2001 Kawasaki Vulcan Harley FXR Kawzilla - 5-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article For Sale

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2001 Kawasaki Vulcan Harley-Davidson FXR Kawzilla Hybrid - 5-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
Original, vintage magazine article.Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each pageCondition: Good
...Sometimes builders have an overriding vision guiding their projects. Other times,the inspiration may come from a single thought. Bill Collier’s Kawzilla falls intodie latter category. He thought he could fit a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 engine into anaftermarket- Harley-Davidson FXR frame. Why? Well, nobody’s ever done it, and thatintrigued Collier. Besides, truckloads of accessories are available for Harley-Davidsons,so drawing from that deep well would be nice.Collier began by purchasing a 1996 Vulcan 1500A model, which, amongKawasaki cognoscenti, is considered to be much more powerful than the''it current generation Classic line. In fact, enough of these bikes were sold tomake an inexpensive used donor easy to find. After procuring a candidateS for rhe heart transplant. Collier simply dropped the engine into a Kenny®Boyce pro-street frame from Custom Chrome. Surprisingly,the engine slipped right into place, with the assistance of aw jfe couple pry-bars. Collier’s rough measurements were right,A 3 the metric twin could fit in the American chassis. Don’tA Beit Drive ConvertThe challenge of a custom of this magnitude is so manystages of the process depend on each other. For example,the engine mounting bracketry couldn’t be finalized untilthe powerplant underwent some major modifications. Yousee, the only way the Vulcan motor was going to get thepower from the transmission to the ground was by remov-ing the shaft drive and grafting on a pulley system.Converting a shaftie to a belt drive is no easy feat. Simplypulley as you would an axle for a wheel. However, in orderto construct the rigid piece he needed. Collier had toreplace the entire engine side cover. Since the cover housedthe alternator, stator and ignition pickups, the new coverhad to be machined with mounting points for the factoryelectrics. For this exacting work, Collier turned to Ben Lakeof Eustis, Florida.When Lake finished, the countershaft was supported onboth sides by OE bearings, making the assembly strongerthan any bek. Also, the new cover uses the stock boltlocations on the engine and even provides a mountingstripping off the shaft hardware and slipping on a pulley isnot an option. Numerous clearance and force considerationspoint for the clutch slave cylinder. Since the new drivesystem was being added to an existing engine, tolerancesneed to be addressed. First, the pulley would befurther out from the engine case than theshaft, exerting side loads onto the counter-shaft bearings that they weren’t designedto endure. How do you keep along shaft from becoming alever? Borrowing from theget tight in places. The space between the pulley and theclutch actuator shaft is only 110-thousandths of an inch!Collier off-handedly says that if the belt breaks, it’ll takethe clutch controls with it.Although the Vulcan 1500A is a smooth engine, Collierwanted to make sure his creation wasn’t a paint shaker so,he used as much of the Kawasaki rubber mounting systemas possible, fabricating brackets to hold the mill in the rightposition. In the FXR chassis, the swingarm is attached to thetransmission, and the drive forces are directed forward intothe engine. Since the Vulcan engine didn’t have a pivotpoint, a new swingarm pivot needed to be constructed. Thepivot now rides inside a two-inch diameter tube, which...
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