Problems

I’ve actually had the bike for a few months now and have ridden it around a fair bit. I’ve taken the “treasurer” down to the local café/restaurant for breakfast and lunch a few times and done a few rides further south where I could open up the throttle and blow some cobwebs out.

But 2 weeks ago she started to run a bit rough and wouldn’t idle properly, I say she because a member of the family named the bike "Bessy". It got to the point where when I pulled up to the lights behind another bike they would think I was egging them on because I had to keep twisting the throttle to keep it running.

Not good…….so into the shed (garage) it went for some tender love and care.

So after some conversing with fellow GPz owners on the web I started the process of determining what was wrong.

Rule of thumb is to -

1: Check the valve clearances….not a small job in itself as the fuel tank and virtually all of the fairing has to come off just to get at them.

2: Balance the carby’s.

3: Check the fuel mixture, and

4: Re-check the carby’s again.

To cut a long story short I discover that "Bessy" has what is called “sinking valve” syndrome, apparently common in this model bike and particularly Kawasaki’s of this era. I’m told the Japanese used crap steel to make their valves and therefore over time the seats on the valves wear away and recede back into the cylinder head.

So now I know the head has to come off and get new valves installed…..not cheap! This trip across the country is getting expensive already and I haven’t even left home yet!!

On top of that I check the mixtures of the carbys and also discover that the bike is only running on two cylinders (it has four) and one of the coils has given up the ghost.

Apparently…. rarely does this happen, so off to the wreckers I go, a round trip of some 140 Km’s. I had to do the trip to the wreckers twice.

So a couple of hundred bucks (dollars) later, I walk out the door of the wreckers with 4 new plug caps, 1.5 meters of ignition lead, new front and rear sprockets, a new coil and…. a lighter wallet.

After spending some time in the shed and caressing the new parts onto "Bessy", I fire her up and she runs smoother than a baby’s bum. The “treasurer” hears the sweet purr of " Bessy's" motor, comes out to the shed and knows all is going well when she sees the smile on my face.

Next job…….. “Off with its head”.