Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original
Plethora of Questions
Paul:
Ehhh, close enough. I remembered they were in three range :lol:
Rick:
A 500 can run quite well with lots of pistion issues. Two years ago, my oldest seized a piston in a brand spankin new KX500 on practice day at a National in California. Upon checking, it had a score all the way up one side about 1/16 deep and 1/8 wide. John had an extra cylinder in the Kawasaki semi, so we swapped off to a new cylinder. I later used the old cyliner with the score, and was shocked to find that there was almost no noticable power loss. For the average rider, they would never notice anything. In fact, the bike is still running the same "damaged" cylinder two years later. I also ran my 1999 KX500 cylinder too long, and found the plating on the exhaust side worn badly. Here again, little noticable power loss.
With all that said, as long as the slight damage on the piston does not effect the ring's ability to compress smoothly, I would use the new piston. If we were talking about a KX125, I would have a completely different oppinion.
Good luck
Rick
kawdude:
Seals:
On my KX I could not get the counter shaft seal to stop leaking even after replacing the oring I then replaced the outer seal, still no go. I finally got the thing stopping by replacing the sleeve that pushes against the oring and sprocket.
Cylinder:
399 is as cheap as I've seen them. Treasure coast honda usually is the cheapest but they come in at 420.
In response to Ricks note. My KX probably has run 6-8 years without any maintanence! Except the lack of performance is very noticeable on mine. I question whether the previous owner ever changed the oil. Piston has a lean scoring and the cylinder has lost much of the plating especially on the exhaust valve side.
NastyNick:
Thanks for the info Rick. A mechmonkey friend of mine also said to use the new one. I showed it to him and he said not a problem. My cylinder is showing some wear, but not too bad. All nice an clean now. I think I will keep as is and save the bucks.
Now, if I could just get my main exhaust valve, left/right valves clean of all the carbon. They have been been taking turns soaking in solvent and oven-cleaner for the last few days. I even took a few turns with a dremel on it last night to break it up a bit. Making some progress, but it's slow.
Sharc:
Sounds like quite a project. Too bad you dont have a spare K5 to ride in the mean time...
I just did the top end on my 2002. Looks like I had a partial seizure, and I didnt even notice...!! I emery-clothed the cylinder and buttoned it up and it's good to go for this weekend. Huge compression increase....I got a feeling the power wont feel a whole lot different, cuz like Rick said, big-block 2-strokes can handle a lot.
Good luck with your Jug...!!
Sharc
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