1978 KZ1000, will not shift up.

[ZackE]

Well, I finally did it. I bought a big bike.

From fixing vintage mopeds (nuts to vespa, mine's got pedals), to my rescued honda CB350.. Now it's time to fix something I can put some milage on.

1978 KZ1000. 13000 miles, I'm the third owner by my best knowledge.

Bike has some electrical issues, namely that it doesn't produce enough charge to spark on its own, so it drains the battery until that no longer has enough charge to spark as well. Not a huge issue for me, I can work with electrical issues.

What's bugging me is that I haven't been able to get it to shift up.

It's difficult to see the oil level through that damn little window. There's no reason for it to be low, but I added a quart for the purpose of trying to get it to shift, I'll drain/refill this afternoon with the right ammount.

Worth noting that all of my poking and prodding has been done with the bike not running. I've repeated everything while it's rolling, while on the center stand moving the wheel, and while on the centerstand and kicking it over.

It will shift down into first, 90% of the time this happens with no hesitation, though every so often it doesn't seem to want to line up. If I rock the wheel, it will go into place this other 10% of the time, so unless I should be I'm not worried.

It will not shift up. When lifting the shifter, it stops moving after going into neut. The wheel will spin freely, and no ammount of poking will make it go.

I've tapped it gently with the handle of a wrench, just to see if a bit of impact would put it in, but no go.

Guy says it always shifted for him (would he say anything but?). It hasn't been run since last summer, and as this owner never regged it in the year they had it, I doubt they put much milage on it since the owner before rode it to their garage.

Question time:

Why would I be unable to shift it?

Is there a way I can get into the transmission to try to move it by hand?

I was told it might be the shifting fork, how horrible is it to replace this?

Are there any more tests you would recomend before I move on to making a hypothesis?

And lastly, does anyone have somewhere they can point me for a owners manuel for this, as my searches thusfar haven't returned any?

I'm fairly handy with everything I've run into on bikes so far, but as I have yet to work on a transmission, this one will take a bit of pre-education. Thanks for reading all the way through this, and I really apreciate any advice you guys could give.

~Zack

[Inquisitive]

ZackE, I am quite sure (I am certain) your bike has a "wet multi disc clutch". When such a clutch "sits" even for a few hours, the oil between the multiple clutch discs drains away, causing the clutch discs to stick together. This is normal. It usually takes the torque of the engine to "break apart" the clutch discs and get some oil pumping up onto them so they become well lubricate, and then no problem. A bike simply shifts best once "running". Start your bike (in neutral), pull in the clutch, down shift into 1st gear, and expect a "clunk". Such can be common. If you try starting your bike in gear, after it has sat for a while, and the oil drained away. Your bike will likely learch forward when you try to start it, again such is common. Such is why it is best to start a bike in neutral if a bike has been "sitting". Sound like you may have a stator problem, or maybe only a loose wire? Or wide variety of other possibilities. Electrical "problems" can be diverse.

[Inquisitive]

ZackE, if nothing else, Maw Kaw will print / send / sell you a Shop Manual for most any Kaw ever made. The Kaw Web Site has this information on it somewhere, as I have found it in the passed, however do not recall exactly at this time. Start up the bike and test ride it, a few perceived problems may just go away...

[StarGate]

I'd almost bet a little money your bike is fine as far as the shifting goes. Kawasaki employs a "positive neutral finder". This feature is designed to stop the shifter in neutral when shifting from first when the bike is stationary. Once you get it running it will probably shift into second and all other gears just fine when it's rolling.

[Inquisitive]

StarGate, my memory does not recall far enough back if the "positive neutral finder" was on that vintage of bike. I thought such was a later addition? Though I do not recall... However I agree with you. I suspect the bike will shift fine once running (with good oil of course).

[ZackE]

You were all right. I jumped it with my CB, and once it was going it shifted through the gears just fine.

Should get to ride it around the lot a bit once I get off the clock.

As far as the electrics, it would idle just fine, but if you held on the brakes it would slowly die.

