Cam cover end plugs

[1975-S1C]

Hi chaps,
I just bought some rather nice looking billet cam cover end plugs off eBay. They arrived today, but dont seem to want to fit as the u shaped channel appears not to be wide enough by about .3mm. My bike is a KZ900, the advert said they are for Z900 / Z1000.
My question is, are they a common size between Z900 / Z1000 / Kz900 as I thought ? Or have I just been a wally and ordered the wrong bits ?
Thanks
Paul

[Pigford]

This seems to be a common issue - a bit of filing is required

[1975-S1C]

Thanks Pigford.
That's annoying then, but they do look the business so I guess I better get filing !

When you fit them, do they need any sealant / araldite or anything like that to seal them in ?

[Pigford]

Defo need a bit of RTV silicone sealant or similar.

[zed1015]

Have to say that all the billet plugs I have bought from APE and Pingle etc (and that is quite a lot over the years) do not have this issue.
It seems that it is the cheaper no name or those from Legend cycles (Probably all made in china) are the ones that don't quite fit and need some fettling.

[1975-S1C]

Well, I decided that as they looked quite nice I'd have a go at fettling one, hoping that it only needed a little bit of 'adjustment' here and there. After 20 minutes of filing and grinding it was still nowhere near and so I decided to give it up as a bad job. I didn't pay much for them on eBay so wasn't too upset. I did drop the guy a message though to tell him they don't fit. To his credit he has offered a full refund and says he only has a couple of sets to sell and has removed the eBay listing and will bin the remaining ones he has.

Better put my hand a little deeper in my pocket and buy some branded ones

Cheers guys
Paul

[chrisNI]

Mine were APE from Debben and they needed a bit of filing but I don't recall it being too difficult and they haven't leaked since they went in there some years ago.

[1975-S1C]

Thanks, maybe I'll try to get some of those then.

The ones I bought are way off, it'd take ages to fettle them to fit and I'd just end up with a bodge. Don't understand why if someone went to the trouble of making copy ones (pretty nice quality ones too), that they didn't make them remotely close to the correct size. Unless they were misadvertised and were actually for another bike maybe ? But the advert definitely said z900 and z1000.

[chrisNI]

Just to clarify the issue with the APE ones was that they sat slightly proud at the gasket face, they fitted well enough into the channel. There is a bit of variation in the depth of the line bore, head to head, so that can happen, that's the reason why mismatched cam caps can be tight and why the original plugs were rubber, but the radius of the channel should always be consistent. The APE plugs would all be one size and designed not to be too small. Reading your initial post I wasn't sure if the plugs you got were sitting proud at the top or if they weren't fitting the channel. That would be a bit of an issue....

[1975-S1C]

These ones aren't even close Chris.
The channels were too narrow, so I filed them a bit to fit, but then discovered they are quite a bit too wide (the channels
) so even when the cam cover would fit inside the channel it was still sticking proud of the surface by about 5mm or more. After much more filing it was getting closer but was taking ages, so gave up as a bad job. At least for now. May try more butchery when I have some more time.