Got my Motorcycle Endorsement in May. Immigrated to the US and got a Full AZ license in June.
My wife kindly let me buy a KDX200 E2 for our anniversary (I know ... crazy lucky huh !).
It runs great, I rode it 12 miles home through Pheonix from the buyers house, it was smoking a LOT but i figured .. Old gas and maybe running too rich. I have wrenched a lot of 2-stroke mopeds and done a lot of porting and such but never a real motorbike.
Here is my rebuild thread. Enjoy.
Last edited by gereonb on 05:44 pm Aug 17 2015, edited 1 time in total.
How to inspect the KIPS without taking off the head.
1. Took off the small grey side panel, on the clutch side. The bolt on the shaft to the Gearbox is LEFT handed, opposite than normal.
2. It exposes the KIPS actuator, this is the part that gets moved outwards when the bike reaches 6000RPM in order to open the valves more. You could probably check the action of this by just revving the bike.
I already took off the carb and such though so I did it by hand to inspect through the Exhaust port.
Small video now, you can see my KIPS valves look quite clean, I inspected the cyclinder head form the carb side and decided that I an not going to remove the head or KIPS to clean them for now. To record this I just pulled in and out on the actuator.
Decent looking E-2(1990). Good place to start...what pipe?
I might be wrong, it's been a while since I've done KIPS but that side valve looks to be off time slightly. At full open there should be no "barrel" section exposed, as it's blocking half the port
@gotanubike: Pipe is FMF Gold.
I am going to have to inspect the KIPS more now because of your comment.
Undid the fork rubbers and it looks oily on the top of the fork seals so I guess I will do those too to stop my new rubbers from deteriorating like the ones you see.
Eeek. Took the forks off today.
Now I had a better view up the exhaust orifice, it appears one KIPS valve (magneto side) does not move at all, I fear it is broken.
Will take off the cylinder head now then, I already have a Moose Top-End gasket kit on the way from lytleracing.
Well ... the magneto side kips valve is certainly broken, the top nipple is off. Ordered a new one.
That black box is the original Trip Counter, Odo, it only shows the total miles and the current trip, no speed or tacho. It was not working because the cable is all seized up, had to order a new one of those too.
Notarized Title came in the post today, not sure if I need emissions here in AZ but it should be street legal once I register it, last emission test sheet is from 2012.
This is the what the most common E series KIPS failure looks like, Left side Cog had a broken nipple and the teeth are worn down by the actuator rod. The rest of my parts look ok, still have to take off the cylinder to get at the center exhaust valve (not able to remove with engine still in frame).
- Put all the KIPS in a ½ gallon of old Pre-Mix for two days in a pyrex jug
- used Oven Cleaner and stainless steel brushes to clean the parts up
- used #0000 steel wool to polish the surfaces up a bit
Here is a pic of the whole old set, I bought a new set of the main gears in steel from BDK. Arrived in the US 2 days after shipping from the UK, super fast. Next to clean up the actual head and put it all back to gather using top-end gasket set from Moose Racing.
So, I rebuilt the top-end using the above new valves, new gasket set from MooseRacing and a couple of other new bits. The bike is back together, repacked the muffler and generally did a clean and replaced anything that was seriously broken.
I didn't do a full restoration as that was not my goal, just a technical strip down and rebuild. Bike started right up on the first kick, rununununun nun runnnrunrnnnn. Sounds great.
Here comes the Funny part of the Story.
Front brake was fine before I stripped the bike, little spongy. After putting it back together it was totally soft, my brother-in-law and I tried bleeding it, tried pumping it, did all the methods in the Service Manual. Nothing. I could not get any pressure.
Left it for a day in the garage, zipped the handle closed. Flushed the whole system again, clean DOT3. Still nothing.
Got a flashlight, checked the brake pads, looked a bit strange, took off the caliper, repositioned the brake pads and put a screwdriver between them, puller the trigger and we have pressure !!!!.
So I had just messed up putting the inside brake pad in, the one that does not run on the bolts, it was not sitting right so the Caliper was not working.
Ready to ride, and most of all, got to do some PICTURES for you guys, sorry about that.