Also, it didn't have power to start on its own, had to be jumped, but would keep running once other battery was removed.

My bet's on the stator, but I"m going to rewire the headlight and clean everything up a bit. It looks like he left it a mess in there.

Thank you all for your help,
~Zack

[Inquisitive]

ZackE, I do not claim to know everything by no means, however the idling / brakes on / dieing causes me to think about other issues. Possibly voltage regulator, although are you sure the two are related? Possibly from sitting around for a while your carbs are a bit out of adjustment / need service? There are some pretty simple (in the field tests) for a stator. Do your lights get brighter when you rev your engine, if otherwise idling? Ultimately all you can do is correct issues as you determine them. Tough to fix an issue you cannot identify - thats usually the tough part.

[ZackE]

The headlight is currently out of the bike. I got called out on a job, so I didn't get as far with it today as I'd hoped.

I was able to make the RPMs die off by: 1.) Pulling the brake lever. 2.) Turning the headlight on (though not wired on in the bucket, possibly grounded out by previous owner). 3.) Engaging the horn. 4.) Activating the hazards (turn signals aren't comming on, but I've seen them flash every so often, I'm asuming this is a result of the charge issue until I can solve that problem.)

It seems the stator goes out on these fairly commonly, and I found a test I can do for it with my multimeter. I'll need to nab a new impact wrench, but I should be able to test it tomorow afternoon.

If the stator is functioning, I'll move on to test the voltage regulator, though my gut tells me the problem isn't there.

My second best guess is that one of the many loose wires meant to be in the headlight bucket is grounding out, maybe taking away enough power to keep the battery from fully recharging. I counted at least six unconnected wires when I poped off the bezel, and there could be a good deal more that have been tugged out. Always a pain when you get taken away from a project while only a few steps into it..

~Zack

[StarGate]

With the possible exception of the starter, all the circuits in the bike should run through one fuse or another. If you had wires grounding out I'd expect to see blown fuses and possibly some smoking wire insulation. Once a fuse blows that circuit doesn't have power to repeat the problem. Of course thats going on the assumption that you don't have foil or some other metal shorting across one of your fuse holders.

[Inquisitive]

ZackE, StarGate is right on target in my experience. Also your starter circuit should also be fused, very possibly right at the starter relay itself. I highly recommend you get yourself an electrical schematic for your bike, then you can more easily trace each circuit and make sure they are per factory spec. Funny thing about factory specs. When "things" are new, and per factory spec. they sure seem to work well... Hard to argue that point! Not that spec / stock cannot be improved, however spec / stock is not a bad place to start. I am presuming your battery is all but dead, possibly all dead. Such would account for your turn signal relay not energizing sufficiently to flash your turn signals. Test your stator and see what you get. Test between your battery lead and battery to see what you battery is getting from the stator, you may have significant resistance causing a problem. There are many tests you can do with volt / ohm meter. Just remember to not test voltage while on the ohm setting! Such can be hazardous to the ohm meter circuit, though such is usually fuse protected, even on many of the "cheapie" meters.

[ltdrider]

Kaw's positive neutral finder has caused more trouble with new riders. It's really a terrific feature, but the knowledge has been lost over time. The bike must be MOVING in first gear before you can kick up into second. If it's still, or, barely rolling, it will always go into neutral, and no further. It's a nice feature when you want to put it in neutral when you're stopped.

[ltdrider]

ZackE:
Check your charging system.
Put a volt meter on your battery terminals, and check the voltage with the motor OFF. You should get a little over 12 V.
Then run the bike, and check the voltage at about 3000 rpm. YOu shoul get between 14 and 15 volts.
If your voltage is low, you may have a bad voltage regulator. A little silver box mounted under the battery box. but you're going to need a manual to help you troubleshoot it.

[LoudFastUgly]

Ltdrider is close, but there's something else to consider.

If your battery has very low internal resistance, it will act like a load instead of a battery! Try swapping batteries with your CB (that's junk anyway ;P), and see if your problem goes away, definately monitor voltage as per ltdrider.

Rob.