Friends new bike. What started as a tune up......

[Guest]

Bike was nice but didnt run due to no fuel and carbs needed tuning but he brought it anyway as it was looking pretty nice. 5 hr drive total trip to pick bike up. Few days later was my time to have a look and do a tune. Sorry about pics not being here but carbs where 1st item. Had to use spares from the parts bin as 2 air screws had the tips broken off and little things like that. They seem fine now but havent run them yet.

[sharpy]

Now the fun started

Tappet cover off and visual inspection. It had 2 kawasaki shims biend used. Floating around on top of the buckets as there from memory .5mm smaller in diameter. Was decided to pull the head off as 4 bolts where stripped and was a mixture of genuine bolts and hardware bolts on the tappet cover AND cam caps. You can see what ones marked in red where stripped....



Also the tacho drive had its mounting tab broken so was just sitting in there but interference fit....

[sharpy]

But wait theres more

Sorted the threads and stuff i checked the clearance and all was fine untill u tried to do a quick test of shim sizes on the bench. With cams bolted in and clearance checked all seemed to be fine........



Untill i tried rotating the cams. Even with just one cap on and only two bolts nipped down the cams where almost impossible to rotate. After discussions with owner it was decided to get another head from a mate and playing round with caps and fully sorting new helicoils was too much drama.

[sharpy]

Not out of the woods yet.......

The other head arrived and i noticed welding on the cam caps but was more surprises inside........



Not going to say much in this but you can see what i saw when pulled the caps off.....

[sharpy]

Dont ask me why they welded the caps as i had to linish the weld to let them rotate in the head. All seems fine now and but then i did a boo boo. Broke the top of the valve guide off removing the seal and pulling the head apart.



But that was ok as had to get the valves done. Well i said it was ok, still a stuff up.

[sharpy]

Now to rest of the head....

All apart and all clean and you could inspect it lots easier. Fliiped it over and the valve seats shouted out, Hey Sharpy look at me....




Main reason i never take my head to a car (or) bike person unless i know them personally. Fully sunk valves explained the small shim clearances. Trouble is one side was high shim numbers, other side was low shim numbers. That and a valve tip that was on a angle didnt help much at all. Head is all sorted now he says with a few guides in and hoping he is correct about that.

[sharpy]

Then we paid attention to rest of bike as it was thought a good idea to do the rings on what suppose to be a fresh set of pistons. Off comes the barrel and put on bench. Guess what, more surprises....



Cracked fins...

[sharpy]

You sick of my pics yet? But wait theres more.....

Behind the ignition cover.......



Clutch cover.....



And starter motor cover....

[sharpy]

Then there is this.....

Steel plate that was running on the out plate, odd number of steel versus Fibre plates...



But thats ok as the spring in the clutch are all loose. well the two that have washers installed seem fine

[sharpy]

Still pulling apart but run out of pics (for now)

We know the starter gear is hanging on by 3 loose allen bolts and the sump was filthy dirty, but pulling the engine out by the weekend too see whats inside the lower cases. FYI. Most Cam chain tensioners and guides are cracked and hoping the crank end on the alt side is good condition. Have a parts engine sitting there on stand by. Whew this is one tough tune up. lol

[Fjbj40]

Wow, that's some horrible carnage! The PO must have had a tool box full of hammers!

[sharpy]

Not sure if true but local guy in Lismore, Australia did the head work/fitment but bike was gotten from New Zealand