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82_Kow
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Oct 22, 1998 Found an ad at TraderOnline.com as follows: 1981 KAWISAKI LTD 750, NEEDS WORK I e-mailed the owner, Richie Kairis, and found that all was well except that there was a serious problem with the engine. He had a replacement engine, but no time to install it. Oct 24, 1998 I called Richie and made arrangements to check out the bike in the afternoon. We got there, I liked it, he seemed like a nice guy, and I agreed to purchase it. I figured I couldn’t go wrong for $350, so I didn’t even haggle with him. In return, he gave me a new rear tire/wheel, a shop manual, and gaskets for the new engine (which they had started to rebuild). I left the gaskets behind, by mistake. The bike is actually an ’82. Oct 25, 1998 I waxed the painted parts of the bike just to get some of the oxidation off. I also started playing with the malfunctioning electrical system. I fixed a bad wire to the left rear turn signal and cleaned up its ground contact as well. I found that the flasher relay for the turn signals was completely shot. I put in the one from the hazards and the turn signals work fine now. Oct 26, 1998 Melissa picked up a new flasher relay for me today. I installed it for the hazards, but they didn’t work. After much searching and fiddling, I took apart the left handlebar switch cluster to check out the switch. The switch was at fault (a screwdriver across the contacts proved that by operating the hazards), but a little WD-40 set it straight. Since it was such a job to get in and out of the switch cluster, I figured I’d fix the horn while I was there since I suspected its switch was also bad. I was correct. A long time, two switch rebuilds, and a lot of finger acrobatics to re-stuff that switch cluster later, the horn, signals, and hazards all work. Next I have to tackle replacing the rusted away crossover pipe. I also took some pictures of the bike with a digital camera from work to post on the web. Oct 27, 1998 I went to the DMV today for the title change. I went ahead and got plates since they prorate the sticker fee. There was $25 tax for buying the bike, and another $28 for the plate/sticker. They had the plate/sticker for me to take with me, but the title will be 6-8 weeks. I also called Fox Valley Cycles on Mill Rd. in Aurora and talked to Michelle about the crossover pipe. She said it was a $15 pipe and that I’d also need a pair of bushings to go between it and the stubs on the side pipes. That was a total of $38. Something didn’t sound right about the installation, but she said I was welcome to come in and look at the microfiche. Oct 29, 1998 I went to Fox Valley Cycles and talked to Michelle again. She looked up all the parts we had talked about on the phone. Then she added in the two $18 clamps she didn’t know I needed and the cost jumped up to $72. I told her it had engine problems and that I wasn’t prepared to spend that much at that time and excused myself. Oh, I also asked her about replacing that plastic side plate that’s missing on the left side. For starters, the bike only came in red and black, that confirms the re-paint I was beginning to suspect. The price for those few ounces of plastic in the wrong color: $127. "Peek and freak" just scratches the surface of that one! Oct 30, 1998 I took the pipes to work and Jim Zmuda welded a scrap of stainless pipe to one side and a scrap of stainless bellows to the other. The pipe stub on the end of the bellows fits into the other pipe and will be clamped there. Oct 31, 1998 I removed the gas tank and spark plugs and listened for any hint of an unusual noise while cranking the engine. There was none that I could detect. In addition, I verified visually that the pistons and valves were all moving as they should. I then spent some time cleaning and polishing. All the chrome came clean and bright with some steel wool. I applied wax afterwards to help protect it. It really looks sharp now! With the pipes and most other chrome cleaned up, I reinstalled the exhaust. A hose clamp was actually enough to hold the halves together. I also replaced the bolt that was missing from the rear support for the left muffler. It was evidently lost when the rear peg was lost. With the whole exhaust installed, the engine sounds much better. The clatter inside is much more pronounced, but the exhaust sounds are very mellow. I found that the screws for the cushion on the sissy-bar were tight despite the fact that the cushion was loose. The problem was that the backing board had been installed backwards and the T-nuts had been pulled out the back. I reversed this when I cut a new board, and it’s nice and tight now. Nov 01, 1998 I pulled the nameplates off the gas tank and fork and repainted the black background around the name. It’s amazing what a difference such a minor detail can make. Nov 03, 1998 After the election and setting up and cleaning my "new" table saw, scroll saw, and drill/driver, I reinstalled the tank nameplates as well as the one on the fork. I used new #4-48 screws for the tank plates since the old ones were a mismatched set