Kawasaki gt550 stem swap?

[mrvass123]

Hey everyone,
New here and first post in fact so please go easy.
I'm planning a cafe project for my 1984 Kawasaki gt550 and one of the ideas was to do a front end swap. Sound's easy enough but i have a problem. My brother (who is helping me with the project) is saying that the stems are welded in and can't be removed and that we have to find a front end with the exact dimensions for the stem in order to do a straight swap, front end with front end.
My response was simply to do a stem swap... That's the genera Idea but, wait until you read about the parts i'm looking at.
The new front end consisting of some bad ass Brembo calipers and some beautiful inverted forks off a Ducati 696 monster. Can anyone help me with some info on the best way to go about this?
Thanks, great content all round.

[Robby]

If you're willing to trash the rest of the GT headstock to get at the stem, welding doesn't matter. Just means you're cutting the headstock away from the stem rather than pressing the stem out of the headstock.

Even if it is welded, it may just be a small amount around the base of the stem. You may get away with grinding the weld and then pressing it. Might need an awful lot of pressure.

The alternative, if the stem lengths are close enough but the diameter is wrong, is to find some bearings that will fit the new stem and the GT headstock.

This job is possible, but will cost a bit. Most of the engineering work should be farmed out to someone competent - pressing out the old stem, prepping the new yokes to take it, pressing it in. You'll also have some cutting and welding to do with the lockstops.

Once its done, the front end will look weird so you'll need to mess around with the back end too. That will be tricky, because you'll struggle to find a wheel that matches the front one and can work with shaft drive.

My personal choice would be to keep the existing forks and fit some cartridge emulators, seeing as I'm a recent convert to how good they are. I would find some calipers that fit, or get some convertors plates made to fit the brembo calipers to your existing forks. New tyres too.