KDXRIDER.NET

In your opinion, who makes a top quality crank bearing & seal kit for the kdx ...allballs?? hot rods?? or OE Kawasaki items ( probably koyo anyway ).. looking to do a rebuild soon & wondered what should I go with?

I replaced the crank bearings in mine with Hot Rods and they were the same make and part number as the OEM that I removed. I can't remember about the seals if I even checked. But being that Hot Rods is an aftermarket supplier I would imagine that they resell what ever they can get a good price on in bulk quantity at the time so their supplier will very.

Probably the best is OEM but then again, they probably swapped suppliers from time to time as well. Just avoid the China bearings and you should be fine.

I have heard enough bad things about all balls to just avoid them if possible.

Honestly, oem is all I'd ever buy for crank bearings and seals. Wheel bearings I cheap out, but oem I trust implicitly for internal engine bearings. The small bearing such as power valve gear and water pump I have bought the $2 Chinese bearing before and they work great. They're cheap enough that I buy in bulk and they can be changed easily if they act up. Crank, tranny, and output shaft bearing get the oem treatment.

OEM all the way - why take a chance on bearings made in china to unknown spec? I bought aftermarket seals and compared them to OEM, the aftermarket seals (two brands) were slightly narrower also.

Yep. Aftermarket seals are crap usually. Agree on the Chinese bearings, but the power valve and waterpump bearings from china I buy are usually pretty good. I was rebuilding a yz250 once and got the entire tranny bearing set from a Chinese bearing dealer and the were surprisingly nice and robust looking- but I still got worried and never used them. Oem all the way for any bearing I have to split the engine to change.

As long as they are japanese bearings, should be fine. OEM is overpriced for the same thing you can get at an autoparts store. I've used hotrods with no complaints, but usually I just buy NMB bearings of the correct size from my local shop. Seals I will usually buy OEM.

Just for the record, Kawasaki does not make bearings. They buy them from a bearing distributor in a bulk quantity. They do have a standard that they shop for but they will also but from the lowest bidder that meets their specs. There is really very few bearing manufactures in the world so finding "Kawasaki bearings" in another box at a cheaper price is very possible. Same goes for seals. Just avoid the China bearings.

Have seen `hot rods` bearing & seal kit & even `koyo` bearings on ebay ..am just having doubts about OE seals as I cant see Kawasaki making these for a fresh order, so its possible that the seals have sat in a storage somewhere since they made them many moons ago & have probably gone hard by now?

Within the last two years I've replaced the crank seals on three different KDX engines using OEM seals. None were "hard". My experience is that the seal compounds used in modern times don't harden - even when in the bikes. You can buy low time KDX's made in the the early nineties that don't have leaky seals...my 97 has the original seals.

BTW, the OEM bearings I've purchased were only a couple of dollars more than the auto parts prices - I figure the common shipping fee (with the seals) pretty much covers the difference. OEM implies to me that there is a history of good performance from the sub-contracting company which provides the bearings. I've never had a failure using OEM bearings.