Z1OwnersClub GB

I have just fitted a Z1B tailpiece to my Z1000 A2 project. It fits onto the frame ok but the seat will not close properly. The seat base hits the middle of the tailpiece before the seat can shut. Does anybody know if the Z1 tailpieces are slightly different to the Z1000 A tailpieces ?

I'm fairly sure they are different. I think the thou tail pieces are a bitter flatter which could explain it not closing. May be if you got a Z1b seat that may fit. Have you had it sprayed yet? If not you can buy repro tail pieces from the club via Jerry for not a huge amount.

Jerry does 'em for ?50 all in,not sure if that price is to club members only

Ralph, [vduk] is correct. The Z1 tailpiece is more "rounded" to suit the round tail light. The Z900 & Z1000 A1/2 is "flatter" to suit the squarer tail light.

I did a lot of research on the seats for our bikes while trying to find one for mine. That info could be wrong but what I found is this. The seat pan remained the same form from '73 to '78. The 1000 LTD continued using that same pan form for '79 and '80. There were slight differences from year to year such as a prop was used on some years. The latch on '73 to '75 was a pin type which was replaced in '76 with the squared hoop style. Other than those differences, the pans were identical.

Again, the info I read could be wrong, but it came from several sources and it all said the same thing, so I'm guessing it is correct.

My guess would be that something is out of allignment. I had to frig with the hinges and the latch setup on my new seat before it would sit correctly.

The Z1B tailpiece should fit on an A2 okay - I had real one on my A1 for a good while a few years ago when the bodywork was at the painters for a prolonged period, and after that I put a GRP Z1/A/B shape replica on it as I never liked the flatter Z900/1000 shape tail as much as the flicked up original. The shape of the ducktail is different but all the fitting points are the same so it shouldn't affect closure of the seat - something else is out of place.

Just bend the back edge of the seat pan up to match the more rounded profile of the earlier tail.
The seat pans rarely seem to follow the curvature nicely and only need a simple tweak to look much nicer. The seat pan is thin and very easy to manipulate.
If you can't do it with your fingers then either eat more shreddies or pull the cover off its hooks and out of the way so you don't damage it - then tap it with a mallet

I'm not sure about standard seats but the Italian 2:4 style seat I have on my thou A1 follows the contour of the tail piece very closely so I wouldn't think that my seat would fit very well with an earlier tail piece.