Bought a fixer-r-upper KLF400B

[99prairie400]

I'm nearing completion on the rebuild from hell (the Prairie 400) and will be posting pictures soon of the finished product.

I've decided that as I wrap the P400 up, I should have something else ready to sink my teeth into... so I bought a (severely) used Bayou 400. It uses the same top-end that I already have so at least I have some experience with the engine

It's somewhere in the '96-'99 region ( I am actually not even sure yet, I picked it up last night) and it was involved in a front end-collision with a tree. All of the bits and peices are there and the damage look like it was contained to the tie-rod end, knuckle, and CV shaft. I jerked on the ball joints and bearing and didn't see any play in them. He said that he didn't drive it after he hit the tree and they pulled it back out of the woods and all the way to his house where it has been sitting for the past two years. He's not the mechanic type and didn't even know where to begin the rebuilding process so he left it under the shelter behind his house until I was telling him about my P400 rebuild and he mentioned that he had a wrecked Kaw. I went over to take a look at it thinking it was possibly a Prairie and I could use the parts. I ended up asking him what he'd take for the Bayou...

His answer? $300.

[99prairie400]

Here's the beast. You can actually see the small bend in the left front rim in the picture that did all of the damage.

I pulled the left front tire mostly straight to take the pics but getting it on the trailer...the tires were pointed WAY away from each other.

[iainkvf400]

Nice, i want to buy a fixer upper, but no where to keep it really.
Looks like a good little project. my mate has a honda 350 that looks worse than that and he uses it out all the time! good one tho!get pics up of the prairie!

[MrGiggles]

That's a steal for 300.00. Damage doesn't even seem that bad, keep us posted and good luck.

[99prairie400]

I ordered a knuckle off of Ebay for $21.00 with shipping. I pulled the gas tank off and dumped it out and I'll be cleaning out the carb tomorrow after I do a drum brake job on a F-150 ( gotta pay for the new quad somehow right?) and I'm thinking that with a little inventive "wiring" where the ignition switch used to be I could crank it up tomorrow just to confirm that it can run. Once I hear it pop over I'll go ahead and drop the green for the replacement CV shaft, new ignition switch, and new battery. (looking about $200 total for the parts I know I need so far)

[MrGiggles]

Ah, who needs ignition switches? Mine has a 120v lamp switch in it. Works fine and I can't imagine spending the money on a used switch when mine works fine.

[99prairie400]

I cleaned the carb and dumped out the fuel tank today. Neither were ridiculously dirty but it had been sitting for 2 years so I thought it wise to clean it anyway. I removed the battery (which is probably completely hosed) and hooked jumper cables to the battery terminals. A little priming with some starter fluid and it huffed and puffed. Once it sputtered a few times it got good gas to it and started idling smooth. I turned the reverse knob and clicked it down into gear and then pulled it back up twice and into SL. It seemed to click into the reverse and forward gear properly but can't move just yet, the left front hub is still hanging out in the air waiting on suspension parts...

[86klf300guy]

nice find on the bayou!!!!! 4 wheel drive to boot.keep us posted on the repairs. and post up them other pics of your other project.-corey-

[99prairie400]

Here's the price sheet so far:

1998 Kawasaki Bayou 400 4x4 KLF400B6 in poor condition: $300
CV shaft for the right side: $97*
Knuckle for the left side: $21*
Key switch: $45*
Dash: $19*

*- includes shipping to the house

All of the parts arrived this afternoon...3 via fedex and one via UPS. A feverish thrash session by me and my buddy and I rode it around the yard! It still has a lag spot as soon as I apply the throttle which may be a lack of air filter... (the old one was garbage and I haven't bought a new one yet) or it could be trouble with the pilot needle/o-ring at the bottle of the pilot needle hole. More research will be needed to find out. Otherwise, it ran pretty well. It ran through four of the five gears (relatively small yard) and seemed to shift well. Obviously the engine didn't have 100% just yet but I'm sure that's not a huge deal to fix and it'll be better in no time. Next on the agenda is a winch mount and 12V accessory plug up near the handlebars...oh and maybe some rear brakes...

[86klf300guy]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the price sheet so far:

1998 Kawasaki Bayou 400 4x4 KLF400B6 in poor condition: $300
CV shaft for the right side: $97*
Knuckle for the left side: $21*
Key switch: $45*
Dash: $19*

a running 4x4 bayou priceless lol .....yea the air filter being mia might have something to do with the laggin-corey-

[99prairie400]

I need to break down and purchase a UNI. I have one in my Prairie and it seems to work great.

I pulled the rear brake drum off of the rear and of course, it was full of mud/water when the quad was parked 2 years ago. Also, the right rear wheel bearing was bad. It had about 10 of the 15 balls that are supposed to be in there left. I looked up the part from babbit's and their price was about $19. I checked a few more places and one site actually had the dimensions listed for the bearing. I googled that size bearing and it's actually a popular size industrial sealed ball bearing. I called up to the local autoparts shop to see if they could cross the part number I had to see if they could get it quicker than the LDS (a week turn-around minimum) The parts guy told me that not only could they cross the number, he had one IN STOCK. Apparently it also fits the rear-end of a hyundai, certain idler pullies on a number of vehicles, and a MTD lawnmower deck spindle. The last application was the reason he had one in stock... I went up and gladly paid the $8 he charged for it.

I put all the rear brakes back together Saturday morning. The only problem is, before the rear brakes wouldn't do anything. Now they won't release once you apply them! I sprayed all of the metal-to-metal contact areas with lithium grease (which I've had moderate success with in the past alleviating) but still no dice. I think I'm going to have to pull them apart once more and check everything over one more time. Maybe some emery cloth between the contact surfaces of the shoes and the brake cam will fix that problem.