and mostly had stripped heads. Dec 02, 1998 I removed the plug wires from the #4 and #3 cylinders, one at a time and together, to see if the knock is related to the power stroke. I had trouble keeping the engine running (probably because I forgot to turn on the gas), but the sound didn’t go away until the engine was just about to die (ie: VERY low RPM). Two more tests to do would be: Run the engine with the #3 or #4 plug removed to see if the knock is compression related. Run the engine and try to relate the knock to every or every-other revolution using a timing light. Dec 21, 1998 I took the replacement engine to the basement to work on it. The main block/trans. is quite heavy, so the hand-truck proved valuable, again. My first reaction as I started sorting through the two boxes full of parts was, "Oh my…(sigh)… what have you gotten yourself into now?" Things always look better sorted out though and this was no exception. Once I got the bolts sorted into piles and started figuring out where some of the other parts belonged, it didn’t seem so bad. In fact, the only significant problem I’ve seen so far is that I’m missing one of the tappets from the exhaust side. I thought having everything mixed up would be a big problem, but it doesn’t look so serious any more. The cams are stamped for position, as are their bearing caps. The shims that go under the tappets are all the same size. The pistons/rods and valves/springs/guides are all still in place. I’ve already played with it enough to know that the engine turns freely and isn’t visibly worn. I also figured out how the clutch works. I haven’t gotten into the trans. yet, and I may not any further than to see how it works (curiosity ya know). Dec 23, 1998 I ran the engine on the bike once again to diagnose the noise. The noise is there whether the plug in #4 fires or not. However, if the #4 plug is completely removed, the noise goes away. This narrows it down to something in #4 for sure. It also means it’s compression related and not the power stroke. Information from Jim Davis and Larry Donley indicate it’s probably at the crank rather than the wrist pin. Hopefully, no serious damage has been done to the crank or rod. I have decided to rebuild the original engine rather than the replacement. There are some parts missing from the replacement and I don’t really know its condition since I can’t reach Richie. It’s been taken apart much further than the original engine would need to be (probably). I’m worried about rebuilding the replacement and then finding out it’s no good. The gasket kit would then be wasted. My hope is that the original engine has a loose rod cap and that there’s no serious damage. If so, I can repair it without any big parts expenses and I’d still have the special gaskets for the top end left over to repair the replacement. If I need to get into the top, I’ll have the gasket kit to rebuilt it. So I’m hedging my bets. I started dismantling the lower end of the replacement engine to see how to do it. The book is useful, but it just isn’t the same until you put a wrench on the real thing. Dec 24, 1998 I continued working on the replacement engine. There’s one thing stopping me from getting the crankcase pulled apart. The main drive (output) chain goes around the crank and the secondary shaft. The crank is in the top part of the crankcase and the secondary shaft is in the bottom part. To remove the secondary shaft, I have to remove the entire clutch mechanism and the oil pump. The clutch center nut was massively over-tightened and the secondary shaft nut was tightened to its full 98ft-lbs. Without the proper tools to hold the clutch or the crank, I was at a loss. Dec 30, 1998 Upon return from Florida, I had the idea to use the splines on the transmission output to hold the clutch while loosening the center nut. A pipe wrench worked very well since the teeth of the splines didn’t let the teeth of the wrench slip and were also hard enough not to sustain damage. With it out of the way, I removed the snap ring and gear from the end of the secondary shaft opposite the nut. With the pipe wrench on that spline, I was able to get the nut off. Then I was able to get the crankcase apart and get to the rods I wanted to get to. Now I know just how to do it on the other engine. Jan 01, 1999 I began dismantling the bike to get the engine out. Having a book for this part is very handy. I’m following their directions for removal/installation figuring that I’ll have a better chance of not forgetting something that way. Jan 02, 1999 I removed everything necessary to get the engine out of the frame. Now I just need to get a couple of strong backs to help me undo the mounts and wrestle it out of there. Jan 07, 1999 I put the chain sprocket back on the tranny output shaft, and reattached the rear brake pedal. Then I put the tranny in fifth gear, applied the rear brake, and used it to hold the secondary shaft so that I could crack the nut loose. That worked very well. Then I opened up the clutch cover, which was a big pain due to the screws being frozen in place and lousy Philips heads instead of something a tool can grip. Once that was finally