Klt 110

[barnett468]

Hello fixer 2u


Any luck changing the photo’s?

@barnett468 - I think its pretty cool we have the original guys who worked on these bike and tested these bikes back in the day here to help us out. It must have been one pretty cool job

Way beyond cool.

however one managed to get that job is beyond me.

I was living in Calif and opened up Cycle News newspaper one day and in the jobs section was an ad placed by Kawi, I applied the next day. There were around a total of 200 applicants. After 3 weeks a few interviews followed by a riding ability and bike evaluation test at Saddleback Park on an ill handling 1983 KX500 [see 10 worst bikes ever made article below], I and my friend that I hadn’t seen in 9 years were the last 2 remaining. I started soon after.



10 worst bikes ever made article.

Kawasaki had taken a sow’s ear and instead of turning it into a silk purse, came back with a whole pig.

http://www.pulpmx.com/stories/worst-bikes-ever

Do we have a lot of others like you here?

I’m the only one as far as I know.

[probed_out]

this might sound a little ghetto but you could drill and tap the end of the shifter shaft then you could bolt the shifter onto the shaft for good

[barnett468]

Hello


I replied to your PM, thanks for the photos.


Ok, this may be confusing but here’s a couple ideas and what I see.

The shaft looks brittle and the whole design is poor, you can fix the brittle shaft problem by taking the broken one and the new one to a heat treating facility, tell them the problem, show them the problem and let then heat treat the new one as they feel appropriate but I think this other fix will work.

Look at the splines on the shaft, they are around 12 mm long. Only the first 5 mm of them are worn. This means that the splines on the shifter are NOT clamping on them and/or engaging them fully for some reason. This is why it broke now you will have to tell me what the problem is.

OK just got photos and it is EXACTLY what I thought. The hole in your shifter is drilled in the wrong place by around 5 mm. This prevents full engagement with the second set of splines when the bolt is installed. Part of your shifter splines look bad but I can’t see well enough so you need to determine this. You have 2 options 1 is weld the holes in the shifter and re-drill them 5 closer to the inside. Then get the hardware as described below or just follow full instructions below.

When all this is done and your bike is reassembled if your shifter wobbles on the shaft at all it will either wear the splines or break the tip. You must check shifter play after every single ride and retighten when it feels loose or every 20 hours.

1. Heat treat new shaft if you want.

2. Buy new kawi shifter otherwise the old shifter will cause some sort of damage to the shifter guaranteed.

3. The last 4 mm of splines inside your shifter look worn, this has been happening for a while. You must buy a new kawi shifter.

4. Go to an industrial hardware supply store and buy a grade 10 or 8 bolt that sticks out the other end of the bolt hole by 3/8 of an inch.

5. Buy 4 grade 10 NOT grade 8 [unless 10’s are not available] 1/4” USS [not SAE] flat washers or other type of grade 10 washer with the right size id and a large od.

6. Buy 2 grade 8 nuts.

7. Take hardware and shifter pieces to a vice or bench.

8. Put grease in shaft and shifter splines then assemble. You might need to persuade it with a GENTLY. The shifter must go on the shaft far enough so you can no longer see the machined taper on the shaft.

8. Assuming that goes well then wrap a piece of masking tape on the shaft marking where the shifter stopped.

9. Look through bolt hole in shifter to see if it is clear or if the splines are covering part of the hole. If it is clear you are fine if it is partially blocked you need to file the splines so the bolt can go through. This would be caused by the hole in the shifter being drilled in the wrong place by the factory. DO NOT PULL SHIFTER BACK TO CLEAR HOLE, IT WILL BECOME DAMAGED AGAIN.

10. If hole is clear remove tape, install on bike and put 2 washers on the bolt and install. Loosen and tighten a few times to “seat” the bolt, then while holding the bolt install 2 more washers and the nut. If hole is NOT clear proceed to next step.

11. Install shaft and shifter. With the shifter installed all the way and in the right position take some white out in a bottle and mark the bottom of the shaft in line with the slot in the shifter. Remove shaft and shifter take to work bench remove shifter and file splines slightly where bolt goes thru by using the white out mark as your guide. Assemble shifter, check hole, file splines until it is clear with shifter fully engaged on shaft. Once hole is clear, reassemble as described in #10.

The washers spread the torque of the bolt out over a larger area. This will help prevent the shifter from coming loose on the shaft which in turn will prevent it from wearing, stripping and/or breaking. Pretty cool huh?