Alright DTT, be gentle.

When considering a fork swap you must also consider everything on the front end including the complete wheel assembly, headlights, signals, etc. As mentioned AllBallsRacing has an extensive list of swaps. Measure your neck length and then compare it to other makes/models to choose a compatible front end for your bike. From there the swap is pretty straight forward.
 
Maritime said:
That would be te easiest. there is a list of bearing sizes here and I believe All Balls Racing has a complete or at least robust list of front ends with bearing size, stem length etc. As long as the stem isn't too short and has enought threads you can usually use it. But sometimes you can get the stems swapped from your bike to the new front end by a machine shop for reasonable amounts.
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I was unable to see any listings for stem length on the ABR site, do you have a link to one?
 
o1marc said:
I was unable to see any listings for stem length on the ABR site, do you have a link to one?
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I have never been able to find that information. You have to find someone with the stem to measure it in my experience.
 
SONIC. said:
I have never been able to find that information. You have to find someone with the stem to measure it in my experience.
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They pretty much state that stem length is the limiting factor and leave that for you to research. That being said they have hundreds of kits for the KX model. The OP should be able to find something to work. Front end swaps are usually a pretty easy and basic upgrade. Also take into consideration fork and stem spacing which may change rake and trail.
 
o1marc said:
They pretty much state that stem length is the limiting factor and leave that for you to research. That being said they have hundreds of kits for the KX model. The OP should be able to find something to work. Front end swaps are usually a pretty easy and basic upgrade. Also take into consideration fork and stem spacing which may change rake and trail.
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Yup thats pretty much how it goes. Sort of sucks huh?
It's pretty much a crap shoot to figure out what will swap.
 
SONIC. said:
Yup thats pretty much how it goes. Sort of sucks huh?
It's pretty much a crap shoot to figure out what will swap.
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I can understand how easy it is to do a bearing list just by researching the bearing specs for replacement bearings on each model and cross referencing the ID,OD, and height. Stem lengths are not an often published, needed dimension. So it does suck but not too much. If customizing was easy everyone would do it.
 
SONIC. said:
Yup thats pretty much how it goes. Sort of sucks huh?
It's pretty much a crap shoot to figure out what will swap.
Click to expand...

That's why this site is pretty sweet. If you can find someone who's already done the swap and gone through that crap shoot, it'll save you a ton of time and money.

Not sure you're going to find much from that bike, but try some other Kawasaki sites and you might be able to dig something up.
 
All you need at this point is to find the neck length of other models and the rest should be easy. In some cases there is absolutely nothing needed to do a front end swap. But I would always at least upgrade to a tapered bearing in place of ball bearings.
 
If you can find out what other Kawi's came with the same front end from the factory you can broaden the search for swaps already done by someone, I don't know kawi's that well but Hondas tended in the same model years to have common parts on 3-4 models, like all 550-750 inline 4's had the same neck, stem, bearings etc. so maybe the 250 Kawi's made from 75-85 do and there is a more popular model you can get swap info for. Maybe the ninja 250 that was the same for 500 years has the same neck and stem size?
 
Maritime said:
If you can find out what other Kawi's came with the same front end from the factory you can broaden the search for swaps already done by someone, I don't know kawi's that well but Hondas tended in the same model years to have common parts on 3-4 models, like all 550-750 inline 4's had the same neck, stem, bearings etc. so maybe the 250 Kawi's made from 75-85 do and there is a more popular model you can get swap info for. Maybe the ninja 250 that was the same for 500 years has the same neck and stem size?
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Yup,
If you go to boats.net and find the part numbers for the lower triple tree it will tell you what other models it came on as a good starting point.
 
SONIC. said:
Yup,
If you go to boats.net and find the part numbers for the lower triple tree it will tell you what other models it came on as a good starting point.
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Can you elaborate? I went there and don't see anything on that boat site that relates to Kawasaki motorcycles.

Boats,com is just a division of Partzilla.com. They won't have any info on the site to help you but the guy is sending me a diagram for the 78 KL250 that should get us a part# for the trees and should be able to cross reference compatible front ends from that point.
 
Shit your right they don't have Kawasaki :-[

That's who I use to find part numbers, because they list all other models that use the same part. Really convenient for finding more options for a part quickly.
 
Go to babbitts online. They will give you the option to show where else or other models that use every part.
 
VonYinzer said:
It's under "Tech Tips".
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His bike is not on their list of Stock steering stem sizes. Babbitt's doesn't list any Kawasaki's past 1984. There just doesn't seem to be much love out there for a 78 Kawi KL250 :)
 
Okie dokie, problem solved. With this info you should be able to source a suitable replacement fork swap. The KL250 was also listed as a KLR250 for that year. The stem part# is 44037-1006 and is used on the following bikes:


This Kawasaki 44037-1006 STEM,STEERING is used on these models and components:

KL250-A1 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
KL250-A1A KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
KL250-A2 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
KL250-A3 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
1981 KL250-A4 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
1978 KL250-A1 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
1978 KL250-A1A KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
1979 KL250-A2 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
1980 KL250-A3 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)
1981 KL250-A4 KLR250 FRONT FORK ('78-'79 KL250-A1-A1A-A2)

Here is the parts diagram for that Y/M/M

 
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