off, I disassembled the clutch and tried to release the clutch center nut. All I could do wasn’t quite enough to get it. I broke my ½" breaker-bar on it and I was afraid to pull any harder because I was using a 1-1/4" socket on a 30mm (1-3/16") nut. Jan 09, 1999 I got the clutch center nut loosened with the help of a ¾" drive ratchet wrench and a 1-3/16" socket from work. I also had a ¾" drive electric impact wrench from work just in case the bar didn’t do the trick. With both of those tough ones off, I should be able to yank the engine apart very quickly, once I get some help to get it out of the bike. I also don’t have to worry about mangling the splines with a pipe wrench. Jan 16, 1999 Jim Cumpata and Miles helped me remove the engine from the frame and take it down to the workshop. Jan 19, 1999 I began to work on getting the case halves separated. I found myself unable to remove the three Philips-drive, flat-head screws that hold the oil pump and secondary shaft bearing retainer. After yet another reading of the manual, I found that they suggest using an impact driver to remove them. Jan 20, 1999 With the help of an impact driver from work, the oil pump/retainer screws came out easily. I’ve added an impact screwdriver to my shopping list! I got the case apart and found that the #4 rod was quite loose around the crank. I removed the bearing cap and found that the bearing shells had come dislodged, spun, wound up on top of each other, and had since been beaten into one piece. It is obviously two pieces, but I don’t even know if they could be separated, should I be so inclined. The rod journal is marred significantly, but the bearings from another rod seem to fit fine. The crank has a "skid mark" on half of the bearing’s circumference, centrally located. Both edges of the bearing surface are intact and the center section that was affected is still smooth, though not polished. The rest of the engine looks clean. I don’t see any debris near the other rods. Furthermore, the rods are each on the end of separate legs of the oil system. Once the oil comes out at a given rod, there is no chance of shrapnel traveling on to another rod or other bearing. The oil does travel up the same rod to the wrist pin, but it is a VERY small hole and, moving the rod side to side on the wrist pin, I can neither see nor feel any mark on that bearing surface. Jan 21, 1999 I plasti-gauged one of the good rod bearings and compared that with the substitute bearing in the bad location. The bad one measured okay, but I think I’ll use a micrometer to measure it in several spots to see what the actual shape of the crank/rod journal is. Jan 23, 1999 I used a digital caliper from work to measure the crank and rod journal. There is a spot on the crank where about 10/1000ths have been worn away, but it looks fine everywhere else. That worn spot is a small section in the middle of the bearing surface. The edges are fine all the way around. I ordered the bearing shells ($14.47/ea), and the missing tappet from the other engine ($25.08) from Fox Valley Cycle for a total of $58.07, after tax. I should get them in a week or so. Jan 26, 1999 Since I forgot to ask about oil and air filters, I had to call Fox Valley Cycle again. The oil filter is $8.71,which is tolerable. The air filter is $39! Michelle, at Fox Valley Cycle, told me that there are after market air filters that can save me money, but she says they lean out the mix. So, if the bike was running rich, after market air filters are fine. If it was lean, they’d be bad. I think I’ll use the old air filter for a while. I finished polishing the crank lobe with red (fine) Scotch-Brite. I also cleaned up the rod journal as well as I could, but I’m being less particular there because I’d rather have just a little roughness than open up the journal any more. Maybe the roughness will help hold the bearing from spinning again. Then again, oil in the engine should pretty well take care of that! Jan 29, 1999 FVC got the bearings in, but they were the wrong ones. There were two "lower shells" as the diagram showed, but there should have been a lower (without hole) and an upper (with hole). A call to "the Kawasaki guru" straightened it all out and got the right part ordered. Feb 03, 1999 The correct bearing, as well as the tappet, came in and I picked them up on my way home. I also picked up an oil filter and a tube of "Yamabond-4" for joining the crankcase halves. I plasti-gauged the new bearings in their new home and all seemed well, so I cleaned that off and installed them for good. I cleaned the mating surfaces of the crankcase halves and joined them after applying the Yamabond. I installed the secondary shaft and its components and the oil pump. I used my new impact driver to set the screws and then re-peened them to keep them from loosening. Then I realized that I should have cleaned off the sump gasket BEFORE installing the lower crankcase half. A long while later, I had that cleaned off the crankcase and the sump ("pan") without getting too much into the crankcase. I traced the new gasket on cardboard for the other engine before installing it and the sump. The book claimed