TOPIC:

Hello sixer lovers as myself. I found this forum back in August. I own my 82 sixer since it was new. As I stated on earlier post I bought it while stationed in Mannheim Germany, 1980-1986. Shipped it home (South Carolina),bike has been in storage for some time. It has 20000 miles on her. But I've started restoration took the motor out frame. I know she needs new rotors, chargers etc. Motor ran great last time I rode 20 plus years ago. Trying to decide whether to take engine completely apart. Turn over good not froze up or anything like that. Top engine cams and bottom pan shows no issues. Being reading lot on this site,.just wonder what experts think? I know I will be ordering some parts from suggested link sites etc,and will post some pictures of rebuild. Thanks for reading.
Kawlover from South Carolina

Hi Kawlover,

Glad to hear you want to check the old girl out before you just hop on and ride.






I would suggest you pull the oil pan and have a good look around especially at the primary and secondary drive chains. Make note of the deflection and record it somewhere.
Also take a look at the oil pickup tube screen. if anything is going on in that engine, evidence will be shown on the particles stuck to the screen. You could also open up the oil filter and look for particles.

I would also pull the sparkplugs and have a look inside of the bores. If the engine was not stored properly, the cylinder walls may have corrosion on them. If they're clear and shiny, then you got lucky.

I would pull the valve cover and have a look specifically at the cam chain tensioner. If you're not aware of it, the nylon wheel can disintegrate and all hell will break loose. Some of our members have replaced the nylon wheel with a metal wheel made by "Liska" and you can google search that item if you wish. I'm not a fan of the metal replacement. I've heard that the Liska replacement is noisy for the first 300- 400 miles and then it quiets down. That information raises my flag. Noise means something and then the lack of noise means something. I would think that the new fit of the wheel to the cam chain is not ideal and then either the camchain or the gear is wearing in to the other. That worries me. I went to my local Kawasaki dealer and ordered a new tensioner wheel (actually 2 of them ) for $ 42.00 Canadian. They took about 6 weeks to come in since the warehouse in Canada didn't have any, so they had to come from Kawasaki Japan.

Since you have the valve cover off, check the valve clearances. These babies tend to get tight valves which will lead to burnt valves and backfiring/low compression issues.

If all that checks out, then I would think you should be good to go. Then you'll have to deal with drivability issues, more than likely, carb low speed circuit issues. Scotch has a really good writeup on the cleaning and rebuilding of the carbs. Scotch also offers a carb cleaning tool for backflushing the idle circuit. I would think it's worth it's weight in gold, but Scotch charges a reasonable price for it. I understand that the tool works without having to disassemble the carbs. Yes, the carbs do have to be removed from the engine , cleaned and then reinstalled.

Let us know how that works for you. Looking forward to hearing what you found and how you dealt with it !!

Cheers,
KB

Kawboy wrote: Hi Kawlover,

Glad to hear you want to check the old girl out before you just hop on and ride.

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KB

That's about 2.05 cents in Australian Dollars