1973 Kawasaki Z1 900 (mostly) FINISHED! 4into4, jet fiddling - and IT SINGS!

[@MrSimone]

Great work Tom! The bike looks mint! Please lets have more mid week lathe vids 👌🏼

[@MotoRestoFL]

It's been kinda dry in that area as to work, but if something comes up, I'll shoot footage of what is video worthy. Thanks.

[@SkyrayModels]

Great result Tom, I have a friend who delivered me a 79 XS1100 UK bike about 3 months back that had been ridden into the ground and sat for 20 years, had lots of electrical parts missing or knackered, seized carbs, missing tci box solenoid/starter motor ignition switch/ cracked coils, dead pulsar coils etc etc. It looked like something from a Mad Max movie, but after a few months and quite a bit of time and money it started up first touch of the button. It was brave of him to bother throwing money at it, but he really wanted it back on the road next spring, I still have to do the cosmetics, it's been a challenge to find parts for it here in the UK, I know it will cost more to restore than the bike is worth but the owner is happy with the progress and that's what matters. Been a personal challenge for me to get it running well, and I am delighted how well it is running so far considering the state it came to me in. I remember when these bikes were launched, so it was fun to work on the bike and yes I am an oldie of the 60's!

[@MotoRestoFL]

I had a "centerfold" you might say poster of sorts from Motorcyclist or Cycle World back then when the Excessive Eleven came out, on my bedroom wall. I was in HS at the time. I absolutely wanted one of those big-time. Now, not so much. After doing a top-end on one and then riding it, compared to many other bikes, the XS11 is anemic and handles like a truck. Cheers.

[@SkyrayModels]

Yeah the owner is fully aware of it's handling faults, as he said,"it's a muscle bike". Never meet your Hero's so they say.@@MotoRestoFL

[@timlangley8926]

nice z,that paintwork is nice and yes fitting those pipes on your own is a juggling act

[@MotoRestoFL]

I've done two sets now, to be as safe as possible and limit or eliminate any chance of damage/scratching, two people are really well advised. I will put up the video on the pipe install sometime in the future, I'm keeping it in the "can" for the time being, in case I have to fill a hole in content due to a number of factors. Cheers.

[@petebird7171]

Outstanding result 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@ipfreelynow]

Beautiful Bike, wish I had one.

[@bozzbee13]

Nice work, your attention to detail is top notch.

[@Bobby-fj8mk]

Hi Tom, what a lovely bike - you did a fantastic job. Unless the owner wants to put it in a museum I don't see the point of replacing anything else. I like the patina of older metal.

[@scottwheaton9689]

Thanks for the great video content you provide here. If I could make a suggestion coming from 5 decades of my 1st hand experience wrenching/restoring Kawi big fours & triples is after you get ign,timing,plugs,valve clearance & carb sync all dialed in is when motors at full op temp to check/re-adjust each pilot/idle mixture screw separately to obtain best/smoothest idle. I do that because I often find the factory suggested setting is a good starting point when cleaning/rebuilding carbs but isn’t always best for quicker warm up & smoothest idle at full op temp. Btw,you mentioned that you were a little concerned that idle speed varied quite a lot from cold start to when warmed up,well getting each cyl’s idle mix screw dialed in separately for each cyl helps a bit with that but by design with carb’d motors there’s always an increase in idle speed from when motors off chock & idling not at full op temp to idling at full op temp on carb’d motors & not to worry about it as long as you have all the above dialed in & jetted properly. Happy motoring from Vero Beach FL! Scott

[@MotoRestoFL]

Yes, I do adjust them individually, but it's something I do a bit later over time.

[@FREE_PUREBLOOD333]

Very very nice result on that beauty of a bike. Great work as usual from you sir. Like the right angle brass pipe joint by the way.

[@MotoRestoFL]

Thanks. I don't like hose kinks. The only thing kinky I am interested in is..... well, take a guess... cheers.

[@henryhawk978]

Bike looks real nice

[@grantwoolhouse8625]

Enricher!! We call that a choke down under in New Zealand

[@MotoRestoFL]

Same here, it's printed on the lever, but it's not a choke. A true choke limits air flow into an engine in order to richen the mixture. These type carbs have an enricher piston which is lifted opening up an enricher circuit for cold starting. Ergo, not a choke but an enricher. My lawn mower has a choke. I won't degrade these fine Mikuni's to that level.

[@garywhite6900]

Looks fab!

[@CWS1963]

Where it's probably more in the low to midrange your not getting the throttle response, I may have tried one position up on the needles. They are the transition from pilots to main jets. I don't change mains until I can get it out on the highway and do a proper plug chop so you can actually see what the main jets are doing?