it was a good idea to fill the oil filter reservoir with oil while installing the filter and while the engine was upside-down. This caused leaks all over the place since the sides of the engine are still apart, but most of it did stay in there. The leaks also stopped once I turned the engine upright again. At this point I realized that I had not checked carefully the alignment of the three tranny forks while I was joining the crankcase halves. I spun the tranny input shaft by hand and shifted up and down through the gears. It worked most of the time, but hung up on occasion. I’ll have to try to look in from a hole in the side to see if everything is where it should be, but I kind of doubt it would work as well as it does if something was out of place. I believe the present lack of oil, output load, and input shaft speed/consistency account for what I’m seeing. Feb 04, 1999 LID seconded the notion that the transmissions act funny when run by hand on the bench. He says that I’d have two gears engaged at once if I had misplaced the forks. That would lunch up the tranny. I’m not having that happen, so I think it’s okay. What it’s doing is failing to fully switch gears. The star wheel on the right side gets hung up on a peak rather than going all the way to the next valley. Providing tension on the output shaft and continuing to turn the input shaft causes it to fully engage immediately. I also notice that it works more consistently if I shift in sync with spinning the input shaft. I did a massive amount of cleaning on the outer surfaces of the engine. I then cleaned and installed the gear-selector cover and the clutch cage. Then I cleaned the outside some more. Feb 05, 1999 I cleaned the chain. Feb 06, 1999 Miles and Jim helped me carry the engine up from the basement and install it in the frame. I tried to connect the chain so as to be able to tighten the secondary shaft nut and clutch center nut, but found the chain too short. I tried everything I could think of including loosening the engine mounts and jacking it up, but I couldn’t make up the difference. I finally decided I’d have to adjust the wheel to make it fit, despite the fact that nothing there had been moved and it was the same chain. To make a long story short, the axle bolt got screwed up and now I need a new one, but the chain fits. Ironically, the tensioners were out further when I was finished than when I started. I don’t know what moved, but at least I finally got the secondary shaft and clutch center nuts torqued down so I can build the rest of the engine. With that done, I removed the chain again and began soaking it in gear-lube. I also installed the air-filter chamber , the carburetors, and the alternator/left crank cap. The gasket on that side was shot, but I had a very hard time getting its remains off. Since I had not got the surface completely clean and the gasket is really only there to keep water out, I used some of the Yamabond rather than the new paper gasket. I figured that would close up the gaps better. Feb 10, 1999 A late start to Jury Duty allowed me time to get the old axle to Jim Zmuda. He’s going to try to fabricate a replacement. The afternoon and evening was spent finishing the assembly of the bike (minus rear axle, of course). I tried to get it started shortly after ten o’clock in the evening. At first it didn’t show any signs of life but, after a short battery charging and full choke, it fired up. Everything seemed normal except that there is still a knocking sound. It’s much less pronounced than it was before and may not actually be the same thing. I’ll have to run it again with the #4 plug removed to determine that. It almost sounds like it’s coming from around the #3 exhaust port, but I believe that to be wishful thinking and nothing more. The fact of the matter, I am fairly certain, is that I was unable to measure the rod journal and crank bearing with the resolution necessary to achieve a true repair. The tachometer is loose in it’s case and doesn’t respond very readily to engine speed changes. I’ll need to look into that as well. Feb 11, 1999 I played with the Kow some more and I'm convincing myself that the noise I hear is coming from the #3 exhaust port. When I remove the plug from the #4 cylinder, the noise continues, though it's harder to hear with the air puffing in and out of the open hole. If I pull the #3 plug wire, the noise stops. I removed and refitted the exhaust on the right side of the bike. When I finished that, the noise seemed to be gone at first, but then came back, only not as noticeably. There is definitely something wrong with the way that side of the exhaust system fits up. It seems to be binding on the frame, and I don't remember it doing that before. The crossover pipe isn’t straight any more either. I'll have to take that side off again to install the axle, so I'll play with it more then. I started trying to tighten up the tachometer mounting when I was finished with the noise experiments. Before long, I had the whole instrument/indicator cluster and the headlight/turn signals assembly off. I had really wanted to get to that mess of wiring that someone had wrapped in