H1 ('70) Rebuild by 900SL

Hi everybody - I'm the new guy in class, so I'd better introduce myself:

 Me and my bike are located north of Copenhagen, in Denmark, Europe. Had this beauty resting in my garage since 2003.
It was a runner when I bought it, and apart from the dust, it has been preserved dry and warm:

Few things were missing - and it's NOT the front wheel.

It's a 1970 with Euro specs = No CDI, instead it has 3 sets of points and 3 coils.
Frame nr. is KAF 198xx
Engine nr is KAE 515xx

In beginning of 2015, I finally began to work on it, and for some time I was not sure, if I should just do a mechanical resto and leave the paint and chrome as original.
I finally decided to do a full resto, and that's what this is about.

A few more pics, just to show the state it was in, when I started:

The flat bars were as they came in some European countries, at least in Denmark. Can been seen from contemporary road tests and some press photos.

To sum up:
-It was a runner, engine started easily and sounded ok, and as I remember it, the box was OK, Front brake was horrible (won't be for long now), but maybe it's a bit rose-tinted. 12,5 years now after all.
-Everyone will notice that the rear shocks are Hagon, rear rim a non-original, but nice Borrani. Rear footrest are non original. I missed that the Tacho was from a 250 S1 or maybe an A7.
-The original mechanical steering damper are missing and so are the steering lock.
-Exhaust pipes are nice, no scratches or dents and chrome is good, as the rest of chrome in general.
-Original fenders in very good condition, original paintwork, chainguard, airbox, levers and so on.
-Some history was known.
-Kick start lever has been replaced with one from a H2 on these pics.
-Seat has been re-conditioned.

 Let's start to take it apart, and see what shows up ...

I'm not professional, and being my first Kawa resto, I played safe and took a lot of pictures. I dismantled the bike in larger units only, and wrote down a lot of info:

I managed to salvage the original ISO sticker, peeling it of with an old-fashioned razor-blade:

but, of course I also managed to cut my finger!
Hope I will be able to re-apply it when the frame is back from the painter.

Then I went out and bought this piece of kit:

Capacity 10 litres and a build-in heater

OK - next chapter:
Frame + parts are back from blasting and painting.
Of course all threads was masked before blasting, but I do refresh them anyway, as I have the tools and it takes me 5 minutes:

I also re-apply the original ISO sticker which almost cost me my thumb! I apply a coat of clear on top of the sticker, to protect it.
The rear fender is mounted too, it just needed to be polished (stainless stuff, I think)

I deviate slightly from the "everything to-be 100% original" theme, as I use tapered roller bearings instead of the original:

Some words about my approach to this resto:
The bike had a lot of original parts which have been on this particular bike since new, and I intend to keep as many of these as possible. This includes repair, if possible.
 If repair is not possible, I will try to source original parts. If not available, or ridiculously expensive - like >200USD for a an original flasher relay with the mount - I will use repro parts.
I'm aiming for a bike in nice, as-original-as-possible, condition, with all mechanical parts in top condition, as I intend to ride it, at least to some extent.

As I said, it's my first Kawa resto, and I'm not a proff. so guys please:
If you see that I'm heading in the wrong direction, or I'm about to make a stupid move (this will happen for sure don't be polite, but chime in - I can take it!

As I had no access to tools which can press in the roller-bearing race, I had to rely on the old trick:
I borrowed a little space in the wife's freezer, threw in the races and gently heated up the steering head pipe to approx. 40-50 degrees celsius.
The race will shrink a little, and the steering head pipe will expand a little. Enough to make you fit the race with only some gentle blows from a mallet.
Of course you must not hit the revolving part of the bearing. Only hit the race, and to do this carefully, you must hit the top egde with something which has almost the exact same diameter - like the old race, or a socket from a socket wrench set:

Job done:

Somewhat later:

Front and rear fender are Stainless (in contradiction to Honda for instance)...

... and they were very nice, so it was an easy job to clean and polish them. I sanded the downside and applied 2-3 coats of silver.
Nylon lock nuts are of course not original spec., but I don't wanna tighten nuts on some dark secondary road.

Shocks are repro's from Diablo Cycles, but grip, rear fender stay, license plate bracket and tail lamp are the original ones, and hasn't even been rechromed:

Starting to look a LITTLE like something:

- notice the correct Kawasaki bolts!

Original Mitsubishi voltage regulator in nice condition with original wires. Just cleaned and polished a bit by hand:

Battery box:

The first parts starts arriving (this will continue for a looong time, I'm afraid):

A French guy (Patrick Bras) makes some nice bolts and fasteners:

The mechanical steering damper which came with the bike, was not the original type, and I searched for long for an original replacement.
I finally bought one from from Sweden, but it was slightly damaged, so I had to think out a way of fixing it:

Sacrificing the wrong steering damper (made of the same material) I fabricated some grain:

The grain was mixed with two-component Epoxy glue and applied to the right stering damper wheel. I just had to make a stop, preventing the glue from slipping down:

The finished damper, with all parts:

Finished - (cotter pin is missing):

Had to source a new steering lock (NOS) as this was missing too. These parts are not exactly cheap!

OK folks, let's take it another step forward: I had to source an original Takasago rear rim instead of the (very nice) Borrani alloy. I managed to find one in Sweden, just hour in car from where I live ( yes, you guessed it, there a bridge btw. Denmark and Sweden).
As a bonus it got a complete rear wheel, meaning that I now had surplus brake drum, meaning 2 to choose from.
I chose the best of course, and after a little spit n' polishing:

The hub for the rear sprocket:

I just LOVE the vent on the rear brake:

... anyone ever wondered why the rear - and not the front brake is vented ?

With 2 rims, and a lot of other parts ready, I could send the first batch away for re-chrome:

Some of the parts to be zinc plated:

Summer's almost gone, and while I'm still waiting for last parts to return from re-chrome (he does a good job) it's time to give the front fork some attention:

Thanks to a fellow member at the Swedish triples forum, my attention was drawn to Ralf Gille in Germany, who offers these fine bushes:

With bushes from Ralf and new tubes bought from Diablo Cycles, we have almost everything it takes to rebuild the front fork.
The fork is a very simple design. Kawasaki made some marketing pitch and labeled them as "Ceriani-type" but to me they seem very similar to older English forks, like the ones from 1950-ies Nortons.
The forks are easily dismantled, but take care when you unscrew the top of the fork-legs (where the seals are located) If you have no better tool but a big wrench, these parts are easily scratched.

Here are the old forks dismantled - pretty simple stuff, yeah:

Here are the new tubes as they came from Diablo Cycles:

As you can see the top bushes comes along, but not the bottom ones - which I had to buy from Ralf.
It's of course essential to clean the parts to be reused, especially the outer/bottom tubes can be a little tricky to clean. I used a stiff brush on a long stick, like the ones used for bottles.

After cleaning of the outer tubes, they were send away for re-chrome, and while waiting, I started working on the inner tubes...

... the old inner tube are seen here:

Note the dark colour at bottom end of tube (picture shows tube upside-down) which indicates where the oil level was, and that it has been standing still for many years.

Inner tubes are tapered where the bush sits and there is a thin shim which must be reused on the new tubes, and so must the stop ring, which fits in a machined slot on the inner tube.
Maybe it's easy to see on next picture:

Therefore we need to drill out the 2 "rivets" which holds the lower bushes in place:

Here I punch a mark, so I can place the drill in center. No big deal here, as neither the bush nor the inner tube are reused, but you can just as well pratice doing it right. My 2 cents.

A vertical drill makes it an easy task:

Loose:

This was the easy part!
Now we need to remove the 2 stop rings from their groove in the inner tube.
The rings are pretty stiff and made of spring-steel, but it can be managed, and you can slide them the short way down the inner tube You need to reuse these 2 on the new tubes...

Just to recap - It's import that you preserve these 2 washers for the new tubes:

same goes for the stop rings:

A couple of notes about the stop rings:

(1) You have to overcome the spring force by inserting a pair of suitable pliers, and then slide the stop on the tube surface.
This will for sure leave two scrathes on the surfaceof the tube. No big deal, if you plan bin the old tubes, but otherwise take care and do apply some tape on the tubes to avoid the scratches.
This is even MORE important when you re-apply the stop rings onto the new tubes!!

