KZ440 My first attempt

[Hatchet54]

Oh man, I remember this thread. It's great to see you working on this bike again. The mockup was such a cool look and there are so many unique elements.

I traded a friend for a KZ400 last Christmas and it's sitting at my mom's house waiting for me to come get it and chop it up. Been logging away some ideas for when that time comes and seeing this thread again gave me a few new ones.

Tell us how we can help you finish it man, I want to see this thing on the road.

[PeanutHead]

Oh man, I remember this thread. It's great to see you working on this bike again. The mockup was such a cool look and there are so many unique elements.

I traded a friend for a KZ400 last Christmas and it's sitting at my mom's house waiting for me to come get it and chop it up. Been logging away some ideas for when that time comes and seeing this thread again gave me a few new ones.

Tell us how we can help you finish it man, I want to see this thing on the road.

I wanna see this in the road again too. I just need time to get back out there. Tonight, i should have the tail light plate welded (or at least tacked) in place (I've got a 1 and 3 year old, so I'm hoping I don't wake them up).

[PeanutHead]

So last night I did a little work. I used my Dremel to cut the rear fender because i wasn't sure how much noise my grider would make. It took me WAY too long just to get this far (maybe 2 hours).

Even though this is all I can show, I'm still happy this is moving along.


A little test fit. I'm very happy with the way that looks on the back. Think I have to cut more off the back of the fender so it doesn't rub.

[Hatchet54]

Rock on! Are you positive it ain't going to scrape on bumps? Kind of hard to tell the angle in the pics.

[PeanutHead]

Yeah, I'll snag a picture when I get back in the shop/my garage.

[PeanutHead]

So I re positioned the rear fender and I have clearance all around. I wanted to weld the tail light plate in place but I have to move my road king out of the garage. And it's raining. So I decided to play with the headlight.

Took me a while but i finally got the spacing and all perfect!

[PeanutHead]

And a quick mock up. Y'all get the idea.

I think I'm gonna run the high, low, & fog light all at the same time. I shouldn't run into any problems correct?

And I have no idea how to fix the pictures. Oh well.

[PeanutHead]

No progress pics but last night i finished making mounting brackets for the fairing. Now, I'm not the best welder in the world, I'm still learning as i go, but the welds are holding. Also got the tail light plate welded in place too. Not sure what what I'm gonna try and do tonight. Maybe try and finish the headlight mount or speedo mount.

[PeanutHead]

So i spent a Lot of time in the garage and have almost nothing to show lol.


Took apart the speedo to clean the glass and see if I could install some LEDS. Yeah..... That didnt work too well. The LED strips are too fat to fit. But I did find some broken halogen mini turn signals I forgot about. So those will be modified later to fit the speedo after the RTV sets.

I was gonna cut a hole for the tail light but didnt have a drill bit big enough (1 1/8) so i mounted the turn signals. Now these are LED run and brake WITH turn signals.

Running light

Brake

Run and turn.

And finally, I started playing with the exhaust. I need to buy some fiberglass wrapping for the baffles unless someone has some extra laying around they'd like to gift me lol.

[PeanutHead]

So I might not be an amazing fabricator, have access to all the fancy tools & machines to make parts, or know someone (close to me with said skills and all) that can help me. BUT what I do have a great imagination that helps. My next step in the build is the speedo cluster. I had an idea in my head on how I wanted it to look. I drew about 10 different ideas out and finally decided on one.

I used what i had laying around (just like the graph paper) to make a mock up. I used card stock, washers, and hose plugs as rough guides.

The big red plug is the speedo/tech combo, left washer is the USB plug/volt meter, blue plugs are turn signal indicators, little red plug is oil warning, and the 2 right washers are ignition and start button.

I'm going to to an actual mock up with everything installed in the card stock to make sure i have enough clearance for the wiring. The only thing I'm a little concerned about is if I need to reinforce it. I'm using some 16 gauge sheet metal.

[PeanutHead]

Here is What I did last night. I started finishing the cluster temple with the actual parts I'd be using.

I spent a LOT of time measuring every half inch and marking the entire a grid.

I mocked up the start button, turn signal indicators, and oil light. I didn't mock up the ignition because I'm not sure how to mount it. I didn't like how the lights I wanted to use as indicators looks so I'm using the same style as the oil light.

And here it is, in its final resting place. I have to install the headlight to make sure there's enough room for the speedo.

[PeanutHead]

Mounted the headlight up and I kinda dig it and I kinda don't. I like it because I made the lights fit and work on the bike. I don't like them because they don't fill rhe fairing opening. I want to use this fairing because it looks cool to me and I already mounted a turn signal to it.

[PeanutHead]

So last night, I impressed myself. I wasn't sure if gutting the old sockets would work but it did! I cut the mounting points off the new lights and inserted them into the sockets for the original lights.

Here's the original speedo with the OE light.

And Now the new lights.

What a huge improvement.

[PeanutHead]

Not a whole lot to show tonight. Mounted the tail light and turn signals. I'm really liking the way they look together.

And I ordered a new 4x6 LED headlight. The set up I made just didn't seem to be as bright as I was hoping for.

I'll be grabbin a battery Sunday after work so I'll be playing with the wiring harness and electrical box next.

[PeanutHead]

So the 8 year old AGM battery I picked up from my brother STILL held a charge! Woohoo!!!!! The new LED light came in too so I spent all last night working on a mounting bracket (sorry no pics).

Today is ARTS & CRAFTS DAY!!!!!! While my boys (3 & 1) were having lunch, I colored the wires of my wiring diagram I printed (dunno why the color printer printed in Black&white). This copy was the cleanest I found, it should help me in the next few days after I finish with the headlight.