This 1986 Kawasaki Voyager XII came to us in very sad shape, supposedly sitting for 10 years! It won't run, locked brakes, crusty and rusty cooling system, is it savable. Can WE save it? Watch and see!
Пікірлер: 57
@Uts90004 ай бұрын
what many of us don't see is the effort you put fourth just to get to the problems and what is needed to resolve the terrible neglect this bike has suffered. The sad point is the value of the bike, in dollars terms, is less than the parts needed to repair it. I have an 88 and am struggling with this exact situation though not nearly as bad as yours. Overheating has caused me to replace the Tstat and flush the system which has brought the temp gauge down to to just above unreasonable leaving me no choice but to pull the manifold. This video has given me the desire to dig in....oh joy!. I really do like this bike. It's comfortable, fast and can really eat miles all the while sipping fuel and ignoring most rest stops. Thanks for your time....I subscribed and look forward to future videos
@MotoRestoFL3 ай бұрын
That is the bottom line isn't it, the parts/labor being way more of an investment than the machine is worth in the first place. It's easy for bikes to become too far gone even if they aren't, but just from a financial perspective. That's probably why so many of them get tossed into the crusher.
@MarkFox7 ай бұрын
Hydrologic clutch, I would plan on rebuilding both the master and slave.
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Ten 4 on that.
@josephleister91987 ай бұрын
Nice project...looking forward to hearing it run.
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Yea me too. lol.
@texastyrannyresponseteam7947 ай бұрын
i traded for an 84 model Voyager 1300 6cyl back in the day.. the bike was like new and i really didn't own it long, so i never had to work on it.. i did ride it a little before i sold it.. and it was a really nice bike.. took my girlfriend to Colorado on it from Houston... the engine was buttery smooth and it had all the power needed to get her moving up in the mountains.. she "felt" a bit bulkier than the goldwing of similar vintage.. we see the 4cyl models like this one come up for sale cheap al the time.. nice to get a good look at what might be in store if i ever pull the trigger on one.. i hardly ever see the 6cyl models for sale.. i bet you would find it difficult and expensive to source any EFI parts for them anymore.. looking forward to seeing this one on the road again.. love my Kaws
@CWS19637 ай бұрын
Ive had a couple that were plugged up like that, Blue Devil flush is safe for aluminum and does a great job. I filled the system, left it over night and flushed well a couple times and it took all the big crud out.
@qivarebil21497 ай бұрын
This kind of jobs, are the best. Cleaning and replacing crap parts. 🥸
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Yea about as fun as a root canal. 🦷 And I gotta get two of those at the end of January.
@qivarebil21497 ай бұрын
Thoughts & Prayers! 🙏@@MotoRestoFL
@aarondean82996 ай бұрын
I have a 2002 Kawasaki voyager and hope I never have those problems. They made that model for 18 years. They claim the 1986 being the first year to be the best and built in Japan First time viewer of your channel. Hope to follow the progress. They are a great bike, lots of power and excellent on fuel . In-line 4 is the best engine and some guys have claimed to have over 200,000 miles on them. I use shell rotella 15w40 diesel T4 in the crankcase. Doesn't have friction modifiers in it as a lot of oils do which can cause the clutch to slip. That bike looks in great shape. It deserves an engine swap if that one doesn’t work out. Aaron from Canada.
@MotoRestoFL6 ай бұрын
Exactly the oil I use and what’s currently in the voyager.
@FREE_PUREBLOOD3337 ай бұрын
When you get that bike running and back together that's going to be a nice comfortable bike from e 80's. Hope it all goes well with the pod air filter idea...standard air boxes would be ideal if you could get all the rubbers. The broken mount for air box can be repaired. 👍
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
I can get the parts but we’re pushing the budget pretty far as it is now. We could always go back, there’ll be no permanent mods. The pods will be mostly protected by the side covers (the fake chrome ones) and I’m not too worried about doing the jetting, I’ve done enough of them to figure that out. I have numbers in mind already, but it depends. I will go into this more in the next video.
@henryhawk9787 ай бұрын
This should be really nice project. RIDE SAFE OUT THERE!
