Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

The petrol step was mainly to rinse out as much of the liquid oil as I could, as I said one of them was leaking oil straight off the bike, get rid of the oil with the petrol then the carbon with the NaOH was the plan.

Got the caustic soda from Woolies. A bottle of this into 1.5 litres of water, I ended up making up 9 litres and have some left over:



I used plain rubber door stoppers from Bunnings for the blocking up of one end, and kept them upright and filled them. Anything rubber you can find that's the right shape, if they're small ends Clark Rubber at Fyshwick might have the right size mine were too big for them to handle.

Latest news is that I put the exhausts back on, and it's behaving the same after cleaning out both carbies and the exhaust .

Both headers are hot when it's running, and the front is obviously doing something given the copious amounts of smoke, could it be the oil pump circuit that's faulty and it's flooding the front cylinder with oil and making it chug?

Next steps are a compression test, make sure the carbies are synchronised (slide movement) and try to stop the fuel overflow in the rear carb (needle and seat maybe), but what then, that's about the extent of my garage fixing powers...

I have resisted coming in here, but, after reading all this I really need to say one thing. Please strip the entire motor and gearbox and replace all the seals. If you don't it is going to be an expensive hand grenade....trust me!!!!

I would strip it in a second if I knew they were all available . You'd probably not be surprised how many bits are coming back NLA from Kawasaki .

I have to agree with Marty. What you're doing works OK when you're getting an old 4-stroke going, but old 2-strokes are a completely different kettle of fish.

You should be able to find some of the stuff that Kawasaki are listing as NLA as NOS on stock ebay or other websites around the place....you just need to be patient and try to find them.

If it were and old RD/RZ it's important, but with a KR or a KR1S, i would 100% strip it and replace anything which even resembles a seal or gasket. They go mint when they are right, but if anything is not sealing they tend to literally explode.

I have had a couple of these in the shed over the years, after hearing the sound of yours I really think you have big end trouble, hopefully the rods won't be flogged out too.

I would at the very least pull the barrels off and check for up and down play in the rods, there should be zero play, a little side to side is ok.

The KR tandan had a habit of spinning the main bearings out of the cases, a sympton of this was very hard starting but as yours seemed to start right up you may be in with a little luck there.
That said if the bigs are buggered it is likely due to lack of oil or oil that has not been changed in a very long time, the mains are housed in the same area so they could be on the way out also.

You just need to remember when you buy do up bikes you usually have to do something to everything, it's part of the process:-)

metaltriumph wrote:Wow - thats alot of sludge.

Im restoring a yami 2-stroke from 69,

what is your 69 Yam?, I have a 67 YDS5E and a 69 YR3.

I have a manual for one of these if you're chasing one. also critical is the condition of the rotary reed valves du to the speed they rotate. one thing I found a problem and caused me to move my project on was the lack of piston availability and head gaskets, I beleiev they were looking at KE125 pistons at one stage but unsure if anyone had any luck.

DJ

No progress of late, but it looks like I will end up buying some seals and probably pulling the barrels off. Maybe I will be lucky and I don't have to remove the heads (head gasket NLA).

I have a Kawasaki manual for it thanks

Bogan wrote:No progress of late, but it looks like I will end up buying some seals and probably pulling the barrels off. Maybe I will be lucky and I don't have to remove the heads (head gasket NLA).

Still no progress other than it's back in our garage for the first time in 8 months. Looks like in order to get it running properly I'll have to pull the engine down, any ideas what tests I should do while it still 'runs' other than an attempt at a compression test and pulling alternating plug leads off to see if one pot is running better than the other?

For head gaskets contact Lani at gasketman@cox.net, in Texas US, he will make you some if you send him samples.

You can buy a cheap but effective compression test kit from this ebay seller, http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 0354464942 , the kit costs less than $30.00 delivered.

it can be registered again if it was registered before (in nsw anyway) take the vin to the rta (or whatever its called now) and see if they can search to see if was registered, if it was get a certificate of identity (cost around 30 bucks 2 years ago). did this with an '83 xv750 i had that was an orphan with no compliance plate. found it had been regisitered and with that document it breezed through.

Yeah sorry I ended up finding out that it has a compliance plate attached.

This abandoned project is now for sale. KR250 tandem twin including all fairings (average condition) seats which need recovering, a new full engine gasket set and a factory Kawasaki workshop manual.

I have not the time or the inclination sadly to move any further with this project so I would like to see it go to someone who will work on getting it running and ride it.

PM me or call or text 04 six six 42 six four 26.

$500 ono pick up from Canberra or I can arrange for your freight guy to pick it up at your expense.