Kawasaki Concours C10 Highway Peg Installation complete

Recently I found a near neighbor selling a collection of parts and motorcycle maintenance supplies for 1986 to 2006 Kawasaki Concours on Craigslist.  Not only were there some maintenance supplies I know I would use, the item that really interested me were a set of Kevin Baker Highway Pegs.  These are considered the "best" highway pegs for Connies and are the only ones Murphy of Murph's Kits sells.  It is likely these pegs came from Murph's once upon a time, and I first wanted to see about buying just them.  Well, the seller really wanted to sell everything locally, and no one was more local than me.  I posted the parts list up on the COG Forum and starting getting enough interest to swing the deal.

So yesterday the seller and I agreed on a final price, I went over with cash in hand, and went home with lots of parts.  After packaging up a few of the orders, I took a closer look at how to mount the highway pegs per some advice on the Connie Forum linked above.  The lower radiator mounting bolts go through the engine into the bracket and are where the supports for the highway pegs go.  These are significant bolts with 14mm heads and likely haven't been removed from my bike until last night.  NOTE: Be careful breaking these bolts free!  Have a friend hold the bike or otherwise support it or you might become a "CDA" member.  Once these bolts are out, the highway peg mounting post screws into their place.  I used an adjustable wrench but a large box-end wrench would work too.  A small extension arm then mounts in place with what I seem to remember is a 19mm bolt and two "teeth" washers.  Finally the footpegs attach to the other hole in the extension arm.  Once everything was in place I tightened both the bolts passing through the extension arm with about a 45 degree angle forward and down in the arm.

One challenge is the left side mounting post has to clear both the engine case and the radiator hose, so it may take a few more minutes to get into place than the right side.  Also, I ride this bike without lower and mid-fairings, so no removal or trim work was required.  Standard 86 side fairing will require trimming/cutting and some 87-06 fairings may require a small amount as well.

So far I have a few short rides and like the pegs, although another inch or so on the extension (assuming it would still be rigid enough) would likely benefit most riders.  I'm 5'10" with a 32 inch inseam and consider myself an average size guy.  If I have the arch of my foot on the peg my knees are still fairly bent.  By resting my upper heels on the peg my legs are straight.  Still I'm quite happy with them and look forward to my upcoiming road trip to test them out.

Finally found the oil leak on my Kawasaki Concours C10

For the past few months a progressively worsening oil leak has developed on "Miss Swail", the older of my two Connies and the main rider of my bikes.  Oil was getting everywhere on the lower left side of the bike and occasionally dripping on the exhaust tubes (which smells great!).  With oil and oily residue/grit all over the lower end, the culprit for the leak could have been anything.  The bike ran as strong as ever, and the slight coolant leak from my change highlighted in this YouTube video has seemed to stop with some re-tightening of hose clamps.  So off I went to the Concours forum and got out my Clymer manual and a bunch of rags.

Working out to in, and botttom to top, I cleaned lots of road grime off the pegs, the shifter level, the driveshaft and the kickstand, which had served as a "gutter" when the leak was particularly bad and the bike sat a bit too long.  As I wiped areas down, I checked for grit and grime and brown fresher oil.  While not fool-proof troubleshooting, it normally helps to isolate the leak to an area instead of "somewhere in here" while waving hand at the lower left side of the bike!  Fortunately the area around the bevel gear housing was only gritty, saving me a major tear-down that requires removing the rear wheel, the driveshaft and the swing-arm.  More wiping and using rags on small but long screwdrivers showed the leak coming from behind or around the water pump.  I cleaned the whole area particularly well and then let the bike sit overnight.  It hadn't run in nearly three days, so it was cool and no wind driven oil would show up.

The next afternoon a small puddle of oil was back on the drip tray, right under the exhaust just below the water pump and shifter shaft.  Since the shifter shaft has to come off to work on the water pump, this is where I'll focus on the first attempt to fix the leak.  It only seems to be leaking about a oil bottle capful of oil a day, and that when the bike has sat.  I went for a 15 mile or so ride this morning and will see how it leaks as it cools.

I'll also post some pictures and video of the seal repairs when I complete them, but that is likely not for a few weeks due to work travel.