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Ben_10's 79 KZ440


Benno

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Picked this up about a month ago for a pretty good price. De-reg and needed a bit of work, but was cheap. 

 

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So far I have fixed up the wiring and a few other things for the re-vin, which after a few hassles finally managed to get sorted today. 

 

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Feeling pretty broke after the re-vin, rego and car rego/insurance so progress will be pretty slow on this until I've saved up a bit of coin again. Planning on just riding it for now, then when funds allow going to go for a brat style look, similar to below. The wiring is a complete mess at the moment, so will probably end up doing a full re-wire. It's already running pod filters on the carbs and seems to have been jetted accordingly, which will make things easier. Seat is ugly and has a few rips in it, so that will be next to go. Hopefully cut the frame back a bit and weld in a new rear loop to get a cleaner line.

 

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Not a lot of progress yet. Have ordered a set of bar end mirrors and some new grips which should be here soon hopefully. Have pulled off the exhaust to paint with some of that ceramic high temp paint. Flatmates not so impressed with my use of the oven, smells absolutely terrible. Exhaust looked pretty terrible before, so should tidy things up a lot until I get around to buying some better mufflers. 

 

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The last stuff I used on the moped was sweet at the header end, but seemed to flake off at the cooler end of the muffler, so thought I would just do it in the oven to be consistent. 

 

Haven't decided about the seat yet. I really like the style chris (born loser) has done on his, which was just a cut up skateboard retrimmed. I think mine might have a bit wider frame, so will probably end up making something either out of laminated wood or aluminium. Will have a go at making something myself out of some vinyl or something, to see how I like the look/shape then eventually get it professionally trimmed.

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  • 1 month later...

Rode this thing down from Christchurch to Dunedin, went like a dream apart from an issue (assuming with carbs) that stopped it revving higher then 6000 rpm. Tried to take it to work on Monday as my car didn't have a WOF and the fucking thing lost all electrics at the side of the motorway, ended up having to call AA.

 

Since then I've started to get into stripping it down and sort out the dodgy wiring. 

 

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I'm flipping the headlight mounts to get it lower, will replace with a smaller light when I find one suitable. Painting it and the mounts flat black. I'm tidying up the gauges and ignition on the front. I'll move the ignition to the side of the bike and move the gauges closer and lower. Keen for some smaller gauges, but will make do with what I have for now. I've got some small LEDs ordered which I will use for warning lights.

 

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Chopped up the clamp a bit to make room to lower the gauges and bring closer

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Got rid of the fog lights on the front. Just some cheap chinese LED units, will see how well they last. Less then $10 for the pair, so not too worried if they aren't great.

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Turns out I'm an idiot and didn't look closely at the carbs. They aren't actually factory KZ440 carbs as I thought, they are Keihin VB52s. Not sure what they are off, a quick google suggested off a bigger bike. I just saw they looked the same as the factory ones and hadn't looked closer. Anyone know anything about these carbs, reckon they will be suitable? Might end up having to get some mikuni slide carbs after all.

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I've got some braided sheathing on the way in a few different sizes. Planning on sheathing all the wiring in this, with heatshrink ends to stop fraying. Supposed to be flameproof and abrasion resistant and should look a lot tidier.

 

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I am going to end up replacing most of the connectors as a lot of them have been done really crappily with cheap crimp connectors and are loose or water has got in. What type of connectors am I best to replace them with, and where do I get said connectors from? Not keen on using those cheap narva ones. Ideally I'd like a good quality crimp connection which I can heatshrink.

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Slowly making some progress on this. Got the front looking a bit tidier now. Have replaced indicators, flipped headlight holders, painted black and made a new bracket to move the gauges closer and lower. Will eventually end up replacing the massive headlight with a smaller unit and getting some smaller gauges, but its looking better then it was. 

 

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Still undecided what to do about bars for it. Would ideally like something a little shorter and lower. I tried my drag bars on, but wasn't really a fan of the riding position. I might end up shortening the stock ones a bit

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Got most of the wiring in it stripped out. Was even worse then I thought it was, twist n tape connections everywhere, crappy connectors coming loose, dodgy fixes so I ended up stripping pretty much everything out and will start from scratch.

 

Before I can get wire lengths and stuff sorted I needed to sort out the battery box. It's going to sit up under the seat and will contain a motobat battery, ignition switch, solenoid, flasher and fuses. Made a cardboard mockup to make sure everything would fit where I wanted it to. Would have liked a bit smaller, but the bike is electric start only so needs a reasonable capacity battery. Shouldn't look too bad, still cleans up that triangle like I wanted. Now just need to get some suitable steel from somewhere and get it folded/welded up.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Still working on this thing, slow progress is better then no progress. Was originally hoping to have running by next weekend to ride down to Invercargill, but no chance of that happening now. 

Have got battery box cut out and welded up, now just need to make some mounting tabs and weld them onto the frame.

 

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Have been starting the re-wiring job, got some connectors from the auto sparky and am using braided sleeving to protect and hide the wires. Coming along well so far, can kind of see from the very crappy photos.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Slowly making some more progress on this. Got about 3/4s of the wiring done now, just got to sort out the rear indicators, brake light and number plate lights. Have got some of those LED bolts for the number plate, quite impressed with how bright they are.

 

Pretty happy with how the battery box looks, I definitely prefer the lack of side cover. Still need to remove the tabs and fix the paint, but will probably wait until I do the rear section as well. I've also bought some new mufflers off trademe, a bit shorter then the current ones. Hopefully will sound a bit better and get rid of the annoying whistling noise the current ones make.

 

Seat looks pretty ridiculous now, but will probably have to stay that way for a wee while as I'm sick of having the bike off the road. 

 

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Having issues deciding what colour to paint the tank. Was keen to bare metal it, but pretty sure there is too much bog in it so will need to be repainted. Currently quite liking the look of this. Might look good with a black leather seat with brown stitching maybe? Thoughts or better suggestions?

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