I put a 1015 kit in my 76 900 and.. before that i ran 112 then 115 jets. Then i put 120's in and took it for a ride. Good torque and lift the front end up in first and it was fun and all but i got onto the freeway, hit it hard and it didn't pull hard. It seemed to fight itself at the top end too. I backed off the timing and that let it run much smoother but still no hard pull, (26mm carbs and i ported the head). Compression was 150- 180, (then 180 once i set the tight valves at .001, back to between .004 and .009. I took a brass screw, cut 4 small hockey pucks from the shank with a hack saw and trimmed them on the bench grinder till square. I drilled them with a 1/64 drill bit and soldered them onto the ends of the needle jets. I counter sunk around the holes with a bit larger than the holes i'd drilled to pretend to be fancy. I hit the interstate and dropped to third at 60 and gassed alittle, wow strong. 70, 80, 85, and wham she took off like a rocket. Now i'm in. A guide I drove out backward popped out and the head was ruined so i bought one on ebay for 230. I had the seats cut and i put new guides in and ported the everlivin out of it. That was alot of work and energy ober three weeks of grinding away. I needed valves, the stainless that came with it were shot, no margins. They sure were light though. I got some valves from a corner of kz parts at the savage in Fargo here and he had two heads in the corner. I took one home to take out the valves and all the exhaust were bent. I brought it back and told him and he had the other one and let me take that head home. I gathered up the parts and since he owed me a favor he let me have some rollers. I found a shitty, loose top roller and he said the bike it was ffrom had 60k on it. I dug deeper and found a real new one. And i chose between 4 diff. idler rollers too and found good ones (mine were falling apart). I gathered up the stuff in a pile and took one last look in that corner and saw a bare head no valves with cams setting on top. I noticed the lobes were longer and suddenly it came together. The head that had the bent valves was the one the cam came from and the rollers. The rest of the motor was there, it was a 1000cc. I grabbed the cams and asked if i could have them. They were made in usa and they measured .407. Like new. I already had ape springs in my head and played around clearancing the ported head for .410 cams i hadn't bought yet. The cams had stock sprockets on them and had been slotted. Someone had them bolted on way to one end of the slot. I had actually bought ape sprockets already too so i put those on. I was short two valves and bought vesrah from dennis kirk. All the guide work went well and the lapping and I put it all together. I degreed the cams by starting in the middle of the slots and at 109deg the intake was center of highest lift. Instead of using a dial, i sribed a line inside the lifter bore at the top of the bucket then turned the crank while watching the alighnment of the mark id scribed and the top of the bucket for movement. When i saw the buket just start to move i stopped and looked at the wheel. I then lined up the mark to the bucket again and turned the crank backward until i seen the bucket move and looked again at the wheel to make sure it was the same number of degrees. This was proving to me that I was indeed on the center of the cam lobe, highest lift and also that the center was 109 cranshaft deg atdc. I did the same thing with the exhaust cam, but used 111 on that one. Everything seemed right. The position of the cams etc. I used solder and found i had 75thou clearance on exhaust and much more on intake so heck? I made a manual tensioner and it worked well. I had 10grand on the 1015cc pistons and rings and had cross hatched the cylinders with sandpaper and my bare hand as a dowel. It looked exactly like a hone had been used. So i knew the rings would be just fine. I never measured the bores, i didnt want to know, they bored them crooked anyway, 100 bucks at an auto shop. But oh well, as long as the cylinders didnt split on me and they hadn't for many miles. Well i set point timing like i had always, darn near a quarter inch back from the fire mark. I dont know why but since the kit, it was way too advanced any where near the fire mark and would vibrate at the top end. I started it, drove it, man did it go. I put 28mm carbs on, just transferred the needle jet assembly's over. It didn't run right so i moved the clips down one and she came alive. Not quite so responsive as the 26's but i could'nt complain. Yeah I guess i got a little more on top but wished for a bigger gain than that. When i got them tuned they worked very good and at the time my spark was weaker from a down charging system. The coil mod i had done in the past really made a difference but wanned away. I thought it was my coils but it was the voltage drop from having a dead cell batt in there without any charging at all going on. Found that out when i bought a small batt. from walmart. That alone brought it back to life in a very impressive manner. But even with the old batt. in place, on a cold day the 28's were something to recon with. 50 deg or so and the top end pull was very strong. Talk about eating up a mile starting at 85,90 in third and wot. My god that thing would pull. Man you could see me coming. Pretty fast. I kid you not ill bet i could hang with a z10 for quite a ways and im 250lbs. Dont ask me how but its true. I raced around with a brand new one before the cams and head and i gotta tell yuh, it was darn good time an the result was one heck of an insperational punch. I was within reach. I knew it and i needed more power. And i got it. And im happy. I beat a cbr 600 and wasnt in tune. Hell with a screw driver i could have tuned him out in 2min. Ignition timing. Three summers and i turned the whole erea for miles around me into one big dyno. Lots of fun. That thing just wants to run run run. In my estimates, i could put dyna coils on and a 120lb rider and id bet money that on a third gear roll starting at 88mph, he could hand side by side next to a zx10 till maybe 125 or so. Just a stock one no mapping and such. Its almost like this thing is alive, if i paint it and clean it runs better. How the heck does that work? I guess i dont care to know, cause it doesnt matter. Ill be forevor impressed. I do have to make sure everything is right cuz it is a heavy bike but when every horse has had its oats, look out. Now its just come down to ignition timing carb set, air temp and rider weight. And add a few driving tricks like darn near cheating at the start to get that weight moving and you got your hands full. Or rather, someone else does. I hate to write so much like this and take up space, but im mesmorized at the result. Thinking back its been alot of stufff and alot of tuning. And if its a wonder how i avoided the police. I was always so worried id get stopped and the experimenting would end abrupty. Incomplete story, sorry game over. Well that aint no good so i watched very closely, always. I had to. Im glad its over and the bike sits in the shed like a sleeping giant or monster or whatever, and that drivers license is looking like a big pot roast to a starved man. Oh yes. I want to run in traffic. I know how to behave, I know all the tricks... and i know how respect for danger, people, and law is the key to the religion. Lose one lose all. Now all i need is a diet plan and some good riding leathers. And a whole lot of stuff replaced on that bike that i never bought. Its barely got a seat on it. But thats ok.
