Ready to say goodbye
By dnpurdy | July 25, 2008
So my it is time for me to say goodbye to the 440. I think I’ve done all I can in getting this bike up to restored status. Last week I posted it on craigslist with a full description, a bulletlist of all the awesome stuff I’ve done on this bike, as well as a few very key photos. It was a pretty little ad, if I do say so myself.
However, put OBO and barter conditions in the ad. I was unaware, but this is against the posting terms of CL ads — oh well. So I reposted without, and it was flagged off AGAIN. Frustrated and unable to figure out why it was getting such negative attention, I decided to just sell it on ebay.
So I put it up with the same ad as what was on CL with a few more photos. Started at $0.99, buy it now at $1300, and reserve at $600. Within 12 hours of 7 day auction, it was already at $635!!! I’m excited.
I’ll need to finish doing my sand and polish on the covers before it is picked up, as well as one final super chrome polish, but I think it should be a no-problem deal.
Topics: Selling | No Comments »
Painting details
By dnpurdy | June 30, 2008
While I had a friend in town from high school, we went to an art supply store in Evanston and found some model paint, like Testor’s. As it turns out, it is actually `sign-lettering’ paint. No difference apparently, they are both enamels. So then I picked up “fire-red” and “lettering black”. I thought that was all I needed to do the emblems and engine.
Well we got home and I started with the side cover emblems. Turns out the emblems have red, black, and white. So in order to finish them, I needed to pick up some sign painters white. Thankfully, it turns out that there is an art-supply shop just around the corner that carried the same paint. Unfortunately, I only need a fraction stuff, but I had to buy pints worth of it. Oh well.
Well, I have been able to carefully repaint the emblems on both side covers. They look fantastic — fully restored. Awesome.
Alright, now what do I do with all this paint…
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Cleaning without my keys
By dnpurdy | June 20, 2008
Well, I think Jen went to work with my keys in her car, so I’ve been doing what I can on the bike without my keys. First off, I was able to take off my back fender and clean it up. I was able to sand and clean the underside of the fender and give it a coat of rusty metal primer. I wanted to give it a coat of flat or semi-gloss black, but I do not have any available, so I’ll do it later. I was also able to polish all the chrome on the fender and taillight very nicely — very shiny!!
Also, I was able to finally finish exchanging all the old crosshead screws on the engine cases for stainless allen cap screws. Very swank.
Lastly, I was able to open up the front master cylinder and flush the front brake line. Honestly, I have never seen such a nasty brake line. The fluid was super dark brown and there was some messy brown crap all in the line and reservior. I was able to wipe it all out of the master cylinder and flush the line completely with new DOT3 fluid from Julio’s.
Topics: Cleaning, TuneUp | No Comments »
She runs!
By dnpurdy | June 20, 2008
I did the full tune up as prescribed in the Clymer’s (sans the carb sync, for tomorrow) and the bike runs pretty well now. I started with the valve clearances and reset them all to .17mm. I stopped trying to check the current setting and just put them all to .17mm. After that, both compression measurements were great. I did the test with the carbs off, so it should have been breathing perfectly. Not to mention it was cold! #1 was 170 psi and #2 was 165 psi. Not bad!
After that, I taped up the coil and wires to secure them as well as reattached them to new plugs. Popped the carbs back on and fired it up. Sounds a little rough below 4k rpm, but I think sync-ing tomorrow should help with that.
From here, I just gotta polish and clean, polish and clean.
And the chain….
Topics: TuneUp | No Comments »
First work on the bike
By dnpurdy | June 19, 2008
Alright, so today I went downtown and took care of all the legal aspects of owning a new bike. I have added it to my insurance policy, retitled the vehicle, and bought plates/stickers. Only trouble was that the title will be in my name as well as Elaine’s because we transferred it wrong. Once the new title comes, I can sign her off of it.
So the first motions towards tune-up are under way. I have checked out the tank and it looks pristine metal inside, which is good. I ordered two carb rebuilt kits from Z1 and installed them. This was basically new orings for bowl, drain screw, pilot plug, as well as a new idle mixture assembly. That went really well, but when I put it all back on the bike, I got fuel leaking everywhere. Apparently the tee connection from the fuel line to both carbs was jacked up.
So I yanked the carbs back off and dismantled. Turns out the o-rings were brittle and shot. So I went to home depot and bought 2 new ones. I tested it with gas late this evening and no visible leaks, so I’m hopeful that solved that problem.
While I had the carbs off I also took off the coil so that I could properly install some new plug wire/boot combos — the old ones had melted against the head/headers.
I also ordered a new set of stainless steel bolts for the engine covers. I was able to replace most of the old crosshead screws without issue, but 3 stripped out on me despite using and impact driver and patience. Looks like I’ll have to drill those out.
Tomorrow (so soon) I’m going to do the full tune-up as prescribed in the Clymers, which includes a static timing, dynamic timing, points refresh, compression test, and valve clearance reset. Should be boring and painful. Hopefully after I should have it running reasonably well and then can confirm the state of the electrical system.
I’m installing the chargeGuard on the KZ440A1 until I get a replacement 750. Hopefully that will help speed up any charging system diagnosis.
Topics: TuneUp | No Comments »
I have purchased a second motorcycle - 1980 KZ440-A1
By dnpurdy | June 15, 2008
In looking for my stolen KZ750-N1 on craigslist, I saw a posting for a great condition KZ440-A1 for only $450. Feeling impulsive, I snagged it, but just barely.
After emailing the seller, I found out she had just bought it herself and was selling it because one of her dogs needed eye surgery. Jen and I went up to her (Elaine Shaw) place to check it out and it seemed in good condition.
Cosmetically, it was great, with just a bit of chrome rust and a tear in the seat vinyl. Electrically, something was clearly wrong, but I understand KZ electrics now as good as anyone. Mechanically, it could run, but was overheating (turned out it was overfull of some skanky oil. But we had ~125 psi in #1 and ~150 psi in #2, so I think it was in good shape in the jugs.
I decided to take it about 5 minutes before another buyer was ready to take it. Elaine was nice enough to load it up in her SUV and drive it down to Logan Square for us. So, it has been sitting on the street and I’ve begun the tune it to get it ready to go.
If the insurance check from the spectre is big enough, this will become Jen’s big as I’ll be buying another KZ 750 or larger fairly soon!
Topics: TuneUp | No Comments »