1981 restoration/conversion

Found this old girl on the local version of Craiglist and paid $1000 for her. She hadn't been running in two years but I managed to coax her into starting with a can of gas and a new battery. Drove her home and she ran, but didn't run well.

Once home I immediately pulled the plugs and discovered they were a) the wrong plugs and b)hadn't been changed in years. The electrodes were burnt off.

With the plugs replaced she ran decently but stumbled down low and didn't idle very well. Cleaned the carbs and it made a huge difference. Runs quite well. I've ordered new plug caps and I'll be building new wires when they arrive.

I also changed the oil and went full synthetic.

On order are a new DG header, exhaust gaskets, air filter and fork seals/dust caps.

My plan is to keep it rideable for the summer before I strip it for the winter to refinish the body parts, frame and motor.

The next order of business was to get rid of the bags and fairing. I had to fabricate a headlight bracket from a piece of fork ears from a different bike and some angle iron. It is ugly but it will keep me legal for the summer while I come up a more permanent solution. I'm trying to keep it mobile between repairs/upgrades.

The seat cover is in awful shape but the pan is not rusted so it will be a simple matter to get the seat refinished. I am planning to have the shape squared off but maintain the raised rear portion.

I'm slowly cleaning the ingrained grease and dirt off of her. It is slow going. The bike was really filthy as you can see in the pics. The tank and front fender have dozens of little dents. This guy took pretty bad care of her.

There was a multitude of little electrical problems that I've fixed. Signal lights, tail light, bypassed ignition, ghetto manual fan switch.

She is a diamond in the rough right now but very rideable at least.

I see by the pic of the spark plug that it's a platinum tip plug and not necessarily the wrong plug. Waste spark systems should have double platinum plugs to help deal with the 2 different polarities of the firing of the plugs. ( this is recent information being provided by the spark plug companies.

You've been moving along pretty quickly with your repairs and seem to have your plan for the bike sorted out. Kudos to you. I wish you well with your endeavors and keep us posted with your progress. It helps spur the rest of us on!!

I know it wasn't the same number as what I put in which was BPR6ES. You may be right.. I don't know what the platinum number is. They were not all the same plug either but all of them were in bad shape. If I hadn't of already tossed them I'd be able to tell you what they were.

I got the fever with this thing and can't wait to get digging in.

Things were different with my ZX12. I had expensive upgrades forced upon me when it dropped a valve 142 Kms past my warranty and Kawi told me to get stuffed. Even though I built a monster machine out of it I never quite got over how poorly they treated me. Worst part about it was I had it into the stealership 2 weeks prior at 19,500 for its 20k valve adjustment. Then it drops a valve at 20,142K? No causation? Riiiight....

It was going to cost 6500+tax to repair it back to spec with factory kawi parts. Destroyed the head, cylinder, piston and connecting rod. For a few thousand more I ended up with a 1290cc Carpenter race engine. CNC machined head, NOS pistons, Muzzy billet basket, lock up clutch, progressive NOS controller, bottle etc. It makes 220 at the rear wheel on motor alone and 320 on the bottle.

It's an arm stretcher for sure.... but my heart just isn't in it any more. As junky as this is right now I'd rather ride it. Weird? Maybe. There is one thing this has over the 12 and that is the SOUND. Even with a leaky exhaust I like the sound better.

You're a Hoot Ledkz1300 !! You get cranked on the sound but not necessarily on the 320 horse power in the right handle grip. Nothing got me more wound up than cranking my old CBX in first and second gear. Pulling 10500 rpm in first gear and getting it to shift just before valve float and having the sockets in my airs pulled apart and the vibration shaking my head so bad that all I saw was a blur. And that was only 105 horse power. But you're right, there's nothing like the sound of 6 pistons spitting out exhaust gas at 8,000 + rpm's

LOL Kawboy. Some may consider me strange but you totally get it. Although I never owned a CBX one of my old buds did and we used to raise hell together in the 90's on our 6ers. Loved the sound of his too! The 12 crushes the KZ in performance in every way but regardless of the horsepower, it still sounds like just another crotch rocket.

lol Ledkz.......I have a similar situation. Have a worked ZX10R which now sits! Just love the old 1300, use her daily. Even had to charge my car battery the other day for lack of use