1986 Kawasaki KX80

bonseff
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bonseff 4/26/2020 4:39pm
4/26/2020 4:39pm
Looking forward to your completion. I was riding YZ minis back in the day but I had several friends on Kawis as we ripped up the deserts of S. New Mexico. It's looking fantastic!
Premix4Life 4/26/2020 5:54pm
4/26/2020 5:54pm
Great job sir. Excellent attention to details. Agree the Kawasaki paint looks spot on!
mumawalde
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mumawalde 4/26/2020 6:51pm
4/26/2020 6:51pm
Thanks everyone! more pics will be posted as the work progresses.

@Bent206 Check out this video by Cameron Niemela. He gives a quick explaination of what I did.

The only difference is that I sanded anywhere that didn't come clean the first time I used the torch. After sanding and another hit with the torch I got a much nicer outcome.

I used a small hand held propane torch similar to Cameron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPy9uYVv4IM&t=240s

Good Luck!
Bent206
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Bent206 4/27/2020 8:58am
4/27/2020 8:58am
mumawalde wrote:
Thanks everyone! more pics will be posted as the work progresses. @Bent206 Check out this video by Cameron Niemela. He gives a quick explaination of what...
Thanks everyone! more pics will be posted as the work progresses.

@Bent206 Check out this video by Cameron Niemela. He gives a quick explaination of what I did.

The only difference is that I sanded anywhere that didn't come clean the first time I used the torch. After sanding and another hit with the torch I got a much nicer outcome.

I used a small hand held propane torch similar to Cameron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPy9uYVv4IM&t=240s

Good Luck!
I found the video. Thanks for sharing.
I'm going to try this on my next build/restore. Always good to learn a new technique.

The Shop

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garagedog 4/27/2020 9:12pm
4/27/2020 9:12pm
You sure got your mileage out of that rear sprocket!
Kidkawie
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Kidkawie 4/28/2020 2:58am
4/28/2020 2:58am
Check Nightmare
mumawalde
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mumawalde 4/28/2020 5:30pm
4/28/2020 5:30pm Edited Date/Time 4/28/2020 5:33pm
Rear shock rebuild. Replaced seal and o-rings and cleaned it up. Also spent some time working on the accumulator shell. It was pretty beat up and the piston would not move freely. I honed it and was able to open it enough for the piston to move freely. After honing I put a new o-ring on the piston and made sure it was free to move using compressed air.

Still haven't decided on what we want to do with the spring; clean it and repaint, or buy a new one.
















mumawalde
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mumawalde 4/28/2020 5:34pm
4/28/2020 5:34pm
Minor accomplishment, but today I was also able to assemble the rear drum brakes.



2
DynoDan22
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DynoDan22 4/29/2020 6:32am
4/29/2020 6:32am
Nice work on the airbox. If you want to take it a step further and make it look showroom, take Vaseline and use a rag to rub it on the air box. She'll look brand new!
mumawalde
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mumawalde 4/29/2020 9:43pm
4/29/2020 9:43pm
@DynoDan22 I just gave it a try. It worked awesome. Thanks!
DynoDan22
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DynoDan22 4/30/2020 7:07am
4/30/2020 7:07am
Good to hear! I used vaseline on an '87 CR250 airbox and it turned out awesome. Keep the pics coming! haha
Bent206
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Bent206 5/13/2020 9:39am
5/13/2020 9:39am
Did you finish assembling this bike?
mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/13/2020 7:49pm
5/13/2020 7:49pm
More pics and assembly process coming soon! Its moving along, with a little slowdown while waiting for parts to arrive.
beamer
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Squaw River, CA
beamer 5/13/2020 9:22pm
5/13/2020 9:22pm
Cool project! In 1986 i had the new YZ80 but my neighbors and riding friends (twins) had a pair of KX's, they were almost like a big wheel compared to mine.
mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:04am
5/31/2020 8:04am
Ok, so I finished reassembly of the rear shock, and filled it with oil. I pressurized it to 150psi and kept it pressurized for about a week to check for leaks. What appeared to be a leak was just residual oil dripping. At this point it's a completed assembly, and is ready for install on the bike.






mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:10am
5/31/2020 8:10am
I made the decision to use the old spring and just put the effort in to clean it up and paint it. I used the same color as the frame. The pics show it in the sanded state, primed state and then painted and clear coated. It was a course of a few days to acomplish this, as I wanted stuff to fully dry before moving on.









mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:12am
5/31/2020 8:12am
Assembled shock ready for install.

