05 KZ1000P camshaft guides.... Soft rubber!

Finally got the cylinder off. Comparing new front and head cam guides to the old ones,,, the huge difference is the old ones are very hard vice the new ones are soft and bendable.

On the rear guide, ( the one the tensioner pushes), New and old where of hard rubber almost the same. The old one however had many stress cracks and the hole where the tensioner fits was hollowed out, probably a quarter inch deep and it probably was about to break.

My question for the experts,,, what do you think about soft rubber as cam guides. Normal? These were genuine Kawasaki parts as far as I know from Z1 enterprises.

Normal. They harden over time.
Steve

Hi Steve

Kind of what I thought until I noticed the new rear guide was as hard as the old one. That confused me a bit.

SWest wrote: Normal. They harden over time.
Steve

+1 on that!

When they get old, the rubber gets hard and brittle. I've somehow managed to replace them before they disintegrated. Had an old one fall off my workbench, and it shattered like glass on the concrete floor. Can't imagine what that would do to a running engine.