KAWASAKI Z1325
Ralph Ferrand sorts the stand and other bits.
It’s almost time to get the dry build of the mighty 1325cc Kawasaki Zed special powder-coated by Nick at Griff’s Reality Motorworks – but first, I have to sort the sidestand. Sidestands and their mounts often suffer on big Zeds and this one was worse than most. The component is in an area where it gets covered in road crap and, despite lubrication of the sidestand pivot being a part of the service schedule, it is more often than not neglected. A bike used back in the day would not get the sort of love and care we old farts show our classics these days. If the sidestand was tight it would be lucky to get a dribble of WD-40 and only the most cherished bikes had the pivot bolt regularly removed, cleaned and reassembled with fresh grease. Once the grease has been washed away with water, salt and road grit, the stand components would rust and wear badly and let me tell you the sidestand mount on this machine was worn in so many directions. This meant I had to either try and get another and reweld it to the frame, or try to build up weld to what remained to replace the worn-away metal. The hole for the pivot had so much material missing it was quite an undertaking, but cutting the old mount from the frame was also a big job and could potentially affect the integrity of the frame, so I thought repairing what prevailed might be a better starting point. I forgot to take pictures until I was halfway through, so I am unable to show how bad it actually was. I built up new material with the TIG welder and then had to remove the excess with hand tools. If the part wasn’t welded to the frame, I would have built up the weld and then machined it all in the milling machine, but attached to the frame that wasn’t possible. I don’t like using abrasives in my workshop when I have engines open, so I filed the thickness down until it was correct. Using rat tail files I gradually opened up the hole until I could get a rotary file into it, which I powered with my Dremel multi-tool. Once it was getting properly round and was in the correct position, I used an adjustable hand reamer to get the hole perfect. The sidestand itself had taken such a beating that the owner deemed it to be worth investing in a new pattern item made in Japan, which was pretty much indecipherable from the original. When restoring you have to take a view on the time taken to repair a part over the cost of a new one. I’ll sometimes spend hours on my own projects repairing parts just because I can, but it isn’t cost-effective. But if it amuses me, it’s all part of the fun.
As I have covered powder-coating recently, I will fast-forward to the frame and allied components returning all shiny and lovely. The jumbled jigsaw of freshly refinished parts awaiting reassembly is indeed a truly enchanting time in the period of a bike restoration. After all, the hours of hard work making or restoring the parts one at a time, the final assembly is such a reward. Initially, with the help of the owner, we refitted the engine unit back into the frame. However, before starting it’s most important to protect the frame coating with a mixture of towels, pipe lagging etc. With many bikes of this size and age it’s often easiest to lay the engine on its side on some towels – preferably not from the bathroom – and lower the naked frame over the engine. When this part is happening it is all-hands-on-deck and the last thing on your mind is the camera, as you try and mate these large, heavy but vulnerable components together without damaging any of the fresh paint. Once a few bolts are in then one can relax a bit and enjoy the reassembly. Once the motor was safely ensconced in its frame, I carefully eased it upright on a comfy bed of towels, deemed no longer serviceable by ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’. I replaced all the engine mounting bolts with marine grade (316) stainless steel fasteners. It’s worth noting at this point that austenitic stainless fasteners have a nasty habit of ‘picking up’ or ‘galling’ their threads. This means that when you are tightening or loosening the threaded item it can suddenly lock solid, causing frustration, swearing and then the use of power drills etc. To prevent this vexatious happening you can use either a thread lock and seal or better still an anti-galling compound like Nickelslip. Since I originally wrote this, I have been in touch with Molyslip, the manufacturers, and they tell me that they have stopped making this product because nickel powder is a tad carcinogenic. It is fine in its paste form but for the people working with the raw materials it’s somewhat less than guaranteed to improve their health and wellbeing. If the product gets excessively hot and the grease part burns or evaporates away, you’re left with the powder, which if inhaled, can be detrimental to the health of a person who disassembles it later. The replacement product is Ferroslip and Molyslip have given your scribe a tin to try. I will report on my findings of this freebie at a later date, though it seems unlikely that they would have given me some to publicly investigate were, in the words of Lord Sugar, ‘tut’. We decided that as the swingarm was made from aluminium alloy that it would
