1979 Kawasaki KZ400 - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article

Description

1979 Kawasaki KZ400 - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Five years ago.
when Kawasaki intro-
duced the KZ400. the
Honda 350 was the
hottest selling motor-
cycle in America. It
shows. Kawasaki paid
Honda the ultimate
compliment. The
KZ400 was designed
as a bigger and better CB350.
Since that time Honda has developed its
own bigger and belter 350. a trio of 400s
called Hawks. The other Japanese motor-
cycle manufacturers have also come out
with their own 400cc Twins. High school
parking lots are filled with them. So are
showrooms.
Kawasaki was the first Japanese manu-
facturer to produce a 400cc street bike, a
size all the companies have now settled on.
That makes the KZ400 the oldest design.
It's a conventional design in 1978: Single
overhead cam parallel Twin with chain
driven counterbalancers.
Both 64mm pistons move up and down
together because of the 360-degree crank.
That spaces firing intervals evenly apart
but also causes vibration. And that’s why
the counterbalancers. Two small counter-
balancers. both running opposite the di-
rection of the crank, are placed down near
the crank, one in front and one behind.
The chain which turns the counterbalanc-
ers is driven from the center of the crank,
off'a sprocket immediately adjacent to the
cam chain drive sprocket. There is a chain
guide on the balancer chain but no adjust-
ment for tension. The cam chain, however,
has a tensioner, adjustable from the front
of the engine.
For 1978 the KZ400 engine has been
changed slightly. It’s nice to report that all
the changes are improvements. The origi-
nal 400 Kawasaki was prone to leak oil
both from the head gasket and the rocker
arm covers. To eliminate the head gasket
leak, an external oil fine now replaces the
internal oil passage. The oil line connects
to the block at the oil pressure light sender
and runs up to the head, which has been
changed in several important ways.
No longer are valves adjusted by moving
the rocker shafts. Now the rocker arms
have conventional threaded adjusters on
the valve end and screw-in caps for access
to the adjusters. The caps and external oil
line look just like what Triumphs have had
for forty years. They work. loo. No leaks or
weepage was noticed during the test.
Other changes were made to (he trans-
mission where a sixth gear was added.
Instead of gearing the bike either higher or
lower, the additional gear is used to make
each step smaller. As a result, the new
gearbox is a closer ratio unit, particularly
in the higher gears where it's needed most.
A number of cosmetic changes have
been made to the Kawasaki: new shape
Valve adjustment is simple with new rocker
arms under new rocker arm cover...
12668-7901-08
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