(2) When removed, you will probably see or feel, that the gap ends of the stop rings are pretty sharp (see picture with 2 red arrows) and not chamfered in any way - at least mine were not.
I strongly advise you to chamfer the gaps a bit, before you re-apply the rings. I managed to do this with an ordinary coarse file.

After chamfering the gap ends, I practiced re-applying them on the OLD tubes, until I was sure I could manage without scratching the tube surface.
At last, I applied some tape to the tubes to cover the distance the stop rings have to travel when applied on the new tubes.

Sorry, but I don't have any pics on these 2 particular tasks. No rocket science here, just take your time and work in an unrushed manner.

With the stop rings re-applied onto the the new tubes, we can go on with the new bushes...

The lower bushes comes with pre drilled holes and 4 mm countersunk unbraco screws, remember:

The screws are made pointed at the end touching the inner tube, as if they can just be tightened and press againts the inner tube, but I took the decision to drill a hole through the inner tube and to cut a thread all the way through but bushes and inner tube - see below:

... and by the way, don't expect the pre-drilled holes in new bushes to match with the ones in the tubes, as they come from different vendors.

When you finally assemble, remember that bushes must be mounted with small oil escape holes facing the top of the fork and facing the small shim carried over from old tube:

Last step is to screw in the small unbraco screws. I applied a drop of LockTite (the red one) Better safe than sorry.

Inner tubes are now finished, and ready to be mounted into outer tube, which are back from re-croming, very convenient.

 Obviously, the right amount of oil must be added (I use factory specs + 5%) This makes the damping a bit firmer, but don't overdo it, as too much oil will put more pressure on the oil seals (which are new of course).

The top bushes comes with the new inner tubes from Diablo Cycles, and it's pretty straightforward to assemble the bits:

Top bushes can be seen pointing out on the fork legs nearest camera.

Almost there:

The new oil seals must of course be pressed into the outer tube nut before the nut is mounted.
The presence of the oil seal will add to the resistance when tightening the outer tube nut which has just been re-chromed, and we don't wanna spoil the chrome, so I advise you to clean the thread carefully - both inner - and outer, and then apply some oil to the thread.

I wrapped some layers of thick rubber tube around the outer tube nut when tightening, and I only worked on the top end of the tube nut, because this end will be covered by the big rubber dust shield.

Looking sharp - right ?

Well those fork tubes should not remain lying on that floor for too long, better get them mounted:

And this is how it looks when tubes and fender in place:

Front fender was in very good original condition, some gentle polishing with a rotating polishing wheel did the trick. The flip side was sanded down and some layers of silver coat was applied. Again, I deviate from the 100% originality thing, as I use Nyloc muttors instead of ordinary ones + spring washers, which I think is hopeless. I intend to drive the bike when finished, at least on Sundays and besides, you can't tell when looking from the outside.

The black fork covers / ears were in fact in such good condition, so they weren't even repainted.But as I use tapered roller bearings instead of the originals (which looks as something from a child's bicycle), you have to shim the ears, as porschedave also mentioned earlier in this thread.

The fork top bolts were rechromed, and all rubber /seals were renewed.I had to buy a new lock cylinder complete with keys (not cheap) as it was missing when I bought the bike. I can almost guess why.

Better get started rebuilding those wheels, stay tuned ...

I did not shoot that many pics when I rebuild my wheels (I simply forgot) Also there’s a lot of articles about this topic in bike magazines and loads of videos on YouTube for instance, so I will not dwell deeply into the technics, but instead share some notes and tricks which helped me.

If you scroll back to some of my first pics, you will see that the rear rim is some Borrani alloy rim, which was very nice, but not original. I still have it, if someone is interested…The front rim however was the original Takasako rim. I managed to get hold on a complete rear wheel in my neighbor country Sweden. There are many more dedicated Kawa enthusiast in Sweden, than in Denmark, The even have a club, with a very active discussion forum http://www.classickawasaki.se   ... but I guess you will not be able to understand much of it.

