77 650s in the house

I've never seen that ridge before, I wonder how many were cast like that? Actually, it looks pretty nice that way. Ed

Not sure, Ed - the smooth one on the parts bike look nicer to me. But not nice enough to go to the trouble of swapping

Hit some trouble today. When swapping the lower engine mounting bolt, I noticed that the chrome starter motor cover looked better on the parts bike. And that the cover bolt furthest away was not threaded in on the user. No wonder as there are remains of a broken bolt taking the space :pinch:

Also learned that the alternator cover is scratched from a tipover. Cover on parts bike is good, but there is a little difference; the one in my bike have what looks like a wire loop sticking out of the lower part of the cover, wheras the parts bike do not.

Front sprocket covers differ between the two bikes; the Euro-bike have 3 polts plus a locating pin whereas the US-version have 4 bolts, one of them taking the place of the dowel pin.

While I wait for my Haynes to arrive, do you mind if I ask a couple of more questions?
1. Can I simply remove the starter motor with no worries? On my Z400 twin, things fell apart if I did that; engine cover also had to come off. EDIT: Found out it can safely be removed.
2. Does the alternator run dry or in oil (suspect dry) and is it easy to remove the stator from the cover - and do you have any idea what that thin, stiff wire - about half inch long - is there for?

Diary time:

- Touched up the rusty bolt heads on the clutch cover
- Sprayed rusty brake light switch spring with chrome paint - looks like new
- Touched up some more spots on the frame
- Brush painted the rusty spokes silver (Ed will shudder). Pretty strange that most look great, some are partially rusted and some are badly rusted along their entire length, as were they poorly treated from new.
- Swapped lower rear engine mounting bolt
- Cleaned up sprocket cover and used OEM bolts from parts bike
- Swapped gear pedal rubber - cost me a gallon of sweat despite heating the rubber well
- Cleaned the mirror stalks and nuts from slight rust attacks
- Polished chrome cylinder head bolts
- Fitted speedo cable that turned out to be just long enough now that the speedo drive is pointed properly
- Drained the engine oil, which looked pretty fresh. Oil filter looked like it came out of a box so I refitted it, keeping my new one for next oil change.
- Cleaned all the dirt off the outside of the oil filter housing and underside of the engine. Also cleaned a bit of dirt from the odd cylinder fin
- Cleaned up starter motor cover from parts bike that now looks virtually like new, waiting to be fitted

If you remove the starter don't start the engine otherwise oil will leak out.
Regarding the alternator cover, I don't know of any piece of wire that should be sticking out; below is a pic of mine. Can you post a picture of the wire? Ed

Not sure if I will make it today - Big Boss is in town - but can take a pic tomorrow if not. The wire comes out below the inner circular cover, on the front face just above the drain(?) plug. The parts bike cover looks like yours, only they have fitted some different bolts inside the circular cover that also doesn't go as deep. The bike I'll use have the same bolts as yours. I expect them to be retaining the stator?

OH, and I just want to get the starter out to fix the broken bolt, not to ride without a starter.

Although it was late when I got home, I still ventured out to the shed to do some work on the bikes. And I noticed several minor differences after turning the bikes around to give me access room to work and observe. Some of the differences have been noted earlier also.

- on "my" bike it is cast 0.652 l on the cylinder block, parts bike says 652 cc
- "my" sidecovers are smooth, the parts bike have depressions for the "KZ650" badges
- on "my" bike the sprocket cover is held by 3 bolts + guide pin, on the parts bike there are 4 bolts
- on "my" bike the brake caliper have a bleed nipple on one side, on the parts bike it is in the centre so that it can be fitted to either side
- forks differ as mentioned previously; different tops and parts bike made to carry caliper behind leg
- both electrical systems have been butchered to some degree and rectifier/regulator differs
- alternator is altered on "my" bike; the thing sticking our is actually a tiny zip tie, presumably to hold the two wires. Said wires exit the cover just below through a new hole drilled for the purpose and not in the stock position. So it's been modded at some point.

