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.