New member / new to us '99 Std. The project begins: UPDATE 03/31/2024

[slmjim + Z1BEBE]

slmjim has been a Rider for ~50+ yrs.  The Lovely Z1BEBE a Rider for ~33 yrs.

slmjim retired from a career beginning in 1974 in photocopier service, progressing through the digital revolution if print, scan & fax,  with the final 8 yrs. as a Network Analyst with xerox.  Retired in 2016.

The Lovely Z1BEBE retired from a lifelong career in medicine in 2015, first as a Medical Assistant, then retiring from a position as a Surgical Assistant.

We're lifelong Kentuckians. And, we have The ZOO - two Australian Shepherds, and a cat to keep everyone in line.

slmjim bought his first Z1, a '74 Z1-A in March of 1974.  We still own it, along with five other Z1's.  We're very deeply involved in the Kawasaki Z1 restoration & preservation community.  We've restored many, flipped a few, and completed reassembly of a '73 Z1 basket case that completed the production set for us.

The Lovely Z1BEBE also Rides.  Her personal scoots are a '75 Z1-B mildly customized to fit her shorter stature, and a Candy Metallic Red '93 CB 750 that she says is prettier than slmjim's blue '93 CB750 Nighthawk.  slmjim sez "Balderdash! My Candy Tahitian Blue CB750 Nighthawk is clearly more handsome!"  And so it goes.

Our present stable is six Kawasaki Z1's; a complete production set of both color schemes produced each year over a 3 yr. production run of '73 - '75.  We also have the two '93 CB750 Nighthawks. For two-up touring we have a '09 ST1300A, which replaced a '03 ST1300 for no reason other than the '09 has ABS.

We recently acquired an 'inexpensive' '99 Valkyrie showing 47K mi. that had been parked in an attached garage since 2010. Clear KY title. The PO was an avid Rider, but his present wife refuses to get on it & he's just lost interest.  The keys had fallen victim to an unpleasant divorce from wife #1.  Info found on this forum was invaluable in getting a new key cut successfully.  It operates all locks fine.

The bike is in VGC condition cosmetically at a glance.  Only a little surface rust here & there on closer inspection.
Brakes need flushed but are are free, clutch works & needs flushed.
Tank had about 1 gal. of very stale fuel, now drained.  Petcock turns, standpipe filter is clean.  Will see if it works & seals correctly.
Battery is toast, but no acid damage.
Aftermarket hard bags.  A backrest & small rack came with but not installed.
Both owners manuals & OEM tool kit are present.
Six into six pipes in good shape; we've heard those in the past & looking forward to doing so again.
Seat release cable was frozen but is now free.  Got the seat off with info found here.
No oil showing on the dipstick.  Added a half qt. we had open on the oil rack, still nothing on the dipstick.  Not sure what to think of that yet.  The sniff test at the oil fill doesn't smell of varnish or fuel in the crankcase.
Opened all 6 carb drain screws.  Nothing.  Hmmm... bummer!  PO is unsure if he drained them or not.  So, our second question will be carb related.

Our first question will be about service documentation:
Haunting fleaBay we see many Haynes manuals, and a few Honda FSM's on CD.  We have FSM's for everything else in our stable, along with some matching sets of service bulletins.

What council can the forum offer as to choice of service manual as our first acquisition?

That pretty much covers the intro.  Much more to come.  Pics in the gallery thread are up now.

Thanks all!

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE
  

[Chrisj CMA]

Get the genuine Honda service manual. Tho the others can’t compare

[f6john]

I’m in Richmond Ky where are you located?

[The emperor has no clothes]

Make sure you are checking the oil with the bike level. (Beautiful 903’s) 

[slmjim + Z1BEBE]

I’m in Richmond Ky where are you located?

Louisville.

