Streightening a twisted KZ1000/1100 Crank

Has anyone here ever tried this job? With success? Can you do it cold or do you have to heat the counterweight? I figured that if one piston can do this with about 25foot pounds of torque, than a long pipe should be able to exert more than enough pressure to put it back. No I have not twisted one, but was wondering about the process of realignment. Has anyone ever noticed that the Kawasaki shop manual makes no mention of this inspection or problem AT ALL.

Cold, piece of cold rolled steel, a "Barney Rubble" small handle sledge hammer. In a V block jig.
And BAMM. BAMM. And a lot of patience!
And a piece of 17mm rod that is true and straight.
Did this at Jims Cylinder Heads shop in Buffalo.
Jim re-built cranks all the time.
Jim used to run a Top Fuel Kawi with Elmer and Larry

good ol blacksmithing! i like hammering on things as much as anybody,but i think that one is out of my skill patience range! :laugh:

Once a crank is twisted and then straightened is it more likely to twist again?

i would definately weld after straightening

I agree with the welding once straightened. I was hoping that I could do it cold. It is quite cheap to find a twisted on for a spare than buying a good on.

I looked in my 81-84 book and there is nothing in there at all on crank twisting inspection.

otakar wrote:

I looked in my 81-84 book and there is nothing in there at all on crank twisting inspection.

This was from 78-80 Manual, but you get the idea. Also a link.

www.mcmaster.com/#88625k77/=1x84c7

Again

Again re-size

AH- the same thing is in mi manual, but notice that nowhere it talks about crank shaft twist on the main bearing journal. This is what we are talking about here. I checked all of my manuals, for the 900 1000 and J and nowhere they even make a mention of it. They make the same measurements in all of them and it only covers ROD twisting and bearing ware. The problem is not even the Con Rod big end journal (which I have seen welded many times)It is the main nearing journal that they slip in and what will cause the problems. Because of the location it is hard to get to with anything els but a rod welder.

z1kzonly wrote:

Cold, piece of cold rolled steel, a "Barney Rubble" small handle sledge hammer. In a V block jig.
And BAMM. BAMM. And a lot of patience!
And a piece of 17mm rod that is true and straight.
Did this at Jims Cylinder Heads shop in Buffalo.
Jim re-built cranks all the time.
Jim used to run a Top Fuel Kawi with Elmer and Larry[/quote

Or 18mm. rod for GPZ cranks. Mangus did a couple of cranks for me at his shop in Kenmore.A character for sure - the 2 stroke TF bike was a trip.