Finally time to start this...KLT 185 Build Thread

[ebaccm26]

I picked up this KLT 185 last fall with intentions to bring it back to life and I finally am going to start having some time to work on it. Still isn't going to be the fastest build but how many KLT 185 build threads do you get to see... I might be going about this in a weird order but I'm going to leave the engine until last, up until the rest of the bike is done I will have no idea whether or not the engine runs.

These pictures are of the day I brought it home. It doesn't look that bad but trust me it was. Judging by the amount of rust in some spots, non working cdi, and the mud I poured out of the exhaust I'm going to wager that it was sunk before being left to sit.

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This is how it sits currently except that the rear end obviously wasn't off quite yet in the first pictures.

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The original tank after I cleaned the inside, looked decent but guess not :(

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Hard to believe but the thing on the right was a brake drum exactly like the one on the left.

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Here are some of the parts I have so far, I am still on the hunt for several things as you may or may not have seen in my classified ad.

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Some of my NOS KLT parts, not all of them are for the 185 and more than likely non of them will be used on this build but I love to share my treasures :p

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Once I get it fully apart I will be getting the frame, wheels, and other various parts powder coated and the tank will be painted. The only visual things I need still are decals and a rear fender/rear mudflaps. The only part I know that I need (plenty of things I'd love to find mint/NOS but those are wants) still at the moment are one rear rim. However that is assuming that the electricals I acquired are good and same goes for the engine.

This thread might move faster at some times than others but keep an eye out for updates.

[TheBlueWale]

This is going to be a good build, I would like to find an 87 klt185 one day.

[MRSOUND]

I will be watching this closely. I have your evil twin:naughty:. Been collecting NOS parts over the last year and a half. Plastics are going to be the hardest to find. I got a nos front fender and a full set of rear mud flaps. Have yet to find rear fender or headlight housing. Too many parts to list but lots of money spent:(. Anyway this i s your thread not mine. Keep us informed on your progress whether victories or brick walls.
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[ebaccm26]

I will be watching this closely. I have your evil twin:naughty:. Been collecting NOS parts over the last year and a half. Plastics are going to be the hardest to find. I got a nos front fender and a full set of rear mud flaps. Have yet to find rear fender or headlight housing. Too many parts to list but lots of money spent:(. Anyway this i s your thread not mine. Keep us informed on your progress whether victories or brick walls.
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You have a black NOS front fender? Lucky :p I've got the NOS red one and I don't mind going red on the bike but it's just going to be the nicest set I can put together first. With any luck it should come out nice but who knows how long I'll have to ride around with cracked plastics before I find some nice ones :( The things I would do for some NOS rear fenders... And I feel you about the lots of money spent, when it's all said and done I doubt there are many people who would put any decent amount of money into one of these so someone has to do it. KLT's just don't get enough love.

[MRSOUND]

I have a red NOS front & rear fender set as well. Not perfect has "shelf wear", but never installed none the less. I had actually thought about doing the resto on my red one and just making the black one a runner. Red one has a much better base to start with.

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[atc007]

I assume you know your forks are bent on the red one Mike?? What a beautiful bike anyhow!!!

[MRSOUND]

Never noticed it Bill! Hope it's just the camera angle. Picked it up last fall, ran it around the house once, snapped the pics, & tucked it away in the garage. Now I'm gonna have to take a second look! I have a spare set from when I bought a parts lot off of Howdy at TF last year, but not sure if they are as clean as these are.

[ebaccm26]

I have a red NOS front & rear fender set as well. Not perfect has "shelf wear", but never installed none the less. I had actually thought about doing the resto on my red one and just making the black one a runner. Red one has a much better base to start with.

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Yeah my fronts have some shelf wear aswell but nothing that couldn't be buffed out I'd imagine. Where'd you snag the rear fenders? If you ever want to sell let me know :p Also your red one looks pretty decent, I'd keep that as a rider and go full out on the black one :p

[MRSOUND]

Yeah my fronts have some shelf wear aswell but nothing that couldn't be buffed out I'd imagine. Where'd you snag the rear fenders? If you ever want to sell let me know :p Also your red one looks pretty decent, I'd keep that as a rider and go full out on the black one :p
Got the red set off Veal Monkey in a 3 way deal. Bunch of us at Blue27's hanging out. After some haggling I ended up selling Bandito90 my 83 big red. He couldn't get all the money out of the mac machine due to withdraw limits on the machine. We got back to Blue's and him and veal starting talking about a 90 motor bandito had and the plastics were discussed earlier. long story short Veal got the 90 motor from bandito, I got the plastics from veal, and bandito and I were even on the big red.:D

[TheBlueWale]

Got the red set off Veal Monkey in a 3 way deal. Bunch of us at Blue27's hanging out. After some haggling I ended up selling Bandito90 my 83 big red. He couldn't get all the money out of the mac machine due to withdraw limits on the machine. We got back to Blue's and him and veal starting talking about a 90 motor bandito had and the plastics were discussed earlier. long story short Veal got the 90 motor from bandito, I got the plastics from veal, and bandito and I were even on the big red.:D

To think vealmonkey had some KLT 185 fenders, lol. Where is he when you need him I have some airfooler R parts that need to be Id'ed.

