This seems like the place.I need to talk to some die hard kx500 owners ,like gowen.They are far and few in these parts. I have lived just outside buffalo NY my whole life.ridden and raced off road my whole life ,amatuer hillclimbs,grass drags , poker runs etc.Mechanic by trade ,worked on everthing but aircraft.Competition limited to NY,PA and OHio.Have ridden in most east coast states all the way down to florida including Georgia and the Carolinas .Consider myself extremely lucky have rv to travel and great woman who will follow me anywhere and try anything on her kx100.Neither of us have broken any bones on the bikes ,just minor stuff.Right now my kx500 is apart ,its a 2001 that i purchased used in june 2002.It has maybe 30 hrs on it . The previous owner had 2 kx500s he built the his first one for the woods,then he got intrested in drags so he bought the 2001 new and sent the head to eric gorr to have the head relieved for higher rpm,still dont now exactly what eric did.I believe he changed the angle from 10 degrees to 18 still not sure but i would like to now.He also added a desert pipe and fmf powercore silencer ,rode it maybe 3 times and proceeded to go out and crash his woods kx so bad he had to sell them both.I was already looking to buy new so when i came upon this bike with the mods allready done and the nipples still on the tires i didnt think twice and bought it. So here i am few years later with very little hours on the bike ,i didnt say easy hours, hillclimb and drags high rpm time .top 5 at climbs best was a second place,unbeatable at the drags even beat 800 cc sled and 900 ninga including all the best built banshees. Over the the years i have added boyesen rad valve ,steel clutch plates,swingarm extenstions and works connection protection.I sucked some dirt at the drags and ruined the nikasil bore .Sent to us chrome for replating came back with some porosity in bore i didnt like it but in the info they sent me back with the jug they said itwas ok.next the top op the cylinder head gasket mating surface was extremely poris but there info packet explained how there not resposible for this it sometimes happens during the removal process of the old nikasil and that it usually never affects the sealing .I took top of the cylinder glass plate and sandpaper and smoothed it ,seemed better. rod seemed tight ,cleaned and assembeld .leaked now matter what ,copper spray etc . little seepage.figured i could run it at the local hillclimb 2 weeks later it only comes once a year.But i was wrong took it out for a slow runs ,heat cycles etc. Wasnt happy with the way it ran thought it was jetting or air leak checked air side seal by spraying cleaner while running no difference.figured what the hell maybe the stator plate loosened up,went to pull the flywheel and WOW i could move the crank in and out and up and down ,didnt look like i was going racing in 2 weeks .Complete teardown showed crank assmy including bearings to be in perfect shape even looks true. no wear. The cases though were worn or eggshaped to 6 to 9000ths on the air side and 3 to 6000ths on the oil side . Nobody can tell you what the fit is supposed to be .Repair is very questionable seeing that the steel races are impregnated into the cases when they are formed.After buying new cases and the proper C3 bearings i have determined by dial bore gauge and mic that the interference fit is around 2.5000ths.that is pretty tight i am told by most crank guys.But that is what the new parts measure.So i have the parts .Why dont i put it together.Because i dont want to go through this any time soon and i am not going to quit revving the hell out of it.Eric gorr has mentioned this in some chat i have read ,he said I quote "this is and inherit problem attributed to frequently overrevved kx 500s" When i called him on the phone he said he has only seen this in older bikes and he wasnt much help.Incidently eric is closed indefinitly due to his mother passing away,my best wishes to eric and his family .My research has lead me to believe that crank balancing should eliminate my case problems.Eric highly recomends Crankworks in arizona.They told me they can balance my crank for any rpm ,but they are not engine builders i must decide what rpm.I have read that stock kx 500 is balanced for 5000rpm.I cant put my bike together and check its peak rpm on a dyno and i dont even know if thats what i want to balance it at and i really dont want to guess what is best or somebody elses best guess .I want somebody who knows! I read all 56 pages of the kx 500 maintenence sectoin today and gowen mentioned he had eric balance his crank for 7k-8k he said it is horrible down low . How low? and it is as smooth as silk wfo. Is this what i want ? I need to practice at the moto track to be competitive at the hillclimbs. THANKS ACE
