History

PART 4 : NOVEMBER 2003 - ON THE ROAD (MOSTLY)

At the start of November, I was out riding every halfway sunny day that came along, starting to get really comfortable with the bike and really enjoying myself. Okay, so there was still a strong smell of gas from around the carbs a lot of the time, and I'd get occasional wafts of exhaust smoke leaking from around the header pipes. All of that I could live with - but not the damn rattle. If I was going to turn heads, I was determined it would be because my bike looked cool, not because of the horrible racket it made. I was fairly sure that I needed to replace the cam chain tensioner, and one day I read an interesting post on kzrider.com about just this subject. Apparently a tensioner from a KZ900 would work fine - the 900s used the manual type tensioner that I wanted, and the 900 tensioners actually had a slightly longer plunger which would hold a loose chain in place a little better. A quick check over on eBay - there was one just coming up for auction, and I was able to grab it for $10!

The 900 tensioners have lower "shoulders" than the 650 version, so I picked up some shorter mounting screws (see image at right - the new 900 tensioner is on the bottom). I checked the posts on kzrider, and double-checked my manual on the process for replacing a tensioner - the main thing to watch out for is not to let the plunger spring out suddenly while mounting or removing, or you may shoot small parts straight into the engine block!I followed the instructions carefully, mounting the new tensioner with the spring plunger locked all the way back, then turned over the engine to the point where the cam chain should be loosest, and loosened the tensioner locking nut. There was a satisfactory "clunk" as the plunger shot out, and I tightened up the nut again. So did it work? I started up the engine, and ... IT SOUNDED GREAT!! Absolutely no rattle whatsover - for the first time, the bike positively "purred." I have to say, that had to be just about the best $10 I ever spent!

With the new tensioner in place, I spend a few weeks of blissful (and peaceful) riding - then, toward the end of November I made two unpleasant discoveries. One was when I filled up with gas one day, and did a little calculation too see just how well I was doing on mileage. Whoa - only 22 mpg! I did a quick online lookup and discovered that, as I suspected, a KZ650 in decent shape should be getting more like 40 miles to a gallon. My KZ had actually been running surprisingly well all things considered - but obviously something was not right with the carburetors. I got an even more nasty shock when I went to check the oil level one day and found that it had gone UP. It became quickly clear that gas was getting into the oil somehow, and my immediate reaction was to be horrified - this surely meant very serious problems with the engine.

Luckily, kzrider was available once again to calm me down - gas in the oil apparently is not an uncommon thing. Often it simply means that the mixture is seriously over-rich and that raw (unatomized) gas is therefore getting into the cylinders, and as it is thinner than oil, it can then seep down past the piston rings. So this all fit in with my finding that my bike was a big-time gas guzzler. Clearly someone needed to take a really good look at the carburetors - and with December and the start of a three-month period of no insurance coming up, it might as well be me! After all, I couldn't possibly make it any worse ... could I?

(TO BE CONTINUED...)