New Adventure

My mother and her boyfriend have recently purchased the Rainbow Supper Club in Anamosa, Iowa. This is sure to be a great new adventure for them. I am doing everything that I can to help them get things off the ground. Dealing with family isn't always easy but this time seems to be working out great. As things progress, we'll be letting you know how things are going.

1982 KZ 1100

Here are a couple of new photos... got this backrest and luggage rack from one of my Boy Scouts that didn't have anything to put it on anymore. The Bag is a Saddlemen Over the seat luggage bag.

My neighbor helped out putting it on. The bike is more complete than before.. There isn't much left to do except fix the charging system, the gas leak in the carbs or petcock, don't know which yet, the headlight, brake light switch from the front brake control and put the saddle bags on....

It's a work in progress but hey, it runs don't it. And I didn't go to a dealership and order a bike and call myself a biker... Don't really say I am a biker now, but I have more right to than some do....

IT'S ALIVE

The bike is running. It runs great too. I have had it out riding a few times and I love it.

I got the cam chain tensioner installed and the re-did the timing which was off 180 degrees causing the NO COMPRESSION issue.

Fish did the wiring for the tail light and turn signals for me and I still have to fix the Front Brake connection so that it works but that is minor.

Here is a photo fo me with the bike for the J&P Cycles Employee photos page in the catalog.

Again, this is a 1982 Kawasaki KZ 1100

Cam Chain Tensioner

I think we nailed down the problem with compression. CAM CHAIN TENSIONER.

I took it off and it was really stiff to push in and out. It would stick in sometimes too.

This was causing a slack in the timing chain that I beleive was making the valves open prematurely.

I have ordered a new one from Z1 Enterprises.com and am anxious to get it and put it on. Hopefully this will take care of the compression problem, if so, then this baby will be up and running shortly.

I also finally added the oil to the front fork tubes and the seals that I installed seem to be working well.

I almost made the mistake of using the air compressor to put air in them, then the guys caught me. ONLY USE A HAND PUMP ON THIS. It can push way too much pressure into the forks causing damage if you do.

I'll let you all know how it goes and hopefully have some riding shots and footage soon.

Thanks for watching.

Hurry up and wait

The J&P cycles Open house was a huge event. I had to put the bike in a trailer for storage while the event was going on and with a Week of Boy Scout Camp and then a week of family vacation along with all of the other hassles of life I haven't gotten around to working on the bike.

Now I am having a problem with compression. This could be timing, this could be bad rings, I don't know. We are going to dig into it this Sunday and see what is wrong. We are going to work on it again soon to get it finished.

I did get the brake lines cleaned up, filled with fluid and bled. I still need to get fork oil into it.

I'll keep you up to date as things progress.

Late night again

Tonight I worked on the bike from 6pm til 3 AM.

I removed the valve cover, scraped the gaskets (AGAIN) got it all cleaned up and then Tom showed me how to take out the shims and gauge them. Since I had lapped the valves, almost all of them were 2 or 3 sizes smaller. I thought I was going to have to buy all new shims... Fortunately for me, Kody had just the ones that I needed. I was a little frustrated at first since he only had 2 of the 2.45 mm shims and I thought they would all be that. Well, they weren't.

I will be going back at it at 8 am as it is 3am right now and putting the valve cover back on, let that sit a bit, wire up the tail lights and turn signals, bleed the brakes, fill the fork tubes with Fork Oil and putting the mirrors back on since the ones that I got were from a Yamaha... (Reverse threadding on the right side..)

I don't have any photos from tonight but they wouldn't look much different from the ones below as it would have once again been the top off of the motor...

Last night, from 5:30 to 6:30 I re-built the carbs with all new needles, jets, filter thingy's that the needls go into and these little rubber washer thinga-ma-hoo's.

THEY DON'T OVERFLOW anymore. That is a good thing. Another problem solved. We may start this thing up tomorrow, if so, I won't be posting for a bit. Could take awhile before the gas runs out....

Wish me luck...... I need all that I can get.

CANDLEBOX Linn County Fair July 19th 2009

Here is a photo of me on the Ghost Rider bike that was given away by Easyriders Magazine for 2009.. Kody built the bike for J&P Cycles. I filmed it and made the video. I also had a hand in building it... I held the triple trees while Kody put the handle bars on... Maybe a bolt or two as well.

I can't say I did much though.

Weekend of Hard Work

Now after an entire weekend of working on the bike solid, I finally got a ton accomplished with the invaluable assistance of Kody Wisner at Wisner Cycles. Kody dared me to do something stupid and he would put my motor together, so I did it and he put it together.

