New owner

[MaxxJ]

Hey everybody, just got my 93 home today and about to start pulling it apart to replace rotted hoses and whatever else I find while I'm at it. Anybody have any advice about maintaining these? I was told the PO ran it regularly until about a month or so ago then had a bunch of hoses start leaking. Anyway it's here now, I plan on having it running again before long.

[DC Concours]

Welcome. You maintain it just like any other bike really. These are hardy bikes and will last a long time w/ care.

The hoses shouldn't just leak after sitting for a month. Anyway, hoses, tubes and all rubber parts visible should be inspected and/or replaced since you are on it now. The carbs may need attention, change all fluids and lube all points. Look for rust.

How many miles and what is the maintenance history?

[Rick Hall]

Hey everybody, just got my 93 home today and about to start pulling it apart to replace rotted hoses and whatever else I find while I'm at it. Anybody have any advice about maintaining these? I was told the PO ran it regularly until about a month or so ago then had a bunch of hoses start leaking. Anyway it's here now, I plan on having it running again before long.

Welcome!

Hoses and chit may be due for replacement/renewal, your scoot is dang near 25 years old. Murph (murphkits.com) is the defacto place to go for replacement parts, he's top notch. FWIW, I had a large coolant hose burst 10 or so years back, the big one in back of the exhaust pipes. Field repair electrical tape didn't fix, so drove it home (~600 miles) with no coolant. Yes, oil (Mobil-1) was crispy on my return.

Check and adjust valves every 10k miles, do oil/filter then also. Saves on down time. The C-10 Connie is pretty bullet proof if you're reasonably fluent with normal maintenance.

Rick

[DC Concours]

Wow. 600 miles without coolant?!?!?! How did the engine not cease up?

Welcome!

Hoses and chit may be due for replacement/renewal, your scoot is dang near 25 years old. Murph (murphkits.com) is the defacto place to go for replacement parts, he's top notch. FWIW, I had a large coolant hose burst 10 or so years back, the big one in back of the exhaust pipes. Field repair electrical tape didn't fix, so drove it home (~600 miles) with no coolant. Yes, oil (Mobil-1) was crispy on my return.

Check and adjust valves every 10k miles, do oil/filter then also. Saves on down time. The C-10 Connie is pretty bullet proof if you're reasonably fluent with normal maintenance.

Rick

[Rick Hall]

Wow. 600 miles without coolant?!?!?! How did the engine not cease up?

Kawasaki superior engineering?

Idaho Falls, ID to Ft. Collins Colorado area. No coolant, none. When moving, airflow does do a fair amount of cooling. Issues were when accelerating from a dead stop. Engine was hot as a pistol, knock (pre-ignition?) was obvious. Easy on throttle till at speed.

Oil (Mobil-1 as I said) was quite dark and thick on my return, engine was making some strange noises. Over winter, engine dropped to the bench, oil pan removed, rod end bearings checked for scoring. There was none, seriously. Strange sounds were a valve rocker/cam issue, discovered 1-2 years later at the COG National in South Dakota. Or maybe it was at the Montrose national? Regardless, repairs done at the National.

Coolant hose burst approx 80k miles on the clock. I have 180k miles on the bike now, but haven't ridden it in 3-4 years. Two cam replacements, one row of rockers, set of clutch disks, gobs of oil/filters/brake pads/tires.

Rick

[MaxxJ]

Welcome!

Hoses and chit may be due for replacement/renewal, your scoot is dang near 25 years old. Murph (murphkits.com) is the defacto place to go for replacement parts, he's top notch. FWIW, I had a large coolant hose burst 10 or so years back, the big one in back of the exhaust pipes. Field repair electrical tape didn't fix, so drove it home (~600 miles) with no coolant. Yes, oil (Mobil-1) was crispy on my return.

Check and adjust valves every 10k miles, do oil/filter then also. Saves on down time. The C-10 Connie is pretty bullet proof if you're reasonably fluent with normal maintenance.

Rick

Nice. I was hoping to find a parts source outside of ebay. I don't doubt this will be loads easier than working on my old wing. Had to pull the engine half way out of the frame just to replace a starter, it seemed like every set of instructions for whatever went wrong on that thing started with "drain the coolant, pull the engine"

[Eupher]

Nice. I was hoping to find a parts source outside of ebay. I don't doubt this will be loads easier than working on my old wing. Had to pull the engine half way out of the frame just to replace a starter, it seemed like every set of instructions for whatever went wrong on that thing started with "drain the coolant, pull the engine"

You can check these. I have just in the past couple of days:
ronayers.com This one has the exploded diagrams with some (not all) part numbers.
http://www.adeptpowersports.com/ If you have part numbers, this one had everything I needed (hardware mostly)

There is a part number list for the C14 in that section of the forum, but I don't think that will help you.

[Boomer]

Welcome Max 
With basic care they'll last forever. They'll even take some abuse but there are limits.
I'm currently rebuilding a 1989 182k mile motor and it seems the only problem with it was the valves on #1 were not sealing adequately so down on power and lumpy idling. New rings, bores honed, and the valves lapped so they seal again, and it should be good for another 100k.
Rubber parts die with age rather than use, unless they are moved a lot.

[MaxxJ]

With basic care they'll last forever.

That's something more people need to be told. That goldwing of mine was an 85 and got around 15-20k miles put on every year. It ran like a top, the starter was the only thing I ever had to replace on it. Ended up selling it to a friend of a friend just before I moved a few years ago and I've been climbing the walls ever since not being on two wheels.

[m in sc]

fore sure, they are pretty bullet proof.  the last C10 i bought was maintained really well.. until it was basically abandoned for 4 years outside. one of the 1st things i did was buy a hose kit and replace them all.   the hoses were crunchy inside.

things ive dealt with across 3 of them.

1: coolant service, you seem to have that under control.

water pump: me? im at the point just replace or rebuilt one when unknown. it WILL start to leak eventually.

get comfy with carbs. I do my own work so its easy.

valve adjustments. easy as pie. but replace the gaskets up top when you do it. all of them.

I personally put in a manual cut off in the fuel line for parking overnight, etc. i never trust a vacuum petcock but others will disagree here.

a friend of mine went thru a bunch of older gold-wings until he settled on the concours.  as a matte rof fact, i got my 99 from him, i sorted it out, he rode it, then bought another one selling off his wings. he loves it now.

welcome, and enjoy.

[kkja13]

I use:
https://www.partzilla.com/
for genuine Kawi parts.  If you establish an account with them (free) the prices get better.  Lowest prices that I have found for genuine Kawi parts.

[Strawboss]

All good info so far, although I stretch my valves to 15,000, I have 103,000 on the bike. Get a Kawasaki shop manual for the bike, I got mine from my dealer but that was before my internet use, they aren't that much, $50.00? This bike introduced me to total bike care and maintainence, the good thing? It's a simple bike and fairly easy to work on. Good luck and welcome.