Amazingly, the crank spins beautifully and has no alarming play. But it does burp up an oily goo that I have to get out. I suspect it's old gas, and stuff that has been poured in the cylinder over the years to try and loosen it up, and stuff I had soaking in there as well (ATF, brake fluid, etc). This is my first rotary valve, so I'm not even sure what it should look like, but I'm pretty sure I am the first person in this motor (2k miles on the bike). I think it is all stock (yay!). Hopefully the goo actually has been in there a long time, and was keeping things from rusting while it sat all these years.
What are the odds that the crank seals are still good? I would have thought zero for an original 40 year old bike, but the more parts I pull off this bike and clean up, the better they look. For example the carb boots (all three on this bike) look as good as new. Far better than the cracked junk from the 1995 KDX-200 I restored.
I'll clean up the cylinder and see if it is ringed from where the piston was stuck (looks like it could be OK at first glance, but there is a lot of goo left to remove). Then get that off to be rehoned. Then pop off the primary and clutch covers and look and see what surprises are under there (and check the crank bearings then).
Factory this supposedly has a Mikuni VM-30 carb (now missing). Good news, as that is a really cheap and easy to find and maintain carb, and there are lots of new ones on ebay. Anybody know if every VM-30 is the same? Or if the older ones for these bikes had special controls or mounting points? This carb mounts in the engine under a cover, which looks totally cool, but I wonder if that could make it fussy for anything but the original carb.
On the other hand, why would Kawasaki make a special version of a standard carb, and once Mikuni has a well established carb with well established tooling, why change it and mess things up?