My KZ1300 project thread (photo heavy)

Busy season hit and I was on the road -- now I'm back and making some progress again. I've started building the wiring harness, which is a task but at least not a monumental one (especially since I'm eliminating some circuits). I have many of the external engine pieces cleaned, prepped, and painted. The cooling system is almost ready to install.

I've sourced Honda CB900 ignition coils and have those in place, along with the Kawasaki resistor. From what I understand these should provide a hotter spark. Just as well: I can only find one of the original 3 ignition coils!

What's vexing me now is that I'm missing a fuel nipple from the caburetor. 92005-1018. It's the 5.5cm piece connecting two carb bodies, and mine seems to have evaporated. This may be problematic.

If you're stuck, you may want to send this EBayer a message regarding his manufactured tees and connector tubes. He's got fittings for Mikunis and Kehins. I bet he's got "just the ticket. I'm also guessing that he's got a tee that would fit in there and provide a double feed for gas lines. Tee Hee Hee :evil:

www.ebay.com/sch/gunsbluemoon/m.html?ite...rksid=p2047675.l2562

Sent a message off to him. Thank you.

A bit about the progress I've made:

First, I haven't been taking a lot of photos. I keep meaning to break out the cameraphone but then I get lost in my work and, well, you know how it goes.

That said, the wiring harness is going away. The factory harness was in tatters: Many of the Molex connectors were garbage, and over the years the wiring had been cut and spliced and crimped and I didn't trust it.

Molex connectors are surprisingly expensive, and also difficult to find in certain configurations. I decided then that I wasn't going to take that route. Instead I elected to go with Anderson PowerPole connectors, which are popular in the radio community. I'm using 30A connectors with a 600v max. That's more than enough to do anything I'm doing on the bike.

The cool thing about these is that they're effectively genderless. There's no male and female: Each terminal serves as both, as the pole is shaped like. . . hm. Maybe like cupped hands, when it's assembled. They also dovetail together to fit multiple connectors on one block.

For certain applications I'm using spade connectors (ignition coils) and bullet connectors (ignition resistor) and I think I'll likely have a couple Molex blocks in use, but predominantly it's PowerPole.

The first connection I did was to the stator; here's a quick photo:

Please pardon the mess. I'm. . . I'm not tidy sometimes. I also lack for space.



The flat black enamel I'm using on non-moving/non-engine components:



Mounted AW82 coils:



And I'm missing that one goddamn stupid carburetor fuel nipple!

Proof that once upon a time I had that fuel nipple:



It's right there, visible. Dammit. That means it's rolling around the shop somewhere, I just don't know where. That photo was taken in May '14 when I started this project! Yikes!

I decided that I didn't want to use the factory glass fuses, so I bought an ATC fuse block and made a mounting plate for it today. I also purchased a starter solenoid (I think from a KZ550) as mine seems to have gone on walkabout and the KZ550 appears to be a close replacement.

Still goes the wiring harness: I am finding that there are a number of circuits I can eliminate (fuel valve solenoid, hazards, fuel level sending unit) which will make wiring somewhat simpler. I guess soon I'll need to investigate the digital dash that I'll want to mount, and start building the stainless mounting array.


Also:

Some of my photos are visible to me, but not all. That's weird. Are there any obvious missing photos to anybody else?