Considering making a project purchase

[SoTexBill]

Good morning...
First, I already own a XII... But... The opportunity has arisen to purchase a ZN1300... Bike's been left outside for quit sometime.
I will not lie, going from big V-twin American bikes to my XII has been nice- I love the ride, love everything about it.
Now this thing pops up.
Appears to need some work, hasn't been run in a while.
Are there major pitfalls with ZN1300s from the late 80s?

[Van Voyager]

According to legend, the auto cam chain tensioner is an issue. This is, apparently a hold over from the KZ1300 motor and people replace the auto tensioners with a manual version - i.e. a screw. Now I mentioned ;' according the legend', because I've never found anyone who had a issue with the cam chain tensioner - some wold say because they all changed them out for manual tensioners. In any case, the ZN1300 tensioner is a different design (from the KZ1300's) which appears to use oil pressure to ensure it's fully engaged (not 100% certain that's the case but there's definitely an oil line going to it). For me, I'm not certain how I'd know how much to adjust a manual tensioner so I just left things are they are in my ZN and so far so good.

Very, very minor issues with my own 1300. The way the clutch cable loops into the engine case is a place where moisture can collect which eventually causes the cable to be a bit grody. Easy to lube and or replace so not that big of an issue. Checking the valves was pretty painful but only because my valve cover had never been off before so it took two days of careful scraping to get the gaskt off. Next time - it's due now - will be a breeze. On every 1300 I've ever seen, including mine, the paint has flaked off the passenger footpeg mounts and the drivers right side peg mount. I cleaned mine up and repainted -they look great but powder coating would be better I think. The castings are really poor quality so I'm not sure how long any coating will last. One of the radio control panel memory buttons collapsed and prevented my radio from working - it was an easy fix but it took some troubleshooting time to find the source of the problem (I just removed the switch from the circuit board - have a replacement but haven't installed it yet).

I've never driven a 1200 Voyager so I can't comment on the ride of a 1200 vs 1300 but I now have plenty of experience on the 1300 and I can tell you with if it had a big gun on the front, the Army would be using it for a tank. :). It is pretty comfortable on the highway though.

There doesn't seem to be any shortage of good, low mileage used ZN1300 parts as eBay has lots of folks parting them out (not sure if that's a good sign or bad - but I think that this monster just tured out to be a bit to big for itself and a lot of people weren't thrilled with all that weight).

Please buy the 1300 so there will be a few more devotees to chat with - there's not many of us left

[Me Again]

I believe it was in 85 that the oil line was added to the tensioner to eliminate the problem of a stuck tensioner.
One of the major problems is the fairing.If not kept tight the shear weight of it would vibrate and crack .That is one of the first things I look for when eyeing a 1300.It is an easy fix as there are only 2 nuts inside and 4 bolts out side that need to be periodically checked .But there are a lot of 1300's with cracked inner fairings and once it starts it's hard to stop.
I bought one that had been sitting out side for 10 years and after some routine maintenance it fired right up but I do not think the plastic guides survived the downtime and it always rattled some.Rode that one for over 2 years before it became hard to start and I picked up a new one.
At 6'2" I much prefer the 1300 to the XII because I have a lot more leg room . It only feels heavy at low speed like in a parking lot or slow heavy traffic. I can keep it balanced down to about 4 mph so it s not a big issue with me.
A couple years ago I picked up a Ghoulthing and side car .Love the sidecar , hate the wing (to small ,no legroom).

[Van Voyager]

My inner fairing has cracks. Not from vibration though, a PO, or perhaps the factory, ran some of the com/audio wires under the mixer bolted to the right inner fairing. The uneven clamping force due to those wires being under the mixer cracked the fairing. I've fixed the wire routing issue but not the cracks - I'll get to that sometime when I'm deeper into the fairing - things are holding up well for now.

[SoTexBill]

Hey guys...
The bad news... the opportunity got away from me.
Sometimes, my job keeps me from taking advantage of things....
The good news... I still want a ZN1300 to park next to ZG1200... and maybe even a ZG1000 Concours one of these days.