Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Holy Hell!!! (I shoulda taken pics)

I went to quickly take off my engine sprocket cover to check 1st hand how many teeth are on the front sprocket (15, ie: Normal Stock!).... anyway, my cover was harboring a massive amount of grade A garden compost! It had twigs, sticks, dirt, rocks, pebbles, grease, oil, hair, a banana peel and some egg shells stuck in there (okay, the last two i made up)
BUT DAMN, I don't know how the hell the chain was getting through all that crap!
Has anyone else had a look see inside that thing? Has anyone else discovered what I did?

Also, when putting the newly washed cover back on, I snapped the F@rcken speed sensors attaching bolt!! So it is nicely stuck in the bolt hole.... my drill is charging so that I can drill the F@rcker out, so that i can put the damn thing back on!! Had to go buy a new bolt....

bloody hell!!! why does nothing ever go right?! oh, while out I finally got myself a 32mm axle nut 1/2" socket to do chain adjusting... as it needed it AGAIN! (and also some cotter pins to lock the axle nut back in place!)

Welcome to 3 weeks ago! Yep I had mine off (re my epileptic speedo) and found some really yucky muck hiding there...out with the can of degreaser and toothbrush

So what sprocket was in there yankee? it will be a kilo lighter now.

it's 100% stock! 15/40 (2.67 final drive ratio)

I also wanted to ask (cuz i can't find it in the book) what is the hex bolt (allen bolt... whatever?!) that sticks out right behind the front sprocket? looks like it adjusts something? Is that the cam-chain-tensioner-adjuster-doova-lacky? I didn't know it was there until i wiped all the muck out!

Yankee wrote:and also some cotter pins to lock the axle nut back in place!

Get an R-clip instead - reusable.
ty

Indeed, that's what i've got, definitely worth it.

Yankee wrote:it's 100% stock! 15/40 (2.67 final drive ratio)

Better go -1 front or or +3 rear. Trust me its worth it and you only pick up an extra 500 rpm so around town you can go up an extra cog if you want and on the highway you'll be doing about 5800.

yeah... definitely contimplating that!!! prolly the -1 on the front (less rotating mass at the rear, and hell, less weight in general! especially once i cleaned all that shyte out!)
btw- my front sprocket cover now has the plastic speed sensor taped on stupid broken bolt is in there for life i didn't drill it out quite straight (easy to do when the smallest drill bit you have is the same size as the bolt)

Just keep an eye out on ebay for a new cover. They get listed fairly regularly by your countrymen parting out bikes and don't go for much. In fact
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Kawasaki ... dZViewItem

Yankee
Go 1 down on the front. Dan and I did well worth it
You need to keep that shit out of the the front sprocket area it will sooner or later damage the seal behind the sprocket and you'll have an oil leak.
With that broken screw you should have tried unscrewing it by using a long thin sharp centre punch and hammer first and if not centre punched the centre of the screw and drilled a small hole and used an easy-out.
If you lived in Vic I'd could have helped but


mario

Yankee wrote:Holy Hell!!! (I shoulda taken pics)

Has anyone else had a look see inside that thing? Has anyone else discovered what I did?

Yeah, i think thats normal if no ones ever cleaned it!!!..
Mine was gluggy.. but shes like new now..(wait...hang on a minute) BETTER than new..

cheers all!!!

awesome stuff!!

i will look into E-Bay USA if i really want to fix it 100%, but the taped on plastic sensor is working atm!! (i've learned aussie-mechanics! that'll be right mate!) as long as it doesn't get sucked in!

yep, gunna go down 1 on the front soon.....

Hia yankee hope that bracket is holding up alright.
Mate on both my ZXR 750's when i bought them there was little or no space between the cover & chain from the muck & swamp sh*t that had accumulated...... just goes to show the level of maintaince (lack thereof) of some punters, god knows the bike shop aint going to clean it with a service!