I agree with Jim and Lucien. Once the cams are removed, you can drop the cam chain down in the cavity and remove the head. The tensioner is held in by the head  and the guides are removable once the head is off.
Good of you to question something before breaking something. This job is straight forward and the manual covers it nicely.

It's been a second since I've had my head off, but I remember it being fairly straightforward.  Both guides are just sorta clipped on to indents milled/cast (forget which) into the sides of the head.  In fact, I think the rear guide is the only one in the head, while the front is mostly down in the bores.  They way it's put together, you can't get either of those out until the head comes off, because the indents in the head are capped off by the engine case part of the bores.  In all honesty, if you're not replacing them, you can just leave them alone- the front one will stay put, and the rear one will stay with the head.

Similar story with the cam chain wheel- the wheel doubles as the top pivot of the arm that the cam chain routes though, and the cam chain tensioner pushes against- deeper in you should see a guide roller that runs along the outside of the chain.  The pivot pin sits in a couple indents on the bores, and it held captive by the head. 

So long as you don't have anything else connecting the two, you're good to pull the head- once you do how everything goes together will make sense.

(I'll give Kawasaki this- there's a lot to this motor, but everything is put together in a way that oddly straightforward.  It's pretty slick.)

Whilst I haven't removed the cylinder head from one of these engines, glancing through the service manual it would seem that the head has to be removed first in order to release both  the captive ends of the cam chain guides, and the plastic cam chain sprocket in the tensioner arm.. 

I'm puzzled by the fact that the J78 bearing is sized in IMPERIAL dimensions. Why is that?

With regard to the availability of the original type cam chain tensioner roller, I thought I would ask ZED Parts ( in England)  what they use when reconditioning engines. 
I also asked about the KZ900 / 1000 roller dimensions in the hope that it could serve as a substitute for the obsolete 1300 original.
Here I quote the response from the delightful Debbie:  

"Back in 2009 when these became obsolete, we had 50 made by a local company. Even back then it was £2.5k to have just 50 made because of tooling costs, the quality of the rubber that had to conform to specific standards for our insurance, and the 11mm bearing which is not standard size.
Despite trying our hardest to copy the original exactly and making it out of top quality material so it would not fail, customers complained about the price saying we were ripping them off when we were only barely covering our costs. When we ran out last year ( yes it took over 10 years to sell all 50 and make our money back), we enquired about having more made and the price had doubled. There is no way customers would pay what we would have had to charge so we declined.
We do not have any more now and this is one of the reasons we have stopped doing rebuilds. If we do find a second hand good one, we will let you know. They do come up in engine dismantles that we do sometimes.
I am sorry we cannot provide a more favourable reply. But this is what happens when you don't go to China for cheap inferior products and try to have them made locally using quality materials. We refuse to have products made that may fail and wreck these beautiful machines and our reputation.

We have had quite a few things made and try our best to keep things in supply. 
Although you may see £100 as reasonable, many said that the £80 we charged previously was far too much.
We have recently invested £3.5k in having gaskets made. Many of the originals are no longer available and in recent months, the pattern Athena ones started to become obsolete. We had original templates so had batches of 500 of most of them made at a factory in the Black Country near us in the heart of industry. The tooling cost for each item averaged £50-£60 but we know the quality and cut is good. 
The cost we are selling each at is a fraction of the original and even so we have had people moaning that the thickness is incorrect. We have actually measured the thickness and it is identical to the original. I think there are some, especially on forums, that just like to complain.

As I write, Oz is measuring a Z900 roller.......


He says the internal diameter of a Z900 roller fits a 13mm pin
The Z1300 one is an 11mm pin
The outer diameter of the Z900 roller is 50mm and the Z1300 is 36mm.
The width of the rubber on the Z900 roller is 11mm. The Z1300 roller width is 14mm
He is using an old Z1300 roller that is a template and a bit worn, so unfortunately it is not one we could sell you.

The Z900 roller is for a roller chain and the Z1300 is for a Hyvo chain.
We learnt a lot when visiting various factories to get quotes for the white nylon gear that is also obsolete! These quotes were also far too high for us to consider having them manufactured. And again we won't go to China."     End.


So I guess that using a KZ900 / 1000 roller, would not be wise due to it being narrower than the 1300 part.   I assume that the KZ900 / 1000 guide roller will also be 11mm, so again, that would not be ideal for use as a tensioner roller.

MCG / Z1300de  in Germany confirm that they do still have the original Kawasaki tensioner roller available. 

