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Z1300 Model Comparison | ||
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This page will show the differences in our models from year to year. Basically the Z1300 and KZ1300 are the same from 1979 to 1983. As I understand, the KZ models were only sold in the USA, and the Z1300 models were sold in every country but the USA. However, I know that quite a few KZ1300's have been imported into other countries as used bikes or parts bikes. Basically the only real differences between the two are slight differences in the electrical systems, a few trim pieces, the style of throttle, switches, and lighting; and the size of the gas tanks. I don't know how many 1983 Z1300's or KZ1300's may of been made, but a few members have claimed they had an 83' model Z or KZ, and there's a supplement for the 83' model in the back of newer service manuals. I have what I'm told are 83' models shown below, and best I can tell they look identical to the 82'. I'm sure there were many less 83's made than any other model year.
Keep in mind, in 1982 the engine cases were cast differently on the right side to accommodate a new style ignition system that fits on the right end of the crankshaft. The 82' engine cases are not backwards compatible with older models. However, 82' / 83' KZ engine cases should be identical to all the ZN1300 Voyager cases, though the pickups themselves are not interchangeable due to a slight change in the igniter on the ZN1300's. One set has a 4 prong plug on the pickups, and the other has a 6 prong plug.
The 83' ZN1300 Voyager was technically an 83' and 1/2 model as it came out mid year, and they quit making the KZ at that time. All the USA got were ZN1300's starting with 83' and 1/2 models, and everybody else got a ZG1300 model. Almost nothing is interchangeable between the ZN models, and any of the other KZ models except for some engine parts. The ZG model started in 84' best I can tell. It's basically the same as an 82' Z1300 or KZ1300, but it has the fuel injection system similar to what was used on the Voyager 1300. There are many similarities between the ZG1300 and ZN1300, but in reality, these are entirely different bikes in almost all respects. The ZG's look the same to me from 84' models all the way to 89'. There are Voyager 1300's all over the world, but I assume most if not all of them were sold in the USA, and then imported one at a time from the USA to other countries.
Technically, I hear the ZN1300's were only manufactured through about midway into the 86' model year. As I hear it, there were many leftover unsold units, and that's why they were titled up through 89', even though they officially stopped making them in 86'. In 86' Kawasaki replaced the 6 cylinder ZN1300 Voyager with a new 4 cylinder 1200cc ZG1200 Voyager that looked very similar to the 1300 in some respects. However, no parts are interchangeable between the 2 bikes that I'm aware of. The 1200 continued with minor changes all the way to 2003' when it was discontinued. Sometime in 2004 or 2005, I'm not sure of the exact date, Kawasaki announced it was working on a new 6 cylinder Voyager, but exact details of the design were not given. Late in 2005 they officially announced that the project to build a new 6 cylinder Voyager was put on hold.
I'm not sure what kind of sales strategy that was because I know for a fact that though a lot of people liked the later Voyagers and praised them. I think many Voyager riders decided right then and there to switch over to other full dress machines like the Goldwing for example. I think at the very least they could of just continued with the Voyager they had. Many riders were content with it as is. Why Kawasaki would just walk away from their touring riders so abruptly like that, is still a mystery to many of us. I see they started making a new V-Twin Voyager touring bike, but at this late date, I'm thinking a lot of committed Kawasaki fans have already switched for good, and the others aren't interested in a V-Twin.
Bikes By Year
1979 KZ1300 A1 or 1980 KZ1300 A2. There were very minor differences between the
Z and KZ between these 2 years. Two things
that are different is the clutch and stator covers. The 79' clutch cover
has a very small oil sight glass that's only about the size of a dime.
This made it very difficult to see the oil level. So in 1980 they increased the
size of the sight glass to about the size of a quarter.
They also went to a slightly larger alternator in 1980, and although the covers appear to be basically the same, the 80' cover is actually a little wider to accommodate a larger stator and rotor. It also has an oil feed hole used to cool the stator some by feeding oil to it. A good upgrade for the 79' engine is to install the 80' rotor, stator, engine cover, and voltage regulator to the 1980 model. The voltage regulator was larger on the 80' so you should go with the larger regulator as well if you make this swap.
