system (with pump) to either hoard or see what I can get for it.

[Johnwebley]

I am following this avidly.

Enjoy the engineering.
I also watch Allan Millyard build his specials.hours of details on his YouTube channel.


I notice he only does small Hondas. But has done a 6 cylinder   Z.

I guess it's because Kawasaki use a built up roller crank instead of the more modern plain bearing cranks in the sohc fours



Sent from my SM-A750FN using Tapatalk

[robvangulik]

He also made a 12 cylinder CBX, small Honda?

[Johnwebley]

Wow.dont remember that.

I know he did a V12 Kawasaki.

Double up the water cooled 6.

Have you got any pictures?

Sent from my SM-A750FN using Tapatalk

[philward]

That is the ultimate in attention to detail, Ash, I can't imagine even the pickiest concourse judge (or potential buyer) asking for the stator cover to be removed to check the connections look factory, but hey, you know its right and that's what matters! I will try a little solder and possibly a bit of a crimp too, trial and error I guess. I am more concerned about the connection of the heavy gauge copper coil wire to the sleeve than the cable to the rectifier etc. There is a small tag in the sleeve which I will use, not sure for which wire yet. My 2 new soldering irons (one large, one small) turned up today so I will have a go at the weekend.

The chroming was £100 plus £10 P&P for the three pieces, I got a quote by email from them before I sent the parts, so there were no unpleasant surprises after the event. As you say, like paint, it's all in the preparation. Agbrigg had been recommended to me by the Z1 Owners club when I was going to get my original front wheel rim rechromed, before someone on that forum saved me wasting a lot of money by pointing out that the Z900 A4 Takasago rim which I had, had the wrong spoke angles for a Z1, as well as (horror of horrors) the wrong date code. As mentioned before Kawasaki code by year and month, I am swapping my A4 spare wheel for a rim which is April 74 same as the code on the swinging arm, but I doubt I'll ever bother to ditch the brand new plain rim I now have fitted to get it 100%, my OCD isn't strong enough to make that necessary. I'll still have the correct rim stashed away though in case the next owner can be bothered. same with the rear, if I ever see the right date coded rim (a long shot) I'll probably feel compelled to buy it. You'd probably best never buy a Z1 Ash, you'd end up chasing the right codes on the switches, torque arm and front disc too! (there may be others as well) And I thought Honda people were being anal about correct DID rim stamps!

Just got a quote of them for a 500k2 rear light bracket and a grab rail and they've quoted me £105! Seems steep compared to your bits

[robvangulik]

Wow.dont remember that.

I know he did a V12 Kawasaki.

Double up the water cooled 6.

Have you got any pictures?

Sent from my SM-A750FN using Tapatalk

You're right, it was another DIYer

Andreas Georgeades and his Honda CBX V12

[AshimotoK0]

My first job this weekend was replacing the lead for the alternator coils.  I failed miserably attempting to solder the little metal sleeves that came with the kit. Basically not enough room for the wire and solder inside the sleeve, and no way to get the tip of the soldering iron in there. I have soldered the copper stator wire to the harness wire, but I'm not happy with the result, especially considering the current that will go through these joints when charging. I'm considering unsoldering, and trying a crimp on the sleeves, as the wires only just fit, the connection should be tight, and better than my soldered effort. Which crimp toll and how tight (to grip the wire firmly but not distort the sleeve too much) will be trial and error. Any of you used a crimp?

Can you send some pics Dave and I may be able to help you. I wouldn't personally crimp to a stator copper wire. If the cable is like Honda cable (i.e. woven glass covered) ..  I can send you some plus some good old fashioned lead/tin solder and suitable flux plus a few Hitachi type 'tubes' made of coiled tinned copper wire. I also have woven glass sleeving but it's white.

[MrDavo]

That V12 is mental! Not surprised it has mega front brakes too, he's going to need them.

@ Phil, sorry your quote didn't work out, however I can only report what happened with me, I have no drum to bang for the guy. Maybe tail light brackets are tricky compared to the wide open spaces of torque arms and mudguards, I don't know.