My guess is that the bike I've built to use is a very early version, probably built in 1976, whereas the parts bike from USA is a much later bike and one of them hybrids I've read about with the fork and brake changes incorporated.

Today's work:

- cleaned exhaust collars with a wire brush to get rid of accummulated dirt and corrosion
- fitted right hand side exhaust system to both bikes before turning them around to gain access to their left sides
- swapped rear brake arm and wear indicator including clamp bolt and positioned properly
- adjusted the brake pedal down for comfort and checked that the brake light switch work as intended
- removed starter motor from the bike that will be used and drilled out broken bolt. Threads were damaged so tapped to 1/4 in and fitted with suitable bolt. Not ideal, but I can live with it
- noticed that both bike's alternator covers had crash damaged and that the one on the bike I will use has been modified, so decided against swapping
- checked voltage drop to headlight; 0.8V. A bit much but I won't bother with it for now
- managed to remove sole remaining "KZ650" sign from one of the parts bike's sidecovers and fitted it to the one on the user that's pre-drilled after scraping off some red paint
- put sidecovers back on bike

What is the engine serial number on the engine with the "0.652 l" cast into the cylinder block? Ed

I must check when I get home.

I have the papers for the parts bike here at the office, though. It was brought to Norway on November 28, 2002. The Norwegian import papers says first registered 01.01.77, probably because they only have year of registration and not date on the original papers.

Also, it says frame number KZ650B501933. However, on the Wisconsin title paper, it says vehicle ID KZ650BE017961 :blink: Surprisingly, for me, this US bike was bought October 15, 2002, by the very dealer I bought it from now just before X-mas, meaning it has sat for a decade. One must wonder what motivated them to buy it in the first place as it doesn't seem like they have lifted much from it. It doesn't have an airbox, so they could have taken that off, but the rest was all there. Yet it wasn't really good enough as a project to make money from, what with the spray can job and not so great overall finish (at least if you think showroom). Perhaps they gambled on prices going through the roof like for Z1s and KZ1000s?

Geez, I really am longwinded, ain't I :blush:

Perhaps locate some helpful info through these links:

models.kz650.info/index.htm

models.kz650.info/Models.php

Good Fortune!

Great, thanks, Patton!

Apparently, one is a mid-1978 model, although the papers from USA says it's registered in 1977.

Frame no. on my bike is KZ650B024257, in other words mid-season as well. Original colour was green. I suspect, but cannot guarantee, that the other bike was red originally. At least it's red now and under the badge on the sidecover it was red bordering on pink, almost flake - heavy metallic content.

This is the description on Patton's link:

Two colours were offered for 1978, luminous dark blue or luminous burnt red. These proved to be unpopular and the B2 sold no where near as well as the B1. Very few other differences were made to the B2. The front brake caliper was reversed to the back of the fork leg and the front master cylinder was changed from a round item to a triangular one. The charging system was changed from a three-phase system to a two phase and the regulator and rectifier was now a combined unit. The cam chain tensioner was changed to an automatic unit and a hazard switch was added to the left-hand switchgear. Needle roller bearings were now used in the swingarm instead of the previous model bushes and slight modifications were made to the carbs to improve low speed operation. The fuel tap was replaced with a diaphragm type unit. There were also slight detail changes to the outer engine cases to incorporate the new lower case Kawasaki logo. The front footrests were now rubber mounted to combat vibration and the front forks were slightly modified

My bike still has the round brake master
Pretty sure it has a separate regulator and rectifier (something with lotsa cooling fins hanging under battery tray)
Cam chain tensioners look the same
No hazard switch
Plain swing arm bearings
Fuel tap is conventional IIRC
Front footrests are solid mounted
Capital letters for KAWASAKI logo on the engine covers

The fork is different the brake caliper is slightly different and fitted to the rear of fork leg, which are the only things I can find to correspond with the list above.