Needless to say, it still hasn't started. After getting the gaskets that I needed finally (Thanks to z1enterprises.com) and thanks to Kody's mom for running to Iowa City to get one last gasket for me.

The carberators overflowed when I turned on the gas... It did turn over but it also seems as if we didn't get the shimming quite right and we aren't getting any compression. So, that means taking the valve cover off, then re-checking that, then cleaning up all of that gasket mess again.

Although the bike is coming along nicely.. It is starting to look like a motorcycle again.

I cannot wait to get it running. Here are some photos to look at of how things are going and how the weekend went.

Enjoy

Photos coming soon.

OK,

The eye is all better, been able to get to work on the bike but I broke my camera...went mushroom hunting with the kids and I had the camera in my pocket with my phone and while squatting down , I broke the screen on the camera. I used Kody's camera to shoot some photos of the progress on the bike. The paint job is done. I had to bondo the rear fender to make the tail light fit right. I used the Herculiner Bedliner to paint my 1982 KZ 1100 motorcycle. It looks pretty cool, definately unique.

I have put on the Auto-Gem Turn Signals and the Beehive Tail light. I got my valve stem seals and put the head back together.. Now I am waiting for some seals from Z1enterprises.com that shipped the day that I ordered them and I'll get the cylinders, head, valve covers etc put back together. Put the body parts back on it, sync the carbs and put the filter pods on and see if this thing will start up.

Thank you for following along with the progress of this bike. I am having a ton of fun with it.

Thank you so much to Kody, Fish, Tom and Jerry for all of your help on this bike. Patrick G. saved my butt too when he had the exact size HeliCoil to repair a stripped bolt hold in the head for a Cam Cap.

Like I said, I'll get more pics up really soon that shows the progress.

Been Awhile

I had eye surgery so I haven't been able to work on much of the bike.
My wife picked up the Cam cap dowel pin that is needed to put it back together, now I see that I am missing a Valve spring seat too.
I'll get that and start putting it all back together. My camera took a poop on me so I have to find another one that I can use to keep you up to date on the progress.
Keep checking back and I'll get more posted soon.
Keep watching http://wisnercycles.blogspot.com and watch his progress on the stuff he is working on.

CLEAN VALVES

I spent my lunch hour today cleaning the valves off so that Kody can help me Lap them. I haven't worked on the bike in the past week due to an Eye surgery last Thursday...
This first photo shows how Kody had me place the valves into some Cardboard cutout and label where each one went. This works great. Now I can put them back exactly as they were.

Felling better now and back in action. Over the weekend I had to get the RV out and running too for the upcoming Camping Season.

Gotta do something for the wife or she'll get suspicious.

I used a wire brush to get most of the gunk off and then polished a little bit with some Scotch brite pad that I cut off of Jerry's peice.

Hopefully Kody can work with me tonight to get the valves lapped while I rinse out the head a few more times.

Fun in the Shop

Last Saturday, I got the chance to work a bit in the shop, it was a cold windy day so we all brought our kids in for the day to hang out with us.
Here are some cool shots.

He's a Wylde one, a real Wylde ONE.

Like father, Like Son

Biker in Training

The Bad News Crue;

Wolverine, Wylde and Cain.

Cain, yer such a HAM... He is my youngest. He is posing on the bike with one of Kody's friends kids, we called him Wolverine all day. I can't remember his name.

GASKETS AGAIN

Here is a photo of scraping the gaskets off the top of the lower end. I am getting the hang of this.

Few Days off

I have taken a few days off of working on the bike to take care of some things at home. Fixed some cabinets, helped a friend get moved, got sick, took the kid fishing, blah blah blah.
Other than that, I have just been scraping gaskets on the top of the bottom end. Then I needed to turn the pistons a bit so I had to take the Stator cover off. This meant there was another gasket that needed to be scrapted and another point that needed to be flattened / honed.

This whole gasket thing is for the birds... They need to design something else for this. I am getting to be a master at gasket removal though. It just takes time and pressure.
TIME AND PRESSURE, isn't that how a diamond is made? This is like a diamond in the rough. It'll be a shining diamond when I am all done with it. Until then, it's still just a peice of coal, keep up the pressure over time and it'll be a diamond.

Kody says we can Lap the valves this week and start putting this thing back together. I am hoping that nothing else is wrong with it when it all gets back together, I cannot afford to take it all apart again. Gaskets aren't cheap and you need a new one everytime you put the damn thing together.
Until tomorrow, I am going to be working on it later today.. I'll get some more photos of the progress.