a zip-lock bag and tucked behind the headlight anyway, so I figured now was as good a time as any. It took some study of the schematic (luckily marked with color codes) to figure out what had been done, but I finally did. The biggest mass of wiring was actually a whole extra headlight/turn signal wiring harness. That had been plugged into the existing harness and then "hacked" to work with some retro-fitted turn signals. Apparently, the proper ones for the front have dual-element bulbs so they can be on at one level and blink brighter. The new turn signals are like the rear ones and only have one element. I'm not sure why that change would require the addition of a whole new harness, but it could have been the admirable urge to not butcher the existing harness, since the plugs don't mate. I'm going to put plugs on the turn signal wiring that will mate to the old harness, so I'm removing the extra one. I'm still working on that, but I got the speedometer and tachometer remounted and I put the indicator light panel back in. I also remounted the headlight bracket. The headlight shell has two large holes in the back of it so that the wiring harnesses can get inside and connect together out of the weather. These were previously unused because of the extra harness, but I am using them as they were intended. Feb 13, 1999 I finished rewiring the front end. I was wrong about the single filament in the front turn signals. There are only two wires sticking out of the stalk. The common lead is the case. That doesn't work very well if you lose the ground strap because of all the rubber bushings. Since the two filaments are connected together at one end (common), a voltage applied across the other leads will light them both up, only less intensely than either one by itself. I added ground lugs and wired the rest properly and now have "running lights" and turn signals. I also got it all jammed up into the headlight housing where it belongs. The front end is MUCH cleaner looking now. I then moved to the seat. I dismantled the whole thing for starters. Then, since I broke some of the metric bolts taking it apart, I tapped the holes out to 1/4-20 and put in new, English bolts for the hinges and latch. Without the padding or cover to get in the way, I was able to tell in what way the seat wasn't fitting properly. I found one of the hinges to be bent incorrectly. I "adjusted" that and got the fit I wanted (all frame-seat pads seated properly and latch working). I put the seat cover on for fit and discovered that it fit much better as a seat cover (ie: using only the drawstring) than it had as upholstery (ie: they had used the metal cleats that the original upholstery had used... which were rusting off). I scraped and wire-brushed the rust off the seat frame and painted it. The drawstring was coming away from the rest of the cover at the back, left corner, so sewed that back together and added a patch for strength (inside) while I waited for the paint to dry. The funny thing is that I had no intention of doing the wiring or the seat right away. It is only because of the axle that this all got done in this most timely fashion. Kind of a blessing in disguise. Feb 14, 1999 The seat is installed. The very last item was the chain guard, which I cleaned. I won’t install it until the rear wheel is settled. Feb 16, 1999 Jim Zmuda started machining a new axle for me. He’s going to turn a piece of ¾" stock into 17mm, thread both ends, weld a nut on one end for the head, and drill a hole in the other end for the cotter pin. Feb 17, 1999 Jim Zmuda finished my axle and I went out to Trak for the castle nut. I put it all together and it’s perfect! I reinstalled the exhaust and chain guard and rechecked several things for tightness. The hose clamp on the exhaust crossover wouldn’t hold the pipes together and eventually stripped as I was trying to tighten it more. Other than that, all’s well. I was going to wait for daylight for the maiden voyage, but couldn’t contain my excitement and went at about 8:30 pm. It was a very enjoyable ride. I am anxious for nicer weather so I can take it out more! All went well, for the first time out, but there are some things that need a little attention. So far, my list includes the following: 1) Tire pressure (I think they're empty) Feb 18, 1999 I inflated the tires and went for a ride. 27 degrees is too cold to go very far! The speedometer acts very strangely. It reads all over the map, going quite high at first and then more or less settling near the actual speed, plus/minus 5mph. Later I adjusted the chain tension and the clutch linkage. I also cut a slot in the solid part of the exhaust crossover pipe so that the new hose-clamp could crimp it to the bellows better. That leaves items 4-8 on the above list that still need to be done, in addition to the new speedometer problem. I’ve now got 25586.9 miles on it. Taking a guess at distances ridden in the past two days, I think I started with about 25582. I meant to check that before the first ride so as to have an idea how many miles I put on the rebuilt engine. Feb 20, 1999 I put another handful of miles on the Kow. It was about 28 