They switched to and 85mph speedometer in 1980 and from 80' on. Also there was a 79'/80' short wiring harness which came on all bikes without a front fairing, and a long wiring harness with about 8" I think extra on the front for bikes that came with a front fairing. 79'/80' ignitions are identical.
For more pictures of the different year bikes, look on my USA member pages or the International pages you see listed at my KZ1300 USA Club entry page.
79' or 80' Z1300 or KZ1300 'GT' model (Gran
Touring) with lowers. As I hear, the front fairings were made by Califia
for Kawasaki in this specific design and the rear saddlebags were made by Vetter though they had Kawasaki emblems on
them. A Vetter tail trunk was optional.
11979 owned by Christopher Caputo with some type
of standard model Califia
front fairing and lowers. You don't see many with this type fairing.
I
have only seen a few.
1980 KZ1300 'B2' Factory Touring model. As far as I know this model was only sold in the
USA, and was a one year only Kawasaki factory touring bike. Saddlebags and
trunk were
not detachable from the bike (although they could be unbolted of course) and they were not big enough to put a helmet inside.
General good appearance of the bike has made it very popular among older big
touring bikes of that era. I've got a lot of members with this bike and
many have been exported to other countries as well.
Here's a list of items mentioned by Gary G. that are different between the B2 and other models:
1)
Rear section of frame is different as shown, (no mounts for tailpiece or rear turn signals)
2) Gas tank is larger (uses the European spec 'largest 1300' style gas tank,
though all Z or KZ style tanks are
physically interchangeable between years)
3) Stock B2 handlebars are longer, pull farther back (unique to the B2)
4) Front brake master cylinder is unique to the B2 (angled more because of the
handlebar shape)
5) Throttle cables are about 1" longer (unique to the B2 to accommodate the
taller handlebars)
6) Front fender is shaped different (unique to the B2)
7) Does not have headlight ears to mount a headlight (these are usually hard and
or fairly expensive to find if you want to convert it back to a 'naked' bike)
8) Seat is different as it's a two piece seat instead of a one piece (rear seat
mounting brackets interfere with a regular one piece KZ1300 seat if you try to
install one. Brackets must be cut off
for seat to close all the way)
9) Badges on side covers say 'Touring' (unique to the B2)
10) Does not have stalk type turn signals or a place to mount them in the rear
(signals are in the fairing on the front and saddlebags in the rear.
Signals mount to fork ears in the front which you also won't have on a B2)
11) Oil Sump was increased in size starting with the B2 models.
(all B2 and 81' or newer model KZ1300's should have a deep sump pan. ZN
pans are deep sump, but they are slightly different)
12) Fairing, Saddlebags and Trunk are unique to the B2 model. (windshield does not interchange with the GT or any other
model)
13)
Front brake line from the master cylinder to the splitter block is approximately
1" longer (unique to the B2 to accommodate the
taller handlebars)
In reference to the unique B2 master cylinder: Best thing is to buy a used front master cylinder off a B2 that's being parted out. Or better yet, why not rebuild the parts you have, and just get new brake lines? All of these master cylinder and caliper rebuild kits are available on ebay on a regular basis. There are a few resources for brake lines on my links page, but HEL is probably the most popular. You can also go to any local hydraulics shop and have new brake lines made locally.
Personally I didn't like the B2 bars, and changed them out with standard KZ1300 bars.
Then you can use a standard KZ1300 - but non-B2 master cylinder, and there's new aftermarket
master cylinders available as well, but no new B2 style as it's unique to that bike.
Only problem with the standard bars, is that when you turn the bars full left or full right, they'll come up and touch the fairing.
So some might not like that, but there are bars off other bikes that might be better than using stock KZ1300
bars if you really want to change them out.
If you go to our 2002 Rally page -
scroll down to picture # 63 and 64, you'll see a set of adjustable bars off another bike mounted on a B2.
So you could go to a salvage yard, and test fit some other bars if you want to get away from using the special B2 master cylinder.
The issue is that when you try to fit a standard KZ1300 master cylinder on the B2 bars with their different angle, the front brake lever will stick out at the wrong angle, and make it difficult to use at best.
So anyone with a B2 that is still using the stock B2 handlebars, with the stock B2 master cylinder, will continue to have this problem.
