03 Voyager 1200 (3600 miles)

[feelergaugephil]

Hi all, I'm new here and this is my 1st post..
Long time Kawasaki fan here, even own 2 now.
So, I'm going to look at a 2003 Voyager1200 tomorrow, apparently its been in storage for quite a long time, and very low mileage.
With such low mileage and age of the bike, what do I need to look out for?
Its actually at a Dealers and has clean title (probably a trade in)
Thanks in advance if you left a comment.
Phil.

[Chris Cochran]

Well, interesting buy. If those miles are, in fact, original, then the bike has obviously been sitting somewhere for a long, long time. Here are a few, general suggestions, in no particular order of importance:

1) Determine the age of the gasoline in it. Drain if it's old. Definitely add some SeaFoam to the tank. This will help in de-gunking the carbs.
2) Strictly speaking from that low mileage only, the drive spline greasing from the factory should still be good. 3600 miles isn't squat. However, I'd personally feel better if I could pull the rear wheel and inspect/re-lube them. Age does funny things to things.
3) Determine how old the tires are and replace if they're older than five years. Period. It doesn't matter how much tread is left. My '86 sat for five years and the tires looked damn near brand new from looking at the tread. BUT, they were too old so now it's got new Shinko's on it. If you're going to pull the rear wheel to check the spline lube then that's the ideal time to swap rear tires, anyway.
4) If adding the SeaFoam isn't enough to sufficiently clean the carbs, they will probably need to come out and get really cleaned. This picture is what mine looked like after a five year pause in running.
5) Liquids: I'd change the oil and oil filter, and the fuel filter for sure. Might be wise to drain and flush the cooling system, too. It's up to you if you want to drain and refill the final drive assembly. But it's really easy to do (probably the easiest thing, maintenance-wise) so why not?
6) See if the front and rear suspension takes and keeps air in them. Don't go more than 7 or 8 lbs in the front.
7) Personally, the radio system is the absolute last thing I personally would prioritize. Don't be surprised if it's not fully operational. That's common.

There are more but these are fairly generic to almost any vehicle you'd buy.

[feelergaugephil]

THANK YOU

[Micoproviso]

I got a 1995 model last October that sat for many years also. Some of the things I found…

I totally agree on the tires. Mine looked brand new, but rode like crap. Replacing them made a world of difference in the ride.

Brakes may be somewhat seized up. I had to remove the calipers and work the pistons back and forth with Kroil, then drain and replace all the brake fluid. But they did come back to work perfectly.

Unless someone has been starting it over the years, the carbs and fuel systems will need to be totally gone through, meaning carbs off (which is a a pain on that bike), bowls off, disassemble what you can without separating the carbs, replace bowl gaskets and float needles at a minimum, clean in a sonic cleaner for a long time to degunk all the little holes and passages, etc. and check all of the fuel lines for hardness or cracking.

Take a battery with you to look at it. It’s under the faux tank cover, which easily comes off with two large Philips head screws and two screw knobs underneath about mid-tank cover. Need to unhook a connector under the tank cover to get it off. You’ll need a 10mm socket and short extension to get the battery out. A battery from a different bike will likely work fine just to hook up to test everything. Try all the gizmos. If some don’t work, you’re likely in for removing bodywork, separating and cleaning a ton of electrical connectors, which is probably a good idea anyway after sitting that long.

I’d see if it turns over to make sure nothing is seized in the engine, wouldn’t try to start it if the gas isn’t semi fresh, but maybe take some fresh gas and try if the tank is empty. Make sure there’s oil in it before trying to crank it.

After finding/fixing a few gremlins and thoroughly rehabilitating the fuel system, mine runs like brand new.

[feelergaugephil]

Getting it tomorrow, battery light is on, had them check voltage while it was running, showed 13.1v, so I'm guessing bad Alternator, but will check when I pick up tomorrow..
Old man bought it new in 03, rode it very little as you can see from mileage, but he did crank it once a month for years...
Clutch master cylinder not working.
Runs on 3 cylinders on idle, 4 when revved, blocked idle jet, ill just buy a carb kit for the whole lot (not garbage K+L) thanks everyone that posted advice, I really appreciate it... Will update as I go along...
Phil.

[Micoproviso]

Depending on RPM, 13.1 may be acceptable. I’d change fluids and try to free up things like that clutch master cylinder before you replace a bunch of stuff. With that few miles, it’s unlikely anything is worn out, probably just gummed up and needs worked free. Definitely do the carbs though. You’re very lucky that it runs. Sounds like this will be a great find. Good luck.

[triton28]

The battery light ONLY indicates electrolyte level in the battery not rate of charging. 13.1V should be a good alternator. Check the electrolyte level, and also see if your bike even has an electrolyte sensor as some batteries do not have the 7th hole for the sensor and some owners put the sensor on the shelf and invariably forget about it, opting to connect the Green/Blue wire down by the flasher relay to 12V positive to turn the dash "battery" light off.

[feelergaugephil]

The dealer put a brand new battery in, they advised that if they went through the whole bike it would be $4k, but letting it go for $1500 i can do the work, well heck yeah!! I have my own shop of course ill do the work!!!

[feelergaugephil]

This will be my winter project....
I found a blue wire that was off and placed it on the positive post, battery light now off.
Used a wee bit of air pressure, now front and rear suspension working.
Ordered new tires, and ordered 4 idle jets, 4 main jets and 4 float bowl gaskets (from the dealer)
Put a whole can on seafoam in the tank, so far rode around my neighborhood at different times and done 12 miles, still only running on 3 cylinders, I guess I'll pull the carbs and clean them and replace whats needed.

