KAWASAKI Z1300
Ralph is getting close to the finish line with the big six.
Here I am, back at the bedside of my sickly beast, nursing her back to full health so she’s ready to roar around the sleepy streets of Somerset, ploughing grooves into the Tarmac on off-camber bends. Yes, you see, even with the extra two inches of stature of this Godier Genoud six, shod with Bridgestone’s finest BT45S, I am often egged into pushing her so hard into bends by the turbine-smooth motor that the engine bars and exhausts are scarred by road surface interaction. So, work is needed, then. This month I started to refit the exhaust and the first job was to clean up the exhaust clamps. They are aluminium alloy castings and the easiest way to keep them looking okay in their vulnerable position is a polish on the buffing wheel. They come up lovely and shiny and tend to stay pretty good for quite a while. The ones more on show can be kept nice by an occasional rub with an old T-shirt and some Autosol or similar aluminium polish. I replaced the old and tired header pipes with a brand new pattern set hewn by German craftsmen. Obviously, by now NOS (new old stock) header pipes are little more than an urban legend these days, but MCG Z1300 shop in Germany (www.z1300.de) have had some very high quality copies made. They are made from stainless steel for longevity and chrome-plated for the right colour. I am a great fan of stainless fasteners, but I have never liked stainless
exhausts, particularly downpipes, because they go yellow and cheaper grades even turn brown with the heat, which looks pants in my view. I like the blueish colour of chrome. At the time of writing they cost €1030 plus carriage, but are supposed to last. Given that I have scrunched them into the Tarmac on more than one occasion on both sides with my enthusiastic cornering, the stainless tube has paid dividends, as they would surely have rusted at the grazes, were they stock plated mild steel. While researching the current price of the downpipes I was heartened to see that they are now offering the legendary Devil six-into-one pipe for a very reasonable €995 plus postage. Trust me, the sound, looks and performance make it a very desirable ‘zorst’. When fitting the downpipes to the head, the gaskets invariably try to escape and usually succeed in their bid for freedom away from their future of being crushed in a horridly hot place. I have tried many things, but the easiest method is to scrape some grease on them from the pot and that will hold them in place reasonably well and can then burn away at the initial start-up. The headers are made up of two sets of three pipes, so ideally you would have about five or six very skinny arms to get these to fit. If (like me) you have the normal two arms, try this: I fitted the exhaust clamps within an inch or so of flanges that push against the gaskets and held them in place with bits of masking tape. I then fed the pipes past the frame tubes and pressed the flanges against the gaskets. The secret is to wriggle one clamp on and get a nut on the stud. I find a little tower of blocks of wood supporting the rear of the pipe helps. I fitted stainless flange nuts with serrations that dig in and stop them coming undone. At these temperatures thread lock and seal are a waste of time. Access isn’t great, so I tend to use a ¼in drive set with a six point socket to get them all done up. The mighty twin choke carb bank was the next up and, to be fair, it is one of the easier carb set-ups to fit, because the clever design of the airbox giving lots of room when the air-box outlet is removed. I wish Kawasaki Heavy Industries had continued this thoughtful design when they built the ZRX1200R, whose carbs are an absolute bastard to extract and replace. As with nearly all carbs, fitting the cables can be a tad awkward, but not in the same league as my Rex. I held the throttle butterflies open by wedging in a small block of wood. This turned the actuation wheel around so I was able to fit the pull cable’s inner wire nipple into its hole. The return cable is easier because at rest the nipple hole is in full view. Fitting the adjusters on the outer cables presented
no hassles and were soon set up and the lock nuts tightened. I then fitted my nicely rejuvenated radiator, not forgetting to ensure that the hose clips were on the silicone radiator pipes. As with most items on Japanese bikes, the radiator is secured with rubber anti-vibration mounts, which I did up with my favourite 3⁄8in drive flexi-head stubby ratchet and a deep reach socket. Fastening the hose clips I found was most easily achieved with a ratcheting ¼in drive T-bar and suitable sized socket. While most hose clip adjusters do have screwdriver slots, I find a socket gives a far more positive feel and you’re not pushing the clip around the pipe while trying to keep the driver in the head. The top hose clip at the front is a right sod to get on due to lack of clearance. But I guess that if it was easy then everyone would be doing it! The hose from the engine breather to the airbox was properly buggered and, as Mr Kawasaki was unable to furnish me with a new one, I had to come up with an alternative. I am now cursing my aged memory because I cannot for the life of me remember from which company I managed to secure a couple of nitrile rubber 90° elbows, other than to say that they were extremely helpful. I bought two as Sod’s Law dictates that should I only have bought one, there was a far better than average chance of me cocking it up. I used the sort of flexible pipe cutter that is used for cutting modern flexible domestic water pipes, that’s so much easier to use than copper. The tool made easy work of cutting the nitrile pipe and soon I had a new breather pipe, which I fixed with stainless steel Jubilee type hose clips. These should never be overtightened, as doing so will damage the hose. Next month: It’s MOT time!