There will be no 'aftermarket' B2 master cylinder made. However, there is no doubt a master cylinder off another bike, that has similar type handlebars, may be adaptable to our bike, and used with success.
Here again, a trip to a salvage yard may turn up a master cylinder that fits a B2 just right.
I'm sure there's something out there that can be adapted. When someone finds out what it is, if they'll let me know I will post that info.
1981 KZ1300 A3 previously owned by David Ewing with BSM
6 into 1 exhaust system and DFI
conversion kit installed.
81' models have a one year only ignition (and a unique one year only wiring harness) with electronic advance that is simply NOT available and they fail fairly regularly. The mechanical ignition advance unit from the previous years is removed and plugged off on the right side. Back-fitting ignition from a previous year probably is do-able, but you'll have to disassemble the motor to do it, and you'll need parts from a salvage 79'/80' motor to accomplish the swap. You can't retrofit an igniter from an 82' or newer. Do a comparison and it will be obvious why you can't. Crankshaft has been enlarged. Retrofitting the crankshaft to older models is doubtful, but I've never actually tried. All KZ1300's have the deep sump oil pans from 81' on up (and all 80' B2 models should of got the deep pan), and I assume the same applies to the Z1300 European models. 81'/82'/83' models were all fitted with a smaller 'peanut' gas tank than any other 1300, most have chrome engine covers, most 81's were painted black.
1982 KZ1300 A4 owned by David Sullivan with Vetter front fairing and lowers.
Some people refer to full fairing versions as 'B' models, so technically being
an 1982 A4 model, this bike would be
an 82' B4 model for example. But no information I've ever seen from Kawasaki itself substantiates anything but a B2 model being made as shown
above and calling bikes a B1 or a B3 because your bike came with a fairing and
saddlebags is not a legitimate model designation as far as I know.
There is one difference in all these bikes that had fairings though, and the change had to either come from the factory or be changed at the dealership, I don't know which. The wiring harness is extended about 8" or so in the front to get the headlight and turn signal wiring up inside the fairing. Otherwise, the wiring would of come up too short. Whether this was done at the factory or at the dealer I don't know, but if you try to take the fairing off and convert it back to look like a non-fairing bike ,you have all this extra wire sticking out on the front of your bike and nowhere to put it!
This bike has the Califia rear saddlebags which many prefer over the triangular shaped Vetter style bags. I've seen 79' through 83' models with the GT package or the Vetter package and Califia had their own style front fairing as shown above. A Califia tail trunk was optional. People had a habit of swapping fairings around to get the style they wanted, but I've never seen the B2 rear bags on anything but a B2 because they won't just bolt on any of the 'A' models. There's another tech article showing the differences in the A2 versus B2 frames that show it would require some modification to make the B2 bags fit. On the other hand, putting the B2 front fairing on another Z or KZ should not be a problem.
1983 KZ1300 with Vetter package
1983 Z1300 owned by member Ovaskainen Risto in
Finland
11983 Z1300 in the UK.
There's one big difference I can see on these Z1300's and the later fuel injected ZG1300's that is different from the KZ1300, and that is the lack of a left side alternator. You can clearly see from the right side that it's an 82' and up style engine, but there's no alternator on the left on the Z's or ZG's, and I've never seen an 82' or newer KZ that didn't have a left side alternator. This dual alternator setup was carried over to the ZN1300 Voyagers as well. Continuing on with 82' KZ1300's, they came with an upgraded dual alternator system, the igniter runs off the crankshaft on the right side, it holds up better than any other igniter up to this point, and there's few other differences worth mentioning.
82'/83' are identical in all respects as far as I know. 82'/83' models share the igniter, but it only fits 82'/83' KZ1300 models.
The igniter and pickups over on the right side crankshaft, look like they may interchange with the ZN1300, but I can assure you neither one does.
However, it may and should be possible to take the ZN1300 ignition, pickups,
and map sensor, and fit them to the 82'/83' KZ1300. However, the ZN1300 valve timing is slightly different from a KZ1300, and doing this may
possibly degrade performance.
Refer to your service manuals. Too much detail to go into here.
83' KZ1300's are very rare because in mid-year 1983 they came out with the fuel injected ZN1300 full dress
Voyager touring version for the USA market.