Craigslist, Ebay and other Resources

Since I don't have access to a Kawasaki dealership locally that carries 30 year old parts, I am forced to look elsewhere for parts and accessories for my project.
Now, thankfully for the Internet, everyone is just an arms reach away.
Utilizing Craigslist is my favorite way of shopping for these things. I am in Eastern Iowa and there aren't always the things I need really close by but when they are, I can drive a few miles and get that really cool part that I found that day.

Such an occurance just happened for me. SADDLE BAGS - GRAIGLIST.ORG I found a posting from 3 days ago on a set of KAWASAKI saddlebags listed in Dubuque. I actually didn't find the posting, Kody Wisner of Wisner Cycles found it. I have been working on my bike in his shop with his guidance. (This doesn't happen for everyone so don't expect it.) Kody was looking for some parts for one of his bikes when he stumbled upon these bags.
All it took was a phone call and an email and I had connected with this guy Thomas Z. I'll call him Tommy Z for now.

Tommy had gotten these bags in an estate sale when he purchased a really cool 1979 Honda Twinstar that was in about mint condition. Well, they were Kawasaki bags, they won't work on the Twinstar so he was putting them up for sale.
What is really nice about Graiglist.org is that you can actually meet and talk to the seller, go and see the product before you actually purchase it. I got to meet Tommy Z. and his son last night after work. What a great couple of guys.
Tom has an affinity for Mopeds, and no I don't mean the Honda Express from yesteryear, I mean cool stuff like the SACHS from Germany, Bridgestones, PUCH from Czech and such. These are really cool mopeds. He even has 3 completely restored Honda 125's. He did them all in his basement. Way cool.
From the way he tells it, he got one a few years ago, restored it and started riding it and he caught the bug. The restoration bug. Now he has done about 8-10 mopeds since he started and is having fun with it. I hope he starts a blog on his projects.
Anyway, back to the resources. By meeting this guy, I could get the whole story behind these bags, I got the chance to look at the bags and check tem over well before I even had to buy them. That is how I would prefer to buy things.
Now that I have them, I got them back only to discover that they don't fit exactly. No big deal, they are close enough that all I need to do is drill a hole in the lower leg of the bracket and put an extenstion on the frame to come out to the top forward mounting point.
I'll keep this updated as I go along as well.

As for the bags themselves, they are great. 2 maroon bags with Chrome crash guards and nearly spotless mounting brackets. Someone at some point had started to sand the bags but I'll get better pics of that tonight. These bags also have the Amber turn signals built into the bag. I think that is great.
I'll do some more research on these bags and figure out exactly how I am going to mount them and then I'll get that posted.
Until then, keep checking back to see the progress as the next thing to do is the Valve cover, clean it, blast it and paint it.

One last thing to say, I think I have made a new Friend in Tommy Z.

Saddle Bags

Well, I was going to have to resort to using the Ammo cans for saddle bags but I just found a great deal on Craigslist. Found a really cool guy in Dubuque that is selling me a set of Kawi bags with lights. I am going tomorrow night to pick them up... I think I am getting a pretty good deal, as you all know that have been following this, it has been tough coming up with money for this stuff. Everyone has been so generous to me on this bike and I really appreciate it. I'll show the bags when I get them.

Blasted Heads

Yesterday I was able to spend abou 5 hours out in the shop. I was able to get the gaskets all scraped off of the cylinders and get it blasted, Here is a photo of the finished blasting job.
Now all I have to do is tape it all off and spray paint it with High temp Engine Paint that I got from J&P Cycles. Part number 910-636 CLICK HERE .

Then I was able to get the head flattened from the blasting job I did on that. That was a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be, this is the stone that Kody gave me and a can of WD40. It was as easy as wax on, wax off. Run it for awhile, clean it off and re-lube and rub some more. The seat where the gasket goes is now nice and shiny.

Here is a shot of me working on cleaning up those gaskets. That is definately a tedious job.

Kody's dad grabbed the camera and got yet another shot of me working on the bike.

Cool new Chair

Here is a chair that I am going to be getting soon.
This will be great for short or long trips. Expecially for fishing.
It's the Blue Max Saddle
CLICK HERE

Me Working

Ok, so cleaning this thing up is harder than I thought it would be but in the end it will be worth it.
Kody's Dad, Jerry, grabbed my camera up and got a shot of me working on my machine. This will be one for the scrap book, Me, working on a motorcycle. And my own at that.

Removing the Cylinders.

Ok, so tonight I had an hour in the shop, I finished up on some little spots of sandblasting the heads and got that all finished up. Then it was time to remove the cylinders. WOW,easy to do but how can there be so much sand and dirt surrounding the bolts down that far.