How are you guys finding these KLT 185's, I've had more luck finding 86/7 Tecates than I did with one of these.

The KLT185 is probably the rarest and most forgotten 3 wheeler out there when it comes to the big 4, please take a lot of pictures of the resto process.

[ebaccm26]

To think vealmonkey had some KLT 185 fenders, lol. Where is he when you need him I have some airfooler R parts that need to be Id'ed.

How are you guys finding these KLT 185's, I've had more luck finding 86/7 Tecates than I did with one of these.

The KLT185 is probably the rarest and most forgotten 3 wheeler out there when it comes to the big 4, please take a lot of pictures of the resto process.

I had a wanted ad on CL for a while before I was able to find my 185, I still post the same ad and haven't had a single person contact me for at least 6 months. Also don't worry there will be pictures every step of the way on this build.

[MRSOUND]

Just FYI for future reference - Blue27 has agreed to at some point reproduce me a decal set for the 185 taking dimensions from my machines (he does great work!). I won't be starting mine till after I acquire a few more parts which could be who knows how long till they show up at the right price, right time, but may be worth contacting him if it's something your interested in. I'd be more than happy let him get the specs early.

[TheBlueWale]

Just FYI for future reference - Blue27 has agreed to at some point reproduce me a decal set for the 185 taking dimensions from my machines (he does great work!). I won't be starting mine till after I acquire a few more parts which could be who knows how long till they show up at the right price, right time, but may be worth contacting him if it's something your interested in. I'd be more than happy let him get the specs early.

I'd be interested in 2-3 sets of decals too.

[ebaccm26]

Just FYI for future reference - Blue27 has agreed to at some point reproduce me a decal set for the 185 taking dimensions from my machines (he does great work!). I won't be starting mine till after I acquire a few more parts which could be who knows how long till they show up at the right price, right time, but may be worth contacting him if it's something your interested in. I'd be more than happy let him get the specs early.

Very tempting but I'm in no hurry, who knows when ill be able to find some worthy fenders. Make sure that when you get to it though you let me know!

[ebaccm26]

Got it all stripped down today.

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I will be taking stuff to be powdercoated as soon as I can find one more good rim. These are the things I plan to get done, plus the wheels, frame, and forks. Any other parts I should get done that I'm overlooking?

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Got all the bearings done in the rear end except for 2 because I couldn't figure out a way to hold the bevel gear without damaging it so I could take the bolt off the other end. Input?

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While stripping it down I realized my carb is toast so I need to find a good one soon. Also the electricals were a mess but luckily I have another harness.

[TheBlueWale]

I think that will require an impact gun(the speed and force should get it to come apart w/o spinning it), or maybe that should have been the first bolt/nut to be removed before you took apart the rear differential holding the axle in place.

Nice start on the build, the bike is in pretty good shape

[ebaccm26]

Just a small update. Still trying to find one good rear rim so I can get off to powdercoating. Also was able to find out that the tool listed in the manual for holding the bevel gear while taking the bolt off was also used on the 03+ bayou 250's so I ordered one of those through my dealer. Once I get my hands on another rim and the holder there should be some good progress.

[MRSOUND]

Where are you at with this? Your thread is fading off into obscurity. Waiting on some updates!:)

[ebaccm26]

Where are you at with this? Your thread is fading off into obscurity. Waiting on some updates!:)

I sold my 200x the other day and finished disassembling the US90. Now that I have space I will be buying a raptor so the KLT will have to wait 1 or 2 months while I gather funds for the raptor. Feel free to frown upon me for setting the KLT to the side to buy something with one too many wheels :lol: I did say at the begining that this may be a slow build.

As for an update on the KLT it is just waiting for powdercoat. The only thing that has changed is that I picked up a NOS muffler. Don't worry though the KLT will be finished.

[MRSOUND]

Where did you find the muffler? Have not seen one since I started collecting parts for mine.

[ebaccm26]

Where did you find the muffler? Have not seen one since I started collecting parts for mine.

Picked it up off ebay the other day. The listing said it was new but I was a bit unsure, after recieveing it I can tell it has definately never been ran but it has some shelf wear.

[ebaccm26]

Time for an update!!! Still have some stuff that won't be done for a while but certainly getting there.

