KDXRIDER.NET

Mornin' all,

I just finished a top end rebuild (new wiseco piston, fredette porting and re-plate, DFIII) also replaced T/O bearing and clutch springs since they were worn out of spec. Oh, and repacked the silencer too. The bike fired right up last night but is making a bit of noise from the clutch area. It gets a little quieter when I pull in the clutch lever. I'll likely pull the cover and see if there is anything obvious sometime this week but thought I'd get some feedback here first. Any ideas? My bike (2000 KDX220R) has been out of comission for a while so I'm having a hard time remembering how much noise is normal.

Thanks!

Michael
00' KDX220R
Fredette porting, DFIII, Knarly, TC2, soon to be kx forks and a big oversize gas tank for those all-day rides!

Mine is noisy... always has been and can be heard over the motor. When you pull it in... the noise level drops somewhat. It's normal but if it's louder than what it was before... there may be something amis.

You did reinstall oil, right? O.K., just checking. Tip the bike over and pop the side cover off to see if there are any rub marks from inproper reassembly. It's quick. Also look in the window and verify there aren't any metal flakes floating around in there. If you don't have a shop manual, go to http://www.buykawasaki.com and check under "VEHICLE INFORMATION" and from there to "VIEW PARTS DIAGRAMS". Then enter your bike's info and pull up the diagram for the KDX clutch. It will show the proper order of assembly just to be sure.
Good Luck!

You could well have done everything just fine...and everything IS just fine.

re: How much noise is normal?

A lot. ;) But...you know that.

You run more than the spec'd 700ml, right? (Well...750ml..whatever it says). More than enough in this case is a good thing. It will quiet down the already noisy thing.

Use 100ml or so out of the quart to 'flush' the tranny after it's drained, then dump the remaining 850ml (or SO...you don't have to tell me there ain't no 950ml in a quart! ;) ) That will quiet it down some.

Not that I know there's nothing mechanically wrong...

Yep, oiled her up gud!
I have the manual and was careful on re-assembly but I will definetly drain the oil, pop the cover and inspect. It's living in a friends shop at the moment so I'm on his time-table to have a look at it. Otherwise I'd be on my way there now!
It turns out that the KIPS vavles have not been working the whole time I've owned the bike (A little over a year).
It's my first two-stroke and I just thought it was supposed to be kinda gutless down low, so I learned to ride it that way. A friend with much more two-stroke knowledge who rides a KTM 200 swapped bikes with me one day (He used to have a KDX) and when he got off the bike informed me that "Dude, your bike's broken!"
He went on to esplain what must be wrong and I decided it was rebuild time. So I found that the little "finger" at the bottom of the shaft had been broken off at some point and replaced by a machine screw which was cleverly JB-welded in it's place, only at the wrong angle so it didn't actually engage anything. In addition to that the piston was cracked and the cylinder was badly scored.
Anyhoo, I can't wait to see what this thing should really ride like! Should be a whole new bike.

Wow! You are going to really notice a difference. Good idea to check the clutch just for peace of mind. I had a clutch spring retaining bolt break once and it dang near carved a nice plug out of the side of the clutch cover. ('73 Husy)
Doesn't hurt to peek and with new clutch parts, you might want to flush and fill the oil after a short putt around the yard before a full day's ride.