Kawasaki Z650 Seventies Special

[Maritime]

always impressed with what you do. Comkng along great even with the hiccuups

 

[Bevelheadmhr]

We hit another hiccup when dropping the block onto the pistons, one of the oil scraper rings caught and damaged. Its really a two an job, but due to social distancing it had to be done alone. Also when the block is rebored, it loses a slight chamfer at the base of the liners which help the rings compress as they enter the bore.

Not a big problem normally, except the rings for these pistons are no longer available... oh well, I never liked the idea of using those (slightly) used pistons anyway, so now the engine is getting a new set of forged pistons instead.

On a more positive note, I've bought a mint front end from a 2001 Yamaha R6 which a mate is breaking

.. its 43mm forks, calipers and discs will be used on the Zed, in place of the 41mm Suzuki forks I've used so far. It means a new set of billet yokes, but that's ok, my mate Jeff has a few sets of half finished billet yokes, one of which can be used for the Zed. While work has started machining the pieces to make the billet clutch cover and points cover.

 

[Bevelheadmhr]

The billet engine covers are progressing ok, the points cover is done, while the more complex clutch cover is around 80% done.. it needs its top bevelling and drilling to take an oil level site glass, before being polished. We're making three altogether, as its not much more work than making just one.

The next problem is how to add the famous 'DOHC' into the points covers, and perhaps 'Kawasaki' into the clutch cover. I was thinking about engraving DOHC into my points cover by hand, using a Dremel, but I doubt I could replicate the 'Kawasaki' logo accurately enough to make it worth doing.

I need to find somewhere who can engrave the covers, without charging a fortune, or maybe have a badge laser cut and inset into the cover. Not sure.

 

[ridesolo]

Have you thought about having vinyl stickers done that'll work as masking, you might have to get them done as "negative" then use a sand or bead blaster to get the effect you want?

 

[irk miller]

I etch my stuff. Saline etching, with copper sulfate and salt, is super cheap, really easy and relatively low toxicity. I use vinyl as a resist most of the time.

 

[doc_rot]

If you want to spice it up with something different than DOHC supply a vector drawing of this points cover.

 

[Bevelheadmhr]

Thanks for the ideas, I looked at a few YT vids, one shows a method that uses sat water and an electric current (supplied by a battery charger). When I have time, I may experiment with some scrap alloy plate.

Meanwhile, the clutch cover is finished, bar some cleaning up and polishing..