I wanted 2 things:
To make it a “show” sled, but also have it as functional as when it was new.
I first saw the ’82 Kawasaki 440 LTD at the Fishermans Resort on Lake Gogebic in the U.P. of Michigan in 1982. I thought it was really cool looking. I owned a 1980 Kawasaki Intruder at the time. I probably would have stayed with Kawasaki if they hadn’t pulled the plug.
When I started restoring vintage sleds, it was on the top of my list.
I bought a “doner” sled (1980 Invader) just to get the belly pan. The only problem was the LTD had twin pipes and the Invader had only a single pipe.
I had to patch the single exhaust hole in the belly pan and drill two new holes in just the right place for the twin pipes. Also, old Kawi. belly pans are made out of a hard plastic. Over time the black dulls and turns milky. It took several hours of buffing with different compounds to get the original shine back.
I have found it is one thing to restore a vintage sled to look like new, but it is a whole other project to get it to run and handle like new. I accomplished both
They say it looks better than new
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11 Comments
Beautiful sled. Excellent work.
I’m jealous.
Beautiful sled, if you ever sell let me know. Kawasaki made the baddest sled ever. They were way a head of everyone else.
awesome sled great job ,i am restoring a 1981 ltd and cannot find a cdi box or wind shield ,does anyone make these aftermarket
Anyone looking for a few Intruders? I have (2) 1982 barn-kept sleds that I would like to move down the road. Currently stored in east-central Wisconsin.
Hi Bill , do you still have these sleds and can You get pics to me. Doug 781-696-9849
Just stumbled across this. This was my fathers sled that we did a lot of work on. The hood was truly a work of art and the seat turned out amazing! So glad to see you finished it. It is a amazing sled! Congrats
Why did you do for jetting when you put the mikunis on and did you find it to work better. I just purchased a 81 LTD with mikuni 36s
Hi Nice sled ,im searching for piston and ring for Ltd 1981 440
I’m looking for a 1981;1982 seat pan for a Kawasaki LTD please contact me 226-979-4529 I’m James Dunn
My buddy had one of these. I always thought it looked mean. Eventually he let me take a ride on it. I pinned the throttle like I did with my old Polaris SS 440 and whoa! It almost ripped out of my hands. I believe arm stretcher is the term. Liquid cooled, duel plug heads, twin pipes. Fast. In my endless snowmobile internet wandering i came across a website that had some speed gun results posted and all were typically expected speeds for all the sleds so I tend to believe when an LTD was said to have a run at over 100. My buddy said his did roughly 90 so maybe with the right clutch work and carb tuning? Anyway, still a good looking sled.