TOPIC:

Rick,

Its time & money well spent. There is nothing like a good top end overhaul to make a bike run properly again !

Hope all goes well with your back op mate.
I have 2 damaged vertebrae removed from my neck & replaced with bone graft discs made from my pelvis bone in 2007.
The surgeon told me I would have the neck of an 18 year old after the op.......& he was correct.

My missus says she wonders if there are any other bits of me he could do that with too !!!

HaHa.

Pete F

I have to do a total rebuild on mine, well a total resto as the whole thing is very well worn.
I did 237k on it in 19 years and retired it because it needed primary chains and a rebore and the chains were unavailable in Oz but now with the interweb things have changed and much for the better.
It served me well I have never had the top off it and just serviced it well. I toured all over Australia including two trips right round the continent and it never missed a beat.
I worked for Honda Australia for some years and they were always at me to trade it on a Goldwing and even offered me a cost price plus a good trade in but I used to say I already have a six why the heck would I want a heap of plastic as well.
They sure didnt like having one of their top mechanics riding a Kawasaki.
I also have a couple of K series BMWs an 1100 and the 3 cyl 750 which is as smooth as the six without the grunt.

Just getting caught up on this thread. Very interesting!

I don't currently own a 1300 but I had a new one back in 79. Mine definitely had an oil burning problem; once, on a very long high speed day's ride (Denver to Detroit), I ran it almost dry from being completely full first thing in the morning. When the oil light cam on, I immediately shut her down and coasted (fortunately) into a gas station where it took 4 liters to fill it up to the normal level! The following winter I put new rings in (it had about 120k kilometers on it by that point. I can't recall now whether the rings cured the oil problem or not - I guess it probably did.

A few seasons later I spun a main bearing and had to pull the crank, the damage was to far gone and quite possibly due to the low oil on that fateful day a few seasons earlier. In any case, I found a very low mileage used engine (from a later model) from a wrecker for about half the cost of a new crank! I popped it in and was back in business in a couple of hours (I was, by that time, very proficient at pulling and installing an engine by myself). I sold the bike the following year (needed the money for tuition) and have regretted it ever since (all repairs aside). Hope to find another one some day!

Keep up the good work.

UPDATE 27th JAN 2014.

Had a good weekend working on the bike (raining constantly so not much else to do) & got everything back on the top end including the cam cover & coils.
Got the carbs & air filter box back on too, so pretty much done at the top end.

Next job is fitting sump, exhausts, fan & radiator, then fill with oil & coolant & hopefully "kick it in the guts" as they say & see if I have sorted the oil burning issue.

1st FEB 2014

Just about complete now.

Sump, rad, fan & exhausts all back on so pretty much ready to start once I fill with oil & hook up dummy fuel tank.
Got some of the parts including tank & new headlamp fairing being professionally painted which should be back soon.
I also refitted the Hydraulic Clutch Conversion as it needed a new mounting plate.

Hi strate6,could you please provide more info on the hydraulic clutch conversion and where to find it? I remember some discussion about it but cannot recall the specifics.Much appreciated.Paul