Ltd style headlight bracket and the wiggles

I replaced the fork ears on my 78 kz1000a with an ltd style bracket. when i run down the road the headlight assembly, bracket, gauges and bracket, everything attached wiggles up and down as a unit with every bump. Do you really have to tighten down on the mount bolts or take out the rubber dampers?

can someone describe how it should be properly mounted? maybe i have mine mounted incorrectly. Thanks!

First off...if you take out the dampeners, vibrations will have you replacing bulbs like Uncle Fester in a lightning storm. Your shell should not be shaking as this will also reduce it's life expectancy. You need to run a fine line between stability and keep the high frequency vibes away from the light element. But by no means solid mount the light. This also pertains to the rear light and blinkers. That hot glowing element that makes light is pretty brittle.

if you mean the headlight is rotating up and down as you ride, I had the same problem when I changed the bracket (bracket 1) on my 750. the headlight bucket originally had a bracket (bracket 2) bolted to the bottom of it. this bracket (2) was then bolted to the headlight holding bracket (1) to keep the headlight at the angle you wanted it to be at.

I removed the ltd bracket (1) which bent in a wreck and am using i think Emgo "ears" which mount to the forks. removing the ltd bracket (1) also removed the bolt hole that was used to keep the headlight steady. and no matter how tight I got it, the headlight would still bounce. so for right I have a zip tie around the steering stem and the little bracket(2) bolted to the bottom of the headlight. this keeps the headlight from tilting skyward. I will eventually get rid of the zip tie, but right now it works fine and I have other things to worry about.

Did ltd's have a third mount point besides the one at the guage bracket? my headlight doesn't move in the bracket, rather the whole unit, guages and all move.

not sure about your particular one, but my ltd bracket mounted in 2 places to the top triple, and in one place to the bottom tripple. but even without a headlight or bracket mounted I would think you gauges shouldn't move much. my gauges mount in 2 location to the top tripple clamp. the gauges are mounted on a bracket, which is mounted to the top triple with a bolt that runs through said bracket and through rubber bushings that have been set into holes in the upper tripple.

make sure you have those bushings.

what year and bike did the ltd bracket come from?

Post edited by: lifeliberty, at: 2006/07/17 13:00

are the rubbers in top triple tree good,are the nuts tightened where the bracket mounts under the triple tree?

lifeliberty wrote:

what year and bike did the ltd bracket come from?<br><br>Post edited by: lifeliberty, at: 2006/07/17 13:00

I am not sure what year the bracket came from, i do have the rubber dampers and they are in good shape. perhaps the lower bracket you spoke of is what i need to get or fabricate.

You can make a lower bracket. I don't think the LTD came with one from the factory as I have a 900LTD that doesn't have one, my buddys 1977 KZ1000LTD doesn't. We also looked at a couple other 1000LTDs and they didn't have it as well as our own LTDrider member here that posted his was not there either a few months ago in a similar thread. Either the LTDs just didn't have them or a bunch of them have been removed and a huge coincedence. I think the LTDs all skake, but could be wrong. I know mine does as well as my buddy's 1000.

here's an old pic, hope it loads for you.
kzrider.com/forum/images/public/img-1095169249.jpg

you can see the headlight bracket. it is right between the headlight and the Kawasaki cover that covers the lower triple. looks like a horizontal silver rod with a flat tab at the bottom of it that goes behind the kawasaki emblem. not sure if you can see it, but there is a tiny bracket under the headlight that is bolted to the flat tab. and the flat tab is bolted to the lower triple behind the kawasaki emblem.

it is a 1983 750 twin headlight bracket, so yours is probably different. but yeah, when I got rid of the oem bracket my headlight bounced too. just figure something out that works for you. shouldn't be too hard to drill a hole in the bottom of the headlight bucket for a screw and attach an L bracket or just fab something up.

take a look at this thread, same thing, better pic kzrider.com/component/option,com_joomlab...ew/id,62211/catid,6/

Post edited by: lifeliberty, at: 2006/07/17 15:22

Thanks everyone, i found that thread from some time ago and i think that type of bracket will work for my situation. I really appreciate ya'lls help!!!!!!

lifeliberty wrote:

not sure about your particular one, but my ltd bracket mounted in 2 places to the top triple, and in one place to the bottom tripple. but even without a headlight or bracket mounted I would think you gauges shouldn't move much. my gauges mount in 2 location to the top tripple clamp. the gauges are mounted on a bracket, which is mounted to the top triple with a bolt that runs through said bracket and through rubber bushings that have been set into holes in the upper tripple.

make sure you have those bushings.

what year and bike did the ltd bracket come from?<br><br>Post edited by: lifeliberty, at: 2006/07/17 13:00

i got it from an 80b4 ltd ,not sure what it was on before that.ive never seen a kz with the lower bracket either.they are kind of like bigfoot sightings everybodys seen pictures of them and there is a hole in bottem of headlight bucket for them but ive never seen one close up after all these years.make sure rubbers are good and nuts(that dont sound right!:sick: )are tight on bottem of upper tree .

I'll try to get a pic