@ Ash, thanks for the offer, I'll send you a PM.

[philward]

@ Phil, sorry your quote didn't work out, however I can only report what happened with me, I have no drum to bang for the guy. Maybe tail light brackets are tricky compared to the wide open spaces of torque arms and mudguards, I don't know.

I think its either as you suggest (light brt tricky to prepare) or they incosistantly questimate - either way, I think I'll leavre it for now as chrome is acceptable just not mint like all the other new chrome parts will be - I'll have a think!

[MrDavo]

/\ I'm now wishing I'd included the headlamp rim in the parts for chroming, it wouldn't have cost much more and the original 'patina' is now bugging me, still it is a rare part of the bike's history.

Just a quick update. I rebuilt #1 carb, using a new (and rare) emulsion tube and needle. That cured the 'hanging' problem. It also gave me an opportunity to bench synch the carbs as best I could. I couldn't find a 0.7mm drill or wire, so I have all 4 carbs just releasing (from the tiny cutout at the front of the slide) a 1mm drill at the same time. Once the bike is on the road one of its first trips will be for a professional carb synch and strobe. I also took the opportunity to paint the red infill 'ON' and arrow on the choke release lever. The carbs are now back on the bike, it was much easier to fit them second time round, as I now have a tube of red rubber grease which I bought to assemble the brake calipers.

I've taken the alternator cover off, and fitted a starter drive gear and spindle which I got from DK, the original was inexplicably AWOL. I'm not happy with my soldered joints between the alternator coils and the replacement cable to the regulator. Ashley is kindly sorting me out with some spring sleeves and lead based solder to do a better job, as its a high current join I want to do it as best as I can.



I've bought a repro owners manual which one day will go on the tray in in the tail piece. As was pointed out the other day, back in the 70s the owners manual told you how to set the valves, these days it tells you not to drink the contents of the battery.    There is, however  a list of 21 things to check for tightness daily, without fail, before riding, including the centre stand nuts! In the real world that would get you sacked from work for being late every day, I reckon that even in those days they were getting cagey about legal liability - if you hurt yourself because something important fell off, they would have the defence of 'well, we did tell you to check it was tight!'

[MrDavo]

I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the garage this weekend, as my fan heater was dead to the world, although the fuse was OK, I've ordered another one from Amazon. I did think of taking the heater apart to see if I could work out what had gone wrong, but decided that if I ever had to submit a £50K+ claim for a disastrous garage fire, the insurance company would just laugh at me if they'd found a home repaired fan heater in the smouldering wreckage...

I did refit the throttle cables, all now works as it should, and also a set of genuine HT cable clips, which tidied things up no end. Also it stops sparks and shocks from the HT leads, I once had a Triumph T110 that was a beggar for electrocuting my knees in the wet!



Also I fitted the replacement advance retard unit I got from Dave Marsden, then finally bit the bullet and set the ignition timing. It was a pleasure to time a bike using brand new kit, usually there is at least one screw seized in place, often with a totally chewed up head, made from silver chocolate. Here I am using my multimeter, set to resistance, one probe to the points lead, the other to earth, looking for that moment where the points are just opening. You can see the timing mark on the A/R unit lined up with the pointer on the engine.

[JamesH]

Looks like you're making great progress Dave. Thanks for sharing. This has to be my favourite colour scheme for the Z1 - the bike is going to be stunning I'm sure. Keep up the good work. James

[MrDavo]

Thanks for your comments James, as you are someone who has restored more 70’s classics than most I appreciate that.

Personally my favourite Kawasaki 900 colour schemes are the original 72 Z1 ‘Jaffa Cake’, like the one you restored, with the black engine, or the Z900 metallic version of British Racing Green with the gold pinstripes. Still what I’ve got isn’t half bad, and as a fan of period metal flake it goes well with my Candy Blue CL450 and Iris Blue Metallic 911, they really ‘pop’ in sunlight. The strip lights in the garage really don’t do them justice, all the more inspiration to get them out there and use them.