@icefire0013 ай бұрын
Im in the middle of saving a 93, following !
@stevefletcher23347 ай бұрын
another good video, thanks.
@ridervfr27987 ай бұрын
I did a Suzuki Calvalcade with the v-4, the doode was so paranoid about me riding/testing the bike, he took the seat. I got the bike running well and ended up using a moving blanket to sit on during the test rides, (think the owner was a retired doctor.) Nice Kawi.
@ipfreelynow7 ай бұрын
That is a beast of a bike.
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
I’ll have to look up the curb weight. I’m sure it’s heavier than my Concours 14, and only has a 1200 which really is a larger version of the ZG1000 concours engine. Seems small.
@HeinrichKruger-kz3ug3 ай бұрын
I use consentrated 2 l lemon juice plug everything after done radiator too and then pour in and leave for a day flush with water and do it again.Removes all rust build up and cooling system good as new
@MotoRestoFL3 ай бұрын
off camera, I tried evaporust overnight and CLR non-diluted and after checking inside with a dangly bit scope, still a bunch of crud in there. Lemon juice wouldn't touch that, but decent idea.
@EllenBeeBoutique7 ай бұрын
I recall seeing a mechanic flushing the cooling system with white vinegar and then distilled water before replenishing the coolant
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
I thought about that and I have some but it’d have to let sit in there for a while, I think if it were mine I’d try it. It’s quite possibly risky. But it’s cleaning up pretty well doing this. It’s such a small volume I’m going to just fill it with coolant and send it, any residual tap water in there would be minuscule.
@polara19747 ай бұрын
Liqui Moly is what you want to clean the cooling system once you get it running. Couple of flushs with it.
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Thanks. Will keep that in mind.
@wdhewson7 ай бұрын
Nice winch set up. I too am a bit weaker than I was in 1985 !!
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
I have a setup for that winch in the trailer and in the shed too.
@colinhall89987 ай бұрын
I’d look at home central heating products like heating system defuring, flushing and rust inhibiting additives. They work for home heating systems.
@petev.93577 ай бұрын
I'd be WAY worried about the head gasket.
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Well, it’s a risk admittedly. Owner said the temp gauge didn’t peg. But we all know if the water was low that might be an unreliable indicator. I have thought about it. My plan is, run a compression test with coolant in the block. I have plugged off those four ports with caps and filled the block with fresh 50/50. Kawasaki wants like 46/54 but close enough. Anyway, I did that to prevent further corrosion from any rust stuck to the water jackets. And the coolant will help clean it out. I can see the coolant at those top ports between the spark plugs. The comp test will show bubbling through the top ports if the head gasket is leaking. Likewise, the comp readings will show if there’s a combustion chamber leak not associated with the water jackets. Finally, if those tests are good, I have a colorimetric products of combustion test kit I can use after everything is back together and running. So yea, it’s a concern but I just have a gut feeling it’s ok. The radiator, on the other hand, isn’t. More on that soon.
@lickitysplit24137 ай бұрын
Hey Tom question regarding your mill and lathe in your garage. Do you have to continually monitor your metal working equipment in your garage for rusting/oxidation or do you have an air conditioned/heated garage? I’m wanting to get a mill and lathe for my garage/shop, but my garage is block wall open truss design eg no drywall on ceiling so my space is really temp/humidity dependent on weather. I live in Lake County,FL so we see some high humidity conditions here. Just wondering how your equipment holds up.
@stevensapyak79717 ай бұрын
1.13.24. Looks 👀 like GM DexKill™️ coolant😳
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Anything’s possible.
@wdhewson7 ай бұрын
Some industrial engines have coolant filters. Is there a place to install a filter for the first 1000 miles?
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
There isn’t room for a pigmy d*ck let alone some filter assembly. lol.
@shaunhardie60777 ай бұрын
Have you thought about using plumbers "Radiator flush"? Not 100% sure if its safe for aluminium but worth looking into.
