1989 kx125 restoration master thread

[Foxx4Beaver]

awesome job!...thanks for sharing your progress.
it's nice too see someone do a full resto and aim for the clean OEM look.

[reklessj]

+1!!! Had an 89 kx125 growing up, loved that thing! Wish I still had it way more dependable than the early 90's

[queen of spodes]

This arrived today

[queen of spodes]

Swingarm and linkage bearings replaced.


Newly plated cylinder came in last week.   




Carb and calipers cleaned up nicely:

[queen of spodes]

Still working out how/where to get a 6mm blind bearing puller.  The HF kit I have came with a min 7/16".  Even the Motion Pro kit only goes down to 8mm.   Several boutique tool makers sell 6mm collets but they are spendy ($100 or more for the single tool, that I'd only use a few times in my lifetime). 

[Oblivious Maximus]

I've used a dremel tool on light duty bearings. A couple cuts and they came out but a lot can go wrong.

[bens87braap]

Queen,  Is that the swingarm u started with that I can see in pic at start of thread?

[queen of spodes]

Queen,  Is that the swingarm u started with that I can see in pic at start of thread?

Yes, but I cheated a little.. it's been powder coated.

The other parts were soda blasted.  Haven't shown the cases since they came out less clean that I hoped.  Still figuring what to do there.

[sandblaster]

See if anyone in your area has a vapor blaster. It may be called a vapour blaster or a aqua blaster.... They will look better then new...
Here's some examples

http://www.oem-cycle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=815

[queen of spodes]

Vapor blasting uses glass beads and water - knew that before reading your post.      Everyone says to avoid glass or sand (or any other hard media) for cleaning cases.   Glass bead media (in the water slurry or separate) will get lodged in teh material and come out later to slowly ruin engine internals. 

[sandblaster]

Yes, sandblasting does embed particles into the surface of soft materials because it cleans by impact.
Vapor blasting cleans by flow, not by impact so it is ideal for soft materials, even very thin soft materials as it will not heat up the material being blasted.
In fact, vapor blasting was developed during WW2 for the aircraft industry just for this purpose.
The nearest company to me that has a vapor blaster is a helicopter company and they use it for cleaning aluminum, brass, bronze, magnesium ect.
I will be doing some experiments to prove or disprove it's effectiveness when I get mine installed and operational in a few weeks.

[queen of spodes]

Premature fitment of frame & swingarm:

[sandblaster]

Very nice...

[bens87braap]

that looks sweeeet   

[queen of spodes]

Got a box full of NOS Kawasaki bearings & seals and am getting close to bottom end assembly.

1) still need to remove that 6mm blind bearing.  (Edit, forgot that someone posted a pic and instructions for a homemade tool out of threaded rod).

2) I'm using case halves from different bikes (same 89 kx125 model though).   Can someone point me to a lapping tutorial *for cases*?  Do I need to get some glass to do this on?   I don't want to get a second set of cases from messing up the lapping.