So as Pleco said ... maybe is better to have a separate thread for other question regarding our beloved bikes. And because the KLE manual thread became a little mess I think that this is a good point of view and also a opportunity to start a new thead about other technical question .... not to use manual thread so here it is!

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I will start by telling what I use and what question I have. I hope that this is a good ideea.


So as you could see in KLE manual thread I raised the tail so I will not bore you again with this subject.

Other thing that I use .... please let me know if you know a better way or something better.

Fuel filter - Mann WK 21 (is that tiny one but I have to change it often 200-600Km - depends on how clean is the fuel)

Oil Filter - Also from Mann MW 68 (I choosed Mann for a reasonable price/quality)

Engine oil - Motul 5100 ester 10w40

Chain oil - Motorex Chainlube 622 fully synthetic for cross, enduro, off-road ( I use this because I used for street and it gathered dirt, with this one it looks a little nicer)

Battery - here is a big question for you - the original was 9Ah but because of the power of recharging slowly it was drained, than I took a Varta (because I had a Varta on my car and it was good) with no meintenace but same problem ... now I had a no name at 11 Ah and it survived for a year and now when are -2 or -3 Celsius it starts ok ... but once a month I had to put water in it Could you give me an advice? because at a long trip lat's say over 600 km on hot summer I had to keep in mind to have a bottle of water to put in battery.

Brake pads - Godfren but I intend to buy a complete Brembo system - what you know about this?

Tires - I changet the stock with enduro ones and the rear is 130 all from Mitas

Exhaust - is changed is from inox and I gained 1 or 2 hp


Other to do and don't:

Because my contry learns you to do all kind of bullshits just to save money I learned that fuel lines from tank to fuel filter and from fuel filter to carburetors can be from a car . Our car Dacia (not the new Logan)(The only car made in Romania) can be a cheaper way to mentain your bike so fuel lines are from Dacia, that cable for tachometer is also from Dacia clutch cable again from Dacia. So I discovered that not only Kawasaki genuine parts are working.

Chain washing - I found that is more cheaper than to buy chain solutions to make a coktail from fuel (leaded NOT unleaded) with oil for small mechanism and it works ( but first try your coktail on an old chain).

Here is a DON'T: Don't use unleaded fuel on your chain it alters the o-rings - trust me I used to clean up my chain because it was to greasy and after a month I had to buy a new chain.

That's all folks! I I remember other changes I will share with you

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My bikes only 6,000 miles old, so I haven't needed to do much maintenance on it but here goes...

Oil - Motul 5100 50/50 ester 10w40 - works a treat and the oil they put in it after the last disaster, sorry, service is crap. I think it's probably Silkolene. Stick to Motul.

Brake Pads - I've had Dunlop and Ferodo recommended, but I have no idea what's on there at the moment.

Tyres - Avon Distanzias - good wear rate with high road use and work well enough off road, especially gravel.

Chain Lube - The best I've used is Wurth High Performance Dry Chain Lube. Lasts for ages. I've tried Silkolene (OK) and something like Motex which was crap.

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Current Bikes - Kawasaki KLE500 '05 (May 06)
Previous Bikes - Hyosung GF125 (Oct 05 to May 06)

hi.
i bought a KLE500 year 2003 two months ago and i really appriciate if anyone can help me to get the KLE500 Manuals...

Thank you in advance...

Long life KLE OWNERs......
Email :- mamuxs@gmail.com

Hello Mamuxs. Please go find the manual on the download link in the manual fthread. One of the guys kindly put it on a download site for us.

We are trying to get a purely technical forum going here on this thread.

Hello Kumuya.

Thanks for starting this thread. I had so many run ins with mechanics, that I would rather run things by some friends. There are only so many thiings that can go wrong on the bike, and if we can list them all here, it would be a great assistance to all of us.

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

Hello there.

I had a problem where the bike would have a flat spot at about 6000RPM. Very annoying if you want to take a gap. The rubber connecting the carb to the head had come loose, and this caused the lack of performance. Refixed the clamps, and all sorted.

I currently have a problem that if I ride at constant revs for about 200m, and then open the throttle fully, the bike smothers and dies on me. Very frustrating. Does anybody have any ideas. (not the vacuum hose on the tap. does the same at prime. not dirty fuel changed that. will be trying to clean the tap next.) I am loosing both cylinders at the same time, and I do not think both carbs can go faulty together overnight. Any ideas would help.

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

Hello Kumuya.

There is only way in lifting the tail. It is the way you did it. The other mounting holes at the top of the shock is not supported properly.

Please clean your chain with Diesel fuel. Any petrol will cause your O rings to expand and deteriorate fast. I work in the fuel industry, and only very specialised and very expensive O rings will tolerate petrol.

Where is the fuel filter, or did you install an aftermarket one?

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

Pleco: If nobody fiddled with your carbs try and drain the float bowls and check if they have water (= don't drain onto the pavement).
If the fuel is good I would suspect a problem with vacuum to operate the slides.

Hello Le Cap. Would you take R50 for the DR? Jou Bleddie grapgat!

I will have to remove the carbs, and look at the vacuum. The engine runs fine, until you demand power from it, and then it falters. Your explanation sounds good. Do you run a workshop where I can maybe bring the bike in?
By the way what is the correct plug? D8ea or D9ea? Would it make a difference?

