Zed’s Not Dead: Part 17

Repairing old motorcycles is both fun and unnerving. After a couple weeks waiting on shims I finally finished the valve adjustment on Zed. While I was poking around under the valve cover I noticed that one of the four cam idler sprocket bolts was a non-standard bolt.

Zed’s previous mechanic must have lost a bolt or stripped the threads and the replacement bolt was too long. Stacking washers took up the clearance for the errant bolt but it looked like hell. I wanted to install the correct length bolt. The damn thing was tight. Like break-the-bolt-off tight. As I gave it a semi-gentle tug it had that springy feel. I fear that if I put any more torque on the fastener it will twist off leaving me with a mess.

It worries me that in the 45 years since the Kawasaki left the factory someone probably removed the cams in Zed. There were a lot of performance part catalogs in the same shed Zed came from. I hope the guy didn’t screw up the engine. I decided to leave the offending bolt for a later day and after checking the clearances one more time I used a new gasket and buttoned up Zed’s top cover.

I’m bumping into my self-imposed 3000-dollar budget limiter so I’ve been making some hard choices. Tach and Speedo cables aren’t very expensive but after flushing out the cable housings and cleaning the cables I couldn’t see any fraying or signs of stress. I coated the cables with grease and will be reusing them so that’s another 25 bucks saved.

The Z1 Enterprises wiring harness was very complete, all except for the instrument light harnesses. Zed’s tach and speedo have two instrument lights per side. These bulbs are illuminated whenever the headlight is on so the rubber bulb holders were sort of crystalized from heat. They fell apart when I removed them. Half the rubber fell inside the gage and half stayed stuck on the instrument light socket. Luckily for me the Z1E harness came with a new warning light harness and I was able to steal the old warning light rubbers and repurpose them for gauge illumination.

Changing the sockets and rubbers was less trouble than I thought it would be. I had to cut off the bullet connectors to pull the trick off. After threading the wire through the rubbers I uncrimped the old bullet connectors and recrimped the wires with a bit of solder to make up for any weakness inherent in a reused crimp connector. I wanted to keep the original instrument light sockets & wires so the color code would be correct but one of the sockets had chafed wiring and corrosion inside. I borrowed a warning light socket from the old harness and hopefully no one will ever see.

On a Z1 the gauges foam padding is sandwiched between the gauge and the cast aluminum bracket. This padding had deteriorated and crumbled easily. I knocked out a few round pads from some sticky refrigeration insulation and applied them wherever it seemed like the right place to apply such a thing. Next I tested all the bulbs and assembled the gauge cluster.

I had a hard time figuring out the headlight shell/blinker stalk sequence but my Internet buddies helped me get the various parts in the correct order. The blinkers ground through this ground washer/spacer type deal but mine were both broken.

Ever thrifty, I used a couple of thick washers and made an aluminum spacer to replicate the broken ground washer’s function, if not their aesthetics. The headlight ears on Zed appear to be slightly bent, giving a wall-eyed look to the blinkers. Or, if you like, swept back for speed. I don’t think I’ll try to straighten the ears because chrome does not stretch well and I don’t want hairline cracks in the lustrous finish. Sometimes effective motorcycle repair requires knowing when to quit.

At times my thriftiness ends up costing me more in the long run but not often. I never had a key for Zed so I took the seat lock, fork lock and ignition switch to our local locksmith. He made a couple keys that fit and only charged $40 for the work. Now that the instrument cluster and headlight was back together it was time to throw a battery on Zed and see if anything worked. I used a car battery and a couple jumper cables, turned the key…and nothing. Flipping the key back and forth brought flashes of light from the neutral and oil pressure warning lights. By turning the key just so, and shaking it like a Polaroid picture I could get the lights to come on steady. I’ve ordered a new ignition switch at $75.

Amazingly most everything worked. The left rear blinker bulb wasn’t making good contact so I cleaned the socket and it worked. The horn was badly rusted inside so I’ve ordered a new one but other than those two things all other circuits are fine. The starter works but I didn’t run the engine. That crappy ignition switch will just make it cut out.

Zed is getting very close. Very close, my brothers. Except now I have to take the headlight and gauge cluster back apart when my new switch shows up. And then the seat lock. And then the fork lock. It’s two steps forward, one step back kind of action. One other cost saving measure that didn’t pan out was the used front tire. It looked fine when I first installed the thing but the tire has developed deep cracks in the rubber between the treads. Yet more stuff on order.

My latest Zed parts order is around $600 but this should be the last big pile of parts. It looks like it’s time to clean out Zed’s rusty gas tank and start thinking about all the cool places I’ll ride to on this beast.

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Catch up on the Zed resurrection here!