Still working on signature stuff.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

[old2soon]

     WELCOME to our electronic clubhouse. Git hold of daprez in Il. He generally has needed stuff and Might have an O E M Honda Manual. Even should the Valkyrie Not be ready for a road trip might wanna check out Inzane 24. Inzane Will be in Dubuque Ia. in June. I went last year in my cage as te left hip no longer desires to hold up a largish M/C no more. So I now have an 88 Gold Wing trike!  And what better way to git a acquainted with a buncha folks that LOVE these Valkyries? What I looked up shows Louisville to Dubuque is abut 554 miles! And these Inzanes have Always been FUN!  Again-WELCOME!  RIDE SAFE.

[vanagon40]

There are lots of members with digital copies of the Factory Shop Manual. Dag of Norway had a link on his website for years, but I believe his site is gone.

-mike- from Germany has a link here

Or here is a link to my copy on dropbox

[slmjim + Z1BEBE]

There are lots of members with digital copies of the Factory Shop Manual. Dag of Norway had a link on his website for years, but I believe his site is gone.

-mike- from Germany has a link here

Or here is a link to my copy on dropbox

Thank You vanagon40 !!  Very helpful!

Regards

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

[John Schmidt]

Xerox eh?  After my stint in the USAF I went back to Chicago where my wife was raised and went to work for Xerox as a field tech for a few years. This was back when the 914 copier was the big deal, as was the 1824 microfiche printer. At the time, Argonne Labs was my main territory and kept me busy for a lot more than 8 hrs. a day. Also did some work on something I thin was called a copyflo machine, had a huge selenium drum and was used by various counties for reproducing plat printouts plus a variety of other stuff where large prints were required. Those machines were often located in a basement and not kept very clean which caused additional problems. I have some fond memories of the work at Argonne, some rather hilarious. The mental giants that worked there couldn't carry on a normal conversation, something I found amusing at times. I left Xerox to go back to my home Iowa and continue working on my degree that I had started years earlier. I can only imgine how things progressed in this electronic digital age. The missiles I worked on in the late 50's and early 60's were stone-age relics compared to my current cell phone capabilities. 

[slmjim + Z1BEBE]

Pics first now that it's 'home'.




EDIT: This completes our introduction. Copying this post to 1500 Tech.  All further posts on this project will be there.  

Carb internals undetermined as yet, but looking flaky.  Opened float bowl drain screws produced no fuel.  Hmmm; might be good, might be bad.  PO doesn't remember if he drained them 14 yrs. ago.

   Introduced fresh fuel from our aux tank to check for any leaks in the 'O' rings of the fuel rails.  Fuel immediately leaked from a loose hose at the first 3-way joint just downstream from the petcock that splits feed to each side.  We probably dislodged it when we pulled the tank.  Got that back on courtesy long right-angle needle nose pliers.

   Next feeding revealed fuel running out of one of two hoses that drain next to each other onto the top of the motor between carbs 5 & 6.  These two hoses appear to originate from the uppermost 3-way joints between 3/5 and 4/6.  It's the 3/5 joint that is producing the fuel.

  Our gut sez stuck float(s) and / or float valve(s).  We tapped on all the float bowls with a brass drift without effect.  When we opened the drain screws fresh fuel flowed, but slower than we would have expected.

   It's clear we don't understand these carbs very well, as we would expect the uppermost 3-way joint to be associated with air somehow.  Seems too high on the carb bodies to have fuel in them, but the presence of a drain indicates the possibility was anticipated.  Perusing the hose layout in the FSM and on Partzilla trying to identify the function of the rails the uppermost 3-way joints (or even locating them in the drawings) has been frustrating 'cause we don't know carb rack & hose nomenclature well at all.

  Insight anyone, please?

  At any rate, it's certain the rack has to come out for internal cleaning.  We have decades of experience with Z1 Mikuni slide throttle VM carbs, and a little experience with '90's Keihin CB750 CV carbs.  We have a very good ultrasonic tank & our choice of two varnish-busting solvents to run in it.  Main thing we have to do first is, rearrange our carb bench to accommodate a six carb rack instead of the usual four, and that is both wider & deeper than we're currently set up for.

We're gonna be busy with other stuff, so the next update will be at least two weeks out.

Thanks for the assistance everyone.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE