Winter Maintenance Gone Out of Control

Well it’s time to perform some simple maintenance on my ’91 KDX, or so I thought. I had the bike completely torn down in just 2 hours. A quick look into to intake port showed that I had ingested some dirt. My piston is scored and upon disassembly I discovered that my lower ring is frozen at the sight of the piston scoring. Looks like I’ll have to replate the cylinder too.

Hmm, seems there is a bit of play in the crank bearing so I’ll send the engine to RRP to have the bearing replaced. While they have the cylinder for replating they might as well do some Stage II porting. I guess they should take care of that slight water pump seal leak too!

Suspension, yep, time for new springs in the forks and I might as well have the shock serviced. I should get a new rear tire too.

Front brake pads, FRP kick starter, V-Force Reed Valve and maybe a skid plate and pipe guard…

What started as a simple Saturday morning maintenance project to lube the bearings and clean the powervalves and silencer has turned into a $1,000 day! Good thing nothing was actually broken!!! The funny thing is that everything I thought I needed to due was fine. My powervalves are clean and work great, there was plenty of grease at all bearings and pivot points and, thanks to the use of never seize, all of my bolts slid right out.

I wish I didn’t like this bike so much. Otherwise I had some good reasons to replace it. $1,000 sure beats $6,000 though.

Well, I was thinking along the lines of a WR250F or a KTM. I can't see selling my KDX to get another one. If I can get the old KDX's suspension sorted out it will last me along time. I can't think of a bike with better power delivery. I'm interested to see how it performs with the torque porting.

Gary

I considered FRP but choose to go to RRP (Rosini Racing Products in New Village NJ) because they are local and have an excellent reputation. I like being able to talk to the mechanic face-to-face this way both parties are clear on the expectations. Mike at RRP has a considerable amount of experience with KDX’s (when he saw me walk through the door with the forks in my hand he said, “They look like KDX forks”. This from 25 feet away!) and he guarantees his work to absolute satisfaction.

I told him to port the cylinder for torque while retaining the use of 91 pump octane. He thought a “mild stage 2” port and general clean-up would do the job for me. He said changing the head could create problems with pump gas and that with my type of riding (slow trails) I might not see the full benefit of that service. He also suggested the use of a V-Force reed cage.

I’ll post my results.

Gary