New project, 1982 Kawasaki 750 Spectre

[circa1968]

I picked this up back in August, literally @ 9PM the night before leaving on a month-long road trip, because why not...

Was looking for something smaller, a project (but not too complicated) and on a reasonable budget as a complement to my Venture for easy daily riding and this sweet girl came along. 

She has only 7700 miles on her and lot's of garage sit time (hadn't run in over 10 years) - which of course meant gunked up carbs, dried out rubber bits and rusty tank.  Thanks to all you awesome folks here and the ton I've learned from you over the last year I, perhaps foolishly, had all the confidence to take this one on.

After returning from my trip, I pulled the plugs and soaked the cylinders in Seafoam deep creep for 48 hours, changed the oil, new battery and lit her up with some starter fluid.  She's alive!

Next step, pulled the carbs.  They weren't in as bad of shape as I expected, but bad enough.  Ordered a K&L rebuild kit, along with new boots on both sides.  The petcock is vacuum operated and all the bits inside were dried out as well, so those have been replaced with new. 

I did the drywall screws in the tank thing and let the rust rain out, then did a degrease, followed by the POR acid treatment, then POR-15 coating. 

Carbs are clean with new float valves, pilot screws and rubber bits.

She runs, she purrs like a kitten!  Actually, the carbs need a little fine tuning on the pilot screws and sync, but other than that, I was able to ride it around the neighborhood this evening.  OMG, what a hoot!  This thing has some punch.

Oh, while I was waiting for all the bits & pieces to arrive, I painted the engine black.  The engine was painted gold from the factory but it was badly faded and splotchy and I just had to knock a little bit of that '80's look off of it.

Overall, the bike is very clean but the paint is not as good as it looks in this photo, it is a bit worn and beat, but still acceptable.  I'm debating whether to keep it looking as it sits now or make it a longer term project to move it towards something more sporty looking.

In the mean time, I will be overhauling the brakes and other various little things to make her truly road ready, but dang, this is fun!

[sldunker]

Nice find

[BlueSky]

You might want to check the valve adjustment.  My ZN700 needed adjustment at 6,000 miles.  A couple valves had 0 clearance.  And the timing chain may need adjustment.  Mine has the automatic adjustment and the springs in it needed replacement.  

This video may be helpful if you decide to adjust the valves.

 

[circa1968]

Thanks for that @BlueSky!  I think I can handle that procedure, these bikes seem pretty easy to work on.  Will have to do some research on where to find shims, if needed though, before I dig into it.

 

[BlueSky]

Yeah, they are much easier to work on than the RSV in most cases.  I think I removed 21 screws to change my headlight bulb and about 28 to replace the air filters on my RSV.  

[Patmac6075]

Excellent! Really love those bikes

[circa1968]

On 10/9/2021 at 7:59 AM, BlueSky said:

You might want to check the valve adjustment.  My ZN700 needed adjustment at 6,000 miles.  A couple valves had 0 clearance.  And the timing chain may need adjustment.  Mine has the automatic adjustment and the springs in it needed replacement.  

This video may be helpful if you decide to adjust the valves.

 

@BlueSkyYou were right!  I'm extremely grateful and appreciate you making this suggestion.  All but two valves were out of spec and those two were right at the lower limit.  My thinnest gauge is .03 and It would not fit under two of them.  I could spin the bucket easily with my fingers, so I think it was not yet at zero though.  I bought the needed shims at my local dealer and the guy who helped me said these bikes were known for needing an adjustment within 6k miles of new and then ~ every 10k after.

I've now successfully completed my first valve clearance adjustment job and one step closer to getting my Youtube Certified patch!  LOL

Thanks again for that recommendation!

[circa1968]

I'm nearing the end of my Kawasaki project.  She's turned in to quite the beauty queen, imho and is a hoot to ride! 

Mechanically, I have adjusted the valves, completely tore down, cleaned & rebuilt carbs, rebuilt front forks & moved the preload spacer to top of the damper rod (took ~1 3/8" travel out of the 6" of travel, lowering the front, giving it a sportier look, while keeping the preload the same), replaced the intake boots and manifolds, rebuilt the vacuum actuated petcock, added a bypass relay to the ignition, changed all fluids and replaced about a thousand o-rings in the process of doing the above.  Pretty much all of the above was first time for me doing those jobs.  Slow & steady, lots of utube videos, factory & haynes manual, etc.  Still need to replace the brake lines and plan to use black braided lines for that.  Have really been enjoying the doing and learning.

Cosmetically, I blacked out the engine, fork lowers and rear shocks (all gold originally, but weathered).  I miraculously came across a 40 year old, in the kawasaki box, brand new gas tank.  Also found NOS tank emblems.  The original side covers were faded badly & a bit beat up, so I painted them black to match the engine, but then came across a set of side covers on ebay, for a reasonable price that were in decent condition, clear coated them & they look great, applied a fresh coat of clear to the front fender also.  The grab bar had a gold strip running through it, so pulled that out and painted it black.  Also repainted the 'kawasaki' emblem on the mufflers, first black, then hand painted the lettering.  Also repainted the gold kawasaki letter on the back of the seat.  I want to eventually paint the wheels black too, but can live with them as they are for now.

And there she sits with a mere 7,900 miles with all her pretty new lipstick and makeup!

[Pasta Burner]

Looks great!

[BlueSky]

Awesome!  They are great to ride on short trips!  

[dueyk1111]

i like it!!!!!! good job n a great find!!!!