Help with KZ1000 steering stem information

Hi everyone,

I've been reading the forums here for a while but with so much information here I haven't needed to post for anything up until now!

Here's the situation, I need a little steering stem information for a fork swap. I am putting a recent model GSXR front end on a KZ1000A. I had planned to use the KZ stem mounted to the GSXR triples, no big deal.
Well here's the thing... this is a frame up build, as in starting with nothing but a bare frame, no parts bike or anything like that. The donor stem I just found out is NOT a kz1000A/B/C but rather a kz1000e. I have a feeling this isn't going to help me any. The problem is from everything I can tell the stem bearings on the a/b/c are 30mm inner diameter, but the E stem I have is 27.8mm on the bearing shoulder. I would wager the frame may be the same between them, however it doesn't matter as I have new bearings in the mail already anyway, and they are of course for the 1000a.

So the question here is am I right in that the a/b/c bearings are 30mm and the e bearings are ~28mm? Or am I reading into this a bit too much? I'm heading out of town for a week and wanted to get this squared away before I left and now head is asploding once I realized the stem I got wasn't an a/b/c.

If anyone has any info on a vs e stems or can measure an A stem bearing shoulder that would be great.

Thanks everyone
doug

From looking in the K&L catalog (that can be easily downloaded) the bearing sizes for the 73 to 80 KZ's (900 and 1000) all have a 30 mm stem upper and lower. Many late model GSXR's also have that. 81 and up with the J motors have 25mm upper and 28mm lower bearings. So if your frame is an early model, just use the stock type bearings. I have also had luck mixing races and bearings when using tapered bearings to get a combination that fit whatever stem I was trying to fit (FZR1000 into 84 ZX900).
Good luck

i have a spare kz stem at home i could measure for u later. pm me if u still want a measurement.

Thanks guys.

The donor stem is from a 79 1000E shaft drive... the frame is a 77A.

I had only measured the top bearing shoulder and I haven't pressed the stem out of the tree yet (ran out of time at work and I guess I didn't get all of the weld out yet). Unfortunately I am leaving town for work next week and won't be able to look at it again until sometime late the following week or weekend after next.

I do have bearings on order for 77A (I think they were labeled as 77-80 A/B/C) but don't expect to see them for at least a week.

I had looked at two bearing listings that had stem bearing measurements listed, however neither had E model 1000s... they had A/B/C then J etc. Again the upper bearing shoulder was measuring 27.8 which doesn't jive with anything I had read yet.
I'm hoping I am looking into this too much, I just got really ticked when I realized I had ordered the wrong stem knowing I had forced downtime coming up and I wanted the stem assembled or at least mocked up before leaving.

Mark1122, if you don't mind measuring out the shoulders and length etc that would be awesome, absolutely NO rush though as again I won't even see my stem again for another 10 days or so.

Thanks

OK thats cool. just pm me when u get back and i'll measure it up for u.

Thanks, as soon as I get my hands on it and can press it out (to both shoulder sizes) I'll PM you.

Stay with the stem the GSXR was born with. It is 30mm top and bottom. It will fit perfectly into your stock style bearings in your early KZ frame. Don't know if I can make it any more clear than that.

The stock GSXR stem is about one full inch too short, no way to use it unfortunately. I will try it out when the KZ bearings show up, but putting it in the neck with no bearings it is already too short to put the preload nuts on the stem.