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Sure, I've thought about many chemical options, but over time, the proper coolant is going to do the same thing. Coolant has anti-rust and cooling system cleaning chemicals in itself. The owner is just going to have to diligently do cooling system drain/refills and quite possibly flushes, with at least the lower radiator hose removed for any larger chunks, since the drain hole is 6mm. I may be going down a rabbits hole throwing some chemical into the block, I might try that, if it were my bike, but won't on a customer's mount. Now, I'm most likely going to be doing an additional flush or two before it leaves here, if we have to burn an extra gallon of coolant, so be it. In other words, get the big girl running, up to temp a couple cycles, dump the coolant, refill and see how it looks. Cheers.
@norcal87187 ай бұрын
You talk way too much!!! You go over the same thing numerous times, one time is enough to understand. But thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge, it is appreciated 👍🏻
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Thanks for the feedback. I do try to edit redundancies out. Please understand, however, there's a lot that goes into producing a video. This one in particular, is challenging because I started footage, then we terminated the project, then re-started the project, so I had to figure a way to merge the original footage, which had some important aspects, with the re-shoot footage. Also, keep in mind these videos are recorded over a period of time, not all in one take or day. Could take days or even weeks, depending upon parts coming in, etc. I sometimes forget where I was at before, and re-cover that material hoping to edit it out in Premier Pro. Sometimes repetitive clips get missed. I know exactly the one(s) you refer to, I didn't see those until final production, there's lots of distractions around here even during editing. But again, thanks for the feedback, it's important to me. I am trying my best.
@Uts90003 ай бұрын
at some point in this trio of videos you said something about plugging the carbs or putting plugs on and i'm thinking you are suggesting removing the air switch hoses that attach to 1 and 4 teeing together up to the air switch which is located just in front and to the right of the battery. I don't fully understand the function of said switch and would love to eliminate hoses that tend to get old, rot, fall off or leak air. Do you see a problem with that? Again, thanks
@MotoRestoFL3 ай бұрын
Well, functionally it's fine, legally, that's another matter. Aside from that, I think what I was mentioning was if the Pods would have fit and I'd have just left the PAIR valve and not hooked any vacuum hose to it and capped off the four on the carbs, since it doesn't have a vacuum actuated fuel cock. So, no problem functionally.
@timlangley89267 ай бұрын
looks okay i would go for fixing it,it if it only overheated once would not worry about head gasket leakdown test maybe.parts corroding away on an old kawasaki feature not a fault they do it from new ask me how i know
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
Funny you should mention a leak down, we’re gonna do something similar in video 2.
@jcfcc4098Ай бұрын
Question why didn't you go with the Air pods over the OEM air filter and boxes
@MotoRestoFLАй бұрын
Wouldn’t fit. I tried. Carbs are too close together. Something exotic might have worked but how much time that’d take to figure out is a concern.
@dbird297 ай бұрын
Evaporust in the block? It only eats rust and not aluminum and could work
@MotoRestoFL7 ай бұрын
According to the manufacturer's FAQ, it won't work unless the rust is attached to steel, something ferrous.
@kurbuy216 ай бұрын
I have a 86 but when I bought it from a guy he had all the fuel lines in shambles and now I don't know where all the fuel lines goes and fuel is dumping out the bottom of the carbs and to mention it's my first big bike
@MotoRestoFL6 ай бұрын
Fuel line from the tank goes to the filter inlet. Filter outlet goes to the pump inlet via a molded S shaped hose that’s probably no longer available but I’m not sure. Pump outlet goes to carb inlet tee. Fuel pouring out carbs is a carb issue with the float valves or the fuel joints are bad. If you fix all your hoses and they’re not leaking focus on the carbs themselves.
@sonnyhand91726 ай бұрын
I recommend joining American Voyager Association . It's a great group with vast experience for help.
@kurbuy216 ай бұрын
@@sonnyhand9172 where can I find this group?
@MotoRestoFL6 ай бұрын
@@kurbuy21 www.amervoyassoc.org/
@sonnyhand91726 ай бұрын
@@kurbuy21 Just search American Voyager Association Forum.
@JoeRocket-sf6qs6 ай бұрын
You keep saying "kid" with a hint of disgust,i guess anyone under 40 is a kid to you now, remember you were a "kid" once.
@MotoRestoFL6 ай бұрын
Well, I have three kids all under 40 so I’d say you misinterpreted my vernacular.