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Kwaka Z650


Flauski

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After recently selling this;

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I wanted something with a bit of old school flava flav but had more open road ease.

The Bullet was great round town, it just didn't go fast, or stop fast, or change gears all the time.

ALMOST bought an immaculate 70's CB350f and a CB400f but after reading heaps on them about them screaming at 100km/h I decided to go bigger.

Anyways found/fell in love with a Kawasaki Z650 aka KZ650. This one was imported in 1998 from Holland so is badged a Z650.

It is a C3 model with alloy wheels, twin disc front and single disc rear brakes. Some good bugger has installed a Dyna S electronic ignition and coils on it too - yum.

I rode it back from Martinborough and the ride was about 500% better than the Enfield!

Anyway have started pulling apart as I want a cafeish brat style bike. Polished a few bits here and there, fixed a leak where the old owner had caught the oil pressure line under the clutch cover and was leaking/causing oil press light to come on.

Waiting on a few more bits to arrive so I can fully clean / oil change the engine. It came with an almost complete 2nd basket case bike too, which I have almost fully stripped. It will come in handy when coming up with a seat pan and having the second frame. I really want a wrenchmonkees style seat like this;

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I have put some clubman bars on. I replaced the ugly super long front brake hose (with giant spring) by using a braided one found on the basket case - score!

I am rewiring the coils with a relay to allow full power spark.

As I got it (from Tardme) :

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I have stripped the tank off the second bike and placed it on for kicks. (quite like the rat, bare metal look!)

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Polish effort on clutch cover , waiting for an oil seal for the kick start so thought may as well shine it up a bit;
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yep was on Tardme. This is what tempted me away from the CB400 I almost bought (that I spoke with you about.)

So far have rewired the Dynatec coils correctly, fixed oil leak due to oil pressure wire being trapped under clutch cover, replaced oil pressure feed wire and tidied up the wiring.

Replaced the gasket on clutch cover and o-ring on kick starter.

Removed sump and cleaned, soon to replace sump gasket and oil filter.

Need to recheck my valve clearances and shim as necessary.

Then will balance carbs and ride the friggin thing!

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Yep was on Tardme. This is what tempted me away from the CB400 I almost bought (that I spoke with you about.)

So far have rewired the Dynatec coils correctly, fixed oil leak due to oil pressure wire being trapped under clutch cover, replaced oil pressure feed wire and tidied up the wiring.

Replaced the gasket on clutch cover and o-ring on kick starter.

Removed sump and cleaned, soon to replace sump gasket and oil filter.

Need to recheck my valve clearances and shim as necessary.

Then will balance carbs and ride the friggin thing to oldschool nats so i can do Skids in a line with Chris and all the other dudes who ride to nats

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Flauski

So, I may have got a little carried away. I blame people on here with freakin kewl bikes showing up. I could not resist........

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Only a short amount of time to sort this out before nats!!!

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Guest crustywhip

Flauski ya kunt. I hadnt seen this thread either and good to see you have two bike so at least one stays together. Looking good though so keep going or Il give you a head butt.

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Guest Flauski

cleanny clean clean

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NOS Kawasaki head gasket, stupid little rubbers that had to be glued atop the cam chain guides! Farkin mission trying to put head on, holding cam chain, lifting chain through head, not knocking rubbers off top of cam chain guides!

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So much stuff to get. Got new wheel/steering stem bearings on way from states.

Need to find someone in Palmy that can weld me up a rear loop before I powder coat the frame.

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  • 2 months later...

Finally something to report. Spent ages cutting the frame up, ditching mounts, ditching centre stand, removing steering key lock on my spare frame. This means I still have an untouched standard frame should I ever want to go back to standard (unlikely.) Frame is now at least a couple of inches shorter behind the seat, compare it with the pic in front of my 240K.

 

Sent my frame off to a GC for a few welds. Just got it back today so mocked up a bit..........

 

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Those of you clever enough will notice that the rear fender is a factory one (came with bike but was not on it but ducktail plastic was on) moved way up, the battery compartment has been moved and a new fancy brat style seat pan.

 

I am going to retain the side covers, I know some people don't like them but this is my bike so I do what I want.

 

Just need to get some clip ons (not going with clubman bars now), lower the front, get lower rear shocks, sand a few spots, paint frame and reassemble.

 

Engine is all but back in one piece, spent ages taking cams in an out to get valve clearances right.

 

Rebuilt the carbs today.

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Since I have two tanks (the orig mint green one) and the bare metal one, the more I think about it the more I want this sort of style;

 

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I will use my bare metal tank and paint a satin black stripe on it somewhere/how I also like this;

 

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The front guard will just get chopped a hell of a lot shorter. I want to remove the chrome from the guards and paint them satin black.

 

I am still undecided whether to paint the wheels or not.

 

Faster than a Honda Cock'n'Balls but not faster than the GS thou on here  :-)

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