1976 Z400 twin - the beautiful headache.

[manbearpig]

Yeah, I know it's a bike and this is a car forum, but there doesn't seem to be any retro bike forums, and especially none with the attitude of this one.

So, I think I might be the first to introduce a bike. I picked this up the other day and rode it around all day. It's been stood apparently for about a year, but it fired right up and after a new set of plug, didn't skip a beat all day. There are a couple of things that I need to do to it to get it just right, but generally I am very pleased with it. Your comments are welcome...

[disasterbus]

one word for that bike - gorgeous

[victhejag]

hello matey, i had one of theses 15yrs ago and i found it in someones front garden rotting away,it needed a new fuel tank as the original had rotted from the inside out,quite common but frosts do a tank repair kit that works by lining the inside of the tank and it works very well if caught in time,
I rode the bike from kent to inverness, it never missed a beat, when it rained the points cover filled with water because it was upside down (my mistake the drain holes ment to be at the bottom-worth a check as it goes on either way) the points were still working perfect
Hope you get as much fun as i had on mine and my brother liked it so much he bought a 750 twin but that wasnt as reliable, HAPPY BIKING


This is my old GPZ 1100 with big carb conversion and loud race pipe,one of the many retro bikes ive had,not a good picture tho

[manbearpig]

Thanks guys!

rmad - thanks for moving the post. Do we have a retro bike section? If not, could we make one? There seems to be a few bike owners on here and a bit of an uncovered topic. Shall I put a post up on the general board to get some feedback for the moderators
to look at?

victhejag - luckily it's got a new tank because the last one did exactly as you said - rotted out. Someone had put the stuff in it (can't remember what it's called) that coats over the rust but they didn't let it cure before filling it up with petrol so it curdled up a goodun. I am well chuffed with the bike but it does need a couple of tiny bits done to it to make it concourse (not bad for a 32 year old bike!) Do you know what type it is (D1 - D2 ect) coz I need to get a new speedo cable for it.

Cheers.

[victhejag]

hello mate,sorry i don't know what model it is but the best way to find out is through a kawasaki agent,they should be able to tell you everything by the frame number. looks a nice bike and as for a retro bike section i think it is a realy good idea as ive had 58 of them over the years, heres a few pics




my triumph street fighter that used to be a 1200 trophy,all the fabrication was done by myself inc the twin headlamp conversion out of solid stainless steel,its a heavy bike but has 105 BHP at the rear wheel and buckets of tourque


my old 250 lc with a stage 6 stan stevens tuned 375cc powervalve engine and tz racing gearbox and clutch, on the dyno it had over 80 bhp and would rev to 16000, it was a GSX 1100 beater to 100mph and then lost breath


my old XS850 which was mint untill i used it for despatching and put 65000 miles on it in 9mths


This is the first RD250 i had and was fitted with TZ350 barrels and pistons,after this i had 3 more and 2 RD400s


A days ride out resulted in us seeing how many can get on my old jawa 350 outfit,the suspension didnt like it much tho


An early GS750 that was brought for £250 and had only 2000miles on it, the old boy who owned it had given up motorcycling, cant find bargins like that now


This was ment to be the ideal cruiser of the day but was a hatefull bike, i wasnt lucky with this one and after 5 punctures in 4 weeks and electrical problems someone cut me up on it and wrote it off, you sometimes get an unlucky bike and this was it

[mercman]

Jeez!! How clean is that Z400? A Proper mannie's bike



Seriously loving the Trophy!!

May 22, 2009 14:32:29 GMT victhejag said:

An early GS750 that was bought for £250 and had only 2000miles on it, the old boy who owned it had given up motorcycling, cant find bargins like that now

Hmmmm, after the week I've just had, I beg to differ ;D

[manbearpig]

Mate! Nice collection of pics. Good times! Loving the pic of you rabble lot on the Jawa. Poor thing! Especially the bloke stood on the exhaust!!

I think that settles it really, I'll put a thread up on the general board.

Cheers guys.