Frame and lots of misc. parts have been powder coated. Still need to get all the silver parts done as well as the engine cases.

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Exhaust was high temp powder coated but the muffler did not survive, I have another so not that big of a deal....

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Engine was filthy

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Cleaned it up with a wire brush...

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Hated the way that looked so I soda blasted it... came out much better in my opinion

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I did find one issue when I took off the outer cases, return spring for the shifter shaft was snapped....

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That's it for now, like I said still several things I need to get done but this is where it is at. I am probably going to use the plastics off of my red KLT because that is the best I have... then I'll use the other one as my rider....

[muthey]

that motor looks almost identical to a klf 185 I had this last summer. I cleaned it up put a new muffler same as what you have, on and crafted a new shifter, bought a new header pipe and sold it for a 300$ profit. Moral of the story, check with the klf 185 for some of your parts.

[MRSOUND]

Glad to see some progress! I scored a NOS coil & tail light assembly a few weeks ago on ebay. I'm still looking for that "unicorn" NOS rear black fender:wondering

[barnett468]

I did find one issue when I took off the outer cases, return spring for the shifter shaft was snapped.
The spring is temporarily available new below.

92081-1987, $17.75 plus shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KAWASAKI-KLF185-KLT185-NOS-OEM-CHANGE-SHAFT-RETURN-SPRING-KLF-KLT-185-92081-1987-/121243390533


$19.99

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-1986-1988-Kawasaki-KLF185-Bayou-185-Shaft-Return-Spring-92081-1987-/181057180448#ht_355wt_930





That's it for now, like I said still several things I need to get done but this is where it is at. I am probably going to use the plastics off of my red KLT because that is the best I have... then I'll use the other one as my rider.Did you try Maier Plastic?

[barnett468]

The only part I know that I need (plenty of things I'd love to find mint/NOS but those are wants) still at the moment are one rear rim.

(plenty of things I'd love to find mint/NOS but those are wants).The following places claim to have a rear rim. I would not hold my breath but who knows.

Rear rim p/n 41025-1122-F2

http://www.2wheelpros.com/oem-parts/kawasaki-rim-rr-g-silver-41025-1122-f2-part.html

http://www.gearhead.com/kawasaki-41025-1122-f2.html#/s/KUS//41025-1122-F2/1


One of the biggest NOS parts suppliers for that model is xtremeusa.com.

cmsnl.com and partzilla.com both have klf185 parts, some are interchangeable.

[ebaccm26]

that motor looks almost identical to a klf 185 I had this last summer. I cleaned it up put a new muffler same as what you have, on and crafted a new shifter, bought a new header pipe and sold it for a 300$ profit. Moral of the story, check with the klf 185 for some of your parts.

They are very similar and I do keep an eye out for klf parts but a lot of the parts have very small differences. But I did find the other muffler I have by looking for klf stuff.


Glad to see some progress! I scored a NOS coil & tail light assembly a few weeks ago on ebay. I'm still looking for that "unicorn" NOS rear black fender:wondering

I'm also glad to see some progress haha. I know you got a NOS coil and tail light because I was bidding against you :lol: The black NOS rear fender certainly is a "unicorn" but to every once else but you so is the red one :)


The spring is temporarily available new below.

92081-1987, $17.75 plus shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KAWASAKI-KLF185-KLT185-NOS-OEM-CHANGE-SHAFT-RETURN-SPRING-KLF-KLT-185-92081-1987-/121243390533


$19.99

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-1986-1988-Kawasaki-KLF185-Bayou-185-Shaft-Return-Spring-92081-1987-/181057180448#ht_355wt_930



Thanks. I did actually already pick one of these up, ordered a new one as soon as I found the broken one a few weeks ago. I was relieved that there was some available on eBay.



Did you try Maier Plastic?

I did not. I know people do group buys and stuff with them but that is not something I am familiar with. I'm sure they need a decent amount of interest to reproduce something and unfortunately there just isn't enough people with KLT 185's. I know someone a while back tried to get Clarke to make some tanks but they had the same issue of not having enough interest. Like I said though I am not familiar with how Maier goes about making new plastics, maybe someone could shine some light on that for me.


The following places claim to have a rear rim. I would not hold my breath but who knows.

Rear rim p/n 41025-1122-F2

http://www.2wheelpros.com/oem-parts/kawasaki-rim-rr-g-silver-41025-1122-f2-part.html

http://www.gearhead.com/kawasaki-41025-1122-f2.html#/s/KUS//41025-1122-F2/1


One of the biggest NOS parts suppliers for that model is xtremeusa.com.

cmsnl.com and partzilla.com both have klf185 parts, some are interchangeable.

Thanks I will check some of those sites out.