Well after reading Michael's post about the swing arm bushings, it looks like my old beat up kt250 needs new ones, they are badly worn. If I did not want to bother with bronze or any special roller bearings, can they be replaced with the same type and design as the factory has? If so where do you obtain them?

Anyone?

Your local Kawasaki dealer should be able to order the OEM silentbloc/metalastic bushings for you.

You may find them seized in the fork/to the spindle (very common on BSAs). I drilled out as much of the rubber as I could, then pushed out the inner bushing and used a grinding point in a die grinder to carefully cut through the outer bushing so I could collapse it with a punch and remove it.

Inspect the central frame tube for collapsing at the ends and the outer pivot support plates for signs of wear. If the central tube has shortened itself you may want to file it off square and then use some thin shim washers to keep the inner bushings located in their proper position.

There are some photos of the damaged parts from my KT on

http://www.eurospares.com/kt250.htm

Fixing scoring in the outer support plates is going to be a lot more bother. I suppose you could weld up the damage and grind/file it back down but making new plates and welding them on in place of the old ones may be simpler.

cheers,

Michael