degrees and even snowed a little. The slight adjustments in the chain tension and clutch were successful. The exhaust also stayed together. The tachometer and speedometer seem to have cured themselves with use. Both were responding properly throughout the ride. The ride was better too thanks to proper tire pressure. I had put them to 40psi, as per the sidewall. The manual recommended 25-28 for my kind of riding, so I lowered them to that. Apparently one only needs to use the 41psi value for heavier loads or speeds in excess of 110mph. The suspension feels fine with the proper tire pressure, and I no longer suspect it as part of the headlight problem. The to-do list now looks like this: Feb 27, 1999 I installed an edge protector in the right hole in the rear of the headlight to take the place of the missing rubber grommet. I also worked on the horn. After disconnecting it and removing it from its mount, I tested it across the battery. I found that the low output must be in the wiring since the horn directly across the battery was fairly loud. The switch was all but completely fried when I got the bike, so I imagine the bad connection is still in there. I’m thinking of installing a relay (ie: use the switch to power a relay and use the relay to power the horn) since I don’t imagine I’ll get any more out of that switch and I really have no interest in replacing it. If I did that, my choices for horns would be wide open too (ie: not limited by the capacity of the switch). I could put a real horn on the bike so people might hear it if I ever use it. Then again, maybe they’d just look around for the car/truck/train that goes with the sound rather than realize it’s coming from my bike. Mar 18, 1999 I tried to buy a helmet at FVC, but they didn't have the Shoei RF-800 in large. The medium seemed too tight and the XL was too loose. I'm going to hold out to try the large. Mar 20, 1999 Miles came out and we went for a ride. The bike runs well up to about 4k rpm. Then the clatter gets pretty pronounced. I think I'll rebuild that other engine and give it a try. Mar 23, 1999 I went back to FVC for the large helmet. I tried it, liked it, and bought it. I also joined the AMA and picked up a couple of bolts I needed for the replacement engine. Mar 24, 1999 I went back to FVC to straighten out a problem with my helmet bill. While I was there, I picked up another bolt and an oil filter for the replacement engine. I found the bolt FVC didn't have at Penn's True Value. It's funny that, as tiny as that store is, they had the best selection of metric fasteners of any of the hardware stores I tried. Mar 25, 1999 Frank found the 9.5mm ball bearing I needed for the throw-out bearing on the replacement engine's clutch. Mar 27, 1999 Miles came out today and we assembled the black (replacement) engine for the Kow. Though I was sure I had cleaned the gaskets off of everything, we had to take time out to clean off the sump gasket and the valve cover gasket. We lost a couple of hours to that task. We also lost time having to redo the cam settings. We built the top end first and then went to the bottom. I made the mistake of turning the engine a bit . Without the lower half of the crankcase in place, the cam chain is free to skip teeth on the crank. We finished with the lower half and returned to the top to reset for the skipped teeth. That's when we discovered that the lower crankcase traps the chain on the crank gear. We had to either pull the cams out or pull the bottom apart again. Redoing to top was not hard, but we lost a lot of time deciding what to do and duplicating the earlier work. It was getting late, so we installed the engine in the frame minus several covers. Before we quit for the day, we had the engine in the frame, and the two big nuts (clutch center and secondary shaft) tightened to the proper torque. We hadn't even put in all the engine mounts, but we got everything I needed a second person for. Mar 28, 1999 I assembled the rest of the engine so that I could fill it with oil and turn it over. I figured it would be better to hear valves crunching before the whole bike was back together. I had to use the clutch-lever/chain cover, the ignition timing unit cover (right side of crank), and the timing chain tensioner from the silver (plain aluminum) engine since the black engine came without those parts. The alternator cover for the black engine has serious road-rash so, with all the other silver parts, I decided to use the one from the silver engine. That meant only the clutch cover would be black to match the engine, and that was a bad paint job that had runs and didn't even cover the bottom. The logical thing to do was to strip the black paint off the clutch cover, so all the covers would be silver. Miles was right about Bix. It works wonders on gaskets... even ones you have no intention of replacing. When the time came to spin the engine, it turned out the starter clutch was no good. It works sometimes and not others. I can live with that until I know if the engine is worth starting. Once the bike was all back together, I tried to start it. When nothing happened after much cranking, I looked around and