Description
18 Page – PDF Download – Complete Series – Kawasaki 250/350/400 Engine Rebuild
“All About the Bikes
As promised last month (have we ever let you down?), here’s the first of our three rebuilds of two stroke engines. Dave Marsden kicks off with background information on the ‘user-friendly’ Kawasaki 250 and 400 triple engine. And, of course, there’s a ride on the 400 model on the pages eight to 11.
This series will cover the increasingly popular KH250/400 models. We will start this month with a rundown of the different models along with the possible pitfalls you may encounter.
Then, over the next few months, we’ll take you through our step-by-step picture guide of how to strip, inspect and rebuild the engine.
Model History
The first Kawasaki’s small triples was introduced to the UK in 1972 by the importer of that time, Agrati Sales of Nottingham. These were the S1 250 and the S2 350.
The S2 was little more than a bored out S1 with bigger carbs and slightly different exhausts. The cycle bits were more or less the same.
It was possible to bore out the cylinders on this ’72 S1 to take the 350 pistons, resulting in a healthy increase in performance. This made these particular barrels very desirable to owners of later model KH250s.
Kawasaki changes the specification of these barrels on the ’73 S1 which made this conversion impossible – and someone at Kawasaki told me this was because the S1 had become so popular in the UK that the factory had decided to produce a set of barrels especially suited for this model. What a shame!
This was typical of the Japanese way of thinking. The 250 was only popular in the UK because of the learner law of that time, so why Kawasaki decided to spend more money on developing a set of barrels for a limited market is beyond me…”
18 Page – PDF Download – Complete Series – Kawasaki 250/350/400 Engine Rebuild
