TOPIC:

Scotch : As you have owned your 1300 from new, may I ask if you have had to make many adjustments to the valve clearances? Presumably the clearance tends to get smaller initially, as the valves bed in.

scotch wrote: Frank833 : It is possible that this spots are “as cast” and the casting there was too low so it was not machined when the combustion chamber was.

I tend to agree at this point. . Hard to believe Kawasaki would allow this to pass.

I agree. Those spots are as-cast and the casting was just shy 1-2mm in material in those areas. Seeing as how these are so consistent, I am pretty sure this is not a shrinkage issue, but rather either the casting pattern was off or the tooling for the machining was off. Casting patterns wear, but as these issues are obviously present on 79 & 80 models, It's probably not a wear issue.

Over the years the shims have been adjusted 4(?) times. Last winter and this past week being 2 of those. When I got finished last winters adjustment I found #2 exh was near the max. gap. Last week I corrected that and tightened-up a couple of others. Merely to get them more closely matched.
The valve-train (on mine at least) seems bullet proof. Cams still look like new.

Casting patterns wear, but as these issues are obviously present on 79 & 80 models, It's probably not a wear issue.

Just to clarify, one of the photos I posted early addressing this is from my 82, so it was definitely an ongoing manufacturing practice.