Finally, I will mention that I intend buying as many of my 1300 parts requirements from ZED Parts as possible, as they impressed me greatly with the speed and comprehensive nature of their response to my enquiry.  As a point of interest, two other internet sellers I tried have yet to respond after three days !  People like Debbie and OZ at ZED Parts deserve our support.



 

Stupidly, I didn't realise that - unlike the 1300 - the KZ900 / 1000 has a GUIDE WHEEL ( which is what Kawboy illustrated a few posts back)  , with plain bushing, which I was confusing with the TENSIONER wheel ( in the tensioner assembly)  So I wonder if the wheel in the tensioner assembly does have a factory fitted needle roller?   But could that guide wheel be bored out to take a needle roller, and then fitted to the tensioner assembly arm, as Kawboy suggested ? I might order one and try it, assuming I can find out the dimensions - which seems difficult.    

   www.cmsnl.com/products/roller-cam-chain-...IMN9w1IaAnZQEALw_wcB

Could this roller be used, with adaptation?  It already has a needle roller bearing, so assuming it is a J78 , the roller would just need the profile flattening off. Not sure about the width though.

www.cybike.co.uk/Shop/Products/all-produ...places-oem-12048-001

Jim,
That tensioning arm you've shown uses the roller mentioned in a previous post and as I remember it, the bore for the pin is 13mm and is a plain bearing. The J78 bearing needs a 11mm pin

This is an interesting topic.
Scotch, please allay my fears on a couple of points:    
1.  Regarding the use of epoxy adhesive to bond the rubber to the plastic sprocket centre.   I've never had lasting results when using epoxy on rubber or plastic. I was just contemplating the consequences of failure. Presumably, you have confidence. 
2.  Is that new rubber of sufficient hardness, heat and oil resistance ?

Could this roller be used, with adaptation?  It already has a needle roller bearing, so assuming it is a J78 , the roller would just need the profile flattening off. Not sure about the width though.

www.cybike.co.uk/Shop/Products/all-produ...places-oem-12048-001

Lastly, if    Z1300de in Germany have a good stock of the original though expensive part, if it lasts forty years without failure then perhaps it isn't so expensive. However, I appreciate you like to apply your own ingenuity to fixing things!

Just to carry on the discussion for the benefit of the membership-
This is a new tensioning sprocket from Kawasaki purchased 4 years ago

It's a nylon sprocket and it would have a J78 bearing press fitted in to it directly, so I see no reason why a Nylon or Delrin tensioning roller couldn't be made up in a similar manner provided the correct interference was maintained. My only concern would be lateral tracking due to a loose chain if the chain tensioner was a manual tensioner and not spring loaded. So bearing that in mind, I would probably machine a couple of vee shoulders on the outboard edges just to ensure that tracking was accounted for.

This is the KZ1000 tensioning roller I believe.

   

It's a nitrile roller vulcanized on to a steel? bushing. As I remember it, the roller is 46mm in diameter and the bushing is 13mm ID. so if the bushing could be machined out to the od. of the J78 bearing less .002" and a J78 bearing pressed in, then machine down the od. of the nitrile to 35mm, we'd be in the money. I can envision clamping the roller down to a drill press table and drilling/reaming out the bore. It would be delicate but doable. and machining down the roller diameter while locating around the bearing. All doable but definitely time consuming.
2 viable options as I see it.

I remember "someone" bought one from the German shop, but I also saw rollers for the KZ on www/liska.com 
Liska cam chain tensioner roller  but it's not showing a needle bearing. Liska says it's compatable with the KZ1300, KZ650 and the KZ1000 but if I remember right the KZ650 and the KZ1000 have roller chains so the idler would have a raised lip down the center of the roller. Might be worth an email to Liska. $22.50
www.z1300.de has a listing for the tensioner wheel but at 92.50 Euros before shipping - Yikes !!

Holy Crappers Scotch. you turned an "outtie" gear to an "innie" gear.
 
the top gear in pic is a brand new Kawasaki tensioner gear
The bottom gear is a tensioner gear that came out of my KZ1300 at 42K  Km.

