KZ 400 Kawakazi Almost Finished!!!

Looks great! Has a very well put together theme, flows real nicely. How do you like those rear shocks? Thinking about picking some up for a cheap little project i have going on.
 
rextec said:
Looks great! Has a very well put together theme, flows real nicely. How do you like those rear shocks? Thinking about picking some up for a cheap little project i have going on.
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Thanks. I didn't really plan the theme, just kinda ended up with it. : ) I didn't got a chance to truly test the shocks yet. Just couple test rides on a smooth pavement around the neighborhood and they work pretty good. Waiting to get a new set of carbs and then take it off road for the real test session.
 
Just caught up on this one - bike looks great! The two toned tank with the white grips really do it for me. Kudos for actually having nice photos of it too.
 
Just got this in the mail! Very exited to put them on. The main jet is 200, i wonder if i'll need to go down couple sizes. I also got the 2 into 1 mikuni throttle cable that needs to be cut to size and nipples fitted on the ends. Has anyone done this before? Do i need to weld the nipples on or it just all fits together, not gonna lie this cable looks a bit confusing.
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Yeah I used one of those universal cables. They are a pain. You need to measure to make sure everything is the correct lenght. I has to mess around with mine to get the slides to go full throttle and also close all the way to an idle. Once I got it all figured out I soldered the nipples on. Make sure you get a good solder because you dont want those babies popping of in the middle of no where,
 
MILLENNIUM FALCON said:
Yeah I used one of those universal cables. They are a pain. You need to measure to make sure everything is the correct lenght. I has to mess around with mine to get the slides to go full throttle and also close all the way to an idle. Once I got it all figured out I soldered the nipples on. Make sure you get a good solder because you dont want those babies popping of in the middle of no where,
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I heard that there were different solders for different things. I was in an electronics store and a guy was asking for solder for something along these lines, and the guy at the counter was like, "You don't want this solder, it's for electronics, you want more of a mechanical solder, we don't sell that." Quite honestly, I thought all solder was "relatively" the same, but I make custom medical cables so that's all I knew. Just a thought.
 
Great looking bike. I'd ride it any day. Only thing i would consider is reversing your headlight mounts so they come straight out instead of pointing up. The look upside down to me.
 
could you tell/show how your seat and electronics tray is all attached? i'm interested in seeing others' ideas as i'm getting my wiring sorted and am ready to make a tray compartment under my seat. i have a game plan, but want to know what other options people have gone with.

oh, and i saw this on youtube a while ago, thought you may benefit from it at the current state of your build...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axGTa0SvXjE&list=UU_3atH-XYvw2wSgwKqqFMdA&index=4
 
Let me know how you get along with the Mikunis and the throttle cable. I'm just getting ready to start on the same project. What size did you go for? I opted for a pair of VM-30s. I'll have some pictures up later.
 
7aliveatlast7 said:
could you tell/show how your seat and electronics tray is all attached? i'm interested in seeing others' ideas as i'm getting my wiring sorted and am ready to make a tray compartment under my seat. i have a game plan, but want to know what other options people have gone with.
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Currently the inside of my battery box is a mess. Here are couple pics to show you how it's bolted on.
The seat is held in place via screws that go through your frame. Probably not the best idea.
bat_box_01.jpg

seat_01.jpg
 
diggerdanh said:
Let me know how you get along with the Mikunis and the throttle cable. I'm just getting ready to start on the same project. What size did you go for? I opted for a pair of VM-30s. I'll have some pictures up later.
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The 2 into 1 throttle cable needed to run the mikunis is really hard to work with. Make sure you measure everything correctly. I made a mistake and measured it before the tank was on and now it's short, because the tank is pulling it down just a bit and one carb gets half way stuck. Soldering it was kinda tedious and it didn't want to fit through the nipple. Honestly I think they can come up with a better cable set up. As far as mikuni carbs go i didn't get a chance to fully test them. They are 32 round slide carbs. When the bike decides to start up it runs very rich. I will need to order new smaller jets and probably new cable.
 
Re: KZ 400 Kawakazi HELP!

Today i decided to check everything all over again. Took the rocker box of and checked cam position. Checked valve clearance. Checked timing. Did and oil change(oil from before loocked much darker). Battery is fully charged. New plugs. Fresh gas. New carbs.
When all was done, it started up after bunch of kicking and ran for about a minute. Couldn't idle by itself and was running very rich. Then it wouldn't start. :(
Basically same as it was doing before. So i sat down and had a conversation with my KZ, she listened politely. After i decided to kick it a little more and still nothing. Tuning this KZ is not easy at all. If anyone got any suggestions please share.
 
My KZ400 will foul plugs in no time when it runs rich, especially when it was idling rich when I first got it. I probably went through 3 sets of plugs before I got my stock carbs ironed out.
 
Thanks for the shots of the battery/electronics box. I'm working on mine right now, so that helps a lot. I love how yours just looks like part of the frame. Are you planning on using the electric starter or just kick start? I was considering switching to a Shorai battery but the one they spec out for the KZ400 w/elec start is no smaller than the AGM battery I'm currently using though I'm sure it weighs a lot less. But it takes up the majority of the space I have for the battery/elec tray. But that Ballistic battery looks tiny - that would def help in trying to fit everything else in there.
 
Yeah those cables are a pain.....I had similar problems. As far as your starting problems go, you may have already posted this, but what jets are you at right now? I am running vm30's on my xs400 and I had to re-jet several times to get it right. I am running 150 mains and 28 pilots. Keep in my my carbs are 30's so yours might be different. I was told that 32mm carbs were too big for 400cc bikes. I dont have first hand experience with this but i have heard it more than once.


veaone said:
The 2 into 1 throttle cable needed to run the mikunis is really hard to work with. Make sure you measure everything correctly. I made a mistake and measured it before the tank was on and now it's short, because the tank is pulling it down just a bit and one carb gets half way stuck. Soldering it was kinda tedious and it didn't want to fit through the nipple. Honestly I think they can come up with a better cable set up. As far as mikuni carbs go i didn't get a chance to fully test them. They are 32 round slide carbs. When the bike decides to start up it runs very rich. I will need to order new smaller jets and probably new cable.
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