Progress update....or not.....

[Smallkat]

Pookie, one day I am going to make Smallkat so good that you are going to have to hide your Tinykat in the back of a very dark garage.

[Smallkat]

If ever an engine needed fuel injection..... or is that sacrilige?
You can see where the cost accountants had the final say, plastic sliders, tin choke lever, one piece plastic fuel valve 'thing'. Mind you, 100,000 up on yours does speak well for longevity, especially for a lunatic dispatcher.
Back for a road test tomorrow, see if my cleaning and blowing has done any good.
So near, so near!
Cheers.

Suzuki were always looking to reduce production cost. Once they replaced the bronze bush in the gear lever pivot (I think it was on Bandits) with a fibre bush to save a few Yen. All was good until winter when a combination of rain, salt and dirt combined to make the bush swell and cause shifting problems.

But I will say that perhaps the accountants were generally right in the end. A lot of them made it to well past their design life. Edit - I mean the bikes, not the accountants. Although that may be true too.

[pookie]

Pookie, one day I am going to make Smallkat so good that you are going to have to hide your Tinykat in the back of a very dark garage.

Smallkat, the only thing that will stop me enjoying my 250 Kat will be that Khant of a London mayor, if he gets away with his cash grab on the poor and needy and charges me £12.50 everytime I want to go out for a ride i'll be making fewer trips, but will be out on it all day to get my moneys worth

[Smallkat]

BTW, if anyone needs a fan switch:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204070281467 ... BM7q-NpMth

[johnD]

I am touching a large plank of wood.... but, (whisper) it's all good. Dragged the carbs out, yet again, stripped them totally. Must admit, I was looking for blocked jets or passageways. Took the slides out, looking for possible splits in diaphrams, all good. Then an inspection of the needles. I was expecting the solid mount needles, but, well, well well. These have clips and notches. All clips in the highest, weakest, notch! Then, there is a little plastic 'doughnut' on the needles. By my estimation, this should fit in the well of the slider, with the spring seat on top of the needle clip. (Can't find anything definitive). BUT, one needle had a doghnut both on top and below the clip, one needle had nothing, just rattling around in the housing.... Sigh, note to self, check EVERYTHING that other people have done....
Now I have a really fiesty little bike, it certainly pops along.
Now to put everthing back in its rightful place.
While I'm at it, I do need an inline switch for the lights. Although the relay for switching the headlight off when the starter is pushed is working, it dosen't stop the drain at switch on. Maybe my battery is tired, but I get about three or four goes before it fades, the cold weather not helping. With the headlight fuse pulled, I can crank for a while before its back on the charger. MInd you, now its carbs are lot happier. it is starting a lot easier.

Just as an aside. How many actual Kat 400's are there out in the world. Seems that Tiny and Smallkat and Fossie are the main contributors here (many thanks by the way). If I have had this litany of problems, its odds on someone alse has had at least one of these problems. Must be a tiny, exclusive little group or everyone else had had a faultless ownership......

BTW, I've had my eye on an X7 for a while. Belters. Ran one in Saudi Arabia in those summer heats. Fast little things and light as a feather. As my bones get older, the attraction of lighness apeals more and more.
Cheers all.

[Tonykat]

Hi, I have a 400 as well, not any problems when I was running it until the Cdi unit failed and I put it off the road. That was a few years ago, getting it fixed up now, replaced the Cdi twice . You will enjoy it when you finish sorting it out. Here’s my 400 along with my 250, pictures around 12 years apart, 250 one today.

[fossie]

I think we'd be able give a definitive number as to 400s in UK , but we are we will be trying to find out the numbers of each type in UK like we used to have .
However since the insertion of the FB page of Kat owners club ( which has loads of non club members who just pop along ...) 400s are on the assendance ( though they must have always been here since importing them was mid 90-early 2000.) though most are believe it or not work in progress, mostly with starting issues .
Just for the record in the time I dispatched mine and my missus used it, 10 years or so it was a reasonable starter only once letting Smand down ( which was traced to a crimped wire ) But it was used daily or at least weekly .*E10 wasn't even a dream in the minds of Eco polititions then though*

[johnD]

Not quite a big enough plank of wood.
My little shake down run filled me with enough confidence to run up to Warrington to visit and old mate. Down to the M62, a good, fast run, (keeping scruipilously to 70mph... er...officer).
For a 400, these things actually sing along, complementing myself on a damn good choice.
Turned off the Mway, a nice run of dual carriageways, and then, a set of traffic lights. It refused to contemplate ticking over, had to hold it on the throttle, anything less than 2000 rpm and it stuttered to a halt.
Got to Tony's, had a few brews and a butty or two, went out to see what was going on. Expecting crap in the idle jets, started it up, humming to its little self, happy as Larry... Return journey, repeat of the same, but with traffic lights on every street corner where I live. Struggled it home.
Obviously not fuel related. Let it cool, runs perfect.
This is where I earn my money! My clue came from the coils, the clutch side coil was hot, the other cool. Have a set of new coils, fitted them, ran it up for a while, coil still running hot.
Measuring voltages. 13v nominal on both coil supplies. Output to TCI, 12+ volts on R/H side coil, 10v nominal on the left hand coil. All cable resistances at 0 ohms to TCI. Turns out that the transistor controlling the L/H coil has gone leaky, allowing 2 volts to earth. (8amp supply, drop of 2volts = 16 watts of heat dissipation, the reason the coil was warming up). In use, the transistor was getting hotter, dragging down the voltage at the coil. Bit complex to describe, but new tranies ordered and a standby TCI. I WILL get this one right....
Cheers

[fossie]

Sir , I am past doffing my cap to you , I shall indeed tip my tipfer!
I don't think I have a clue of the details but get the general idea ...
The end is in sight !

[johnr]

I think we'd be able give a definitive number as to 400s in UK , but we are we will be trying to find out the numbers of each type in UK like we used to have .
However since the insertion of the FB page of Kat owners club ( which has loads of non club members who just pop along ...) 400s are on the assendance ( though they must have always been here since importing them was mid 90-early 2000.) though most are believe it or not work in progress, mostly with starting issues .
Just for the record in the time I dispatched mine and my missus used it, 10 years or so it was a reasonable starter only once letting Smand down ( which was traced to a crimped wire ) But it was used daily or at least weekly .*E10 wasn't even a dream in the minds of Eco polititions then though*

its also possible that there is actually only a tiny number of 400's but so many people have had them, failed to get them running and so sold them on to another hopeful, who subsequently have done likewise, there might only ba a half dozen of them, but at some time we've all owned one of the bloody things.