Removing the KIPS valve

(Back to Previous Page in case you started here....)

Here's where it gets ugly!  This is looking into the main valve area and you can see how spoogy this looks.  Awful.  The bolts holding the cover on have been removed, but they were totally buried in spooge.  THIS is where I was glad I didn't just cap the bike and go riding, and this is what I came to clean.

KDX_valvespooge.JPG (69890 bytes)

Here's a shot looking up into the exhaust port with the KIPS valve closed (top of head).  The dark area where the arrow is pointing in the bottom picture is the powervalve.

KDX_shaft_closed.JPG (61867 bytes)KDX_valve_closed.JPG (28801 bytes)

Same shot with the valve open- notice that you can now see a little light shining into the exhaust port in the lower picture.

KDX_shaft_open.JPG (60142 bytes)

KDX_valve_open.JPG (27270 bytes)

This is a shot of the shafts prior to actually removing them from the engine.  The gears on the shaft (at bottom of picture) are facing downward.  The shaft on the left has a groove in it about 2/3 of the way up the shaft, the other doesn't.  The covers for these gears were on TIGHT- use a good allen wrench to loosen them!

KDX_shafts.JPG (60030 bytes)

And here, finally, are the actual side valves, just as they came out of the engine after pulling the shafts above all the way out.  Again, note the groove on the top of the left shaft, just above the collars.

KDX_power_valves.JPG (59887 bytes)

After removing everything else, I was able to get the main valves out.  Mine were heavily carboned and I had to chip away some carbon before I could get them out of the engine.  Here you can see carbon on all surfaces.  I'm sure this has a lot to do with my bike's rough running at low RPM.

KDX_mainvalvesdirty2.JPG (41556 bytes)KDX_mainvalvesdirty1.JPG (59840 bytes)

Okay!  Time to clean and re-assemble.  I checked the ring gap and it was .635mm which is awfully close to the service limit, so I'll be using a new Pro-X piston and rings.