Rear axle play under heavy braking

Yetanotherkzrider wrote: Seems I wasn't torquing it enough. She's looking solid now. I also snagged a hitch pin and will never bother with cotter pins again.

When you tighten the axle nut you are putting pressure on all those inner spacers not the bearings or anything. So you can crank down on it until the nut strips and the wheel and brakes will still function fine. Thats what tge spacers are innthere for.

Kawasaki always puts castle nuts on rear axles. On my MX bikes I was constantly adjusting the chains so I ran a nylock axle nut from another brand. Just search the size and thread pitch on ebay or whatever and youll find them.

Copbike1000 wrote: RonKZ650,
What year is your KZ650? My first KZ was a 1977 KZ650. I had a blast with that bike. Bike was candy apple metallic green. I did a ton of mods to it and then sold it so I could buy a 1980 LTD 1000.

Some of the mods to my KZ650 were, changing out spoke wheels for after market Lester wheels. I then ended up trading my Lester Wheels with a buddy of mine that owned a SR650. He loved my Lester wheels and had to have them, so he offered me an even trade on SR650 swingarm, and 16 inch rear wheel/tire combo, plus disc brake setup for the rear. PLUS the front wheel from SR650, with dual disc front brakes. I removed stock "duck-bill" tail and replaced with a Z1 tail, painted to match original KZ650 green. Miss that bike. Enjoy yours.

Thanks,
I have 4 KZ650s
Green 1977 in avatar with 23,000 miles
Blue KZ650B2 with 1,700 original miles
Another 1977 KZ650B1 with 1978 blue bodywork with 70,000 miles
Another 1978 Blue B2 I bought new with 168,000 miles on it
I rode the 70,000 mile one once this year. It's been many years since I've even uncovered and looked at any of the others.