Dongfang Kawasaki

Yes you read that right I'm working on a Dongfang Kawasaki. The bike belongs to a friend of a friend and he asked me to help the guy by getting the wiring sorted out. What this thing turns out to be is a Chinese made chopper/bobber that originally came with a 250 cc Chinese made POS motor that lasted for all of 327 miles before it but the dust. His son decided to put a KZ400 motor in it as a replacement. I got the wiring sorted out and got it to pop on ether. I then decided to check the fuel in the tank which was stale as he'll. After draining the tank I decided to pull the carbs and check them over. Good thing I did. In addition to having green stale gas in the bowls and plugged jets there was no needles in it at all and the floats were bent to shit. Of course now that I need some decent carbs they are no where to be found at any sort of reasonable price. I thought I had the problem solved by finding a complete 440 engine with carbs in Iowa on eBay only to have the seller cancel the listing due to a local buyer. Anyhow here's what a Dongfang looks like.

I'd be suspect o0f the frame, brakes and everything else too.
Steve

swest wrote: I'd be suspect o0f the frame, brakes and everything else too.
Steve

Absolutely!!!

The Dongfang DF250RTA produces 15.4 hp and has a top speed of 55.9 mph (see 1st link below). The KZ400 engine produces 36 hp and has a top speed of 94 mph (see 2nd link below). I'm quite sure that the Dongfang company did not over-engineer the frame, brakes, etc., etc. when they designed the DF250RTA in anticipation that it would ever need to cope with an engine that produced 2 1/2 times as much horsepower as the one that came in the bike or could travel 68% faster than the stock model. One other factor is the weight difference between the two engines. I don't have the numbers, but clearly the 2 cylinder KZ400 engine weighs a lot more than the little single cylinder Dongfang engine.

I wouldn't want to ride that thing any faster than I can run on foot, and that's not very fast! Please don't misunderstand, this is no reflection at all on your ability to properly install the engine. It is just an observation that the bike itself was not engineered to handle such an increase in power and speed. Ed

www.bikez.com/motorcycles/df_motor_df250rta_2016.php

www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/kawasaki/kawasaki_z400%2078.htm

Man... I have to agree with the other posts.
The bike looks bitching** and I mean BITCHING!!, but I would not bet my life on a Chinese frame with Chinese brakes and suspension components...
Do you have any plans in improving these?

The engine is already in the bike it came to me this way. The wiring was all butchered up by the Harley guys that worked on it before. He just wants me to get it running. Our mutual friend is a fantastic welder/fabricator who does frame off car restorations at a level that's hard to imagine. He and his dad also built and raced stock cars. When he's not doing that he's a local cop that does all.the crash investigations. I'm sure the bike.will be safe before we give it back to him. I don't think he's going to ride it much anyway. I don't see someone 60 years old that has back trouble wanting to ride this thing. It's a hard tail with a Springer front end.

I just figured you all would get a chuckle from the name Dong Fang I know everyone down at the garage does.

swest wrote: I'd be suspect o0f the frame, brakes and everything else too.
Steve

For the reasons listed below your comment by Ed, right on the money. But your comment has my eyes watering from laughter. My wife asked what I was laughing so hard for, I showed her and she is laughing now too despite not fully understanding that your comments are so funny because they are so true.

All safety warnings aside, it is a sharp little bobber now. Good save.

Since it's already a fully custom setup, without an airbox, and the bike will not really need extra power from the motor, you could try a single-carb setup. They are somewhat common. Since your buddy has access to metal fabrication, they could probably make the manifold. Then you would only need to buy a single, new carb. They normally use a manual slide carb which is much easier to jet for a pod filter than the original CV carbs. However, to fit it in the center, they'd have to re-fab the seat mount etc. Some single-carb manifolds have the carb off to the side, but that doesn't seem to work as well, since the cylinders may get uneven distribution of fuel.

You can also get two new, manual-slide carbs. Then it would be like what you have now, but they would be much easier to tune with the pod filters.

They usually use VM30 or VM32 carbs... very simple and easy to get parts for.

Here's a thread where it was done on a 440 (he uses a VM34 as the motor is bigger). As you can see, it takes a lot of space for the single carb.
www.kzrider.com/forum/3-carburetor/58752...ngle-carb-conversion

On the first page, he has a very small link to the place where he bought the "U" pipe.

I shudder just putting the words Dong and Fang in the same sentence.
The single carb conversion sounds like the simplest solution (he won't be needing the whole 36HP and will not miss what he has not got).

Rainman wrote: I shudder just putting the words Dong and Fang in the same sentence.).

That's funny I hadn't thought of it the way you are thinking. I thought their logo design would be a big penis with snake like teeth.

I thought about the single carb solution but I really don't want to try and reinvent the wheel for this project. The 440 Ltd engine with the carbs would have given him a couple of advantages. It's electric start which means that the charging system is a little better. It's also a 6 speed trans and its the later style motor with the exterior oil line to the top end of the motor so it won't have the head gasket leak the early 400's were known for.

One good pieces of news the eBay seller .contacted me and said that the local guy didn't buy it. So maybe I don't need a plan B after all.

That motor looks like a mix, to me. I don't know for sure, but I though the external oil lines (which are great to have) were on the newer style motors. That motor in the picture has the old-style cover over the eccentric valve adjusters. The newer style has the 4 round, threaded caps to access the screw-type valve adjusters. Also, I thought the diaphragm type carbs came with the newer style motor (four threaded caps). I would have expected piston style CV carbs on that motor.

Either way, it should all eventually be workable, but those CV's will take some time to dial in.