Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

ZRX1200R:
pitted cams expensive on a Kawasaki-

$117.85 for one rocker X 16= $1885.60

plus $846.95 for a cam- pair $1693.90

$3579.50 in parts- plus labour- they had to pull the engine in my ZZR1200 to fit! FARK!!!!!!

Thank f*ck my Kwakas have perfect cams!

They were pretty insistent on regrinding the cams and rockers on my 12- I insisted on new genuine parts- wonder if they did or just fitted reground ones?

I had both my ZRX1200S and ZZR1200 done for pitted cams.

Both costs were met by Kawasaki Australia. They sent the cams away for regrind.
ZRX was done at 50,000km. Now, at 113,000 there is no pitting.
ZZR similar - regrind, no pitting.

They supplied a whole bunch of cam followers.

Bill.

Good to hear, Bill. My ZZR cams were pitted at 20000km. Sold the bike at 30000km, so dunno if it returned. Wasn't a huge fan of ZZR1200- did 30000k in 5 years. ZRX I bought in end of July last year have done 14000km so far. Done 74000km on my two ZRXes in nearly 6 years, and I have lots of other bikes to ride.

Slightly unrelated but I had pitted cams fixed up on my old GSXR1100 many moons ago. Sent them to a place called Ivan Tighe Engineering in Qld somewhere. Cost me $1200 all up including the labour to get them out/put back in.

My ZRX has nearly 100K on it, mechanic said there was no pitting on my cams when it was in for its last service. It will however need a few shims at the next service.

Not bad for 100 easy k's

I really think the cam pitting issue is down to how the bike is ridden- I have owned GPZ900R, ZZR1100, ZZR1200 and two ZRX1200R- the only bike of these to pit the cams was the one I babied while running in(ran it in easy for over 3000km) - the others flogged. All the bikes mentioned have a very similar engine. The worst one of this family of engines to suffer cam pitting is the GTR1000- probably pussed along more so than the others

Bollocks!

I don't baby any of mine. It is a metallurgy thing. If it was riding style, then my reground ones should be pitting again, but they're not.

Ahhhhhhhh debate!

No! Don't want to. See other forums! Done to death.

When they rebuilt the top end of my ZRX1200r, the Cams were pitted, and that was at 40,000km.


Cheers
KiwiMat

hmmmm better keep an eye on the cams in the 1000RX then.......from the same family as all you youngster ZRX's etc.... its like the Granddaddy of the ZZR/ZRX family

I remember reading this from the ZRXOC when I first researched the problem with my ZRX. Don't know how much truth is in there but interesting to here from others with the same bike. Hope this is useful to someone here. Link to full discussion below.
http://www.zrxocboard.com/board/showthr ... nd-pitting

"Camshaft wear is almost exclusively a 1200 problem, you won't ever see a set of worn ZRX1100 cams. You do get pitted ZZR1100 cams, but nowhere near as bad as ZZR1200 ones go."

"To the OP, Kaw cams pit because Kaw didn't spend the money to properly harden the cam surface and/or because Kaw's low-budget cam supplier allowed impurities into the cam metal during manufacture. All Kaws with this basic engine suffer from cam pitting, ZZRs, ZRXs, Concours, and the like. Kaw assumed the bikes would be out of warranty when the problem was discovered. It takes a lot of pitting to cause engine problems, though some say the circulating detritus can't be good for the oil pump. Kaw uses the "no harm" argument to avoid warranty repairs when the problem occurs within the warranty period, though Kaw Australia has been very good about post-warranty fixes for bad cams. Kaw loaded the problem onto the end user so you have to figure out what to do."

Cheers
KiwiMat

Hmm that article says ALL ZZR1200 cams pit. Interesting. I think I have ZZR cams in Eduardo- it goes harder and idles lumpier than Eddie. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned incorrect valve clearance causing pitting. I wonder.... Too loose by a large degree may cause the rocker/ cam to smash into each other harder????

bonester wrote:Hmm that article says ALL ZZR1200 cams pit. Interesting. I think I have ZZR cams in Eduardo- it goes harder and idles lumpier than Eddie. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned incorrect valve clearance causing pitting. I wonder.... Too loose by a large degree may cause the rocker/ cam to smash into each other harder????

Poor hardening. Nothing to do with clearances.

Strika wrote:

bonester wrote:Hmm that article says ALL ZZR1200 cams pit. Interesting. I think I have ZZR cams in Eduardo- it goes harder and idles lumpier than Eddie. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned incorrect valve clearance causing pitting. I wonder.... Too loose by a large degree may cause the rocker/ cam to smash into each other harder????

Poor hardening. Nothing to do with clearances.

+1 when reground there case hardened .
Edit ,At least buy good cam mobs