I found this bike on Craigslist, back before I caved and got a Facebook account, but it was in West Virginia, really close to where my wife's family lives, for only a hundred bucks! 

This is the actual photo from the ad; I looked at it and studied it religiously before I made an offer on the bike and discovered that it was kind of rare, only being made in this configuration for ONE year! So of course I had to save it! Doesn't look too bad, does it...? (Heh-heh-heh-heh-hehhhhh....big sigh...).

Before I found out so much about it, I just really liked it's styling; it really is a cool little bike now, but when I picked it up it wouldn't roll, the engine was stuck, the chain was solid rust, the seat was crap - but 'other than that' it looked pretty good...

So anyway  - I gave the woman her hundred bucks, loaded it up and came on home.

When I get a new old bike home, the first thing I do is triage it: see what's wrong with it, what needs to be replaced or fixed, spray some PB Blaster on all the nuts and bolts to help loosen them up for the ratchet. Unfortunate things began showing up almost immediately, though, like this nest in the air box - 

Not the end of the world - this is pretty usual for bikes that have been sitting for some time. It seems like something always builds a nest in the air box. No Biggie. Luckily there was nobody home.

What sucked though - and I didn't know this at the time - but the air box was missing a very rare filter housing that should have been screwed on where you see those two brown rusty screws in this pic below. More on that later.

This sucked - something had gotten into the carbs too! See it on the right there, behind the valve...? 

And this was the capper...! See that stripped manifold boot screw...? Yah - those are a BITCH to get out. Big Sigh. (Oh, but I love it...my friend John put it best: "You just like solving problems, don't you..."  Yeah. I guess. "I like my bikes like I like my women - over 30 with lots of problems!" )

I got it out, I don't remember how - probably a lot of heat, lube and harsh language...and the 'best' 

 was yet to come! 

But check this out - I found this behind the gauges - ANTS! A whole colony of LIVE ants! And this happened when the bike had been in the garage for about two months! In December! What they survived on I have no idea! And No, they weren't running everywhere and getting into and on shit, they were just 'there'! ALIVE!!

Alas, it did not end well for them...

This sucked too - while trying to get the plugs out, which Just. Would. Not. Budge., I had to resort to using a breaker bar, and the damn plug broke off inside the head. So, yeah, I was going to have to open her up...and it did it to the other side too! FML! That nice little silver ring there is the lower end of the spark plug. 

Aaaand then I broke off the extractor too...Many a curse word was heard in the shop that day.  Also note the broken fins in the top left corner. That's what happens when the breaker bar slips...yah.

But I got it! Popped the head off and it came out of there easy as you please too, just to spite me - but of course I had to take the whole damn engine apart to get it to do it! It just tapped out - no resistance. Nice valves, eh...? 

The front brake reservoir was interesting...

And the pistons were totally fucked as well. I looked and looked for the same pistons; others wouldn't fit and I got super lucky to find a complete pair of parts-number matching pistons for like $20 on eBay. Took me about a year to find a matched set. But I found 'em! The rings were easy to find, but those pistons only fit the 1979 KZ400H. That "H" classification is a bitch.

Okay, so back to the air box thing I referenced earlier...the 1979  KZ400H has a pretty unique air box design, in that it needs a certain part on it to maintain the proper amount of air flow to the carbs - this thing here:

There's an air filter element that's supposed to go inside that thing (above), and mine didn't have it. As for this plastic part, there was only one I could find on eBay or Picclick, and they wanted $80 for it. Yes, it sucked to do it, and I did buy it, but the inside filter element you simply cannot find anymore, anywhere...and even that plastic part above is very hard to find. I've only ever seen two of these parts in the wild, and I have one of them.

Go - go track down '1979 Kawasaki KZ400H', see what you can find. Not a 440...! A 1979 KZ400H...Bon chance...

But I'm sitting around the deck one day tracing out some gaskets when the idea came to me to make an air filter element. I found a picture of one with all the measurements (and what are the odds of that!), made a mock-up out of cardboard, consulted a local machine shop to cut out the basic parts (about $100 for two), put it together and it WORKED!  This is the very picture I made my measurements with. I love specificity! 

If you've got one of these bikes and need that filter element and can't find it - well, there ya go. Yes, you can make one! Look at it; think about it....

But again, long story short I finally did manage to finish her up, and I'm sorry to say put her aside where she languished for quite some time, at least until this past summer when I pulled her out and got her started!