79 XS11F forks on Kawasaki Eliminator

[rammy150001]

My son and I picked up an '85 Kawasaki ZL900 Eliminator and I noticed right off the bat that the front end wasn't stock. I just figured it was off another Kawasaki, until my son took the wheel in for a new tire and also to pick up brake pads. The salesman at Iron Pony said the front end was off of a Yamaha and after some research it matchs the 79 XS11SF pictures. I like the beefy front end over the eliminators but having problem with the right side of the fork and getting the pads to sit right on the rotor. It looks like the fork needs to be twisted just a hair to make it work, but we have loosen the entire front end but I don't see any way to get it to twist the way I need it. I just needs twisted a little towards the wheel and everything will be fine. We've had the caliper off as well, but instead of the pads fully on the rotor only the ends are touching.

Any tricks to get the fork to align?

[fredintoon]

Discovering the weirdness

Hi Rammy and welcome,
if you are new to Yamaha XS series Specials you may not be aware of the idiosyncracies of their Weird Harold front brake calipers.
The calipers swivel rather than slide across to align themselves and the brake pads are tapered.
The pads are also handed, the left-side and right-side pairs are mirror-images.
Mr Stupid did not know this and threw a good set away before buying a new set and finding they were supposed to look like that.
It may be that your Kawi's PO and the Iron Pony guy were unfamiliar with all this?
Check you have the correct pads. They can be assembled into the wrong calipers but they won't line up with the brake disk.

[rammy150001]

Thanks for the feed back and that is exactly what it looks like, one side mates up fine but the right hand side looks opposite of what its suppose to do. I'll cross-reference the part number again and check. I really like the front end on the Eliminator because it is much beefier (if that is a word).

[fredintoon]

Not ridden it yet?

Hi Rammy,
the Kawi's 29º rake is near enough to the XS11's 29.5º that the fork swap should be OK. Things to check:-
Fork tube length?
Longer forks increase trail, shorter ones lessen it.
XS11 Special forks are fitted complete with the correct 'trees?
The Special's 'trees are made shorter than the Standard's to ensure both bikes have the same trail.
If the PO has fitted the Special's fork tubes into the Kawi's 'trees the forward-mounted axle will reduce the trail by ~40%.
If so you have two options:-
1) Ride real careful.
2) Fit a sidecar, the steering will be perfect.

[rammy150001]

Again, excellant information, I have two other Eliminator's so I'm going to take some measurements. Also, because of the big fat tire on the back of Eliminator's they don't lean very far into turns anyway. So we will ride it very carefully until we get a feel for the bike. Again, thanks for the heads up. BTW the PO did use the Eliminator's triple tree but the rest of the front is Yamaha.

[fredintoon]

- - - the PO did use the Eliminator's triple tree but the rest of the front is Yamaha.

Hi Rammy,
I swapped my Special's 'trees for Standard 'trees to reduce the bike's trail for sidecar work.
I never did have the bottle to ride it solo that way, let me know how the Kawi handles, eh?