Swingarm Spool adapters for Harbor Freight motorcycle stand

If you are serious about doing your own maintenance on your bike you really need to have at least a rear swingarm stand.  I picked this one up from Harbor Freight a few years ago but have never really been satisfied with the paddle type swingarm attachements -

I find swingarm spools to be a much easier and stable method of lifting the rear of a motorcycle so I decided to look at upgrading this stand with the ability to interface with a set of spools.

After a bit of googling I was coming up with no results that jumped out at me until I chanced upon an Amazon review of these -

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 The user posting the review advised that these were a perfect fit for the Harbor Freight Haul Master stand (item # 65620).

I decided to take a chance and luckily, the reviewer was spot on.  Both the Harbor Freight stand and the stand the Motorsports products adapters were designed to use a 3/4" square tube mounting point.

Harbor Freight original

Motorsports Products adapter

The adapters appear to be well made and finished and actually fit more smoothly in the stand that the original paddle adapters the came with my stand. 

The adapters originally came with rubber caps for the long end of the spool interface to prevent scratching of the swingarm while maneuvering the stand and lifting the motorcycle into place.  Unfortunately my spools are quite large in diameter and keeping the rubber caps in place was crushing and damaging the caps so I removed them.  If you have small spools this should not be a problem. 

Installation is as simple as removing the old paddle lifts and sliding the new adapters in place, adjusting them for the width of your spools and lifting the bike as normal. 

Lifting my ZX-6R

One downside is that the HF stands don't have the optimum angle for lifting with these installed and it is a bit tricky to get the bike on the stand if you are doing it by yourself.  If you are not comfortable with that and don't have anyone around to help I would recommend getting a better stand with spool provisions from the start.

It is also worth mentioning that the Harbor Freight stands are not of the best quality.  They are plenty stable (had to bend one of mine a bit so it would sit flat) but you would likely be better served getting a nicer stand from the beginning.

That all being said though, IF you already have a HF lift and want to use spools this is a great way to upgrade your stand.  For the amount invested it works well and if my stand somehow walks off from pit lane someday I won't be too broken up, which I can not say for something like a $150 pit bull stand.

Kawasaki K-TRIC Carb Information

*Not really KLX related, but I am posting this here as an archive*



Doing some digging around the net i found some interesting stuff a guy did a few years ago mapping the ignition curves of the CDI on a ZRX1100. Yes i know its not exactely the same as my 2002 ZX-6R, but the K-TRIC system appears to work in the same way on all of Kawi's bikes.

Thanks to Sean Stasiak for all this information and to Jake from Kawiforums for bringing the idea to my attention. I tried to send Sean an email to see if he had any other relevant information, but it was returned as it appears the email in the .pdf is no longer valid.


This first image shows a sample of the 3D timing map the CDI uses.

The second image shows the operation of the TPS unit. Basically more throttle = more voltage to the CDI which translates into more timing advance.

The third is a scan showing the text of the manual describing the K-TRIC operation and its default protection.

Now heres where things get interesting.

From what I gather the CDI input for the TPS operates in a range of 0-5v. The J model service manual states that a properly adjusted TPS shows .95v - 4.15v (lowest idle and highest WOT reading respectively). The ZRX1100 manual states .9v - 4.26v while not exactly the same, is pretty close. More on what this has to do with anything in a minute.

Here is a .pdf showing the ZRX1100 default ignition map with the TPS unplugged.

http://gstasiak.home.bresnan.net/DefaultAdvMap.pdf


As you can see the timing map tops out with around 37 or so degrees of advance.

Now here is the high res mapping of how the CDI interprets the readings from the TPS. (You'll need Excel to open and view the spreadsheet)

http://gstasiak.home.bresnan.net/Hi-...%20Mapping.zip


Looking at the spreadsheet you can see that Sean's TPS topped out at a voltage reading of 4.13v resulting in a maximum advance of 35.52 degrees. Now this may not seem signifigant, thats only a 1.48 degree difference in advance. However what this implies is that even with a properly adjusted TPS the CDI will never reach full advance even at WOT, not to mention how this could affect the TPS adjusted timing curve. Unplugging the TPS defaults the CDI to the "safe" timing map and also results in maximum timing advance that the CDI is capable of.

FWIW I've had mine unplugged for about 3 years now and I feel there is a difference in power output from my 2002 ZX-6R. I've seen no indication of any kinds of problems from running the TPS unplugged.  Your results may vary and i take no responsibility for any damage that may be caused from running with the TPS disconnected.

Installing a lightweight Flywheel

Since my bike is now a full time supermoto, I wanted a bit quicker throttle response and faster spin-up for the engine. I was less concerned with low end grunt like was needed for off-road technical trails when the bike was equipped with dirt wheels and tires. I sent a flywheel I purchased off of ebay to Cycle Pro in NJ to have it shaved down and lightened by 10%. Turn around was about a week and a half.

 To swap a flywheel the steps are as follows-

Drain engine oil
Remove Sprocket cover and case saver

 Once that is done you should be looking at this (i had my chain removed for cleaning, you should be able to move it out of the way since the back wheel will be coming off but more on that later) -

Next you will need to remove the three 8mm bolts from the starter gear cover which sits above the alternator cover.

There will be two additional bolts inside of here that will need to be removed in addition to the 8mm bolts around the periphery of the alternator cover.  The starter gear will need to be removed, it should just slide out.

Once that is done you should be able to pry the alternator cover off with some wiggling.  There is an o-ring on the starter that can make this a bit tricky as well as possible gasket stickiness. 

When the cover is off you should be looking at this but note that there will be an additional gear set that will interface with the flywheel gear (mine is removed in this pic, it sits in the bushing hole at the top right of the flywheel).  I have heard you can remove this gear with the flywheel still installed but I was unable to, not a big deal. Be sure to check this bushing for damage as they have been known to wear out prematurely (not common however). 

Now we will need a way to keep the engine from rotating while we remove the bolt holding the flywheel on.  I used a chain clamp.  

Once the bolt is free we need a method of pressing the flywheel off the crank.  You can use a fancy tool for this but I used the rear axle since it's the right size and thread. You may need to re-position your flywheel holding apparatus to keep the engine from turning.  

Once you have the old flywheel off make sure your starter ring and shim are in proper orientation as well as the key for the crank and you can install your lightened flywheel.  Getting it back on can take a few tries but since it is keyed it's impossible to put on the wrong way (unless you forget to use the key).  Don't forget to put your starter gear back into its bushing like I did the first time, luckily I didn't have the bolt torqued back down.

Tighten the flywheel retaining bolt to 88.5 ft lbs.

I was able to reuse my original gaskets and have not detected any oil leaks, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have new gaskets on hand in case they tear while taking things apart.  Reinstall everything in the reverse order and refill the crankcase with fresh oil and enjoy your new, quicker revving KLX !!!