Kawasaki H1 500 Crankshaft seals

smi481 · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 5:30 pm Post subject: Kawasaki H1 500 Crankshaft seals

We had always heard about the seals in older two strokes "going bad"
or "drying up" as indicated by heavy smoke when running and low
cylinder compression.

Imagine our surprise when we checked the crank of a 500 triple, we
recently purchased, which the seller was absolutely sure had been "completely
rebuilt."

As you can see from the pictures of the seal, they not only dry up .... they
can completely come apart and shred as we found when we split the engine.

In our case ..... the claim of a "rebuilt crank" was .... lets say .... "exagerated."

Charlie Smith, of Triple Crankshaft Specialties, completely rebuilt the crankshaft
for us, including all of the bearings, new rods, pins and all the seals. They then
balanced the crank to better than new tolerances.

But the term seals "drying up" can mean different things to different people!

Bikegeezer · Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 10:42 am Post subject:

Keep that lesson in mind for the next bike you buy. How can you tell if a seller is lying? His lips are moving! Also, a lot of these sellers are just repeating what they were told by the previous owner with no way of knowing whether it's true or not. which the seller was absolutely sure had been "completely
rebuilt." All that meant was that he believed what he was told. Obviously total BS. I had my H1 crank redone by a guy named Damon Kirkland in Alabama using labyrinth seals as on the very early H1. I believe he retired last year.

Stu

smi481 · Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 6:52 pm Post subject: Payment made

After speaking with the seller and waiting several weeks, he decided to pay for the
rebuild of the Crankshaft by Triple Crankshaft Specialties.

We specifically asked if the crank had been "rebuilt" on three different occasions
prior to purchasing the bike and the seller answered "Yes, no doubt!" each time.

But when he saw the pictures of the destroyed shaft parts, we found when we split
the crank .... he decided to pay for Triple Crankshaft Specialities to completely rebuild
ours including all seals, bearings, pins and hard to find NOS Kawasaki connecting rods.

The seller paid for the repair, so its over. But we were not going to just "eat" the
cost of that kind of repair - pulling and splitting the engine - then shipping the
crank across the country for the expensive complete tear down - repair - rod balancing
and final crank aligning - that was supposedly ALREADY completed.

Bikegeezer · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:50 pm Post subject: Re: Payment made