Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Hello,

I see the connecting rod kit is obsolete from Kawasaki. Doing some aftermarket search I see some made by

MACO or Kiwami. even these may be in short supply?

Both claim to be manufactured in Japan. Any one use either of these and can advise on their quality and reliability?

Is there anyone else that makes a quality rod kit for the H1?

This is obviously a critical item and appreciate some advise here.

Thank you

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Bikes I drive/own

Kawasaki
1973 H1-D (New Project)
Suzuki
1974 GT250 (T350 upgrade)
1976 GT250 (T350 upgrade)
1971 T350
1970 T350 (New Project)
1974 GT380
1975 T500
1973 GT550
1975 GT750
Yamaha
1972 DS7 (R5 upgrade)
1977 RD400

Charlie should be along soon and he can set you straight.

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1969 H1, 1971 G3SSA, 1974 G5, 1973 H2A, 1975 S3A, 1975 H1F, 1973 Z1, 1988 HD FLTC, Captain America chopper, 2000 Excelsior Henderson, 1965 Bridgestone BS90

Welcome to the board, Vintageman!

Right, I recently had Charlie Smith rebuild my H2 crank and he supplied three new rod kits. He has the goods. He's in the vendors section of the resource site under "machining" if you want to contact him directly.

http://www.kawatriple.com

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Whatever rod kits you get, it's always a good idea and relatively cheap to get them shot peened.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Who can shot peen them?

Is this true of OEM rods also?


Thanks

_________________
Bikes I drive/own

Kawasaki
1973 H1-D (New Project)
Suzuki
1974 GT250 (T350 upgrade)
1976 GT250 (T350 upgrade)
1971 T350
1970 T350 (New Project)
1974 GT380
1975 T500
1973 GT550
1975 GT750
Yamaha
1972 DS7 (R5 upgrade)
1977 RD400

Shot peening is always nice for extreme service like racing. On the other hand, my stock rods went something like 40,000 miles with plenty of 8,500 rpm shifts and their share of missed shifts that sent the tach into ventricular fibrillation over the decades. I recently had Charlie replace them because they were worn out, not because of breakage.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

All rods can benefit. It's cheap, and Charlie can get it done for you.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

What is the benefit? I expect a rod would never break unless the piston stuck hard .. at this point peening won't help? Can the process help inhibit corrosion?

It creates a layer of compression in the metal at the rod's surfaces. That reduces the maximum tension that develops at the rod surface during use. Since it's tension that tends to start cracks, this reduces the probability of crack formation.

I'd get it done on Big Block Chevy rods if I planned on running one at high RPM, for example. But John's right that it's not expensive and it certainly doesn't hurt anything. Rod failures do seem to be fairly rare in triples though. You don't hear of "throwing a rod" out of the blue like you do with automotive engines in racing.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

The biggest issue we have drag racing is broken rods which in turn usually takes out the cases with it. But that is a 150HP dragbike so for a streetbike it normally would not have the forces you would have leaving the line on a sticky track. For most street applications shot peened rods are an overkill, just my opinion.