OIL HOSE??????

[TheFalcro]

Hello all

Today I was sitting in the sun looking over the to be ressurected ZN1300 Voyager. I have been doing a lot of reading about the cam chain tensioners and their needed replacement. So while looking over the engine I peeked at mine to see if it had been done already. it looks factory but..(there is always a but) it appears to have an oil line going from the head on the right side of the engine to the cam chain tensioner. Is this right? everything I have looked at is closed on the top face with no way to oil it. Thoroughly confused please help educate me. I am not at the point of a start up but I want to "fix" this before I try the first start in 24 years

[Van Voyager]

I posted this exact same question when I got my ZN1300 (can't remember if I post the question here on on the KZ1300 site). That hose and associated fittings are OEM and are shown on the parts fiche. No one seems to be able to confirm exactly why it's there but given KZ1300 owners back in the day, complained about cam tensioner problems, it's not a stretch to assume Kawasaki added the oil line to 'pressurize'/lubricate the tensioner assembly in order to limit failures.

I haven't done any tensioner mods to mine.

[TheFalcro]

I posted this exact same question when I got my ZN1300 (can't remember if I post the question here on on the KZ1300 site). That hose and associated fittings are OEM and are shown on the parts fiche. No one seems to be able to confirm exactly why it's there but given KZ1300 owners back in the day, complained about cam tensioner problems, it's not a stretch to assume Kawasaki added the oil line to 'pressurize'/lubricate the tensioner assembly in order to limit failures.

I haven't done any tensioner mods to mine.

Thank you for the response. I wondered the same thing. Based on the descriptions that I have seen about why they fail, a pressurized and lubricated automatic adjuster would mitigate a lot of the fail issues. I am going to be taking the injectors out to clean them and while that plenum and the airbox are out of the way I am going to remove and inspect the tensioner if I don't see any of the wear marks on the rod and it is oiled so to speak I plan to do nothing. I am also going to tryand get a hold of a Kawasaki tech at the local dealer and ask if there was something they did to these, that is if there is a tech that has been there long enough to remember these scooters. This scooter only has 35k and change on the odometer but has been sitting outside for 24 years I am basically inspectine and testing everything.