skyteam ace 125 removing cat

Before I start I must say that this is not a fun job. If you can buy a replacement header for a good price - do it now!

As shipping to Australia is too expensive, here's how to do it.

Tools required. You will also need an angle grinder, metal cutting disc, power drill with a very long drill bit and a bench vice.

Remove muffler bolt. 14mm wrench.

Remove the header bolts. 10mm.

Cut here or further up to be closer to the cat - not that it will help you remove it. If you want to use the existing exhaust and weld it later I would recommend doing it the slow way with a hacksaw to get a perfect cut. Metal looks thick enough to be mig welded with gasless or even arc welded with an inverter only.

Here's what's to be removed. It will take a great deal of time as it is densely packed metal that is glued in. Drill towards the sides to remove the glue. Drill in the middle to make it less dense.

You have removed the terrible, terrible cat and deserve a beer. Install your new exhaust or weld the existing exhaust back. If you plan to slip on a new exhaust ensure you grind down all the welds on the outer part of the pipe as a slip on must have a very flat surface.

You will most likely need to adjust the idle and mix.

Adjust the idle as pictured and the fuel mix screw which is screw with a grip underneath the carb outlet.

This will take some time and some care. Only make small adjustments (1 hour out of 12). Tighten to increase, loosen to decrease. Wait a minute after each adjustment. If you are using the stock muffler and cat it may no longer like slow idles.

It is best to start with the idle screw at the bottom of the carb all the way in (lean). And to keep your idle at a moderate pace. Slowly increase the fuel mix screw as you slowly decrease the idle until it happily idles just above stalling. This is the minimum for it to run, but at this point I prefer to increase the fuel mix so it runs richer on idle to stay warm and prevent stalling at lights. I also prefer to increase the idle for the same reason.

Enjoy the new performance.

skyteam ace 125 carb rejet

Installing the two jets for the carb on the skyteam ace apparently improves warm up and performance. I believe it also makes the mix richer but that's yet to be confirmed.

I only recommend doing this if you are replacing the stock muffler and removing the cat else it may run too rich when idling.

Using the OORacing jets http://www.ooracing.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4315 these are the steps to rejet the carb. The job is easily done if the exhaust gas recycling gear has been removed.

Tools required. You will want a screwdriver with multiple heads as the carb uses finer heads and the fairings large heads. It is worth noting that you are dealing with brass screws that are fragile and do not like over-tightening or poor treatment.

Turn your fuel tap to off. Put the carb drain hose into a bucket and unscrew the drain bolt and the fuel will empty. Not much fuel.

Removing the right fairing. Once the bolt is removed, pull hard to get the fairing out of the rubbers.

Unscrew the hose clamp and remove from carb. Apply force but be careful not to bend the hose clamp which is fairly flimsy.

10mm wrench to remove the carb bolts. When re-installing make sure these are very tight.

With a lot of wrestling the carb will come out if you twist and pull it down. The air intake hose will fight you all the way but take it slow and it will come out. Remove the 3 bolts at the bottom of the carb.

The two jets are pictured below (Holding the pilot jet). Remove both. Re-install with care and do not over-tighten. Be very careful not to bend the float as these parts are highly sensitive.

Take the screw from the main jet. Probably best to do this in a vice with wood instead of the pliers as you can (as I did) scuff the housing. Install the new screw.

Do the same with the pilot jet.

Adjust the idle as pictured and the fuel mix screw which is screw with a grip underneath the carb outlet.

This will take some time and some care. Only make small adjustments (1 hour out of 12). Tighten to increase, loosen to decrease. Wait a minute after each adjustment. If you are using the stock muffler and cat it may no longer like slow idles.

It is best to start with the idle screw at the bottom of the carb all the way in (lean). And to keep your idle at a moderate pace. Slowly increase the fuel mix screw as you slowly decrease the idle until it happily idles just above stalling. This is the minimum for it to run, but at this point I prefer to increase the fuel mix so it runs richer on idle to stay warm and prevent stalling at lights. I also prefer to increase the idle for the same reason.

Skyteam ace 125 emission control

Removing the restrictive emission control from the skyteam ace should improve performance and tidy up the look of the engine. Let's not worry about the environment at 125cc.

Tools required plus the OORacing 'EGR Cylinder head exhaust emission blanking plate'

Remove the tang that holds the pipe to the air intake by hand. Remove pipe.

Use small pliers to remove this copper adapter.

0.22 inch threaded screw or bolt will fit nicely into it's place. May be imperial?

Screw in with small pliers.

Remove emission outlet pipe with a kex key.

8mm ring spanner to remove the mixer part of the emission control device. The metal tangs that hold it in place are flimsy and may bend if you apply too much pressure. Once unbolted, you can pull the entire device out - the outlet pipe on the other side of the bike will simply slip out with its sleeve.

Keep it for reattaching for roadworthy for resale.

8mm ring spanner for the OOracing 'EGR Cylinder head exhaust emission blanking plate'. Do not over-tighten.

Much neater. Perhaps faster?

Skyteam ace 125 bar end mirrors

Original mirrors were a bit large and clunky. They also offer poor visibility.

Tools required.

Drill out bar end plastic and rubber.

Push in metal bar end stoppers. These should move fairly easily but may need to be hammered in.

Bar end mirrors can point up or down. No right way, just what looks good.

On the throttle side there must be at least a 2mm gap. This will ensure the throttle rubber does not get caught when twisted.

Tighten and adjust - you're ready to roll.

Unzip a bunch of DOCX word docs in windows cmd to make it easy to grep

This may seem like a strange thing to do, but you might want to use grep on a bunch of windows docx files to search for content easily... instead of using the windows file indexer..

@echo off
cd "C:\someFolderFullOfDocs"
for /r . %%G IN (*.docx) DO (
 echo %%G
 echo %%~nxGdir
 mkdir %%~nxGdir
 cd %%~nxGdir
 "C:\Program Files\java\jdk1.5.0_22\bin\jar" xf "%%G"
 cd "C:\someFolderFullOfDocs"
 )

1981 kawasaki z250c single cam chain timing

When I removed the cam chain from the bike I forgot to note what the timing was. There are a few different kawasaki z250 (twin), z200, kz250, kl250 workshop manuals kicking about but none of them seem to match the kawasaki z250c timing settings. Here's how to do it:

With the cam lobes at 4 and 8 oclock positions. Use the z200 timing mark and point it to the top position - not the kl250 mark. Push your fingers into the cam chain to make sure it's snug and still matches up.

At the crank case, ensure the ( T ) mark matches up with the guide. If these are perfectly aligned you are good to bolt it all down. It's best to turn the crank manually in the counter clockwise motion to make sure that no valves are hitting and do go on with the regular valve adjustment process in the manuals.

*This does not cover the steps for the cam chain tensioner and valve clearance bits which are important to ensure no damage is done once started. Please email me if you need a manual.

CHEMICO Valve Grinding Paste kawasaki z250c

Making sure your valves have a perfect seal is important to make sure you get proper engine compression. If your valves are scuffed you can get poor performance. At worst it can result in air being sucked when it should be blown and backfire into your carb.

Buy some cheap chemico valve grinding paste and a lapping tool. Use coarse first, then fine and make sure you clean it all off properly or else you will damage your valve guides or your cylinder.

Put paste under valve.

Use the lapping tool to grind the valve. You will probably want to do it for a minute or so to make sure it's all ground down. Minute for fine, minute for coarse.

To test the grinding put some petrol or spirits in the cyl head. The petrol should not drain down to your valve guides.