1
mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:18am
5/31/2020 8:18am
Finally i could do some assembly work. Here is the frame / swing-arm / rear-shock put together







1

Pit Row

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mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:25am
5/31/2020 8:25am
Throughout the shock work I was also able to complete some odds and ends. Here is the triple tree assembly coming together. I could have put new bearings in it, but these ones cleaned up nicely and moved smoothly, so no need.





mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:32am
5/31/2020 8:32am Edited Date/Time 5/31/2020 8:34am
I cleaned up the coil and electronics module and put them on the bike. After sanding rust off the coil I put some clear coat so it would stay nice. I mounted it while the clear coat was still wet so the screw would still get a good ground. I also put a new spark plug boot on the coil. I will probably go through the wiring when the engine is in to clean that all up nicely.









mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:40am
5/31/2020 8:40am
Front brake caliper tear down, clean up and rebuild. It was easy to find the rebuild kit for this.
Unfortunately, during the rebuild I learned that the brake pads I had didn't fit the caliper. Luckily I did find the right ones, and ordered them.












mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:43am
5/31/2020 8:43am
I did a temp install of the caliper and front up assembly on the bike while waiting for rims and spokes to arrive.

mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 8:47am
5/31/2020 8:47am
We ordered and received tires, tubes and the works for a few bikes. Also rims and spokes came in.



2
mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 9:01am
5/31/2020 9:01am
The front wheels laced up nice and easy and trued up real good. Here is a test fit on the bike after building the wheel.
I then mounted the tire, and put it on as a final install.









1
mumawalde
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mumawalde 5/31/2020 9:10am
5/31/2020 9:10am
Chain slides for this bike are hard to find. Luckily i had pieces of one, so I was able to model it up in 3D CAD and 3D print it. Here is an image of the model, the printed parts and how they look installed on the swing arm.






6
MaxPower
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MaxPower 7/29/2020 10:30pm
7/29/2020 10:30pm
Do you want a 06 kx85 carb for it?
Pm me if you do

Aceofspades 8/4/2020 3:36pm
8/4/2020 3:36pm Edited Date/Time 8/4/2020 3:40pm
I had an 85 cr 80 and my cousin bought a new 86 kx80 in 86. I was so jealous of his bike! Cool disk brake, bigger forks, square frame tubes.....until we went riding and my 85 cr80 felt like a 250 on the bottom and midrange compared to his kx😂 Kawa really went for a top end power and that year and ruined the power. We either advanced or retarded the ignition by 2mm(not sure which) and it made the bike hit like a freight train in the mid range.

Funny aside: in about 1991 we decided to fix his kx since it needed a new counter shaft sprocket do we took it to the local Kawasaki shop to have the cases split. Well, life got in our way and we never thought about the engine again til about 15 years later and laughed about it. I said “I’m going to call and tell them I’m picking up that engine😂” and dialed them up....and was told by the mechanic/owner “I haven’t had a chance to get to that engine yet. I’ll have it done by tomorrow”😂😂😂😂 We never picked it up of course. I wonder if the shop STILL has that engine?
Aceofspades 8/4/2020 3:45pm
8/4/2020 3:45pm
While I’m thinking about it: another friend of mine had an 85 kx80 and it felt way more powerful than my cousins 86, BUT the dyno charts from dirt rider say that the 86 had 3-4 MORE horsepower pretty much everywhere in the power and compared to the 85 kx80, and destroyed my 85cr80 in power numbers as well. I’ve often wondered what happened between the engine and the rear wheel that killed the big horsepower numbers? Was it that new linkage/frame? Weird.
Aceofspades 8/4/2020 3:49pm
8/4/2020 3:49pm
Here’s the dirt bike test from 86. Sorry the last page is missing but it was only a half paragraph anyway

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