TOPIC:

Ok, I finally got this old '82 KZ440 running good. I ran it up and down my road several times at full throttle. after that i parked it on its sidestand and let it idle for about 15 minutes or so, (mistake? 75 degrees here?). All of a sudden it started squeaking like a giant parakeet. The noise was coming from the right side of the crankcase (I think) around the clutch area. I killed the engine, and tried to start it again. When I hit the start button the starter was dragging bad. I thought something in the engine had siezed. 10 minutes later I hit the starter and it started instantly, with no squeaking. I haven't ran it since, I thought I had better see what you guys made of it first.

Did I overheat it letting it idle?? Could the squeaking and siezure have been in the clutch???

Thanks in advance!

You make it sound like you just picked this bike up, did you? What other things did you do to get the bike running? You don't mention a thing about oil, so did you at least check the oil level before your full throttle blast?

I think you came pretty close to seizing it. These engines need moving air and oil to stay cool, so next time you need to park the bike and let it idle, at least put a fan blowing on it. I don't know if that engine can pick up oil if the level is low and it's on the sidestand, so that squeaking may be the bearings, or the pistons seizing into the bores, etc. The starter couldn't turn it over because the pistons got so hot they stuck in the bores.

Have fun, were here to help ya!

she's full of fresh oil. I've had it for a few weeks, all I did was buy a starter, clean the carbs, and change the oil. It has 14,000 miles on it.

I think I'd be very reluctant to let any bike idle on the sidestand especialy for as long as 15 minutes. During that time there must have been quite a bit of the right hand side of the engine not getting any or very little oil.

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Woodstock ON Canada
1980 kz750E1, K&N pods 4->1