Regards

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

As I said .... 8EA is for KLE 400 ....
You asked about fuel filter ? where is? "Where is the fuel filter, or did you install an aftermarket one?"

When you take out the fuel tank you should see it on the hose between fuel tank and carburetors .... only if it was removed you will not find it .... for example if you look at an KLE not "worked" or in the manual you also see a hose from cooling system that is connected to carburetor (the only explanation is that is for cooling carburetor because as I remember when I looked in manual I saw that in winter is recomended to stop that circuit) but mine hasn't, this hose was removed by previous owner and it works fine without it (one less hose to check for faults )

So I don't know if fuel filter is a must or not but I haven't meet a bike without fuel filter . So check under the fuel tank on those fuel lines that goes out from it

And by the way .... at what RPM you change gears? You say that at 6000 you have problems when you want to accelerate fast? man I change gears at 4000-4500 maximum 5000 and only once I get at 7000 rpm in 5th gear when I was forced to get speed wery quickly but to go over 6000 .... hmmm is not a computer game to change gears when you are on red

Is this happening when the engine is cold or when? I had at 3500 a problem like this but only when the engine is cold or fuel filter is dirty and in this situation I can't go over 4000 and engine dies because is geting no fuel.

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Hello Guys. Thanks for all the input. The fact that Mutha also had the same problem only after a service, put me onto the items I replaced. As I was loosing both cylinders, I took a look at the plugs (8EA as supplied by the bike shop according to their book). I could see from the colouring, that they were running very hot. When all else fails RTFM. (read the f... manual!) The manual specs a 9ea. So I go looking at the web and found the following:
Heat range

The operating temperature of a spark plug is the actual physical temperature at the tip of the spark plug within the running engine. This is determined by a number of factors, but primarily the actual temperature within the combustion chamber. There is no direct relationship between the actual operating temperature of the spark plug and spark voltage. However the level of torque currently being produced by the engine will strongly influence spark plug operating temperature because the maximum temperature and pressure occurs when the engine is operating near peak torque output (torque and RPM directly determine the power output). The temperature of the insulator responds to the thermal conditions it is exposed to in the combustion chamber but not vice versa. If the tip of the spark plug is too hot it can cause pre-ignition leading to detonation/knocking and damage may occur. If it is too cold, electrically conductive deposits may form on the insulator causing a loss of spark energy or the actual shorting-out of the spark current.

As I was experiencing similar problems, I went out this morning, and bought 9ea plugs.

Problem solved right away. Bike peaks out at 165 KMH again, and I have the surge of power back around the 7000 RPM range.

Kumuya if you are running the 8ea plugs, you must have set the timeing and or fuel mixture to compensate, or it is very cold there by you guys. We are running at about 30 deg celsius day temps here. Apparently all of the above affects the heat range of a plug.

The max torque is at abot 7200 RPM, so I change gears there about if I look for a bit of oomph! No use in running to the red line as the curve comes down quite a bit after 9000 RPM.

I hope this solution will help somebody in the future, as the bike shop books specified the wrong plug for my bike in our hotter climate.

Regards

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

I don't want to argue but if you have KLE 500 DR9EA is good ... as in manual - manual on this site is for KLE500 not 400 so .... is normal to have little differences betwen kle400 and kle500.

But if you have KLE 400 those are the sparks (from producer catalog) :

NGK: DR8EA, DR8EVX, DR8EIX
DENSO: X24ESR-U
BOSCH: XR5CC, XR4CS

About the temperature .... hmm ... in summer is hot 34-38 (and over 40 real) so temperature is not an issue for dr8ea sparks maybe other settings on your bike.

About power ... yes you are right ..... but also fuel consumption is bigger, the usage of engine moving parts also is bigger but you get the maximum from bike.


Regards,

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Hello Kumuya.

I wonder if somebody did not retune my bike to fit the D9ea plug. It has me a little worried, as the wrong plug and wrong tuning can be very bad for the engine. I will have to investigate a little further. Unfortunately Kawasaki SA does not want to assist me as this was a "grey" import over here. Your climate sounds very much the same as ours, and if you sre running normally, Kawasaki either changed specs on my bike (KLE 400E) or someone fiddled. I would like to find out sooner than later. Thanks for your assistance so far.

Why are you other guys so quiet, or are you all riding 500s?

Regards

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Pleco

If its stupid, but it works, it aint stupid.

The 400 is a grey import because it was built mainly for the Japanese market and wasn't widely sold eslewhere. I suspect the majority of other KLE owners have 500s. Your best bet may be to try and contact some Japanese owners or trying to phone Kawasaki Japan. Find a friend who can speak Japanese first though.

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Current Bikes - Kawasaki KLE500 '05 (May 06)
Previous Bikes - Hyosung GF125 (Oct 05 to May 06)

Hei! Nobody out there can help me with my qustion about battery? :confused1:

@ pleco - Specs for spark plugs for KLE 400 are applied for models since 1993 - maybe is something worked on your bike or somebody did something like I want .... to change engine caqpacity from 400 to 500 .... but I still wonder if it worth the effort to do something like this or not .... because if I do this it will becme a kle500 but is sure that I will have problems with other parts

What mileage has your bike? Mine has almoust 44.000 Km and nothing changed to engine but is not working like a brand new and started to give signs of fatigue I think is time to get engine down and rebuilt it ... what are your opinions?

Thank you

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