ER-5 rebuild - the start

The Kawasaki ER-5 Rebuild - ongoing

In the beginning

Back in 2015 I bought a ER-5 to start a new project on my youtube channel which can be found here – 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChYdD3BgfawTdKlnUJBeOMA

At first I was going repair just the basics, chain, battery and the rest to show how to do simple repairs with basic tools. This isn’t what happened however.

Talking to a couple of mates I decided that the ER-5 should be a how to repair and rebuild the entire bike. So this is that.

History

The bike is a 1999 model for the UK market, with 32,000 miles on the clock. I paid £300 for it delivered so I couldn’t complain too much. The bike was complete and it appear not to have been dropped or crashed. The story was that the bike have lived down the side of someone’s house for 8 years and the tax disc confirmed this. With no real massive issues (apart from the condition of the engine) all appeared old, rust but good. Good enough for the original purpose.

What happened next

So after making a couple of ‘how to suck an egg’ type videos I thought about what I was going to do. Other things came up and the bike sat for nearly 9 months. Looks like this bike is gonna do this for the rest of its life. Eventually I decided that the whole bike was to be rebuilt.

But first things at the beginning and all that, the engine! I rigged up a make-do fuel bottle (fairy liquid) and gave it a new battery and she popped into life. Unfortunately only one cylinder was firing. When I revved the engine the second cylinder fired up but died below 3,000rpm.

This is a carb issue, and a pilot (idol) jet issue at that. Once I knew then engine was good I set about planning what I was going to do and when…..