THE MOMENT OF TRUE.

You buy a motorcycle without having seen it or tried it, just because of some photos in an advertisement and good words from the seller.
You pay in advance, hire transportation and in a few days it arrives at your house.
The first surprises make you doubt the purchase you just made, your intuition has failed.
The motorcycle you bought as "Impeccable and in perfect use" has nothing to do with what you have received.
Water in the oil, rusty fuel tank, absence of airbox, bypassed electrical system and countless details that keep the motorcycle from any intention of taking it for a ride.
You swallow your pride and begin to rescue the motorcycle, you change the water pump seal, the oil, and filters. Before, you have removed the spark plugs and poured a small amount of WD40 into each cylinder.
You drain the carburetors without liking what comes out inside, you eliminate the burnt fuel cut-off solenoid by connecting a direct tube to the inlet of the carburetors.
THE MOMENT OF TRUTH COMES.
I prime the carburetors, connect some clamps to the dead battery and hit the start button.
This is the result.
CYlinders 4 and 5 dead.



 

At this point I would suggest you stop what you're doing and visit the KZ1300FAQ tab at the top of the page. There is a wealth of information there and what I think is important here is that there are a number of common issues that these bikes have that really need to be looked at before continuing on operating a bike that you have no history on and a lot of that info is talked about in the FAQ's.
If I had bought that bike you just got and I found water in the oil and the fuse block with copper jumper wires in place, I would have assumed that the previous owner was a butcher and shouldn't have been allowed to operate a 3 speed bicycle. I'll assume that water in the oil was the straw that broke the camel's back and that's why he put it on the market. 

Regarding #4 and #5 dead cylinders- there's nothing common between them. #3 and #4 share an ignition coil, so if #3 is running then #4 being dead is probably a fuel issue. Same with #5. It shares a spark with #2 so if #2 is running, again #5 is probably a fuel issue. You're likely needing to pull the carbs and overhaul them.
The carburetors on the KZ1300 are Mikuni BSW32's and the Idle/ transition circuit is very sensitive to debris clogging. 80% of the discussions on this site pertain to that particular problem and there's a wealth of info on how to "properly" fix the issue in literally 100's of posts on this site.
Also, before you go any further, please find the information in the Frequently asked Questions tab regarding the cam chain tensioner and inspect the tensioner plus the idler roller and the tensioning roller. Far too many members have had to rebuild the top end because the cam chain jumped a tooth and bent a valve.

This should point you in the right direction and get you going. We're here to help when you need guidance.
KB

This morning I contacted someone throught Facebook who told me the history of the motorcycle.
Not many Z1300s entered Spain at the time and almost all of them have been located...
The first owner took it to his summer resort and only used it a few times a year, hence its short mileage, 24,000 km.
The owner died and the motorcycle was stopped for almost two decades in a town near the sea so the rust took its toll.
It was sold and almost completely restored, the engine was repaired but the title could not be enabled due to problems with the successors of the first owner.
It was sold again and this last buyer was able to obtain the documentation and after several more years he sold it to me.
Of the failures and breakdowns that the motorcycle brings with it, "no one" knows how they happened.

Hey KawaBCN, do you happen to know how many (K)Z1300 made it to Spain ?

GreetZ
Holger

BigSix wrote:

Hey KawaBCN, do you happen to know how many (K)Z1300 made it to Spain ?

GreetZ
Holger





 

Before Spain entered the European community, no more than 30 new units arrived due to their high price aggravated by customs tariffs to protect the Spanish motorcycle industry. Their marketing was represented by importers who bought quotas from the government, only the Canary Islands, With a different tax system, they could import all types of vehicles without any restrictions and at a market price, the first Z900s arrived there in the mid-70s, in the rest of Spain they cost the same as a house.

The majority of classic imported vehicles that entered Spain before 1975, the year of Franco's death, were brought as diplomatic bags by the military or foreign embassy corps. After the dictator's death, vehicles with restricted quotas began to be legally imported.
As a curious fact, the Z1000 that I own was exhibited at the Kawasaki stand at the International Automobile Show in Barcelona in 1977, at the end of the event all the motorcycles on display were already sold.

Another curious fact was that Spain could not import anything from Japan, but from the United States, which is why the engine flap where it said "made in Japan" was broken to make it appear that the motorcycle was American-made, having been imported from Germany.
On all motorcycles imported in the late '70s there are no "KZ" side covers from the American market, they are "Z" from the European market imported directly from Japan.

In the '90s there was a massive growth of importers of European motorcycles and cars taking advantage of a legal loophole in vehicle approvals. This was the second wave of KZ imports but they already came from second-hand markets
 

Thanks, that offers some insights I did not have. Learnt again.

Holger