Took bike apart and found a few things

[95formula847]

Well I had the top end off of my KX5 and decided to do some cleaning up which led to this:



So, after disassembling things I found a few issues.

-Shock bottom bearing/bushing half missing causing a lot of play
-The bottom steering stem race has chatter marks/water marks
-Suspension linkage has play

I got on Motosport.com to order new Pivot Works bearing kits and after these three kits:

-Steering Stem
-Shock
-Shock linkage
-Swing arm

The total cost is $240! Is that a good price for bearings/seals/bushings?

The paint shop at my work is going to paint the frame and wheels for me while its apart.

[Rd]

Are you going to paint the wheels?  Most people complain about powdercoating chipping off the rims. I would think paint would be worse. I powdercoated my hubs, but since my bike is apart I have no idea how they will hold up. That sounds about right for the bearings.

<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v210/makoman/?action=view&current=DSCN0892Medium.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/makoman/th_DSCN0892Medium.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>

[95formula847]

I had a shop paint wheels on my KX125 years ago black with a good clear and nothing ever happened with them. They looked good. powedercoating is out of the budget especially since I am doing the jfab decomp mod, new plastics, and all new bearings.

I may just try to polish the wheels up. We'll see

[Goat]

If you use a good automotive paint with the proper prep work it should last a long time. I've painted rims with tractor paint as well. It doesn't have as nice a finish as automotive but it's cheap and tough as nails.

Your bearing prices are about average. I'm sure if you dug around you may find some cheaper but it depends how much time you want to spend looking for parts rather than putting it back together. Just don't go with cheap no name brands. They rarely last as long as spending the extra for name brand. In the end you'll end up spending more than you would have in the first place.

[95formula847]

Ill probably go ahead and spend the 240 clams on all new bearings/bushings/seals and be done. They will last me as long as I have the bike anyways so I guess its not that much cash.

As for prep work, the frame is geting sandblasted to bare metal and then the paint shop is gonna cr prime it and base then clear it.

[Rd]

That k5 will be looking sweet after the paint and new plastic. Can't wait to see the pics.

[95formula847]

I hope so! Ill get pics up this week after its done.

[95formula847]

I ordered the bearings and so on. Also got new steel sprockets front and back. 14 and 49 is what I got as I have read on here thats a good setup. Also got a new DID 114 link chain.... hope thats the right amount of links.

And lastly I bought all new rubber mounts for the exhaust and the correct hardware so that I shouldnt have a problem with loose exhaust anymore.

[snoopjonnyjon]

I've found the bearings can be purchased much cheaper one-at-a-time from a bearing supply shop, rather than getting the kits at a motorcycle shop. This only works if the bearing you need is good enough that you can still read the part number off the bearing. I needed some bearings from my 500 rebuild, and noticed they appeared to just be a standard Koyo bearing, and the part number was visible. I went down to the local "Bearing & Transmission" and got the new bearings for less than 1/4 of the price of getting the same bearing from Kawasaki. The convenience of having them in a kit is nice though.

[Goat]

I've found the bearings can be purchased much cheaper one-at-a-time from a bearing supply shop, rather than getting the kits at a motorcycle shop. This only works if the bearing you need is good enough that you can still read the part number off the bearing. I needed some bearings from my 500 rebuild, and noticed they appeared to just be a standard Koyo bearing, and the part number was visible. I went down to the local "Bearing & Transmission" and got the new bearings for less than 1/4 of the price of getting the same bearing from Kawasaki. The convenience of having them in a kit is nice though.

Only problem with going that route is you have to make sure they know what they are talking about and make sure you get high speed bearings. If you use standard bearings they will be destroyed in no time. Been there done that. Many years ago when I was just starting to learn how to rebuild bikes. That was 17 years ago

[snoopjonnyjon]

Not a problem if you have the bearing with you, and get the same brand and part number. If they pull out the caliper, measure it and come back with a box from another manufacturer or worse yet, same manufacturer, same size, different part number, run away!

[95formula847]

Not a problem if you have the bearing with you, and get the same brand and part number. If they pull out the caliper, measure it and come back with a box from another manufacturer or worse yet, same manufacturer, same size, different part number, run away!

I may just try that! Thanks for the tip!

[Goat]

I took my crank bearings to the local bearing/gear place here and Luckily there were a couple dirt riders there. The numbers on my bearings matched what they had but theirs weren't high speed bearings. They ordered the high speed ones for me though. I believe total for 2 crank bearings, output shaft bearing, and the input shaft bearing was like $65.

On a side note. Moose makes a full gasket/seal kit. Comes with every gasket and every seal you would need to completely rebuild the engine. I didn't get one when I rebuilt my bike because they were on back order and didn't want to wait for it. I have used them on other bikes in the past and when they say complete they aren't joking.

[95formula847]

When I get the bottom end done I doubt I will try it myself. IDK though depends on how difficult it is. I dont mind buy specialty tools to do the job so I may just try it. What do you guys think about doing bottom ends yourself?

[barryadam]

This is a perfect opportunity to weld up a beefy upper exhaust mount / reinforcement.