found I had forgotten to connect the leads to the ignition coils. After that, I still had nothing. It backfired once and just about scared me to death. That's when I called it quits for the night. Possible reasons I've hypothesized so far for the backfire are: Possible reasons for not starting include all of those in addition to possibly flooding the engine by cranking it with the ignition coils disconnected. I also can't rule out something else that may be wrong that I haven't discovered yet. I know I'm getting spark and I'd imagine gas is necessary for a backfire. Unless it was flooded, I think I have a timing problem. Mar 29, 1999 I took the valve cover off the silver engine and compared the timing marks to the setup on the black engine. They matched. I used a timing light to check that 1&4 coil was sparking at the right time and had not been swapped with 2&3. It was correct. I checked the compression. #2 cylinder only has 40psi (should be ~125). The other three have none at all. My options now include the following: Mar 31, 1999 I talked to Rich Vitt about the crank/rod swapping and he strongly discouraged it. There are balancing issues even if everything is supposed to be the same, and these two engines may be very different if the black one is indeed off a GPz model as the previous owner suggested. I did a leak-down test (pump compressed air into the plug hole and listen for the leak which you can hear since the starter is not running). That confirmed that the leaking was in the valves. Some were intake, some were exhaust, and some were both. I swapped the heads and, after some starter clutch problems, had it running by 11:00pm. I took it for a run up and down the road then and it seems to rev just fine now. I didn't want to go too nuts with it since it was the first trip out. I did notice that the tach read about 5k at 60mph instead of the other one's 4500. I suppose that's a difference in gearing for the GPz model. Oh, and what a difference that new Shoei makes! I could see where I was going and hear what was around me! I love it! The starter clutch, which was intermittent before, is mostly-bad now. The deciding factor seems to be the compression in the engine. Since, if all is well, the bike starts very easily, it is possible to start it by repeatedly tapping the starter button. Sooner or later, it hits it just right and turns one piston past compression before it lets go, and the bike starts. I'll have to replace that, now that the rest of the engine is known to be good, but I hate to tear it all apart again right now. Apr 06, 1999 I had the thought that I might be able to weasel the oil pan off the engine with it in place on the bike. I saw that it would clear the frame, so I started in on it. I had to remove the exhausts, drain the oil, and remove the oil filter before I could pull the pan. I had to remove the clutch lever/chain cover to access the secondary shaft nut cover and the nut under it. I put the bike in gear and used the rear brake to hold the shaft while I loosened the nut. Then I removed the clutch cover and clutch pressure plate and again held the tranny with the rear brake while loosening the clutch center nut. With the clutch removed, I was able to remove the secondary shaft bearing retainer and the oil pump. Finally, I was able then to remove the secondary shaft and the starter clutch. I pulled the starter clutch from the silver engine and installed it. Then I put everything back together. The whole process took a little over four hours… three of which were past my bedtime. I was driven to finish it by the forecasts for 70+ temperatures for the next day. I made one final check for forgotten parts and then hit the starter. Low and behold, it cranked fine and fired right up! Apr 07, 1999 I gassed up in town and then headed off to work. The ride in was cold, but not freezing. My hands were pretty well inoperable when I got there and the defrost pain was pretty intense (as it always seems to be), but that wasn't the first time they'd been frozen and probably won't be the last. I took a short trip to the credit union at lunch time and wound up covering 10 miles for what could have been a one mile round-trip. It was just too nice to go back to work! I did finally go back, but not in. I was having trouble with my right rear turn signal. I found that the crimp-on connector had been installed right over the insulation. I guess it had pierced the insulation enough to work before, but now had moved enough not to. I pried open the crimp, stripped the end of the wire, and reinstalled the connector. It's working well now. The ride home in the wind was not very nice at all. 30+ mph winds are not to be messed with on a bike, out in the open… the corn's not even up yet to slow it down! The bike performed very well though and I had no mechanical problems all day (other than trouble staying on the bike and keeping the bike on the road). The only problems left are the horn being too wimpy and (I've found recently) that the turn signal automatic canceling unit isn't functioning properly. Neither is a high priority. My experience with car horns is that you rarely have occasion