Front disc bolt pattern?

[don46]

I would be lost with out It every one should have one even If It is just a cheep plastic one from harbor freight digital Is sweet becaus you can convert inches to mm. 

I thought you were referring to the bottle opener

I agree, I bought a digital caliper at a Hock shop about 10 years ago, I'd be lost without it. It probably gets used more than any other tool I have, well, maybe the bottle opener gets more use.

[demographic]

  Must be a European thing, don't ever remember seeing a KX with purple forks, there were some purple fork boots about 96 for the bikes that had right side ups and purple fork guards for those with upside downs.

Maybe a UK thing?

I have seen two KX 500s with a nasty shade of purple anodised forks.Mind thinking on, one of them was on Ebay so I don't know if they were standard.
I wonder if the forks were off another bike.

Anyway, the fork diameters were quoted from my Off road only catalogue so I assume thats accurate.

[cyclepsych0]

Did you get the caliper mounted, Tumbleweed?

[Tumbleweed]

Did you get the caliper mounted, Tumbleweed?

Yes I did, the 96 caliper did not fit, but I really don't know if it was really from a '96 since ebay can be a crapshoot sometimes. I ended up with a '01 caliper and it bolted right on.

Sorry if anyone else was waiting on this info. I have a digital caliper on order from harbor frieght and was going to verify the size/year of the forks before I updated this info. Will update again when I get all the info gathered.

[cyclepsych0]

Did you get the caliper mounted, Tumbleweed?

Yes I did, the 96 caliper did not fit, but I really don't know if it was really from a '96 since ebay can be a crapshoot sometimes. I ended up with a '01 caliper and it bolted right on.

Sorry if anyone else was waiting on this info. I have a digital caliper on order from harbor frieght and was going to verify the size/year of the forks before I updated this info. Will update again when I get all the info gathered.

 After reading your response, it made me curious to look up stock part numbers from Kawasaki.
According to the numbers the "96" caliper you bought was indeed NOT from a '96. Kawi lists the same part number for front calipers from 1994 through 2003. For some reason in '04 the calpier mount (removeable piece, not the fork leg casting) stayed the same, but the caliper itself changed. For future reference this would tell me they improved it in '04 somehow, but it will retrofit back to '94 since the caliper mount did not change.... Does the supposed '96 caliper look more like your original '91 unit? Or more like your '01 that actually fit?
 Good 'ol eBay, sometimes it's a guessing game and sometimes it's a great deal on a much needed part. It's also possible that your "96" caliper is a '96, just not for a 500.
 

[Tumbleweed]

After reading your response, it made me curious to look up stock part numbers from Kawasaki.
According to the numbers the "96" caliper you bought was indeed NOT from a '96. Kawi lists the same part number for front calipers from 1994 through 2003. For some reason in '04 the calpier mount (removeable piece, not the fork leg casting) stayed the same, but the caliper itself changed. For future reference this would tell me they improved it in '04 somehow, but it will retrofit back to '94 since the caliper mount did not change.... Does the supposed '96 caliper look more like your original '91 unit? Or more like your '01 that actually fit?
 Good 'ol eBay, sometimes it's a guessing game and sometimes it's a great deal on a much needed part. It's also possible that your "96" caliper is a '96, just not for a 500.

yeah the "'96" caliper was even smaller than my '91 caliper. I have reason to believe that it was from a '86. The reason I say that is the master cylinder that came with it was painted black. I'm pretty sure that the '90's all came with a silver finish. I did see that and it raised a red flag when I bid on it, I was hoping the guy just had it painted. I took a gamble and lost. If I remember correctly I did look up the caliper part numbers and the 125, 250 and 500 all shared the same caliper.

[Tumbleweed]

Just wanted to update the info here in case anyone can use it. I measured the forks and they are 43 mm so with the info from demographic's post they are 91-96, 43x55x9.5/10 (upside down forks). They are 94-96 because of the newer style caliper mount.

They bolt into the '91 triple clamps and I'm using a caliper from a '01 kx 500. The front disc is the correct size so I won't have to change it.

thanks to everyone for the help on this!