Ill keep you updated.

[Micoproviso]

This will be my winter project....
I found a blue wire that was off and placed it on the positive post, battery light now off.
Used a wee bit of air pressure, now front and rear suspension working.
Ordered new tires, and ordered 4 idle jets, 4 main jets and 4 float bowl gaskets (from the dealer)
Put a whole can on seafoam in the tank, so far rode around my neighborhood at different times and done 12 miles, still only running on 3 cylinders, I guess I'll pull the carbs and clean them and replace whats needed.

Ill keep you updated.

You’re me last year. Some additional things I did that you may want to consider in addition to the obvious stuff (motor oil, etc)…. Since it’s a winter project.
I replaced my windshield. It wasn’t horrible, but visibly scratched from cleaning, and yellowed a bit. Looks great with the new one.
New spark plugs, I like E3’s currently.
Cleaned every piece of chrome with Brillo pads to remove any surface rust that was starting to form from sitting. It all came back beautifully.
Differential oil change.
Flushed and changed the coolant. It’s actually very easy on this bike, with a drain plug underneath in the front. Used the Prestone flush product, it worked great.
Flushed through new brake fluid in all hydraulic systems. Mine had more miles than yours, but brake fluid tends to collect moisture over the years, and it’s a good idea to start fresh.
I’d snip the zip tie that holds the wires coming out of the fuse block to the upper left frame rail. It becomes a hinge point for those wires as you turn the handlebars over time, and eventually fractures them, creating a very difficult to figure out electrical problem. Just let them hang free.

[Nails]

> I found a blue wire that was off and placed it on the positive post, battery light now off.

I despise lugging around stuff I don't use. I replaced this dash light with a volt meter that indicates the voltage by color and flashing. Taking the dash apart is a bit of an adventure, so I replaced the dash lights with LEDs while in there. And hooked up that temp gage supplemental ground.

> Used a wee bit of air pressure, now front and rear suspension working.

I highly recommend changing the fork and shock oil, and swapping in Progressives while you're in the forks. My '96 had disgusting oil, especially in the shocks. I used ATF to clean it up, which worked as I recently changed to real fork oil: the ATF was still clean.

> ordered 4 idle jets, 4 main jets

I don't think these brass items need to be replaced unless you're re-jetting to a different size. I clean them with an old brass-wound G guitar string.

> still only running on 3 cylinders

Which plug is nasty black? Or which pipe is slow to get hot?

> I replaced my windshield.

Consider breaking out the sabre saw and cutting the old one down, way down. It's much nicer for the short rides on hot days. You can even paint it black if you want. They aren't that hard to swap.

> Differential oil change.

At the very least, check it. My final drive (previously unvented) blew out almost all the oil, probably mostly on one ridiculously hot ride.

> Flushed and changed the coolant.

Like other fluids, mine (<30k miles at the time) was disgusting. I ran the Prestone flush twice, plus a "rinse" of actual antifreeze, before buttoning it up with fresh antifreeze. Also, my overflow line was pinched in the frame -- not good.

> Flushed through new brake fluid ... it’s a good idea to start fresh

Most of the fluids above should be changed about annually, but that's especially true of brake fluid. Start fresh every year.

This forum has threads, generally many threads, about all this stuff. And you might want to take a gander at viewtopic.php?t=12591. (I plan to look at it again myself and edit to work in these newer suggestions.)

[feelergaugephil]

So far, I'm now 55 years old, and have the "lost syndrome" very very annoying! I bought 4 new idle jets, 4 main jets and 4 float bowl gaskets and placed them in my shop, and mr.invisible has took them all! I cleared my whole shop (8 hrs) looking for the bag which they were in... GONE! re ordered again..... so aggrivating, like the daily look for my keys!!!! arghhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, changed the plugs and put some "Yamaha top engine cleaner" in each cylinder, fired up on 4 cylinders!! YAY!!! (short lived) then back onto 3 cylinders, rode it 1 mile, still on 3, now decided to pull the carbs....

Who designed that airbox!!! including the broken tab, I managed to pull them out the left side of the bike, God knows how I'm gonna get them back in!!! anyway, once airbox out, then the mind boggle of unhooking those cables, finally got them out.....

Carb inspection, look good on outside, #1 thru #4 fuel screws set at 1.2 turns, which I will after rebuild and clean set these to 2.5 turns out.
strip carbs, #3 carb, stopped up with that awful brown goo! main jet and idle jet completely stopped up, there's my issue of running on 3 cylinders, now waiting on new replacement stuff coming in.... arghhhhhh!!

I was worried about the battery light issue and the blue wire, battery is fully charged from the bike, so thats good.
New tires are here, just will wait till its running perfect before I install them.
Windshield, looks like may have to replace it, its foggy.

Changed the oil and also the fuel filter, completely forgot about the oil filter, ordered that....

So far, thats it, been riding my Kawasaki concours 1400 with this beautiful weather here in Louisiana. update soon on how its coming.

[buzzcut]

Good luck on challenges. fyi I live at 1100 meters. My pilots are set at 1 7/8 with experimentation of mileage and power. I get 52 mpg two up on the hwy and 40 to 42 in the city and no bogging down and she is quick. I suspect there is a fairly wide range on these bikes. now I am riding colder weather the idle speed has increased with the denser air charge...now running more lean so maybe my pilots are still a tad on the rich side but not changing it anymore. you will likely find your original package of parts when you have the bike all put back together lol