northern Va repair shop
- nickleo373
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northern Va repair shop
23 Oct 2013 20:20
Hey everyone.
My bike needs a new valve cover gasket and I have no experience taking the engine parts apart. The shop I was planning to take it to just went out of business and the kawasaki dealer doesn't work on anything this old. Does anyone know of a repair shop in the northen VA area that works on older bikes?
My bike needs a new valve cover gasket and I have no experience taking the engine parts apart. The shop I was planning to take it to just went out of business and the kawasaki dealer doesn't work on anything this old. Does anyone know of a repair shop in the northen VA area that works on older bikes?
1981 KZ550C LTD
"If you ain't first, you're last"
"If you ain't first, you're last"
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- MDZ1rider
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Re: northern Va repair shop
30 Oct 2013 13:03
It's about an hour from Northern VA, but Used Bike Emporium near BWI will work on it. The owner has a pretty nice collection of vintage KZ's in the showroom, including a mint all original ELR.
Have you thought about doing it yourself? If you're sure it's the valve cover gasket, that's a relatively easy job. You're not really getting inside the engine. It's a cover. Remove the tank and it's 10 or 12 10mm bolts. Spend the money you would have been charged for labor on a decent torque wrench...not Harbor Freight, but not necessarily Snap-on either. Sears/Craftsman would work fine. I'm sure you can find the torque spec on line. Tighten bolts in a criss-cross if the manual doesn't give a torque pattern. You'll be done in an hour and know a little bit more about your bike.
Have you thought about doing it yourself? If you're sure it's the valve cover gasket, that's a relatively easy job. You're not really getting inside the engine. It's a cover. Remove the tank and it's 10 or 12 10mm bolts. Spend the money you would have been charged for labor on a decent torque wrench...not Harbor Freight, but not necessarily Snap-on either. Sears/Craftsman would work fine. I'm sure you can find the torque spec on line. Tighten bolts in a criss-cross if the manual doesn't give a torque pattern. You'll be done in an hour and know a little bit more about your bike.
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- nickleo373
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Re: northern Va repair shop
30 Oct 2013 13:15
Thanks for the reply. I've thought about doing it myself but I'm finding a lot of the bolts and screws are pretty stuck. I tried kroil and liquid wrench with no luck. I dont want to deal with the extra labor cost of having a shop remove the stripped screws after I mess them all up.
1981 KZ550C LTD
"If you ain't first, you're last"
"If you ain't first, you're last"
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