look fabulous with a mirror polish finish. Without haemorrhaging a monumental quantity of filthy lucre, we got Mikey to polish the parts that will be seen and, to fit in with the silver and black theme, to paint the less obvious bits in satin black. But before I gave the swingarm to Mikey to polish, I bead-blasted all the parts that were to be black to give them a key for the paint to adhere to. After painting I gave the part an intensive de-greasing session before masking off all the parts to retain the mirror polish finish and then a final wipe over with panel wipe. The arm was then hung on a fairly windless day from SWMBO’S washing line, where I treated it to a number of coats of VHT engine enamel. Once dry I stripped away the masking and then left it a week to harden off. It’s not advisable to fit freshly painted parts to a bike if at all avoidable, as the paint is quite soft and vulnerable for the first week or more in the winter. I carefully fitted in the swingarm, greasing up all the bolts, bearings and pivots with Corrosion Block grease. While the frame was being powder-coated I had all the original bolts that weren’t being replaced with stainless and the suspension ‘dog bone’ linkages stripped and re-plated with bright zinc. I did contemplate re-making the dog bones in 316 grade stainless steel, but the owner baulked at the extra expense and I can’t say that I blame him. I then fitted the oil-cooler to the frame using thread lock and seal on the four stainless steel cap screws through the anti-vibration mounts. The OEM oil cooler available from KHI for air-cooled Zeds was too small for such a mighty engine as this and the oil feed pipes were not up to the quality of this build. I decided that the best hose and fittings are those supplied by Torques Products Ltd, which have an ebay shop and are based in Abergavenny. Their hose and fittings are excellent and not overpriced. As the paint work of the bike was to be black and blue, I chose a black nylon braided hose with a blue fleck highlight and black fittings. Cutting the hose and attaching the hose fittings to it was a massive ball ache. I knew this before specifying this gear because I had used the same kit on my GPZ1100 Uni-trak oil cooler, but when it’s fitted it genuinely looks the canine puppy making plums and, on a custom build, such details are significant. The rubber part of the hose has a stainless braid inside that, combined with the outside nylon braid, is what makes it so difficult to cut without unravelling the outer braid. Torques Products recommend using a thin abrasive cutting disc and I have just the tool, an air-powered high-speed disc-cutter with very thin discs. I wrapped the outer braid with masking tape and carefully sliced it with the disc-cutter. Once cut squarely, I clamped the socket in the soft jaws of the bench vice, removed the masking tape from the pipe and pushed it securely into the socket while turning the pipe. Believe me, this is the really difficult part – it’s really not keen to get in there, but it must go in all the way. There is a ridge inside, as shown in the cutaway diagram, showing where ‘all the way is’. Before installing the remainder of the fitting it was wise to mark the pipe with a bit of masking tape at the back of
the socket to ensure that it wasn’t pushed out of the socket during assembly. At this point the inside of the hose was lubricated with oil and given it’s use, engine oil made sense. The threads and the nipple were also lubricated, though it’s wise to keep the spanner flats dry or you’ll have no purchase. I held the hose firmly with my left hand under the socket in the vice and eased the nipple into the pipe and engaged the threads. Once sure the threads were started correctly, I carefully used a spanner to tighten the fitting, all the time pushing the hose upwards. Once properly secure I checked that the hose hadn’t been pushed out more than 1⁄16in (11⁄2mm) using the tape marker. Fitting the take-offs for the cooler hoses was a right royal pain, because the fins of the ‘big block’ extended further than the stock barrels, so I had to cut them with a burr in an air die grinder so the cap screws had clearance. Nothing’s ever straight forward with custom builds – I ended up having to buy a few extra fittings to clear the carbs and the polished breather top and still get the angle for the hose runs. I have seen some unholy messes made fitting oil-coolers and I have to say that the time and money spent on this installation was rewarded with a fine-looking set-up that complemented the final colour scheme. Plain stainless braid with a mixture of blue and pinky red anodised fittings seems to be loved under the bonnets (or hoods in the US) of boy racer cars and this foul habit is often seen mirrored on bike builds. The plain stainless braid will scratch paint and wear away electrical insulation, pipes etc, so it isn’t even a good idea from a practical perspective, even if you do think pinky red and blue anodise is aesthetically pleasing (it’s definitely NOT!) The nylon braid is much more practical on bikes and has a more sophisticated look. Next month I will be at the fins again with a die grinder as the final build continues. cmm