[99prairie400]

I'm having an unusual problem and need to bounce somethings off of someone else.

The KLF400B6 will not run at a constant high idle. It will not maintain its speed, it either has to be idling or accelerating. The amount of throttle required to simply cruise causes the engine to flood horribly. It will idle all day long fine ( I left it idling for ~10 minutes the other day to confirm that the radiator fan was working before I take it out riding anywhere I wouldn't want to be stranded) and accelerates great but will not run at partial throttle.

I've thoroughly cleaned and inspected the carb twice now and am sure there are no physical defects in the carb (blocked passages, blown out brass plugs, liquid in the float) I put a new spark plug in it last night in case that was giving trouble but it ran the same afterwards.

I'm going to go home tonight and install the air filter out of the prairie (close enough to test and see if that has anything to do with it) while I wait on my new UNI to arrive for the bayou. I set the pilot screw out to 2 turns from light seat per the spec but I was wondering how often the pilot needle seat gets damaged on these keihin CVK carbs? Light seat for the pilot needle on this carb has almost then entire tip of the pilot needle exposed inside the carb throat. On the Prairie 400, light seat doesn't have that much of the needle sticking out and it runs like a top at all throttle settings. If I turn the pilot needle in that should lean out the bottom part of the fuel curve, correct? I figure if the hole was damaged the needle may need to be closer to bottom than 2 turns in order to have the correct amount of air coming past it.


EDIT: What an absolutely lovely website! Cvcarbs

After reading, I think I may need to take another look at my float set level. My problem doesn't seem to be the pilot needle as much as it is the "bypass outlet". It seems from the explanation given that the pilot needle isn't so much to be suspicious of as the bypass outlet.

[99prairie400]

The float level is listed at 1.5mm above the float bowl lip to .5mm below the float bowl lip. It's sitting right perfectly level with the lip so I don't guess that's an issue. I tried installing the air filter from the prairie into the bayou airbox. It fit fine but didn't make the problem any better. It's still flooding very bad for about the first 1/4 throttle and then it clears up. Does that sound like a failing ignition system to anyone because I've never heard of a problem quite like that but I haven't been working on Kawasaki's that long either.

[MrGiggles]

Did it have an air cleaner on it? That might be your problem if the carb has a diaphragm-slide in it. They need the vacuum the filter creates to work right.

[86klf300guy]

i wonder if you have carbon build up on the valve seats or a stickin valve guide.
try doin a top engine clean with seafoam and add sum sea foam to the oil and see if thatll help.

also may want to make sure the valves are are adjusted properly.

also try this ,,.... it may make your niehbors angry but its for a good purpose.
take the mufffler off and run it to see if it helps out on the lack of power at 1/4 trottle.a restricted muffler can cause this also.the packin breaks down and blocks up the exit.

give them a try keep us posted -corey-

[99prairie400]

That's actually one of the first things I thought of so I swapped the Prairie 400 filter onto it. Of course that wasn't it...

RCW says it all the time.... "look up the diagram"... problem is, kawasaki.com doesn't show the part that was MISSING inside my carb in any detail.

16017 SKU: 16017-1270
JET-NEEDLE,#6 [CN,US]

It was not present when I took the carb apart the first time and I thought something looked a little bit weird but thought that the difference in appearance was the difference between the CVK34 (prairie 400) and the CVK32 (bayou 400). Come to find out, that particular part is what keeps fuel from coming up around the slide needle and flooding the engine to the point of cutting off. Who knew?

Anyway, sometime ago I bought a rebuild kit for the Prairie. It included a similar, but slightly different needle jet #6. The one for the CVK34 is about 2mm longer than the one for the CVK32. I took a file to the one that was left over from the Prairie rebuild to fit it into the Bayou. I started the bayou up just a minute ago and rode it around the yard. Even with a rigged needle jet holder it ran like it was supposed to!

[99prairie400]

Some work I did to it lately. I fabbed up a winch mount from the lowest section of bumper. That part of the bumper was bent up anyway so some 1" angle iron and a little inventive welding to place the winch mount and fairlead mount where I wanted it and there it is. I also replaced the heel guards with true foot boxes. I used the footpeg as the main mounting location and then welded expanded steel and 1" angle iron together. I also made some mudflaps (the ones on it were hosed) out of semi-truck mud flaps from Carquest. The rear mudflaps still aren't present in the pics but the fronts are near completion.

[86klf300guy]

nicely done on the job of the foot plates and winch fabrication !!!!

looin good how the monster ride good?

[baglimit2002]

@ 99prairie400 would it be possible to send some pic of the front drive shaft set up and the quad all round as I just got one of these and the fenders are buggered and missing bits ---andy from australia ps its a klf 400 4x4 1994 b2

[99prairie400]

For being the same engine as the Prairie it seems to be a far cry from the power output. I'm pretty sure it's simply the perception of power that the prairie gives because it's always in the right "gear" instead of just above or just below the sweet spot of that motor but the prairie will do power slides and pull the front tires off the ground and walk a wheelie across the yard in a second. The bayou seems sluggish in comparison. Not saying the bayou doesn't have any oomph, it just seems better suited for grunt, pulling, utility work.

All in all, I have to say that the bayou rides like the cheapest 4x4 wheeler around and I love it. If I take it and bury it at the bottom of a lake, I wouldn't mind so much... I've seen more than a few guys standing there open eyed in horror as their new $5,000-10,000 4 wheeler gets winched out of a hole on it's side (or worse, full of water/mud). With ~$500 4X4, I would be layed back on the ground laughing my butt off as the mud came pouring out of every orifice on the quad.