[@MotoRestoFL]

Agree but at this stage I have to get this thing done, and the bike doesn’t have a tag. Owner is still out of state on work.

[@CWS1963]

​@@MotoRestoFL That wasnt meant as criticism, just an observation. I noticed it had an LTD fender on it previously, and then it was changed? Lol. Nice job overall, not many of us old school guys left that can and will work on this stuff. I picked UK p a 78 KZ1000 I have in my shop now. I need to get title sorted and I'm going to dona resto on it. I'm going to do a 4 into 4 exhaust on it, I always loved the 900 exhaust, the collars have to be drilled as the 900 had 6mm studs, 1000 has 8mm, other than that should go on no problem. Love your channel, keep up the good work!

[@MotoRestoFL]

@@CWS1963 didn’t take it as such. You are right as I said and it’ll be back sometime in the future for other stuff and assuming he rides it in that meantime, I’ll examine the plugs and make any adjustments then. Thanks for the input.

[@CWS1963]

@@MotoRestoFL awesome, I'll be watching.

[@David19579]

Hi many thanks for your reply… greatly appreciated… Ok I get where your coming from…..have you done a video on a Z1 900 showing the “ valve lash “ as you mentioned in you comments 🤔…

[@MotoRestoFL]

No, but it's the same. Shim over bucket, same deal. Same 29mm shims, etc etc.

[@dennytuma]

very good young man

[@regnor166]

I was wondering if it was a dumb idea to check for correct jetting with a fuel ratio gauge. By the way, thanks for the videos.

[@MotoRestoFL]

There are no dumb ideas here. It’s something that’s been brought up before. Unfortunately, the only way I can find that a wide band fuel ratio meter can be used is with a sensor, not unlike an oxygen sensor, which requires a welded bung installed in the exhaust. I don’t know any others that use a different sensor. That’s obviously something we can’t do. If you check out Robot Cantina here on KZbin, he’s using one on a lawn mower engine conversion powering a small car. He custom made an exhaust and welded in the bung. If anyone knows another way, I’m all ears.

[@wdhewson]

Be a lucky owner for the Big Zed Too long a story to type out, but I recall my first encounter with a Zed in Champaing-Urbana,iL, (Rantoul, actually).

[@MotoRestoFL]

I'd like to hear it, if you ever want to share.

[@kevincampbell8298]

I love some older bikes but finding parts is a bugger. Need some coils for my old 99 6R Points snd condenser setups are a pain. And cap you buy thats bern sitting around is probably no good.

[@MotoRestoFL]

Agreed, on the cap. That was a test only. Talking to the original owner was not as informative as I hoped and he was unclear on what he or anyone else had done. As for coils, I'm guessing from your vernacular you're down under, seems you folks there have a bugger of a time getting stuff shipped in, cost-wise. I looked up those coils, they are weird looking for sure. But, you can get aftermarket replacements from the UK, I see them. Tell me this, please, what country or continent costs the least to ship into Australia if I am correct about your location? That would educate me on how to help other folks who, like I mentioned, have said it's hard to find parts there. Cheers.

[@The9meister]

Hi, a alloy engine grows in size from when it is cold to when it is hot, some engines as much as 4mm, try br7es spark plugs. Good luck 👍

[@David19579]

Hi there.. found you videos just yesterday .. I think your vids are amazing and really thorough and informative 🙏 I have a 1975 z1b it’s running like a sick pig 🐷.. had the carbs totally stripped down cleaned and reinstalled plus done the points ..but I just can’t get her to idle .. even though I’ve backed out the air mixture screw to get her to run a bit leaner ….but just get the bike to run smoothly Just wondering if you can help ps I’ve owned the bike for 27 years now retired still enjoying my Kawasaki but just can’t get her to be stable thx David

[@MotoRestoFL]

Sorry for the delay in responding, as we've been dealing with the impacts of two hurricanes. Back up and start from basics. Do a compression test. If that's good, pull the head cover and check valve lash. Adjust as necessary. Recheck compression, if it wasn't that good before. If it's still not that good, there's your problem. If it's good and within about 10% variance between cylinders, move on. Carb holders (insulators) often crack and leak. Replace as needed. You need to synchronize all multi cylinder carbs. Do the valve lash first on those bikes especially with shim over buckets, it's easy to do with the cams in situ. You need to have a really solid base to work from in order to diagnose poor running. If you're opening up the air screws, yes you're leaning it out relatively speaking, but if the jetting is stock and the air box/filters are stock and the exhaust is stock, check the float level. If it's too high, it'll be too rich. Those carbs require a service fuel level, a visual check which I do have a video on using a special tool I made.. you won't necessarily need one, depending upon the carb, if it has a drain with drain screw, use a clear plastic hose and in this video it shows you what you need to do to check the service fuel level which you can do with the carbs on the bike. In fact, the service manual says to do it with the carbs installed on most bikes. Hope it helps. kzbin.info/www/bejne/anXbd6F-otapfpY