First time posting on here, now that I can being that I finally own a big 6! Ive been upsessed with crazy engineering from back in the day, remember the first time i saw a cbx in person, just in a parking lot at the store, wow i fell in love with giant wide 6 cylinders. Few months back I was ready to move on from my harley road glide with an 88, really loved the bike, but it was just a pig, not much power and on the freeway doing 80 it sounded like it was going to blow revving so high. My dream has always been to have a turbo bagger to go along with my twin turbo show car that im going to start tuning next weekend!!!! (this has been a non running project for 5 years) So naturally already looking for my next build. The hard part was deciding what I wanted to build this turbo bagger on, as I didn't really want to pay the premium for another harley, and turbo v twin doesnt sing to me, then somewhere I made the connection of using a voyager with the base, and the more i thought about it and looked into, I love the idea of an inline 6 turbo bagger, and it already has fuel injection! more critcally throttle bodies that take fuel injectors, which will make building a turbo so much easier. Once I was sold on the idea began the long hunt to find one, and that was hard, there are none out here in utah or really on the west coast. Well one finally popped up within driving distance and it was a screaming deal on top of it! Was a little less then 500 miles from me, so almost a 1000 mile round trip, $750 for one that was in somewhat decent shape, the catch was he had a gl1100 also for $750 and he would only sell them as a pair, weird, but I wasnt going to miss this chance.

Finally made it home, threw a new battery in with some new gas and fuel injector cleaner and she fired right up, changed the oil, sett the tires and its been a blast to ride so far. The front fairing was extremely loose and I found the mounting bolts barely on, actually not sure how they didnt rattle off, got it tightened up, took off the lower side panels as one did have a good scuff on it. Windshield was broken from him storing a DINING ROOM TABLE SET on top of the bike in his garage! like when i got there I spent a good hour just cleaning crap out of his garage to even get to the bike. So I had to trim the windshield way down to clear the broken pieces. He also filled the coolant overflow with oil, i guess he thought thats where oil went? Spent forever flushing that out, the line leading to the radiator looked to be nice and clean and just coolant. He also gutted the stock mufflers, in a very weird way, i should get a picture.

The bike seems to be running pretty good, its not nearly as torquey or quick as I thought it would be, is there any way to tune these dfi systems with different exhaust? How he gutted them it sounds decent, I love hearing it rev, but around 3k rpm the drone is the worst ive heard on a bike
Also do these bikes tend to run hot? Were in a heat bubble in the west right now, its between 90-100F every day, coolant is nice and clean in the radiator and overflow, but the bike tends to always run a little over normal, like if normal is the bars coming to the middle, it usually runs 1 bar past the middle, slow stuff in parking lots and such will give me 2 bars and ive seen 3 bars, where its almost maxed out the coolant gauge, but breifly. The fan is working, after i turn the bike off it continues to cycle on and off.

The top of the motor is pretty ticky also, doesn't sound bad though, is that also normal? Or should i tear down and inspect the valves? also is the cam chain tensioner on these reliable, Ive had to install manual ones on alot of 80's bikes.

For right now Im going to ride the ugly duckling how she is and love her, I wanna do something different with the exhaust, but I just want to enjoy the bike. Im going to start slowly ordering parts to change the look, its probably going to get a harley roadglide front end with harley stretched bags. The turbo project will be something for this coming winter, after my car is all tuned and done.

Also are there any options for handle bars? Wasnt expecting to see these goofy things with how they mount. Also does anyone have this side cover? I dont like how it was bashed in and filled in with whatever, id also love to find a replacement crash bar for the same side. ebay has none and not sure where else to look for those parts.
So excited to finally have one of these!

Tough one to answer without some history like how long have you you owned the bike and how many miles/kilometers on it. Engines that have a "rattle" going on inside shouldn't be run unless you are trying to blow it up. I had 2 cbx's over time and they had an inherent issue which the generator drives that made them rattle at just off idle. The KZ shouldn't rattle.
The cam chain tensioner- You really need to inspect this item by taking off the top valve cover and looking down inside. There is a nylon toothed gear which have been known to disintegrate if the tensioner was not taking up the slack in the chain. 
Also located below the nylon gear is the tensioner roller which is a black rubber roller also known to disintegrate.
Primary and secondary drive chains Depending on the mileage may get loose enough to rattle off of the engine case. There are no take up tensioning mechanisms for these chains. They are replaceable. You can inspect them by pulling off the oil pan which can be a pig depending on your exhaust system but in any event, if you have an internal engine rattle, I would be pulling the oil pan. If something broke loose, it's probably in the bottom of the oil pan.  While you have the oil pan off, it's a good time to inspect the oil pump pick up tube screen and clean it. If any thing has disintegrated, the oil pump will try to pick up the pieces and the screen will be clogged with debris.

Good luck and let us know more about the history and what you find please.