[manbearpig]

The thread is up already going strong. It's in the general board in case you want to have a gander.

Cheers.

[mikemai47]

Yea, Retro bikers unite, Don't think there is a need for a separate section though as long as we can post on Other Modifications as we do now beautiful Z400 too

[victhejag]

hello X7 mike,i had one of those bikes a red one years ago and it used to eat crank shafts if tuned,have you had that trouble with it or has it allways been standard spec,if so keep it that way because thats a nice example, i found that the RDs were more tunable and stronger in the bottom end but were allways getting pinched.
I agree the retro bikers should stick together but not seperate from the car scene because at the end of the day this is a quality site and in my experiance motorcyclests fall out with each other,ie harley riders hate J bikes and J riders don't like triumphs in general.
So if we can all put aside our dislike of other folks mode of transport wouldnt it be a better place for all

[mikemai47]

Hi Vic, afraid i sold it on a while ago it was a good one really miss it. I ride a 650 bandit now but thinking of moving it on and getting another classic.

[herald948]

Quality score there!

You're not alone, here's the smaller of my two steeds:

[manbearpig]

Retro bikes!!

Nice 400/4. It was a toss up between a Z and 400/4. The 400/4 is the more reliable machine, but Iwas just really taken by the Z. Has anyone else had a Z400D3? They apparently suffer from oil leaks from the crank case - which I have found out!

I've had to take it off the road for a week or so as it was smoking quite badly when it's hot - coupled with the oil leak dripping onto the exhaust and smoking, I was producing quite a few clouds at Junctions - not good. It's also got a fule overflow problem. It has been stood for a year and other than that it is really reliable and has loads of go, so it aint all thay bad.

I have managed to find some replacement gaskets for the float chambers and one for the R/H engine cover to stop the leak, but I'm going to have to take the head off and clean up the valves - which I'm not looking forward to.

[93fxdl]

many years ago a friend of mine had a z400 twin for several years and as far as i can remember the only trouble he had with it was the silencers rusting out and a carb diaphragm splitting well that was if the rest of us didnt decide to have a banzai moment when it couldnt keep up but when in sensible mode he could blat along quite respectably
ttfn glenn

[manbearpig]

Reading the trusty haynes manual, it says that it will run smoky from having flooding carbs - which they are coz of my overflow leakage. It has been stood for over a year so I might be lucky and just have to clean the carbs out and change the engine casing gasket to get it all tip top again! result!...... maybe.

But yeah, you're right, it should be as reliable as knowing tax will go up

[jonw]

Great bikes.... am looking foward to getting my Superdream back soon.

We may need to orgonise a retro bike meet one day.....

[manbearpig]

Yeah....

Fooked it.....

Not happy

Well, to solve the leaks - fuel and oil - as I said, I took off the float chambers and cleaned out the chambers, float valve and both jets. replaced with some new 'o' ring gaskets. Drained of oil and took off the crank casing, cleaned it up, inspected it for hairline cracks - all good - and put on a new gasket with the ever trusty locktite blue. Filled her up with oil and took it for a blat - all good it seemed.

Well, after it got hot, it was doing the same old shizz - idle at about 3.5 thou RPM ( ran out of tickover adjustment ) and smoking like hell - but it doesn't end there - oh no.

It burn the entire engins worth of oil in two 40 minuet journeys, ran itself dry and didn't want to play. I filled it up with more oil and rode it to work (no choice in the matter), and it just got worse (the knocking turned into banging, then crunching and eventually just stopped. Smashed it .

gutted! Rebuild time or new engine.

[TerraRoot]

Sorry to hear your bad luck with things

[jonw]

Oh dear.... hope the damage isn't too great.

[manbearpig]

From the sound of it, it sounds like I've ran the big end shells dry and smashed them up a bit, plus there's a hard sound coming from the cam......dosen't sound too good really does it! It still starts though, so thats something. I'm waiting to hear on a replacement engine, but if that falls through then I'll get it out and on the bench - then the game of a thousand jam jars will begin - but no Z for the rest of the summer. Booo!