KDXRIDER.NET

Haven't been on here in some time. Working two jobs influenced me to sell my 1992, luckily to a close friend. Never-the-less have regretted selling it, even though I can ride it on occasion. Anyway, now that I have decided to focus my energies on one job, I now have enough time to play in the dirt again and have been looking around for a couple months for another KDX. Seems like they are few and far between lately, but I pulled the trigger on a 2001 H7 this last weekend. Rescued the poor thing from its essential resting place under a Minnesota leanto, needless to say will need to be gone through but is a runner. That being the case, just curious as to what changes were made between the E series and the H series as I have a repair manual for the E series. I know that the frames and forks are different, more concerned with any engine changes that may have transpired from model to model. Any input is greatly appreciated, excited to be part of the KDX family once again.

Welcome back. There are a massive amount of changes between the 1995+ models and the 1989 - 1994 models.

Good to know, I'll have to invest in another service manual. Thanks!

Welcome back! After I sold my 97 200 I regretted it so bad that I bought a 97 220, then I missed the 200 so I got an 04 200 haha. It didn't help my bank account, but these bikes are priceless!

Check out Cyclopedia. I was able to get a printed and bound copy off eBay for around $35 new. Has lots of pictures, specs, and details. Looks homemade, but very well done. I believe they also have an e-book, but I like the hard copy. Either way, good luck and enjoy the bike!

Welcome back.

There are many significant changes between the E series bikes and H series bikes. First and foremost I'd recommend buying a Kawasaki or Clymer service manual. From my recent experiences manuals make life easier, whether it's torque specs or that left hand screw... the manual makes almost every servicing easier. Then once you're ready to get into mods I'd can't recommend the FMF Gnarly pipe and KX fork swap enough! Keep us updated, excited to see where this project/build goes.

KDXRacer1999 wrote: ↑12:16 pm Jan 07 2019 There are many significant changes between the E series bikes and H series bikes. First and foremost I'd recommend buying a Kawasaki or Clymer service manual. From my recent experiences manuals make life easier, whether it's torque specs or that left hand screw... the manual makes almost every servicing easier. Then once you're ready to get into mods I'd can't recommend the FMF Gnarly pipe and KX fork swap enough! Keep us updated, excited to see where this project/build goes.

Picked up manual from cyclepedia, fairly happy with it. The bike had on it the gnarly woods pipe and a pro-circuit spark arrestor. Has a few other little add ons as well. The original owner cared enough to put some money into it, can't say the same for the gentleman I bought it from. Just started looking at it more closely last night. Found some dry rotted seals, a lot of mouse turds in the airbox, and a pleasantly surprising compression reading of just over 140. Will definitely need some things, but at least a top end isn't on that list.

Cleaned out five years of mouse turds out of the airbox and boot after work tonight. Also was looking at the forks that I will have to do seals on and noticed the original owner was running them not flush with the triple clamps. Any reason to run them like that? I found some handlebar risers I hadn't prior noticed either, going to have to ditch those things.

Hi. I edited a couple of your earlier pictures. Next time, if you are on a laptop, right click on the picture and choose "Copy image address" and whatever your browser shows. Come back here and use the Full Edit instead of quick reply. Above the body of the message are many icons. The ninth one from the left is a little picture of two mountain tops and the sun. Click on that. will appear. Paste the image address between those two tags. It will look like this:

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I have been on dirt bike forums for almost 17 years now. I am here to certify that you are the current world record holder for bar risers. Congratulations, Champ. The previous owner must have wanted clearance for the handguards? MAN! That is some tight turning with the forks that far up in the clamps. It looks like they are rotated so far downward that they require the riser height.

Momma always said I'd be something someday, been my greatest aspiration since a young boy. So running them lower in the clamps makes turning tighter being that it's closer to the wheel? I wonder if it handles well like this, I haven't ridden it since the rescue from the great outdoors. I just assume ditch the risers and keep my weight more forward, also am fairly vertically challenged.

Thanks for the advice on the pictures as well.

Imagine how slowly a chopper turns. The forks are super long.

Fair enough, had never really thought about that relation. Think I'll go back to running them normally after I do the seals.

Don't be afraid to try different settings. Fork height is like Goldilocks:

too high
too low
just right

If my old lady asks, I definitely didn't have the tub converted into a dirt bike parts washer yesterday. After deep cleaning the airbox and boot, I went through the carb and inspected the reeds. Was a little surprised to find stock jetting with the aftermarket pipe and silencer, I guess it still has the airbox lid without snorkel though. The reeds had been catching mouse house, somehow after I cleaned that out there was no damage to them and they are all tight.

She's going to kill you. RIP, Truax.

Congratulations on discovering and evicting the mice.

Might want to keep an eye out for a lot of Head shake at speed with the forks set like that. I'd definitely put them back to stock flush settings. The KDX is known for tight cornering already. If you are tall you might want to keep ONE set of bar risers, maybe not all of them!

Yea my plan was to ditch them all together and go back flush after I do the fork seals. I'm not exactly a tall glass of water at 5'7" so they're going by the wayside.

Well after thinking more on the mouse house in the reeds, I decided to swap them out for some Boyesen Power 607 dual stage reeds. I then thought, the first thing I did when I got it home was do that compression test... so there was house of mouse in the reeds during that test. It appeared to be a fairly tight seal that those little blessings had left, but none the less I may have lost some compression through the reeds. So I go to redo the compression test, and what do I find? 185psi, what's the deal here from what I've gathered that is well outside of specs? I sprayed a little fogging oil before kicking it over, kicked it maybe 6-8 times, retested at closed throttle as well as variations of throttle positions. Got the same results every time, the Matco compression tester is basically new I've only used it maybe half a dozen times. So that's a little curious.

Also went through the exhaust, tried to decarbon as best I could in the expansion chamber and repacked the silencer. Also added a pipe guard and radiator braces. Took a look at the bearings/bushings in the linkage and the swing arm, very happy to report everything looked top notch after some new grease. Didn't see any leaks on the shock shaft either, which I was half expecting with how bad the fork seals are. So that's my update, kind of curious as to the new compression reading.

Looks good!

How do you like the HF stand?