KDXRIDER.NET

So I finally got around to taking the top end off of my 2003 220 the other day to see if I have the exploding piston (which I do...) and since the bike did not have much use by the previous owners it looked almost new in there. So it is pretty painful to have to shell out the nearly $200 to put a new Wiseco in. Oh well.....

Anyway, I have never opened up a KDX before and I was looking at the service manual to see what it had to say about the KIPS actuating lever and how to line it up. It was describing a notch in the gear and I could not for the life of me see the notch they were describing and showing a picture of. Luckily, I thought to myself, I marked the position with a felt tip pen so I could get it back together again in the right spot. Well after messing with that for a while I finally noticed that there was a line stamped on the shaft, instead of a notch in the gear. Would have been nice if the manual had the right info. grrrrr.

So I have an idea. How about a sticky gets created at the top of the page where people can leave service manual corrections as they find them? That way others can make corrections to their own manuals as new entries get put on the sticky. Maybe someone could come up with a format for people to follow so it can be done quickly, say list your KDX model, then year, then manual (OEM and rev. #, Cyclepedia, etc.) then service item, then page #, then correction. Something like that.

By the way, the line stamped on the shaft IS the line that the lever "dot" is supposed to line up with on a 2003, right? I'll admit my eyesight sucks nowadays. Hate to put it back together wrong.....

Thanks in advance!

I understand! I have an e-series. This winter I replaced my top end with a wiesco piston (WELL worth doing) and had to figure out the KIPS valves on my 1993 with the help of Kdxrider members. The service manual OR supplement for the e-series had no updates on the '93 KIPS main exhaust valve (that was redesigned) and pretty much leaves you hanging, like your supposed to somehow know.

The Kawasaki KDX manuals really arent that great, don't give you the details you need. KDX Cyclepedia isnt much better. It provides a few more photos and gives slighty more- sometimes less detail but more or less mimicks the oem manual -from my recent experience.

I contacted Cyclepedia and asked them to update the KDX e-series KIPS valve assembly description with more detail, which they did. But still, with no description on properly installing the new '92-'94 KIPS main exhaust valve (which is a much different procedure). You would think with all the KIPS complications spanning most KDX models, great detail would be provided in the OEM manuals.

The manual also doesn't tell you that you need to secure/hold the kips actuator sub port wheel while tightening up the small securing nut ....if not this wheel moves when you tighten down, which in turn moves the l/h sub port kips valve making the valve out of sync with the other !. Next time you remove the exhaust take a look inside at the sub valves if the r/h valve is not fully closed then you know why.

before you bolt everything up just look up the exhaust port and see if the kips valves are opening and closing all at the same time