It looked like they had submerssed the engine in sand.
THIS IS BAD. Or so I thought, actually, it was just around the Head Bolts, that sand and dirt didn't actually make it inside the engine.



Anyway, now I have the cylinders soaking just as I did the head, I'll take a couple of days to scrub on them and get all of the grease and ---- off of them, then I'll blast them as well. Once they are blasted, I'll break out the Engine paint and turn them completely black.
After the black paint, I intend on sanding down the fins to reveal the aluminum underneath of the paint but just on the tips of the fins, this should be really pretty when it is done.
Anyway, I had a Boy Scout meeting tonight so that is all I had time for. Like I said, I'll get the photos of the cylinders removed tomorrow and show the photos.
As I go though all of that process, I'll take some photos and get them up here. When I actually start putting things together, I'll get out the video camera.

Wisner Cycles

Here is the new logo for Wisner Cycles.

Nothing happened

I didn't work on the bike last night, My son Tyler was fixing supper so I wanted to go home and see what he did. My Kids are still number one in my life, the bike can take a night off.
I'll go work on it for a bit tonight, I'll let you know tomorrow what is happening.

PhotoChopped

I was working with Photoshop last night and came up with this FotoChopped look of the bike.
This doesn't include the new seat, windshield, saddle bags or lights.

Cleaning Up

If you look at the right side image at the top of this page you can clearly see that I have been cleaning up the bike. It was dirty as hell when I got it, it had been sitting up against the fence next to a gravel road for about a year.
Getting all of that off without using a power washer has been a real treat let me tell you. I won't spend anytime cleaning the tires as I need to get new ones anyway.
Here are shots of each side of the bike.


Ya see, I have to clean this in between times that I am cleaning the head, blasting it, waiting for Kody to tell me what to do next or if it is just me in the shop and I don't want to mess with something.
It really keeps me focused on the project though.
I would tear it completely down to the frame but I am afraid of wiring, I don't want to screw it up and not get everything put back where it goes.
Maybe one day I will do that, but until it is running and safe, looks are definately a second thought.

Cleaning the Heads II

Ok, so Kody gave me the go ahead that the heads were pretty clean and it was time to bead blast them. So last night I grabbed up some packing tape since it was the only thing on hand to use and covered over the top of the head where the cams go so that I wouldn't get any sand on the bearings. Well, let me tell you, you need more than one layer of tape if you are going to be sand blasting.

I saw a hole start on the tape from accidentally passing the nozzle over it and stoped. There was some sand in there but nothing to get scared over. I took all the tape off, washed it again and this time, I added 3 layers of tape to it so that I wouldn't have to worry so much.


Anyway, the head is nicely cleaned and looks like brand new. Now Kody can lap the valves and re-cut the seats tonight.


Since the heads are so nice and clean now, I think I am going to have to do the same thing to the Cylinders or it won't look quite right.

The Paint

I think I have decided to take the bike black, but not just any black... Here is a bike that I found on the lot at J&P Cycles during Bikeweek this year and I thought it was pretty cool.
I am going to use Truck Bedliner just as this guy did. He travels around for the National Guard with the National Guard Chopper to get new recruits and part of a National Guard Branding. I really like the way it looks and it should be pretty tought and not pick up too many scratches.



Here is a closer photo of what it could look like when I am done.

New photos

OK, I shot a ton of photos tonight but it is going to take awhile to download them to the puter and then catalog them. I have specific sections that these will be used for.
But here is how the new headlight is going to look.
I even shot one that shows how it will look when I am done, that's right, two headlights. I have to make a bracket to put the top one up higher though.
If you are wondering about that headlight bracket, Kody had some speed-o mounts from some Harley applications left over that had the perfect size bolt holes to mount to the brakeline splitter mount and it even had the perfect size hole for the headlight bolt. I will find out the model and let you know what it is.


They are kind of thin so I am using 3 of them, they work perfect, no bounce in the light at all. Now that I have decided to do two headlights, I need to make a custom bracket that will hold the top light up higher so that the bottom light doesn't get beat up by the fender.


Also, I need to do some wiring to make both lights work. Then I can add on the Autogem LED lights and the Memphis Shades windshield. These are really going to change the look of the bike with that headlight configuration.

Off for the weekend

I will be out on a Hiking/Camping trip with my Boy Scouts this weekend so I won't be able to do any work on the bike. I'll get some photos first thing next week though.
I have decided to replace the headlight with a chrome Millwaukee Twins headlight from J&P Cycles. This is a 7 inch headlight. That will look good with having that BeeHive tail light on it.
I'll be back at this on Monday so keep checking back.