20 Most Recent 1978 kawasaki KE 125 Questions & Answers

You may have spark, but it may be firing at the wrong timing... be sure to check engine timing. Also if you bike is a 78, it could have ignition points that are dirty. The ignition points are located under a side cover and there will be a small camshaft that they ride on to open and close. The points should be opening a small amount to allow the spark to fire. You can take some very fine sand paper and carefully slide the paper between the closed points to clean them, afterward, take a clean business card and pull them thru the points to clean any debris left from sanding them.
Then see if you get spark.

A 1978 KE125 has only one cylinder. The head does have two spark plug holes. From the factory there is a bolt in one of the holes. The thought behind having two holes is that two plugs can be in the head at the same time so that the rider can just move the spark plug wire from one plug to the other during a race without needing any tools or waste time trying to install a new spark plug. If for some reason you want to disconnect the oil pump, you would drain the oil tank then put a plug on the oil pump infeed line.

Dis-assemble the carb and clean it. Clean the air filter and install a new spark plug.

no dont thank so

Go to the dealer and ask for the stock plug for your bike. Check for spark on the new plug then install the plug.

Remove the carb , dissemble it and clean the varnish out. Remove the petcock, ( gas valve ),water trap and clean it out. Next let one cup of gas flow into a container. Any water or rust in the bottom of the container? If any rust was in the water trap or the container then purchase an inline fuel filter to eliminate the rust getting into the carb.

If cleaning the carb yourself does not do the trick then take it to the dealer and have them clean it and install a car kit. This should eliminate the carb as a problem. Get a new air filter and install it.

Now you have spark, gas and air. If it still will not start it is likely that you need new crank seals. On a bike that old you may well need new crank bearings as well.

Please rate this solution. Thanks!

Hi Dan,
Why do you want to disconnect the vital oil supply? If you are experiencing too much blue smoke or plugs oiling you can adjust the amount of oil fed to the engine via the secondary oil pump cable,the one that splits off from the throttle to the carb.
If you disconnect the cable it also stops the oil pump sending oil to inlet, winding out adjuster increases oil screwing in reduces.
As for ratio? trial and error as No knowledge/specification is available for Oil injected engines, poss 25:1 to start but don't blame me if you seize?
Quality synthetic oil is always a must, did you know you can also purchase smokeless two stroke oil?
Good Luck!
Paul 'W'
Please remember the Fixya button if my efforts are respected?

Alldata.com :)

I don't know if I can solve it but it sounds to me like you're not getting enough fuel. has it been sitting awhile or just start doing this randomly? If it's been sitting there's a pretty good chance you'll need to clean you carburetor. when gas sits in the bowl of your carburetor for too long it will get thick and smell almost like varnish. My Suzuki 250 4x4 had a similar misfire and cleaning the carb fixed mine.

burning to hot, change air filter. adjust mix on carb, tight in and 1 and 3/4 out

Petseal will fisx the petrol tank and the carb is probably blocked with dead insects and corroded jets etc.

Check out Babbitt's. You can see exploded parts diagrams and order parts. Please rate my answer. www.babbittsonline.com

No you do not need the battery just make sure that your key or kill switch are all working properly.

try under the seat

The parts are available as well as complete carburetors, I checked. Go to www.babbittsonline.com and you can order from them. On the site you can see an exploded view of the carb. But if you don't want to put a few bucks in the bike, I would be happy to put it in my garage. :-) Please rate my answer. Thanks.

Typically there is a piece called a one way clutch. It is bolted to the back of the flywheel. In this case the one way clutch is not grabbing the large starter gear. You will have to remove the engine side cover, pull off the flywheel, and replace the one way clutch and starter gear. Then, when the starter motor is spinning , the clutch will grab the starter gear, the motor will turn over, and hopefully start.

1. check piston rings 2. check valve seal 3. check spark plug tight 4.check head bolts 5. check gaskets
do all these one by one and check the compression.

I would suspect a chafed wire caused by vibration.

Check www.mrcycles.com as they often have diagrams for such things on the web free of charge.

I had a problem with my gold wing like that, once you make sure that there is no frame damaged setting your bike on a center stand do the one pice string around the back tire pulled to the front on both
sides,(make sure your rear tire is alined on the same marks for the swing arm) checking your triple tree for damage or just might need to be loosened and retightend

About 3500 miles or 5000 klm. Change the oil filter as well.