 

Absolutely not. Because the cams may not sit still during your removal/replacement, the cams may jump a tooth. You have to guarantee that when your swap the tensioner out, that nothing moves. After getting the new tensioner in, you must adjust out the slack in the timing chain, then check the timing marks on both of the cams, then  roll the crank around with a wrench and check the timing of the cams again and I say this because sometimes especially with the manual tensioner, you may not have taken up all of the slack in the timing chain. As you roll the crankshaft around, check the timing chain for looseness and adjust up as required. ( You'll understand what I'm talking about as your doing it) If you do something stupid like roll it around on the starter and one of the cams ( or both) are out of time, you'll bend a valve(s) and then you'll be pulling the head.

I left the original spring in my CCT.  Just added the "back-up" bolt and a locking nut. 
Engine idling at 1000,  I back-off the locking nut, and "feel" for the sprocket and chain meshing. Too loose and I can feel the tensioner "spanking" the end of the adjusting bolt. I adjust so I can't feel that.
 The OEM spring creates the contact pressure.  The bolt and nut ensures the "guts" can't back-off.  I've still got teeth on my Nylon sprocket at 91,000K.  Also have a LISKA gear, when it's time !
You accomplish nothing by running the CCT tight.......other then wearing-out your nylon gear, faster.  Adjust the bolt with fingers, only.

Hey Scotch. what's your procedure? Without a specific torque figure, I just (crucially) slipped back the O-ring on my manual tensioner and turned in the screw until it was a "firm finger" tight. Without taking the O-ring out of the scenario, there is no possibility of doing it by feel.

The post regarding an replacement/alternate spring for the tensioner referenced Ebay item # 331459306709.  I searched Ebay using this number and no results.  Any suggestions where else it might be sourced?
Thank you.

Hello Scott.  Ah, the FJ1200, a great bike and one I seriously considered buying many years ago.

The KZ1300 B2 you mention sounds well worth going to have a look at.  It might be all original and un-spoilt.   If you don’t want the fairing and saddle bags, you could make the bike into a naked KZ without too much trouble. 
This site has lots of information on what goes wrong on these bikes, foremost in importance being the cam chain tensioner, so that would need investigating.
Please keep us posted when you’ve looked at the B2.

Thanks Kawboy. That was a pretty accurate assessment  of the conversation. Although there was an added complication. I'm in France and my French is not great. so I was relying on my poor long suffering wife to translate, as was the engineer who didn't speak a word of English..(All the technical terms made it even worse/funnier). If I had more time I would 100% go for the re-bore straight away as I don't like riding bikes that aren't performing as they should, or could have an issue at any moment, and even if it is running ok I'll have those hone pictures in the back of my mind.  . Saying that, apart from drinking oil and fouling plugs it actually ran quite well before.I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place as I need to get this bike done asap for several reasons. It's holding up my garage space where I'm finishing restoring a 1969 Chevy Nova. Which I now need to sell asap for the money and the space...(I lost my normal work due to the Covid restrictions.)Waiting for piston rings to arrive for over 2 months threw my schedule out and I guess new pistons and ring could be the same.  I was hoping to get it done in  2 or maybe 3 months....ambitious I know.   I tried to source the rings in France but I was quoted over 700 euros for just the rings.  That was if they were available at all. Beautiful country, but insanely expensive.So to make it whole again I'm going to forge ahead and come back to it later for the re-bore, maybe in the winter. It'll be an interesting experiment if nothing else. Just to add insult to injury I'm also going to try another no no...An "after market head gasket". Well if it's going to come apart soon enough anyway.  I said this could be toe curling.  I did buy some Honda bond for the water jackets though.   The one good thing is, having worked on a Z1300 is now less intimidating,. I'd often hear people say "Oooh complicated engines" . It's now demystified it for me .Here's some update pics. with new and old cam chain tensioner wheel. That was a disaster waiting to happen.

As the parts for our z13's become more difficult  to find, we have to look at alternative  sources.
If we could generate a list in a post or maybe a 'sticky ' that every member can contribute to, would that help?

For example
Valve shims :  z900, z1000
Headlight for z, kz ,zg  : gpz1100 
Camchain tensioner:  zzr1100.


Just an idea.... what are your thoughts???


 

Cam chain- check stretch (specs in the manual)
Primary and secondary drive chains check stretch - also specs in the manual.
Valves and valve seats- Most need to be reworked. Be careful if the shim thickness are 2.80mm or larger (up to 3.00mm) If the existing shims are in this range, new valve seats will likely be needed (specialty work).
Tensioner wheel - the rubber one below the tensioning gear- some have reported finding destroyed rubber wheels
Water pump drive gear?? Nylon gear- check for cracks MCG I think had replacements
Stator windings- check resistance.
Stator feed wire connector plug- check high resistance and consider replacing the connector or soldered connections.