Adding a disc brake rear to a KZ900

I bought spoke wheels to replace the mags on my newly acquired 1976 KZ900 LTD. Don't like 16" rear wheels in particular, to me they scream "cruiser".

Opened up the box for the back wheel and saw it's actually a KZ1000 wheel. Very nice, however it's setup for a disc, not drum. Looked back at the auction, my mistake it says KZ1000 rear wheel. I guess when I looked at the picture I thought it was a drum brake wheel.

Should I convert my KZ900 to disc rear? KZ1000 swingarm and brake arm that's the easy part. The harder part I think is hooking up a master cylinder and a brake pedal to fit.

Has anyone here done this? OR does anyone have a clean KZ900 18 inch wheel for sale?

Thanks, Mike

Depending upon how much money you are willing to spend, you could get a Lester rear wheel. 18" and fits a drum brake.

I am switching from mags to spokes. Lester's are nice, however I like the spoke wheel look better.

Oh alright, I had it opposite. If you had the original mag wheels (ie. Morris Mags), make sure to hang on to them. They're rare- only appeared on '76 LTD 900s.

You can get a drum hub and lace it to whatever wheel you want. You might be able to (but don't quote me) disassemble the KZ1000 rear wheel and lace it to a Z1/KZ900 drum hub.

youre ltd should already be set up for a rear disc

This LTD definitely has a drum on the back. Is it original? I don't know. The last owner had the bike for 15 years and changed lots of things.

Yeah, maybe you have a KZ900 not LTD?

Didn't '76 KZ900 LTDs have drum rears?

Either way, post pics!!! :lol:

mtbspeedfreak wrote: Didn't '76 KZ900 LTDs have drum rears?

No.

The 1976 KZ900LTD came OE with rear single disc and dual front disc brakes mounted on 7 spoke aluminum wheels. 19" front 16" rear. To mount spoke wheels 19" front and 18" rear and rear disc, the wheels from a 1978 KZ1000A would be required. To convert a bike that was OE drum equipped in the rear to disc requires extensive modifications, including some welding. To utilize a 18" rear drum equipped wheel only requires the wheel from a 1973-76 Z-1 or KZ900. If this bike was equipped with a rear drum brake it never was a LTD. The frame on a LTD would start with the # KZ900B-******. If it was a KZ900 than the frame # would be Z1F-******

you could use wheels from a 77-78 kz1000 A series bike,750 twin rear disc/wire wheel might work also