Europe got the ZG1300 which was basically just like the Z1300 or KZ1300 of previous years, except the ZG used the ZN1300 fuel injection system and ZN
style motor which was updated with some changes.
Some obvious, some not so obvious.
Starting in mid-year 83', the USA market only had a ZN1300 to purchase, and the
naked KZ1300 style bike was gone.
1986 ZN1300 Voyager. This bike only came fully dressed and with few
options. 84' to 86' models were the same it appears with only very minor
changes and a couple of different color schemes. Best I can tell they all came with an AM/FM radio and Cassette
player, but a CB radio and Intercom was optional. Bike also had an
electronic trip computer, digital dash, fuel injection and onboard air
compressor to pump up the front and rear suspension. Nothing in the frame,
suspension or electrical system interchanges with the older Z or KZ models, and
very little even interchanges with the ZG models. On the plus side though, the seat
height was lowered on the Voyager about 4 inches over the other 1300 models, and
this makes it a lot easier to get your leg over the bike. This gives it the lowest seat height of any
1300, but it's also the heaviest of all the 1300's at around 950 lbs.
83'/84'/85'/86' ZN1300's are almost identical, but this is an entirely different bike from the KZ style that it replaces. In fact, except for a few engine parts, even the engine has changed in appearance. Take note that the intake and exhaust valves are different between the KZ and ZN. The ZN stem diameter is slightly larger. Seat height has been lowered by about 4 inches which makes it much easier to ride compared to the older KZ's, even though the Voyager weighs about 175 lbs more.
1988 ZN1300 Voyager. Starting in 87'
there were some minor changes made that carried through to 88' and 89'. I
can't be absolutely sure if there were any of these ZN's actually titled as an
89' model, but I've had
a couple of people tell me that had an 89' so maybe there were at least a few
89's. A real 'automotive style' cruise
control was added, the seat was upgraded, the bike got rear speakers mounted on a
new luggage rack, and the color was changed from Black with Burgundy inset, to
Burgundy with Silver inset which actually started back in 86' I believe.
87'/88'/89' ZN1300's are also identical to the best of my knowledge, but starting in 87' I think, they all have a car type cruise control system installed from the factory. You still have the 'cruise' button like the older ZN's, but pushing that leans out the fuel injection system slight only in 5th gear for better mileage. The car type cruise control system allows you to set and release the throttle and maintain speed up or down hills just like a car.
1989 ZG1300, last year made for any model 1300, and for sure, an extremely nice example of an
stock original owned by Simon Walker in the UK.
KZ1300 Gas Tanks
Since there has been many questions over the years about the interchangeability of gas tanks between the years, I want to address those questions here. There were only 3 gas tanks offered on various years of all models of the Z1300's or KZ1300's. As I understand it, all European 1300's got the largest gas tank Kawasaki used on these bikes, but this large tank was only used on one USA model, the 1980 B2 Touring model.
Basically, we got 3 different size gas tanks depending on the year and model bike. However, since the tanks are interchangeable between years, you could swap an 82' tank on to a 79' model bike for instance and many new owners buying one of these bikes for the first time wouldn't always know that their gas tank came off a different year bike.
The 2nd issue with the different tanks is that they also had different emblems on them. As I show below, the 80' B2 emblem bases are shaped just slightly different than the 79'/80' A model bases and do not interchange. Since these 2 gas tanks and bases otherwise appear to look identical at first glance, it can cause all types of confusion, especially if you buy something off ebay for example and the seller doesn't know exactly what he has either.
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These are probably the best pictures I have of an original 79' gas tank.
This 1979 'A' model bike only had 7000 original miles on it! The 80' A
model uses the same tank, which is the 'midsize' tank between the 3 that came on
these bikes from 1979 - 1983. I can't speak for all Z1300 or ZG1300
models, because neither the Z1300 or the ZG1300 ever came to the
USA.
All I have is pictures to look at, but unless the tank has been replaced with a different tank at some point, it appears that ALL years Z1300's and ZG1300's came with what we refer to as our B2 style tank shown below. Or to say it another way, our 1980 B2 Touring model got the European tank put on it, but only this one USA model 1300 got that particular 'big' tank.
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1980 KZ1300 B2 with largest 'European' style tank.
