(K)Z1300 riddle

Well that's put a spanner in the works then Pete lol.
Come on then Holger, put us out of our misery lol.

The only irregular thing I can see is that the frame is from a fully faired Touring model yet it is a naked bike ?
The headstock has the fairing chassis mounting bracket welded onto it. This was not on the naked model bike ?

Pete F

Well I must say first off that the restorer has done an incredible job at restoring this bike. These photo's being documented like this will be a great resource for anyone else doing a restoration because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find close up photos of what the original bike actually looked like when it was new.
The bike in question here is an American import for sure and probably a 1979 model. It has the small gas tank and the short rear fender. The Canadian model looked the same from 10 feet away but the give away between the two models is the reed valve. I'm talking here about the two small covers on top of the valve cover. It was only the USA model that recirculated back into the air box.
So that photo under the heading Restore Diary part 12 with the plug closing off the reed valve imo is incorrect. The best diagram of this would be the schematic on Bike Bandit's ( USA supplier of oem parts )web site showing the plumbing back to the air box.
On kawaski's own web site it shows the Canadian version with block off plate and therefore no gas recirculation needed.

Ahh .. I have 3 rocker covers, bought a new/old stock one just lately, 2, including the new one have the blocked off reed valve covers, I have one cover that I will get cleaned and polished up soon that doesn't have the reed boxes, we don't recirculate the gases down under, might make it easier to take off the cover without the reed boxes getting in the way.

The REAL UK spec bike had no reed valves at all.
See my current engine below.........no reed valves.

Amazing what one can learn.
It's not the frame mounts for the fairing because all schematics show it.

www.kawasakiepc.com/SystemSearch_Frames....998&CFTOKEN=56912586

What a pain that reed valve is when taking the valve cover off- I never knew you other guys didn't have to fiddle with that.