to use one when evasive action would not be a more useful way to spend the little time you have before a collision. The most common other use for a car horn is usually to express anger and that's never a good thing, especially on a motorcycle! The turn signals I can take care of myself. Having a backup to keep me from driving miles at a time with a signal on would be nice. I'll still usually do it myself anyway, lest I come to rely on the device and then ride a bike without such a device and have problems. I was mistaken about the gearing (see Mar 31 entry). I may have missed 5th gear when I saw that. In 5th, it still turns right around 4500 rpm for 60mph. That pretty well wraps up the log for the '82 Kawasaki 750 Ltd fix-up. It had 25639.5 miles on the odometer at the end of the starter clutch replacement. I'm calling that the end of the rebuild. I'll be back with more if necessary, but I hope not to. Apr 1999 The bike was leaving a small puddle of oil under itself after sitting for a day or more. It never seemed like much. Furthermore, there was no burning oil smell off the engine while driving (or right after) and no blue smoke or odd smell out of the tail pipes. However, I was always running low on oil somehow. I snugged the oil sump bolts just a bit. Then I wiped the engine down really well and drove it to and from work. Once it cooled off, I checked again for a leak. The bottom of the engine was dry, for a change, so the sump tightening was a success. Oil was still dripping off two other places, but now I was able to find it. The more major one was the O-ring that seals the cap over the secondary shaft nut. I replaced that with the cap/O-ring from the other engine, and the problem stopped. The final leak was where the gear-changer cover meets the block. I tightened the screws in the area, and the leak went away. BTW: as tight as those philips-head screws are, I'd never consider working on a motorcycle without that impact screwdriver! I can't figure out why they even use that type of screw instead of something with a positive-grip like a hex-head. Aug 04, 1999 While I was in the book, I stumbled across a better explanation of how to get the proper oil level. It tells you to fill it so that the window is half full. Then start the bike and run it for a minute so the oil gets pumped around. Then shut it off, wait "awhile", and check it again. Both checks are done with the engine off and the oil is supposed to stay in the window. The one thing they don't say is whether or not it is supposed to be on the center stand. It said that in another part of the book, but they don't tell you whether or not to run the engine in that other part. I'm beginning to believe I have been trying to keep WAY too much oil in the engine and that the problem that the excess oil cures is really caused by something else. Aug 05, 1999 For starters, if I put in only as much oil as they call for, my tranny clatters like a can of pennies. If I add some more (until the sight glass is half full with the engine running), the tranny quiets down very noticably. Driving that way seems fine. However, after a couple hundred miles, I've lost enough oil that it starts acting up. The noise doesn't come back right away, but it becomes very hard to start, very unstable at idle, and hardly has enough power to pull itself from a stop. Once I coax it up to about 2800rpm, it runs like a scared rabbit. My plugs could have all been the models for the textbook pictures of "what a perfectly adjusted engine makes a plug look like". The sparks are there. The plugs are not fouled with oil or gas. Absolutely nothing seems to be wrong. Similary, nothing seems to help; except oil. If I add 4-8oz of oil (depending on how long I ride it after the symptoms start), the problem goes away completely. It starts in about a half-turn of the engine. It will idle fine on full choke for about 20 seconds, and then faulter. Then I move to about half-choke (it varies with weather) and find a spot where it goes to a high idle and stays there, steady, for the rest of warm-up. None of that happens when it is ill either. So basically, 4-8oz of oil are all that stand between it being a joy to ride and it being a pain to ride. Oh, and at no point is the oil level on the sight-glass with the engine off (it looks overfilled) and it's always at least visible in the sight-glass with the engine running, so I know I'm not really low. I suppose, if I were smart, I'd get it to where it was happy, and then drain it to see how much I've got. I'd really prefer to understand the problem so I could always have it run well. Sep 08, 1999 BTW: I've been adding oil to the engine at the rate of 4oz per 100 miles, or every gas stop. That's a quart per 800 miles, which, at least according to Ford, isn't bad. Since I started doing this, the previously mentioned engine troubles (poor running, etc) have not occurred. Sep 11, 1999 JimZ got it repaired just after that sentence was updated. I put it back together and, after a little work giving the needle axle something to ride on so it didn’t hit the input shaft, it works. It’s about 8mph slow. Sep 19, 1999 Sep 23, 1999 Sep 24, 1999 |