At first glance, this tank looks like a 79' or 80' A model gas tank until you
get an opportunity to sit a B2 tank side by side with an A model tank. The
B2 tank bulges out more on the sides and a little more on the top also.
That's why the tank emblem bases have a different curvature to them as you can
see in the following images. Here's some pictures of a B2 model where the
owner stripped the fairing off and you can see the tank better -
As far as I recall, these are the best 2 pictures of a B2 tank I have where you
can see it without the fairing. This owner removed his fairing and bags
and converted back to the 'naked' bike look. However, if you look a little
closer, you'll notice the unique front fender with the flared bottom edge which
only came on B2 models.
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1981 KZ1300 with smallest style tank.
NOS 1981 Tank (exact same tank as used on 1982 and 1983 KZ1300's). Some
refer to it as the 'peanut' style tank. Refer to the service manuals if
you want exact specs on the liters versus gallons size comparisons.
*********************************************************************
1979 or 1980 A model emblem bases shown in chrome, versus the 80' B2 emblem
bases shown in black. They look the same until you compare them side by
side as I have here. The B2 model has a sharper bend because the tank
bulges out more at the sides.
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Beware and note that although many ebay sellers
may state that their new gas cap will fit a kz1300, they usually do not. These caps
that most sellers have don't have the vent hole on them, and will not bolt on our tank, even though they otherwise look identical to our cap in size and shape.
A KZ1300 cap is unique to a KZ1300. I don't have any used ones myself, as people ask for these all the time, but there are many KZ1300's being parted out on ebay every week.
I would simply contact someone parting a KZ1300 on ebay and try to buy a good
used gas cap from them.
They will probably only want to sell it with their gas tank, and not separately.
In that case, buy their gas tank, and if you don't want the tank, ask that they pull the cap off, and send you just that part in a padded envelope.
It would be preferred that you ask this BEFORE you bid on their tank, or at least, that's what I would do.
Because there's a big difference in cost between shipping a tank in a big box, and shipping just the
gas cap in a padded envelope. You would like an email back from the seller that they're agreeable to that should you end up winning their auction.
You might end up paying $50 to $100 for a gas cap, but where else are you going to get it from?
You rarely see just KZ1300 gas caps for sale on ebay, and our cap is unique as I've stated.
If a new KZ1300 gas cap came up for sale on ebay, I would expect 20 KZ1300
owners to bid on it and the price to go over $200. After all, you would have to outbid me for starters.
*********************************************************************
These are the new style tank badges they used starting in 1981. The tank
bases were dropped and the badge screws right to the side of the tank. The
small badge is the KZ style badge and the larger one fits the ZN1300 Voyager.
*********************************************************************
These are the best pictures I could find of a ZN1300 Voyager tank off a bike to
use just for comparison to the older KZ1300 tanks. You can see there's
major differences between the Voyager tank and the older KZ tanks. Not
only is it shaped entirely different, it has a hole in the top with a tube
coming out the bottom to feed the trip computer wires through. The trip
computer is the black 'pod' mounted on top you see in the one picture. It
also has a fuel return bung on it for the fuel injection.
Although you could physically slip it on a KZ1300 bike, the hold down bracket in the back won't mate up to allow you to bolt it on, and the physical shape of the tank would not match at all with the look of the older bikes. As far as I can tell, All Voyager 1300 tanks are the same ALL years 1983 - 1989.
KZ1300 versus Z1300 Throttles
KZ throttle cables come off the bottom of the switch assembly, and Z1300 cables come off the top.
To the best of my knowledge, model designations are as follows:
NOTE: On these newer browsers I've noticed that they don't always display my large images in full size when you open an image from the thumbnails. Once you click the thumbnail and open the larger image, if you 'mouse over' the image you should see a " + " symbol or some other indicator like a box with arrows usually on the bottom right edge of the image. If you click on the indicator, then the image will expand to it's full size which displays full screen on computers that use a 800 x 600 resolution setting for the monitor. If you click the indicator again it will go back to the smaller image. Some people use a resolution setting of 1024 x 768 or higher on their monitors and for those users the images will appear smaller than full screen in size. You can change your monitor settings easily enough if you desire. Also, the indicator I've noticed is slow to appear even after the image appears to of completely loaded. The indicator in Netscape seems to be a lot faster to display than the one in Internet Explorer.
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