So I finally completed my 11.4K service! It took me a friday night and saturday morning. I would rate my mechanical competence 1 beer out of 5.
First thing I did was followed section 15 of the manual and took off all the majority of the fairings(I kept the seats on). I had some issues taking of the front plastic piece below the headlights as I ended up snapping 3-4 of the plastic push rivets. I was able to replace them at auto zone using 1/4" rivets and they fit just fine! Other than that, I really didn't find the fairings difficult at all(I am used to taking of the lower fairing for an oil change which helped).
One of the hardest things was figuring out what tools I needed, I really wish the ninja manual would be a bit more specific in that regard. It would help greatly if they listed tools needed at the beginning of each chapter rather than the one or two exotic specialty tools that they list…I digress.
Rough idea of tools needed for 11.4k service:
Torque wrench-You will also need to torque down some hex bolts so I had to go get some hex sockets. I believe I used 4,5 and 6mm hex sockets but might be wrong.
Sockets-~8mm-17mm
screwdriver,pliers,combination wrenches 12mm and 14mm
rear stand- I am sure you could do it without but ugh
brake cleaner for when you spill brake fluid
beer
I did not check air filter
It will go on my to do list in a week or so. I also did not check the evap emission control system. Was a bit confusing on if it only pertains to cali and their was not a lot of info on it other than the fact that if you don't fill your gas above the filler line than you are probably fine for all intents and purposes. So I am not worried about it and plan to do the 15.2 checkup at the dealer just in case I jacked anything up.
Lubed chain,adjusted chain as it was ever so slightly out of spec.
I changed brake fluids(dot4) as well as switched to gaffers stainless steel lines and I also changed coolant. I changed to steel lines more for maintenance but it was nice to get the added stopping power. You will need pliers and a new cotter pin if you do change brake lines.
I basically followed the master cylinder removal in the manuals brake sections and drained all brake fluid. Lots of towels and clean up! Swapped out the lines and torqued to spec. Bleeding the rear brake was pretty straight forward and I used the motion pro bleed kit to help me. I had quite a few air bubbles the first time as I forgot to tighten the bolt(ooops). Once I sorted and cleaned that up than it only took me a few fills of the reservoir and I was bubble free. I did find the motion pro bleed kit tubing a little short by the way and so I ended up clamping the tubing to my waste bottle so that I could work hands free without worrying about the tubing spilling. If you get the motion pro kit by the way its the 8mm version.
Bleeding the front kind of sucked. I had absolutely zero pressure on my front brake for the first few fills and it kind of freaked me out. It ended up taking A LOT of brake fluid refills before I was bubble free and had pressure on the lever. I have yet to test ride but could immediately tell just from pushing the bike around in the garage that the stopping power was INSANELY better.
Brake pads were ok…probably replace before next service. Coolant was a breeze once I figured out where the drain screws were. All of the tutorials are close up pictures and so it was a bit hard to figure out exactly where on the bike they were. I got soaked however with coolant on the bottom screw…had no idea it would shoot out several feet. Ended up flushing the system with distilled water and than i drained the water as well and topped everything off with coolant that was premixed with water and let all the air bubbles out by tapping on the radiator lines.
I looked over as many bolts as I could find and checked torque. Once nice thing about doing it myself is that I figured out that the guy before me had mixed and matched a few bolts
All of the miss matched bolts were on the fairings which is good but it was a bit frustrating as I really don't know which one is right and which one was replaced. So I will have to do some digging and maybe just order a set of bolts from kawasaki. That or live with it as it is not a huge deal.
Oh, I also soaked and waxed and washed the fairing parts as they were off.
I could probably do it again in half the time which is awesome:dance cool: glad I did it but even more glad it is over
I was also surprised in how clear the new brake fluid is…I am not sure I would have known to replace the brake fluid had I not seen clean, new fluid in the bike at the end of the day…You can hardly see any tint to it right now