With 2 used, but good rims, it was just a matter of handing them over to the chrome shop and wait forever. In the meantime you can start saving up a few bucks, cause cheap it aint! Anyway, he did a nice job as always.

Before you take the wheels apart, do remember to:
- Take some pics which will show you the pattern of the spokes and how they are laced.
- Keep a least one outer and one inner spoke from both wheels. This will make it easier to ensure that your new ones are right.
Like this:

Before-image of wheel

I use mild steel spokes for my rebuild. In the beginning I was biased towards stainless, but I ended up using mild steel. Can’t remember why. Of course it was not stainless back in the 70ties, but as I remember it, I read something not in favour of stainless – are they too brittle? Anyway I got a nice set of spokes and nipples from Ralf Gille in Germany.

Here we are ready to start lacing a rear wheel:

Some time later:

Half of the spokes are laced, and I've already started celebrating with a good Danish brewed Bock beer. I'm more of an IPA guy, but...

A little later and some more beer, we have a nicely laced rear wheel:

Time for some Do's and Don'ts:

Do
- apply some copper grease to the tread before on-screwing the nipple. Spokes are mild steel and nipples are most likely some Brass alloy, so over time these will corrode a bit
- get yourself a decent spoke wrench, it cost a few bucks
- tighten all spokes lightly but evenly when finished lacing

Don't
- Use an ordinary wrench for the nipples. Either it's too large or has too many sharp edges, which can scratch you lovely new chromed rims
- Necessarily buy a fancy jig for trueing wheels, You can do nicely with the forks legs on your bike, I'll show this later.
- Expect a 30+ years old rim to run within 1/1000 inch when you have finished truing it.Unless you intend to break the land speed record for old two-strokes, you can do with less

Let's round up this wheel truing story:
There are tons of articles in the mags and load of videos on YouTube on this topic. In fact, I got pretty confused in the beginning, but in the end I could boil it down to one useable article (in the British "Classic Bike" mag) and one really good down-to-earth video on Youtube.

The take aways from from the mag and the video:
1. When the wheel is in your truing-stand in mounted in the forks, you start tighten the spokes, always do one complete round. You can start at where the hole for the valve is.
2. In the beginning, tighten every spoke an equal amount - like 1/4 of a turn. (IMPORTANT)
3. After each pass, take a look at your pointer or gauge.
4. Some tighten each and every spoke when they do a round / pass, Others only tighten every fourth spoke in one pass, and then move on to next set of four's. Some might think it gives you to much to keep track of. personal choice
5. When you start truing, start with taking out any radial slack first. When done continue to the sideways slack (most videos tend to forget mentioning this, and some only shows how to correct for sideways slack.

I found this video very useful:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4seylmsPzAk
I'm not related to the guy / company in any way. The guy in the video has got a own-to-earth approach, and he makes a point out of saying, that it is important that all spokes have equal tension. With your spoke wrench, tap 2-3 times on each spoke as you make a pass. From the sound you can easily hear if some spoke has less tension than others. Tighten these as you encounter them.

As I mentioned earlier, and also mentioned in the video, it's not easy to get a 40-50 years old rim running completely straight.Of course if you start out with brand new repro rims, it's another game.

A good way of stressing yourself:

... using 2 dial-gauges at the same time!

Start with one, or better just a pointer. Gradually as your rims gets more a more true, you can switch to a dial-gauge, if you wish.
When your spokes are almost as tight as you like them - like 85% or so grab a punch and a small hammer, and hit each and every spoke, like this:

There a some motion blur on the hammer head, but you should be able to get an idea of its size, a small hammer will do nicely. The effect of doing this is, that the blow will move the head of the spoke a tiny little bit inwards, again making the spoke a little looser. When you have punched all spokes, make another last pass and tighten every spoke. This trick will maintain the tension on the spoke for longer, making you do without an additional tightening after say 500 miles (hopefully).

VERY important: When finished tightening all spokes, any surplus thread which protrudes out of the nipple, must be cut /grinded away, or you will inevitably have a puncture.

