Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original
Chronic problems?
teamgreen500:
Tranny problems? Funny you should ask!
I just found you guys (This Very Cool forum...) after working on my bike ALL DAY, changing tires, changing filter, changing sparky to silencer, changing IMS to Moto gas tank, 18" rear to 19"...blah, blah, blah...and then I fire up the bike to warm up the oil and change it. No big deal right?
WRONG!
So, I'm warming it up and once the cylinder starts to "feel" pretty warm I "clean it out" by gassin' it a little like you would while waiting for your minute at an enduro and... Ka-chunk!...it's in gear!...uh, this is the weird part...IT'S ON A STAND and I'm standing next to it on the throttle side of the bike...It put ITSELF in gear like some-kinda darn bad movie...Stephen King kinda stuff...so, it's jumped into gear and I'm thinking,"Hmmmmm, that's not good". Kill button time. Thank God I use a Worx stand that has the wheels off the ground!
I walk around to the other side:
There's no "magic" item around that knocked it into gear (I'd looked immediately as I hit the kill button already...).
There's no-way to "kick-it" into gear on the stand/by the stand (I run my shifters pretty high...I don't like it when rocks and stuff try to shift my bike for me...it's a desert thing).
Everything looks right...it must be a scene outta "Who Made Who", the movie!
So, I'll put it in "N" and fire it right up...right?
NOT!!!!
I'm now the proud owner of (Emig early '90's works tranny?) a 4 SPEED non neutral KX500! Oh, and another thing: If you start it and try to go anywhere...it "drags" itself to a stall or starts going and then is kind enough to lock up!
In the words of Austin Powers,"First I plan to soil myself...any suggestions?"
This really crapped on my practice day at Marrysville MX tommorow.
About radiators and louvers:
I've never had a problem: HOWEVER, I've never had stock radiators. At Kawi they take stock rad's and weld 'em up. You can have any good welder do this. Also, it appears that they:
Add bracing to upper frame mounts.
Weld-up the left side's "plasic" plug.
Weld the folded seams at the tank/core.
Weld/add material to the shroud-mounts.
Add/Weld shroud spacers to Rt. rad. for IMS tank.
There doesn't seem to be anything done to the lower frame mounts.
There's an old "Dirt-Rider" article that has great pic's and explnt's of all the "Team Green" mod's for KX 500s. I'll try to get it from Wolf on-line and post it here...does anyone already have it?
Well, that's all I got to say about that...
Manny
Paul:
The last thing I have to add to this thread would be about the countershaft seal leakage. There is a thread on it in here somewhere... let me seee.....
OH Yeah, here it is...
Counter Shaft discussion
John:
Hi teamgreen500,
I had the same gear problem as you have and mayby the solution is the same? There is a spring on the clutch-side of the engine which keeps the gear lever in position (i.e. the gears). That spring was broken and it caused all sorts of funny effects...
It's called 92144-1142 SPRING,CHANGE SHAFT RETURN, check out this URL www.buykawasaki.com
teamgreen500:
Sir John,
Thanks for the idea; however, I'm taking my motor down to John Brasch tonight and letting "The Pros" handle it.
I'm very interested in WHY it happened/HOW it happened. I'd like to make sure it's not due to some tranny mod/gear change. I'm getting ready to go back to "The Best in the Desert" series and I want to be sure that there are no suprises. Hmmmmmm...is it KX250F time?
BTW, you Motard guys have absolutely the coolest looking KXs. That's what I'm planning for the motor in question...you know, Thunderhill and Willow Springs are just paved deserts....
Thanks, and thanks to who(m)ever runs this forum. This is the perfect thing to find when you're trying to figure out an unusual problem.
Thanks again,
Manny
Rick:
Manny,
John's done a lot of work on our bikes over the years, included replacing a crank on a KX125 the night before a Hare & Hound at a Southern California race. We finished installing the motor late in the evening, and did not have one problem the entire race...errr except the handle bar bent straight up after a really hard getoff in the dust... :?
The spring is realatively easy to get to (if this is the problem), and I think everyone would be really curious to hear about the final cause/fix of your problem.
While there is always occassional failures with anything mechanical, I have never heard of any "chronic" problem with the KX500 tranny. I would be curious to hear John's thoughts on this issues as well.
Thanks for the input.
Rick
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