[@DJ_Driven]

With the 125 mains, if you don't have the 122.5s go 1 click down on the needle jet. From memory I thought the Z1s had 117.5 stock on the mains. Sounds like you have a slight vacuum leak. When I used to tune carbureted bikes back in the day, I would always start out running fresh race fuel as I don't trust the ethanol enriched fuel. You need to put some miles on that bike with some race gas as it will clean the internals of the carburetor. You probably have one jet that's still slightly clogged.

[@53Scirocco]

The chrome head light housing and shorter front fender are KZ900/1000 LTD parts. Is this engine case a not restamped replacement case? I cant find/read any matching engine no. range like Z1E 042xx (nice hollowed cam shafts btw).

[@MotoRestoFL]

Good eye. I totally missed that headlight bucket. The engine number is really hard to read like it’s printed vs stamped. Or, very shallow stamping. I’ll have to check when it’s light out. I did look at it in the beginning but didn’t write it down. We’ll see what the customer wants to do if anything. Thanks.

[@MotoRestoFL]

Curiosity got the best of me so I went and checked. The engine # like I said is hard to read but it’s 043 and within the 200 numbers to the frame number. About 150 higher than the frame. According to the Z1 Enterprise knowledge base article, the engine numbers should be within 200 higher than the frame which this is. I’m no expert in judging originality, but the engine number does not look doctored or unusual except for being rather faintly stamped or however it was done. Again thanks. You viewers are excellent resources.

[@johnrowley4993]

Great video Tom 👍 what a beautiful bike. Is it just me but I’ve always thought the front mudguard (fender?) looked as if it was on back to front? ( I know you have put it on the correct way btw)

[@MotoRestoFL]

The photos I looked at show no mud guard. There is very little difference between the length of this fender when measured from each tip to a mount hole, it’s only very slightly longer one way so I put that side back towards the engine. They’re supposed to protect the engine from getting douched by road dirt and water. The concours 14 in comparison has a short front fender aft, many including myself add a fender extension so the radiator (even with a guard) doesn’t get pummeled by high velocity crap.

[@henryhawk978]

Where do you think the running would be if you tried 127.5 jetts? Just asking. The oil problem might go away with putting some miles on. Enjoyed the video Tom and RIDE SAFE OUT THERE!

[@MotoRestoFL]

Don’t know if it’d make any difference towards any positive direction, I did take it for a shake up and down the road, it has no flat spots and wide open throttle it doesn’t miss a beat so I’m happy with the jetting. The bike has no tag right now so longer ride is not an option for me.

[@henryhawk978]

@@MotoRestoFL sounds good 👍

[@joemyslo9077]

Where did you order the hose from for the carb "Nipples"? I'm in the midst of getting my Z1B on the road and haven't seen any of the black ones anywhere.

[@MotoRestoFL]

On the bottom? I get that from 4into1.com.

[@thaddeuslevandoski5492]

Did you look into the advancer update?

[@MotoRestoFL]

Not yet, but I shall.

[@grantwoolhouse8625]

Did you sort the loose spark plug? Surely that will cause more damage leaving it?

[@MotoRestoFL]

It’s not really loose just the threads are tore up a bit. It tightens but who knows. I have not been authorized to perform this repair. It’s very tricky and risky even with the proper Time-Sert kit.

[@grantwoolhouse8625]

Did you mention you changed the coil packs? I see they are green now

[@MotoRestoFL]

Yessir.

[@raybruce9522]

The resistor plugs never worked for me. Constantly fouling.

[@tonyfurneaux3399]

Good day, I enjoyed both vids on the Z1, however to much explaining, not enough showing yourself actually doing the work, that's where your skills will shine through. Please check out Brick House Builds to see how BJ makes a compelling video. All the very best, I did subscribe 😁

[@MotoRestoFL]

Thanks for the tips!

[@Bobby-fj8mk]

I feel sorry for that dog - he's ignored - doesn't he get a pat?

[@MotoRestoFL]

He's spoiled like major league spoiled... trust me.

[@Bobby-fj8mk]

@@MotoRestoFL - that's funny - I'm sure you give him enough pats - LOL

[@me109g4]

Wish my tech was that honest, he cracked the head on my 1980 kz 1000 ltd, tried to seal it up and let me take the bike, when l took it back he denied it, he paid some of the labor but l had to spring for a new head.

[@MotoRestoFL]

Difference between a tech and a mechanic right there. Tech's are parts changers. Cheers.