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Diesel oil with a JASO MA rating is exactly the type of oil you should be using. Sadly, you do not know what type of oil a previous owner used, nor how frequently (if ever) oil changes were performed.

The ZDDP content is critical to prevent wear in the transmission and on the chains. It was originally invented as an extreme pressure lubricant for gear boxes.

kwak1261 wrote: Great reading, and i can see all the same problems that i had when i rebuilt my engine.
also what hasnt been pointed out yet is that the cam chain is driven by the secondary shaft which is driven by the primary chain from the crank.
if there is that much slack in the chains then the cam timing is affected, this would enhance the poor running.
i also noticed with mine that i had wear on the crank, primary, and secondary shafts from the chains.
an inspection of these gears is a must before fitting new chains. ( that is of course if you can find new chains)
Lucien had the best idea i think, find a low mileage engine and strip it for parts.


mistermonkeyclaw on ebay has used chains and a good looking secondary shaft is all else fails.

That's an excellent point KWAK1261. I hadn't considered the primary chain slack and it's affects on the cam timing. Wow !!

Morse and Borg Warner are 2 manufacturers of the HY-Vo silent chains and these chains are running in all front wheel drive transmissions. It shouldn't be hard to spec out the chains and get them made from either Morse or Borg Warner.

Oil level and quality is CRITICAL for keeping those chains in good condition. I got 237000Km from my bike before it was taken off the road due to excessive wear and the resulting noise.
The chains are available new but take the bank manager with you to buy them www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/kawasaki-z1...146_6149.html?page=2

With the 1983 A5 I always seem to be taking one step forwards and 2 steps backwards. Up until very recently I hadn't been able to source a parts list for this model, so I was always second guessing if I was ordering the correct part. Some examples of the differences are the IC Igniter, reg/rec and stator (sadly I found out the hard way about these.

Now there is some confusion as to the primary chain. Please see the following links, what we are looking at here is the same part number (part# 92057-1075) but different products, 46 link vs. 50 link: -

A5 Primary chain - Motorcycle Products Ltd

A5 Primary chain - Partssweden

Interestingly, the primary chain part number for a1-a3 is 92057-1016 the a4-a5 is 92057-1075.

If spending this much money one would be hoping to order and receive the right part for the job. To add insult to injury, I start thinking maybe someone installed a 50 link primary chain when it should have been a 46 link chain. Naah, that couldn't happen, could it!

Luckily the secondary chain is the same part number throughout (A1 to A5).

Anyways, I was figuring on making sure I can get the parts before a 'tear down' so as to stop me from throwing effort after foolishness (if you know what I mean).

RickG wrote: Oil level and quality is CRITICAL for keeping those chains in good condition. I got 237000Km from my bike before it was taken off the road due to excessive wear and the resulting noise.
The chains are available new but take the bank manager with you to buy them www.motorcycleproducts.co.uk/kawasaki-z1...146_6149.html?page=2

Thanks Rick I wasn't aware of this site. Unfortunately they don't have the A5 primary chain in stock (see my other post)

Kawboy wrote: I'm curious, if you rotate the shaft back and forth, can you hear the chain slapping off of the bottom half of the crankcase??
KB

Can't hear any chain slap as such, but now I have listened to Petez13's video on transmission slack I can hear a sound further down the driveline that sounds exactly like his.