01 zrx1200r, 27k miles in the shop. Went to check valve clearance only to find some of the worst-looking cams I've ever seen - pitting like crazy. According to the parts dept replacements from kawi are back ordered until the end of time, anybody recommend sending them out to web cam (or the like) for repair? - jim
Don't get welded cams. I've had cronic problem with Web-Cams welded cams in a .Yamaha FJ1200 motor I built. The welded cams are too hard.Stick with a cast iron cam ground from a new core.
To the OP, what did the other valve train components look like? Did the pitting cause a problems, after 27k??? The unit is 12 years old, maybe a storage issue. As for the back order, do you have a choice?
emry - not sure if the pitting is due to storage but from what i can glean this is a problem with this model...no idea what the root cause is but there are enough complaints of excessive pitting (and wild speculation as to the reason). it's not causing problems yet but on the #4 cylinder the pitting is so bad that at any point in time only ~60% of the cam lobe is in contact with the rocker arm and i'm reluctant to let it go as is in the case that the problem will accelerate. it is worst on #4 and kinda bad on 3, etc. rocker arms are fine. that it happens irregularly (e.g. - not uniform across the camshafts) kinda makes me wonder. if it were a problem with materials, wouldn't it be uniform? same question if storage were the culprit - unless, of course it sits on the side stand for 6 months out of the year and all the oil drains to the l/h side of the head leaving the r/h side relatively lubricant free? just spit-balling here... regarding the back order, i suppose we could look around for nos parts but that might be a needle in a haystack. the flip side is that i don't want to keep the customer's bike for half of our abbreviated riding season up here in ny.
Sounds like the customer has two choices, wait or find an OEM cam (which may not be any better if it is model problem), or have it welded. I wouldn't hesitate to send it off to Web Cam.
ZZR1200 cams are a popular upgrade and when I was into ZRX's they were pretty easily found. Gives a nice top end power boost too.
Problem is ZZR cams pit too. This isn't a "storage" issue, this is Kawasaki shit quality issue. ZZR's, ZRX's and old the Concourse's.
