In the last three years since my H2b was reborn we have covered about 4000 happy miles together, I should have had one of these years ago. Late last August we suffered her first breakage, it was the day after a particularly wild thrash on the A1-M62 that the gear return spring went limp, Rats! Being a lazy and stingy Yorkshire git, I really couldn’t be arsed to open it up and waste all that expensive gearbox oil just to change a stupid spring. So I donned my long bobble cap, false ZZ Top beard and fished around down the oil filler with a magnet on a piece of welding rod. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t work, double Rats! We had to ride around for months, haunted by visions of that spring piece leaping into the machinery with gay abandon at any moment. And remembering to poke the lever back to the centre after every change; with the state of my memory I often forgot and had plenty of embarrassing (non-) gear changes through not centering it after the previous shift. Being under no pressure to get it sorted, it was not going to get done so after cold and wet Harrogate show in early March, I finally got motivated and on arriving home, I dumped the gearbox oil and boiled the chain in it. There’s no going back now; the heat is on…..…

Deadline, 6^th May 2002, Thoresby Hall, Nr Worksop.

There were two other ‘stalled’ projects still hanging like an albatross around my neck, a frame swap and a gearbox fiddle were still waiting to be attended. I had always planned to get shot of that horrible Q plate and I already had another frame from Rick waiting in the wings. The silly five up arrangement of the gears that nearly had us off on several occasions was also getting on my tits. I bought the selector drum off a KH500 from Gareth ages ago, it was also tapping it’s feet waiting to be tackled, so it looks like a complete strip and rebuild is on the cards then, Yipp.... Oh no.

Anyway, I won’t go into the sexchange or the return spring, I’m sure you’ve all been there and worn the tee shirts for those, but this gear selector thing deserves a coat of looking at. On the face of it, it’s easy peasy, you just throw in the KH500 selector drum and away you go, ha ha! erm, no. I had asked Allen Millyard about this modification, at Stafford show last year. He did explain the formalities, but whilst staring (drooling) in awe at his V8 Z1, most of it went in one ear and out the other as I bowed and scraped in his presence. The most noticeable difference between the two selector drums is that, on the H2, a small lever and spring, behind the clutch effect the positive stop of the drum. This lever falls in between the pins on the external end of the drum to hold the drum in the selected position, it also doesn’t have any means of providing a neutral position.

On the KH, the stop is effected by a ‘five and a half pointed star’ cam (49), which is held by a circlip (50) and pin (48) onto the very inner end of the selector drum (the half point gives the stable position for neutral). There’s also a hollow bolt with an internal spring and plunger (51-55) fitted into a stump on to of the crankcase right next to the neutral switch, which “follows” the cam profile.

Those inscrutable engineers at Kawasaki, in their infinite wisdom also moved the relative position of the selector pins on the KH drum, this means that the H2 stop lever would stop the drum in between gears which is not very good but might provide amusement for bystanders. When I stripped my engine down to its undies, I first built the KH drum, with H2 forks, into the top casing and then added the H2 gear clusters; There were doubts about the gear selection. A look through the Partsmart software shows that all the selector forks from the KH have different part numbers, but no amount of scrutiny or measuring (with a ruler!) could show any difference in the size, shape or position of the guide pin in any of them. In fact two of them appear to be the same fork just fitted the other way up on the drum! Having borrowed an old and fusty KH500 engine from Paul Craft, I borrowed the forks from it and tried again but it looked just the same. At this point, I called a few mates in for a second opinion. One night Mike, Paul and Paul came round and once I had bribed them with a coffee we all agreed that the selection was correct, especially after we had refitted the positioning plate to secure the drum. Heartened by this positive feedback, The engine casing went off to Ian in Pontefract to have a pillar welded on the top next to the neutral switch. I also left the KH500 casings as a guide for the maestro and sure enough, a week later my H2 engine had an erection, just like the one on the KH. One pressure wash later, to remove all the bits of broken bearing (something else I found after opening the casings), swarf, filings, dead rodents etc, the rebuild began. Everything plopped into place like it was ordained and having refitted the H2 forks the casings went back together and then the selector arm was tried in place, that’s strange? The selector arm doesn’t reach the pins any more, a quick check and sure enough the KH500 selector lever is different, the arm is shorter so it contacts the drum at a different angle, a little voice in my head said “that’s because the pins have moved of course, dummy”.

While I had this new selector arm in my hand and because the seal area of the right hand side shaft was badly pitted, I decided to relieve it of the right hand shaft and then bung up the hole in the right hand cover. My skills with a hacksaw were never legendary, but off it came and the hole in the cover was ally welded by the maestro above. (As a little aside, to bung up the external hole in the cover neatly, I found that a French 10cent coin is the same size as the old oil seal. It fits perfectly and a splash of Silicone bath sealant may or may not keep it secure so don’t follow me too closely on the Rally ride out! Just in case... You see, the French do have some use). It was more or less at this point that I discovered that there is a little pip on edge of the ‘star’ cam, it is put there to jam the inner selector fork when you get it on the wrong way round. Rude words were heard coming from the garage as I opened the casings again. I tried the KH forks just to be certain but nope; that pip still cocks it up, so after putting the H2 forks back, I reversed the star and it was sorted.

The whole kit went back together and was in the frame when another little problem turned up, the kickstart wouldn’t return after a kick (there were some more rude words and gestures this time). In my memory (see several paragraphs above) I could actually see myself (or was it in a dream) putting that spring into position and engaging its little lug in the casings before I rebuilt them, I KNOW I DID! But still the doubts crept in, it was a few days ago after all, but as the right hand cover was loosened the kickstart returned with a clunk. It seems that the welding of the cover has distorted it very slightly so just a sliver later and the kickstart problem was but another memory. When I came to refit the carbs there was nearly another calamity. Later H2s have carbs with an oil feed banjo on the float bowl, the new stump and this banjo bolt tried to occupy the same point in time and space, with a little twist of the carb the contact is only slight, but there were almost tears.

So does it work? Yup, I got it fired up and rode it around gingerly at first, just in case all of the cogs wanted to mate at the same time, but the selection seems positive. Only a good ride out would confirm that I screwed everything up OK and put back everything that came out. The bike was ready for Thoresby, the weather wasn’t! There have been several other large rides out including the Nabs Head show in Blackburn and the 70 odd mile ride down the M1 to the Rally plus the rides out thereafter. There has been one or two moments when I was sure that something wasn’t quite right. I think the clutch is giving an occasional slip and there is a second gear problem which is not caused by the new bits. Otherwise, I am very pleased with the result. The trouble is that after 26 years of 1 down 4 up and only three years of 5 up, I think I already got used to it! So that’s it, for all my blood (spanner rash) sweat (not in my freezing garage) and tears (never) the bike looks and goes just the same as it did before. The only external sign is that new little phallic thing under the centre carb… Oh, and a bit later, there should be a new registration number for this frame (erm, Rick? kind pal, good mate).

Grahamee