Dad bought his 1980 KZ1300 off the showroom floor. Now its mine. Its all stock except the huge trunk I keep on for practical reasons and a windshield when it gets cold. But it needs a lot of TLC! The engine's never been opened up and this site used to warn of cam chain tensioner issues. It used to have really good step by step instructions with pics. Does anyone know if that info is still out there?

The profile pic is me with my oldest kid who always wants a ride!

Incorrect cam timing will make the pistons hit the valves bending them, this will make them stay open, they may not look really bent, and they seem to move ok, but they don't seat properly, but believe me it can happen, I had a failure of the tensioner and a cam chain jumped a few teeth, bike was only idling at the time, it didn't sound nice, anywho after replacing the valves, chain and the tensioner all is well. The holder for the shim that covers the valve spring is a "bucket" , well that's what I call it, hope it's not valves bent, but worst case it could be.

kza13 wrote: What are the coils and where can I get them, i'd love to be able to get rid of the big yellow coils I have now under the frame, always have to take them off to get at the rocker cover, do they fit straight in or do you have to run the resistor ???

Hey Petes,

Those coils are Dyna brand 3.0 ohms (no ballast resistor needed). I've mounted one where the top coil usually goes. The remaining two are in the tool tray. I wondered whether or not the different length wires would be a problem. Several folks, mechanical sorts, told me that I'd have problems with my computer (none on the bike)or possibly my radio (I'm ridin, what do I need music for?).
Here's the reason: I recently installed a manual cam chain tensioner. I had my doubts about the instructions so I wanted to really check the tension on the chain. Here's what I had to do: I removed the fuel tank, I removed the cam cover. Total time: 20 minutes. Think about the shiite you'd have to remove with three coils in the stock locations. (I've previously removed all of the air injection trash.)

I forgot to mention. The bike romps!!!

Sorry Pete1958. Back to your topic. My other 1300 doesn't have that tray.

Bill