Remember this box on earlier in this thread:

I forgot to mention what was inside:

... a brand New Old Stock front brake drum for a 1969-70.
TA-DA

Bought on Ebay from MachIVMotors, and due to this, it wasn't even expensive:

My old front drum was close to service limit, and I wasn't very keen on having someone to machine out the worn steel band and crimp in new one.
From what I could read, some 60' -70' GM cars, as well as older Porsches (Speedsters, I think) have the same alloy drums with steel band inside, and I got the impression that they can be quite tricky to fix.
Of course the drums were made that way originally, but when say a machine shop makes the fix, they have to be damn sure of the tolerances, as the steel band will either become a loose fit, or be to tight (causing the alloy to crack).So I disregarded this "solution" and was very happy that I was able to get this drum.

What do you guys with -69-70 models do ??

Not too far from me, there was this small machine shop, which specializes in welding alloy, and they had experiences from similar previous task. They price I paid could barely pay the coffee and donuts for the 5-7 guys working in the shop.

While the shirt was already buttoned up, I chose the put in new bearings and seals too. After some spit and polish, it looked like this:

Forgot to mention, that it got some new linings too. Linings are somewhat softer than the hardest one,. In this way I hope to minimize the wear on the steel band:

"The devil is in the details", I think it's about right. There sure are lots of bit needing attention, if you wanna end up with a result that you can be proud of.

It's amazing that a horn can consist of that many parts. More than 20 bits if you include 5 screws and 2 paper thin gaskets. A far cry from modern electronics, as everything can be taken apart and reassembled.
It was the original Nikko, of the type only used for first 2-3 years, and I think it's cute, so I decided to give it a make over:

Everything worked fine, so just a quick cleaning and inspection.

Next small item is the fuel petcock:

Bike had been standing for 7 years in my garage, and probably some years before that. Just as expected, it looked awful, full of red, rust coloured gum.

It was a pig to clean, even with the use of my ultrasonic cleaner, but I managed. New gaskets, springs diaphragm, screws etc.:

Not sure of the quality of those repro parts though.
Functions of the petcock is crucial if you wanna avoid flooding the carbs.

Wiring:

I was very much in doubt here. Wiring on old bikes has almost always been tampered with, and if repairs have been made, they are rarely made the right way = soldering the connectors to the wires. And so on ... There are complete main harnesses to be had on Ebay, Diablo Cycles and similar. Prices vary, but I never came to decide which one to buy, and most likely these would not have the additional wiring for city light, and for the 3 separate ignition coils. Mine is a Euro model, meaning that it has both these 2 features. With a brand new harness, I would be home safe, and could stay clear of electrical trouble, but for me restoring is also about preserving as much of the bikes soul as possible. Sounds damn romantic here, but it's true.

After a close examination and comparison with the wiring diagram for a Euro model, I concluded that apart from a lot of dirt and grease, a few broken wires, and some additional strange wiring including an extra fuse holder:

... my harness was in good shape, and very original. It even still had the small numbering labels on it.
 Long story short, i marked it up, removed the protection tube (which was torn anyway):

Cleaned each individual wire, checked the connectors and taught myself how to solder new ones to replace missing ones.

BEFORE & AFTER: 

and last one:

Wiring for the Speedo- and Tacho lights were missing however, so I had to source these on Ebay.
Its getting pretty crowded in the Head lamp body:

Now its time to start taking the carbs apart:

Hmm, just as expected the bowls were filled with lotsa reddish stuff, and it looked like it was way back since they had been cleaned... if they ever had:

Before cleaning can start, be sure to get rid of all traces of gaskets, and remove the all pilot jets, air screws, idling screws (take care not to loosen the springs and washers) and last but not least, remove the main jet tube, by unscrewing the main jet and removing the special washer btw. Main jet and Needle jet. The Needle jet can be tricky to remove, but tap on it lightly using a mandrel of as large a size as possible.
Don't get too alarmed by the look of the Needle jet, after it has been removed, you will probably want to replace it anyway together with the Needle. (More on this topic later)

It might be a good idea, to write down each individual carbs settings while going along...

Before just sinking each carb into my ultrasonic cleaner, they are allowed a nice long bath in diesel oil:

... each carb have now been completely dismantled, and care is taken not to mix up the individual parts.

