'fingers KR1-S C2 tinkering with a mostly stock bike
Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:26 pm
Well here’s a few pics as it came to me.
17k miles, 4 previous owners, the last of which had it 8 years and it sat in his living room apparently
It’s pretty much standard and stock. There’s different chain guard, screen I think maybe pattern and the front brake lines are braided.
Fairing has had some repairs, paint work is good but the plastic welding hasn’t been done great, so will need re doing. It’s got some particularly nasty washer holding the fairing on. One side panel is totally the wrong green
But I managed to find a good std sidepanel on ebay for £25
So for it’s first MOT with me it needs a sidelight fitting, the bulb and the holder were missing for some reason. That done, it went for the MOT and passed.
First ride showed a particularly saggy rear shock, only just effective brakes, and the powerband didn’t really remind me of the KR1 of old I had the use of 22 years ago.
I bought a Penske CBR 929 Fireblade shock. Thinking that I could make it fit. At 285mm the ‘blade item isn’t bad but by the time I’d sourced a suitable clevis/fork it would have been too long at 295mm +. So it’s for sale
The plan was to rebuild the standard unti myself, i did a fair bit of digging trying to find the right seal block but when I removed the shock the shafts was pitted. So the shock is off to Rev's Racing for a rebuild. www.revsracing.co.uk . I've used John Gaskell for over 20 years, his work is top class and reasonable priced too. I ordered a 425lb 7" Faulkner race spring off ebay, £24.50 from 'jjcraceandrally'. John's going to up the damping a bit with a extra shimming. He'll make a new shaft too. If I think about it I'll get the stock spring rate measured when I go over to collect it.
Whilst it ran OK I decided to remove and strip the carbs and drop them in the Ultrasonic Tank. They weren’t that dirty on the inside or outside, non the less, no hard in a clean. Reset the floats and inspect the insides to make sure they were all setup correctly
Went to Cradley Kawasaki for a few fairing bits. The outer washers for the fairing-frame mounts are NLA, I had two of their last 3. Also a gear selector shaft seal, as this was weeping, the only leak from the other wise pretty clean and oil tight motor.
The fork seals were starting to weep, so I decided to change them. I had a set of correct ID and OD seals, bit thinner than required at 8mm instead of 10mm. Should be OK I reckon. I made a tool for removing the internals of the fork. There’s large nut on the other end too, for holding the internals whilst removing the lower bolt.
Fitting something like this
Handy way of removing the stancions
All stripped!
And another homemade tool for setting the oil level
Works like this, set the level, over fill and drain off the excess. I upped the grade slightly by about 2.5w
Whilst I had the front apart I took the pads out, to find some Armstrong pads, which explained the poor braking. Pistons and seals looked good, and lever is firm so I’ll order some new pads shortly.
So linkages for the KIPS were toast. The balls were even missing on some of them. So I found these to fit, they look ok for £2 each. Use the existing rods.
I set the KIPS up properly, so they’re fully open. I whipped the pipes off at the same time to inspect the pistons and rings- all looks good. Fitted a used GPZ600 chain guard, as they're the same as the KR1-S ones and at £6 delivered it was cheaper. Then drained the oil and removed the gear selector cover and replaced the seal. All going well until I decided to try and remove the ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature) Sensor. The spade had come loose and the gauge needle hops around. So all well until I tried to remove it and it was seized solid. It got butchered. But hopefully the one I found which is considerably cheaper than the £37 Kawasaki wanted will work ok.
More later. . . .. . . .. .
17k miles, 4 previous owners, the last of which had it 8 years and it sat in his living room apparently
It’s pretty much standard and stock. There’s different chain guard, screen I think maybe pattern and the front brake lines are braided.
Fairing has had some repairs, paint work is good but the plastic welding hasn’t been done great, so will need re doing. It’s got some particularly nasty washer holding the fairing on. One side panel is totally the wrong green
But I managed to find a good std sidepanel on ebay for £25
So for it’s first MOT with me it needs a sidelight fitting, the bulb and the holder were missing for some reason. That done, it went for the MOT and passed.
First ride showed a particularly saggy rear shock, only just effective brakes, and the powerband didn’t really remind me of the KR1 of old I had the use of 22 years ago.
I bought a Penske CBR 929 Fireblade shock. Thinking that I could make it fit. At 285mm the ‘blade item isn’t bad but by the time I’d sourced a suitable clevis/fork it would have been too long at 295mm +. So it’s for sale
The plan was to rebuild the standard unti myself, i did a fair bit of digging trying to find the right seal block but when I removed the shock the shafts was pitted. So the shock is off to Rev's Racing for a rebuild. www.revsracing.co.uk . I've used John Gaskell for over 20 years, his work is top class and reasonable priced too. I ordered a 425lb 7" Faulkner race spring off ebay, £24.50 from 'jjcraceandrally'. John's going to up the damping a bit with a extra shimming. He'll make a new shaft too. If I think about it I'll get the stock spring rate measured when I go over to collect it.
Whilst it ran OK I decided to remove and strip the carbs and drop them in the Ultrasonic Tank. They weren’t that dirty on the inside or outside, non the less, no hard in a clean. Reset the floats and inspect the insides to make sure they were all setup correctly
Went to Cradley Kawasaki for a few fairing bits. The outer washers for the fairing-frame mounts are NLA, I had two of their last 3. Also a gear selector shaft seal, as this was weeping, the only leak from the other wise pretty clean and oil tight motor.
The fork seals were starting to weep, so I decided to change them. I had a set of correct ID and OD seals, bit thinner than required at 8mm instead of 10mm. Should be OK I reckon. I made a tool for removing the internals of the fork. There’s large nut on the other end too, for holding the internals whilst removing the lower bolt.
Fitting something like this
Handy way of removing the stancions
All stripped!
And another homemade tool for setting the oil level
Works like this, set the level, over fill and drain off the excess. I upped the grade slightly by about 2.5w
Whilst I had the front apart I took the pads out, to find some Armstrong pads, which explained the poor braking. Pistons and seals looked good, and lever is firm so I’ll order some new pads shortly.
So linkages for the KIPS were toast. The balls were even missing on some of them. So I found these to fit, they look ok for £2 each. Use the existing rods.
I set the KIPS up properly, so they’re fully open. I whipped the pipes off at the same time to inspect the pistons and rings- all looks good. Fitted a used GPZ600 chain guard, as they're the same as the KR1-S ones and at £6 delivered it was cheaper. Then drained the oil and removed the gear selector cover and replaced the seal. All going well until I decided to try and remove the ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature) Sensor. The spade had come loose and the gauge needle hops around. So all well until I tried to remove it and it was seized solid. It got butchered. But hopefully the one I found which is considerably cheaper than the £37 Kawasaki wanted will work ok.
More later. . . .. . . .. .