New Zealander Micky Steven's account of restoring her classic '82 GPZ1100
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| Micky Stevens and sons pose with "Freddy". |
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| Micky Stevens and sons pose with "Freddy". |
You asked for it:
I bought the bike because I had some money and was out shopping for an Eddie
Lawson replica, which in New Zealand was released as a Z1000R. It had a white
paint job with the stripes in the obligatory blue & green, stippled seat,
bikini fairing. Way back when I did a bit of unpacking for the local Kawasaki
dealer when these bikes came in, and I fell in love...so when I had some money
[12 years later!!] I went out looking for one. There were none to be
found. The Japanese bike collectors had done a clean sweep of NZ and of the 200
that were sold, only one or two
remain. So, I started looking for a Z1000J to rebuild & repaint, or a GPz750
or 1100, as they all have a similar engine & can be built according to
taste. Eventually [after looking at a few dogs] a `mechanic' at a local
shop offered to sell me his bike. It was registered as a GPz1100 but had a
Wiseco big bore kit, which he had put in at 100,000 km, and the piggyback
shocks & Kerker pipes, and was painted K.R.GREEN. It was a bit too
ostentatious for me, but it was there, and once having ridden it - I fell in
love again - and so I bought it.
Not long after this [actually, within a week] the thing refused to start. It
cooked a solenoid, we put in another one, it cooked that one too. My husband
investigated the wiring and found a 3 volt loss
between the battery & starter, so we sat & replaced it all with heavy
duty stuff instead of the spaghetti that it had. And all was ok. for a few
months. Then the starting problems began again.
This time we pulled out the starter motor; the brushes were tired, so I got a
2nd hand set. That lasted a few weeks, and then the starter motor stopped
altogether. I looked around for a 2nd hand one but settled on getting it rewound
at a cost of $220NZ [our dollar is 55 american cents, so say `OUCH']. Again,
this fixed the thing for a while, and I went out of town on it, competed in 1/4
mile sprints,
etc. And then, one day.....
it stalled when I stopped at a friend's house, and would not restart, and
when we tried to jump start it with the van it stalled the van!! It was
taken home in disgrace and we gritted our teeth & began
dismantling the engine. Our local tuning shop had already looked at the bike
because it `pinked' at high revs, and they had pointed out that the compression
was abnormally high - over 11.1. We figured that an extra base gasket might be
the thing to do, so began dismantling with this in mind. By this time I had
owned the bike just over a year and done 5000 km, not exactly high mileage, and
it had done 25,000 km when I bought it on the `mechanic's' rebuild.
Well, as piece after piece came out it was a sorry sight. It was amazing it
had gone for so long. The exhaust valve guides were cracked and two were broken
& rattling around in the collector box.
The valve stem seals were so brittle they broke apart when they were touched.
The cams were bright straw coloured. And the head gasket had been carefully put
on over a great big chip out of no. 1 bore liner, which had not sealed properly
as a consequence, and the blow-by had overheated & scored the block. And
there was a 2mm thick layer of carbon over everything.
The bits were carted off to the engine shop, who eventually told us that ALL the boring was substandard - all four bores were too big for the liners, and two weren't even bored straight. They replaced the liners, coated them with copper to seat them firmly and decked & planed the head. They also re-cut the valve seats and ground the valves after our mechanic had modified the head, which was 20mm smaller than the bores....sort of a reverse mushroom effect which hadn't done much for the compression ratio either. At home we shortened the valve stem ends to fit and ground them straight - they had been ground off crooked.
The dodgy valve stem seals let oil into the bores, which burnt into carbon
& raised the heat in the bores. Blow-by contributed to this, and eventually
the valve guides failed in the heat. The bore
liners shifted under pressure and the engine continued to get too hot. The
carbon in the bores took up so much room it raised the compression ratio and
made the engine very hard for the starter to
turn over, so that it drew excessive current, melted wiring & solenoids
& finally burnt out the armature. Which is where I first came in...
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| Vintage GPZ action shot from original Kawasaki promotional literature. |
So, after much expenditure, the thing is fixed.
As it stands, it is wearing a set of Wiseco 1261 pistons, Cometic head gasket, base gasket in aluminium from Albion Motorcycles in Queensland, Australia, Wiseco bore liners plated with copper, Kawasaki starter with locally rewound armature, Koni shocks [I took the piggybacks off because they made the bike just a bit too tall for me] Kerker pipes, the ubiquitous Kawasaki Racing Green paint job, and light gold wheels. And 1100R badges sourced from Kawasaki USA.
Engine-wise, [ so far as we know right now] it has GPz1100 barrels, Spectre
1100 outer cases, and Z1000J head & carbs in a GPz1100 rolling chassis.
And several helicoils & two threaded brass
plugs [replacements for pulled-out helicoils]. And K & N filter and braided
lines.
Yes, it's an interesting bike. ....
it's been quite educational really!!
The bike produced 101 horses on the dyno before it blew up, so it should be a little better now. After running in & tuning I'll let you know...
Micky
[Itching to get the bike onto the road this weekend.....]
M i c h a e l a S t e v e n s
[ M i c k y ]
W e l l i n g t o n
N e w Z e a l a n d
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