August DOTM winner

[aviomech]

Congrats!!!!! I have had the opportunity to ride both of them, and they are very nice rides!!!

[QuickSand]

Just beautiful! I only see these on the net, never ran into one at the dunes.

How about a little history on these builds Mr Senator?

[Senator]

Originally Posted by QuickSand

Just beautiful! I only see these on the net, never ran into one at the dunes.

How about a little history on these builds Mr Senator?

Well, the idea was to have a clean example of both years the T4 was in production,1987 and 1988, that look relatively close to factory while maintaining personality. The result is what you see in the pictures and lists on the first page. The first thing I did after buying each one was drop them off at ILR Performance to be rebuilt and tuned. After intial build and tune, the top ends get pulled annually to clean powervalves, check tolerances, etc. The cases split about every three years for a look at the crank, change all bearings/seals, check shift forks, etc. Over the years they have seen different sets of plastic, some of which are in storage "just in case" since plastic is the holy grail in Tecate world, especially OEM.

[QuickSand]

Great behind the scenes info! Always love to read about classic builds.
With all the ride time you put it do you notice an wear on the motor, tolerances always within spec?
Do you really have problems gumming up the powervalve?

The expansion chamber wind chime in the garage lol, are they all for your T4's?

[Senator]

Originally Posted by QuickSand

Great behind the scenes info! Always love to read about classic builds.
With all the ride time you put it do you notice an wear on the motor, tolerances always within spec?
Do you really have problems gumming up the powervalve?

The expansion chamber wind chime in the garage lol, are they all for your T4's?

Thanks Quick. This Spring, when we pulled the top end on our 87, the rings were out of spec. That was the excuse to put on the complete new top end we end. Those rings have been doing their job since they were installed in the Fall of 06. Every year, they spec fine until this year, easily over 400 hours.

The collar on the output shaft is technically out of spec on both bikes and all of our spare T4 motors as well. Over time, the rubber O-ring that seals it has worn a slight groove in it, not unlike what happens where expansion chambers meet cylinders. In all the T4 motors I've had, and all the rest I've seen, I have yet to find one in perfect condition. It's not a problem but if the calipers hit the right spot, you'll find it to be outside Kawasaki's recommeded wear range and replacement would be advised.

At one point I thought the shift forks may be out of spec when Mrs Senator reported that she was having a hard time downshifting from 4th to 3rd on steep, high rev inclines. I took it out into the dunes and discovered it didn't want to accept 3rd and get back on it as quickly as it should so we split the cases and had a look. It had been 2-3 years since bottom end inspection/new bearings and seals so it was time to get in there anyway. Shift forks were fine, as was everything else, so we compared them with the shift forks of known quality from one of the parts motors on the shelf and they were identical. Sowe replaced all the bearings and seals and buttoned it back up as it was. A friend of ours suggested that the heavy weight gear oil we were running may be the culprit causing the quick-shift problems. On his recommendation, we filled the engine with standard 10-30 and guess what...all better.

We used to have problems gumming up powervalves when we were running Maxima 927, a castor based oil. We were literally going through powervalves on a monthly basis there for a while. I switched back to Maxima Super M and haven't broke a powervalve since.

Yes, the expansion chamber wind chime is all T4 pipes. All the others are much less rare and, as such, were not invited to the party.

[SandPsycho]

Congrats Sen, very nice machines!

[txbanshee513]

rock on!!