top end rebuild (and pics)

[EGG]

Hi all

I picked up a slightly sorry 1988 KR-1 2 years ago and have been gradually working on getting it back into shape. I'm afraid I don't have original pics, but the bike had been sprayed black, busted fairings and 48k on the odometer.

So far I've had the fairings/wheels fixed up and gotten new brakes/tyres onto it (still need to fix the forks). Most of the bike is intact and while still pretty dusty, in reasonable condition.

Bike is being kept in the house at the moment (bachelor's life haha!)





Fairings waiting to go on. It took a while and some fiddling to get a tank-sticker made up for the thing...





However I do have a couple of questions. I'm about to rebuild the top-end and haven't had any experience with kawasaki's before. From searching here I gather people use Cradley's, but I've noticed they don't seem to have gudgeon pins available?

http://www.kawasakioriginalparts.com/ka ... 1989&ca=GB

Lastly, I've had this cable leftover by the paint shop, and I'm not really sure what it's from? Most of the indicator/headlight cables are still on there.

Cheers for any help

[falconman]

Looks like the side stand switch.

[EGG]

Ok, thanks falconman. I'm not sure how that got there..

I think I understand now why there weren't any replies on the pistons, I've been reading up on it and it's a bit more complex than just getting oem pistons from somewhere like RGV's.

Anyway, the bike is on the bench and heads/barrels are off.

I should have mentioned above, that was 48,000km on the odometer, not miles. But still I'm not sure this engine has ever been apart, the nuts holding the heads/barrels on, and the locking screws in the powervalve gizmo don't appear to have been mushed in the past.

One of the cylinders is kind of scored. I'm not certain if I need to look into re-plating it


guilty piston


better cylinder


Is there anything non-RGV I should look at replacing while the whole thing is apart? I was looking at the powervalve seals on top, but they seem mostly ok for the mileage.

[JanBros]

One of the cylinders is kind of scored. I'm not certain if I need to look into re-plating it

it is definitly in need for a replate

[Luders]

They both need to be replated, contact these guys....
http://www.poetonaptec.co.uk/apticote.htm

Mitaka make piston kits, which are fine to use in my opinion.

[EGG]

Cheers for that, am looking into shipping them off for replating.

One more question, drained the gearbox oil out, and what came out filled up a 2L icecream container.. I was expecting (hoping) for ~850mL. There wasn't any coolant or fuel in it. Could 2T oil have gotten through? Refilling it with mineral oil and it drank 1.8L and counting. The engine is tilted forwards about 20 degrees to get at the barrels currently, I'm not sure if that could affect it. I spent a while searching here, but only one guy mentioned a similar issue but without any answer.

[Luders]

Fill it when the engine is in a level position

[EGG]

Hi luders

I can get my head around tilting the engine forward and being able to overfill it, but tilting it forward and 2L of oil comes out of something that holds 0.85?

[Luders]

Yeah it's not normal, but I can't explain it

[JanBros]

just empty it complete and fill up with 0.85 l. only after a ride, check the level.

[500bernie]

Hi Egg,

0.85L is what should be in it, if you filled it up when it was not level you would need to put much more oil in to reach the required level.
Either that, or you have just solved the oil crisis =D>

Cheers
Bernie

[EGG]

Hi again

Engine has been righted, oil drained and refilled at 0.85L. I'll see how it goes when the bike is up and running.

On mitaka pistons, after much googling I've found 1.5 piston kits on ebay, which isn't really where I'd like to try sourcing important things from. The local kwaka dealers don't import them, and there's little mention of them on the web, other than a mitaka.co.uk website run from liverpool. Where do you guys usually source these from?

[martin]

you can buy mitaka pistons/rings from pj engineering. [they sell spare rings as well.]

[EGG]

Barrels have come back, much cleaner and new sleeves.

For anyone else shipping stuff to the UK from outside the EU, find out what the import code you need is beforehand, otherwise UK customs will wallop you..

[Luders]

They have been replated and honed. Looks like a good job based on the looks of the ports and how they have been dressed.

Who did you send them to?