After a couple of weeks much of the dirt an "gum" have loosened. After a brief cleaning, I can pour them into my ultrasonic cleaner - one at a time. But first some words of caution: Carburetors are made of some light alloy, and all the small drillings, holes and vents are delicate stuff.

This is why I:
- note / write down / take picture of all the small brass plugs in each carb. They are know to work loose during cleaning, so be careful when you remove the carbs after cleaning, and use a filter when draining used water from the cleaner.
- pour them into diesel oil first, to avoid having them in the ultrasonic cleaner for too long.
- don't use anything like strong detergents. I've heard of someone using dishwasher soap. This is very aggressive to light alloy, so I advise that you don't.
- use hot water with only some soap added, or you can add a small amount of the the type of cleaner, that painters use to clean the wooden parts before sanding/painting.

I applied about 85% power (max power = 240 W) for 20 mins in my cleaner. It can easily hold two carbs at a time (capacity 10 Litres), but again, avoid to mix up the parts, so I did 3 runs.

... but of course, I managed to lose one of the plugs during ultrasonic cleaning. This one:

(picture taken before cleaning)

So I spent some days looking for shops where to buy some brass rods in approximately the right diameter. Incredible what you can buy on the net today. A piece of correct length was cut out, ends grinded smooth, and it was almost a press fit, but I added some 2-component "Alraldit" glue as well. Epoxy based stuff but better safe than sorry.

Checking the float level:

- one float had a dent, but to be sure, I replaced all three.

I wanted to use as few Keyster or Sudco parts as possible, and as many original Mikuni, but this is no easy task, as many of the original Mikuni parts (easily recognizable by the small logo) are no longer available.Main jets, needle jets etc. can be found as original parts, but the tricky bits are the jet needle and the needle jet. To my luck there is this great company in Sweden, my neighbour country: http://www.braigasen.se/  The company name can possibly be translated to "good throttle response" or similar. The owner was very patient, as it took quite a number of E-mails before I understood exactly what was possible / not possible.

A 1970 Euro H1 should originally have a 5EH7 Jet needles in a 194 #O-2 Needle jet, if its to be in standard configuration. The 5EH7 needles was obtainable on Fleabay, but the 194 is not in Mikuni's stock any more, so Christer eventually modified a 159-O2 needles like this:
    1. Shortened the overall length of the Needle jet by 2mm
    2. Lowered the shield to 2.4mm
    3. Drilled and made new thread in the needle in order to accept Jet N100.604

Its important that both the Jet needle and the Needle jets are corresponding, and that both are renewed during a resto, as these parts will wear over time, due to the needle sliding up and down (most UP, I'd guess) inside the the Needle jet. Additionally, Christer also supplied the necessary gaskets, float valves etc. Nice work!

Almost finished (apart from float chamber screws):

Finished:

However, I will need 1 new (or 3 new) clamps for the rubber tubes, as one in the middle is close to breaking.
Have ordered replacement parts from Diablo, but I would have preferred the original ones, of course. But let's see how it looks when they arrive...
The Air box canister looks too shiny ??? But it was like that when I bought the bike back in 2003.

This little gem came to me, in cold Scandinavia, all the way from Southern Italy - and it worked:

... probably in need of a complete strip-down / rebuild, and the chrome ring is wrong, but at least it's for a H1, unlike the one which came with bike.
Wrapping was excellent, by the way: An used tobacco can equipped with a warning sticker stating that smoking kills you, in Italian writing. Very fitting for Kawa triple parts, I think!

... Now I have one speedo which works, but in need of rebuild, and missing the reset knob + two rev counters and some repro dials.
It's time to send everything to Northern Sweden, where one of the very last companies, making instrument refurbishing lives...

Btw. I managed to find the reset knob on Fleabay, too:

I'll get back to the Speedo and Rev counter when they are back from the shop. Might take a while.

I was not happy with the exterior finish of tacho and revcounter, when they came back from the specialist shop, so I had them re-finished:

Still NOT perfect, but I'll guess I'll have to live with it ... which I will.