revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Picked it up today.

The good: It spins over & has compression

The bad: Everything else.
The ignition stator & pick up coils etc are buggered & two of the three mounts are fucked. Time for some TIGgery pokerery... and the oil pressure switch is missing (behind the ignition at the bottom of the housing)

Immediate needs:

1, Kickstand spring (found, ordered)

2, Complete ignition gubbins. (wish I knew what crate my left over GPz750 stuff was in, will look this week)

Bought home the side covers. Gave one of them some attention with the buffer to see how it responded just for shits & giggles. Paint job will be one of the last jobs, along with the seat rehab...

Gonna wet sand the other side cover before buffing... altho I have some Diamond Cut somewhere, you could put a shine on a paving slab with that stuff.

Other good news: The tires hold air.

Bad: The rear brake lever is seized solid, stomping on it produced no movement at all. Ditto the gas cap lock. There was a lot of WD40 dispensed today. It will be getting the AeroKroil treatment next time I visit. Engine will be coming out so it can be tipped on it's side for the upcoming TIGgery pokery.

Rear pegs are all wallowed out & drooping like whisky dick, it will likely get some from one of the ZX11-C's.

You wanted a project...? and have you extended your garage/workshop space;)
Good work keep the pics coming, bodywork looks OK cleaned up, as you say enough for now.

Jeeze, you must love Kwaks! I hope they paid you to take it away

Good luck with it and it'll be good for forum content though

That's a gnarly one. Should keep the hair out of your eyes for a while.

cvilla wrote: Fri May 01, 2026 8:25 am You wanted a project...? and have you extended your garage/workshop space;)
Good work keep the pics coming, bodywork looks OK cleaned up, as you say enough for now.

It's at a mates shop over in Palmdale. If I bring it home any time soon I'll be homeless... I'll be taking the pressure washer over there next week to give it a clean up, then pull the exhaust & drain the oil to get it ready to pull the engine.
Going to bring the entire right side footpeg bracket & assorted rear brake stuff home to work on too, maybe the gas tank as we couldn't get the cap open yesterday

Found all the ignition gubbins from a bloke in Fresno who deals in old Kaw parts, but he's in Alabama until Tuesday. He also has a fairing. Same guy damn near sold me two GPz1100-A & two GPz750-A projects for $1500 about 3 years ago.

Supermofo wrote: Fri May 01, 2026 10:08 am Jeeze, you must love Kwaks! I hope they paid you to take it away

Good luck with it and it'll be good for forum content though

It's in better condition than the '78 Z650 that's been sitting in the Regents Canal since 1982....

Just checked and my old A2 has just been taxed. I presume being an 1985 bike it is MOT exempt. Reg B531WFJ

Decided on JB Weld for the ignition repairs instead of TIG. The original formula stuff will do the job, so just ordered that from Amazon.

I also need to build up the missing piece of the crankcase which also has the lower cover bolt doodad & it can be used for that too, done that a few times. There's gonna be some Dremel engineering.

I had one of those new in 83.
After owning the tank like ST1000, this was as light as.
Picked the Bike up on a Friday afternoon with a (temporary) Y plate, and took it back for its first service and my A plate on the Monday.
A week later it was off to the south of France where some vigorous riding followed for two weeks.
It wouldn't start up on the button on my return to Dover, and had to be manhandled by several sailors around the empty car deck.
Managed to roll down the hill to the dealers the next morning ,where they initially found a lack of compression.
It needed all four exhaust valves replaced as they had mushroomed , as was told that 6 of the 8 vales were on their final size (200 ?)
What the Bike needed was a rev limiter, or a rider with more mechanical sympathy.
I'll add though, that Kawasaki issued a recall a year or so later to fitt shorter valves as the first batch were engineered incorrectly.

Nobby wrote: Sat May 02, 2026 6:40 am I had one of those new in 83.
After owning the tank like ST1000, this was as light as.
Picked the Bike up on a Friday afternoon with a (temporary) Y plate, and took it back for its first service and my A plate on the Monday.
A week later it was off to the south of France where some vigorous riding followed for two weeks.
It wouldn't start up on the button on my return to Dover, and had to be manhandled by several sailors around the empty car deck.
Managed to roll down the hill to the dealers the next morning ,where they initially found a lack of compression.
It needed all four exhaust valves replaced as they had mushroomed , as was told that 6 of the 8 vales were on their final size (200 ?)
What the Bike needed was a rev limiter, or a rider with more mechanical sympathy.
I'll add though, that Kawasaki issued a recall a year or so later to fitt shorter valves as the first batch were engineered incorrectly.

Frame # on this one is 526 so it's an early one, engine number isn't even close. It has 60k miles.

Gave the side cover some attention with #1500 wet & dry, then buffed it again.
Still not very shiny, lots of fine scratches still there, I think it was painted over a #360 sanding job, so will need taking down with #400 & starting over, but my paint mate will be doing that when it gets the WRR paint scheme... altho with that said, I could hit it with #600 to #1500, but that will likely remove the green/white. There's no clear-coat on it.

Oh, forgot to add. No air box on the CV carbs.
Who does that ?

Nobby wrote: Mon May 04, 2026 12:26 pm Oh, forgot to add. No air box on the CV carbs.
Who does that ?

HRC on race RC30s

Nobby wrote: Mon May 04, 2026 12:26 pm Oh, forgot to add. No air box on the CV carbs.
Who does that ?

Me, on my ZRX11 for the past 27 years/125,000 miles. When should I expect to have issues?

ZRX61 wrote: Tue May 05, 2026 5:47 am

Nobby wrote: Mon May 04, 2026 12:26 pm Oh, forgot to add. No air box on the CV carbs.
Who does that ?

Me, on my ZRX11 for the past 27 years/125,000 miles. When should I expect to have issues?

Can you imagine how much better the ride would have been if an airbox had been fitted.

Nobby wrote: Wed May 06, 2026 5:09 am Can you imagine how much better the ride would have been if an airbox had been fitted.

I remember what it was like before it got 50% more HP from various mods...

Pressure washed it, removed tail, strakes & r/h footrest mount/rear m/c etc.