Rings or not

I have had the plastic water pump bevel gear break up. I have a lot of history on this bike and so know it was done once before; I suspect that the plastic degrades from being covered in oil for years on end. I have sent the metal bit off to Germany (z1300.de) to get a new plastic bevel fitted. I have measured the bores and they are all in very fine shape with little wear. I know that the rings were changed when the bike last had this procedure.

The bike has always performed well and made 100bhp on the dyno at the back wheel, but does smoke a little bit and does you a drop of oil. Whilst I have the head off I will fit a set of Viton valve stem seals as a matter of course and lap the valve faces should they look as if they would benefit from the attention.

It looks to be a right P in the A to refit the barrels without the pukka Kawasaki tools which aren't available anymore. Do Z13s tend to use a bit of oil even when fit? The smoke is only a small amount - I am told my mates trying to keep up with me

My workshop manual is one I printed out after downloading and the pix of using the Kawasaki tools are fairly unclear.

Any help or pointers would be very much appreciated

This is my gurl after I repainted her

Ralph, hi
Looking very nice: it's true the green ones are faster (but I am biased)
Re oil - had my A1 for years, genuine 28k miles when I got her, and she has always used oil - probably approx 0.5lt per 1000 miles. No smoke or leaks to be seen, no excessive wear, great compression etc. Ive spoken to other owners re oil consumption and whilst not everyone had issues, a couple did suffer similar oil consumption. Methinks thats about the same volume as my Kettle uses.

Cheers Tim

Hey Ralph

yes, she is a beauty. And of course she is among the fast ones, due to the colour.

I do have mine since 1994 when the engine had been made up. Since then we have done approx. 100.000 kms and she needs oil at around 0.5 to 0.75 litres per 1000kms. A lot depends on the speed, some I have exchanged with had the impression from 158km/h she raises the oil consumption.

All the best
Holger

Ralpharama Very nice !!! Kudos to you ! I painted mine in darker colors so I can go faster at night ! Unfortunately the shiny bits give me away - so much for stealth !

My 79 that I bought new in 79 smoked from day one. I thought it was a 'break in' thing and that it would stop burning oil after a while but it never did. In one memorable incident, I drove non stop (except for fuel) from Denver to Windsor Ont (across the river from Detroit. As I was going down the Ambassador bridge into Canadian customs the oil light came on. Shut the engine down and coasted into customs, then pushed the bike up the street to a gas station. Had to add 4 litres of oil!

Nice looking ride there Mister !! Not sure about the green ones being faster. I have only rode red ones my entire life.

Regarding your ring queries – Ring end gap is really important. Kawasaki service manual shows an orientation but my teachings are very different from what Kawasaki instructs in the service manual. I was taught to orientate the compression ring ends parallel to the wristpin and not 90 degrees to the wrist pin. The piston rocks on the thrust line and the ring end gaps are more stable when located at the point of least rocking which would be at the wristpin. This is what I was taught when I was being trained as an auto mechanic. The oil scraper ring ends on the other hand- the wavy center ring I was taught to locate the end gap to the rear of the engine and the top and bottom oil scraper ring end gaps 30 degrees off of the thrust line and to the rear of the engine.

There’s lots of info on line regarding the topic of “clocking piston rings” and I encourage you to search the topic and make your own conclusions.

Installing the cylinders I’ve found it easiest to start with number 3-4 at top dead center and using your fingers, encourage the rings into the bores. Then move on to numbers 2-5 and repeat, then numbers 1-6. If you have finger nails, all the better. I refrain from using any tools what so ever. I have heard of some people using stainless gear clamps around the rings to compress and hold the rings in but I fear that when sliding the piston into the bores and the gear clamps sliding down the pistons that either score marks will end up on the piston skirts or the rings could be scored on the sealing surfaces. I don’t like either.
Hope these thoughts help.
KB