Roach's videos are excellent. I don't plan on ever rebuilding my engine, but I downloaded all the videos anyway. He did not have an engine removal video. Most of it is covered in the manuals. I have both the Clymer manual and the Kawasaki manual. I prefer the Clymer.
I just finished removing and reinstalling my engine due to a stator failure. It is not hard, but very time consuming, due to all the other parts you have to remove to get to the engine.
1. Remove the seat
2. Remove the gas tank
3. Remove both side covers.
4. Remove both steering head covers
5. Remove both exhaust heat shields
6. Remove both header pipes and clamps
7. Remove battery
8. Remove coolant overflow tank
9. Drain cooling system
10. Drain oil
11. Remove radiator cover
12. Remove radiator bolts and pull radiator forward. Remove the wires from the radiator and fan
13. Loosen the upper and lower radiator hose clamps at the engine, remove the radiator
14. Loosen the clamps and remove the entire upper coolant assembly, including the filler neck, thermostat housing, and hoses to both the front and rear cylinders. Remove the yellow temp sensor wire
15. Remove the screws from the front coil. let the coil hang by the wires
16. Remove the single screw from the wire harness support bracket next to the coil, leave the bracket in place
17. Disconnect the rear brake light wire, remove the right footpeg/brake assembly.
18. Remove both air filter housings
19. Remove both the ducts that go from the surge tank to the air filter housings
20. Remove the drain hose from the right front of the surge tank
21. Remove the crankcase vent hose from both the engine and the surge tank
22. Remove the green neutral indicator wire on the bottom of the engine
23. Remove the ground wire from the engine
24. Remove both rubber elbows between the carbs and surge tank. Remove the throttle cables and enrichener cable from the carbs
25. If you still have it, remove the 3 way valve from under the seat, the hose to the front cylinder, the hose to the rear cylinder, the vacuum line to the rear carb, and the hose from the surge tank. I through all this stuff away years ago
26. Remove the front exhaust manifold
27. The surge tank will now be loose. Wrap something under it at both ends and secure it to something overhead to get it up and out of the way. This is why the front coil and bracket needed to be loosened
28. Put something solid under the engine to support it. I understand a standard cinder block is about a perfect fit. Put a magazine or something between it and the engine to prevent damage to to the bottom of the engine. I used a paint bucket to initially remove the engine, then moved it to a homemade dolly with casters
29. Remove all 3 engine mount nuts and bolts
30. Remove the bolts from the right muffler and crossover chamber. Put a scissors jack under it to support it, and lower it slightly so you can reach and remove the 2 lower Allen bolts on the removeable section. Raise the exhaust back up and put the bolts in hand tight for now
Remove the 2 upper Allen bolts, and remove the right frame section.
31. Despite what the manuals say, you can leave the front bevel gearcase in place. You will need to remove the clutch cable from the engine. Just remove the 10mm bolt and slide the whole fitting off the shaft. Then remove the cable from the fitting and slide it through the retainer bracket. Also remove the shifter.
32. Go over everything one last time, make sure there is nothing else connected to the engine that needs to come off. Remove the swing arm boot from the engine side.
33. Slowly start sliding the engine forward and to the right at the same time. The output shaft will disengage from the U-joint, and there should be plenty of room between the engine and the surge tank. The one thing you really need to watch out for is the shifter shaft. With the bevel gearcase in place it is a tight fit, but it does fit with over 1/4" to spare. Don't bang the shifter shaft on the frame. It is very fragile, and easy to break inside the engine. This is also the main thing to watch when reinstalling the engine.
There are a LOT of nuts, bolts, spacers, clamps, and other small parts. I put them all in ziplock bags and labeled them. I had a pretty good size box full of bagged parts. You will also need a place to put the big parts so they don't get damaged. Pulling the engine took me about 5 hours. Replacing the stator and balancer dampers and putting it all back together took about 35 hours. I did a lot of cleaning and some other not completely necessary things. I also wrote down everything I did when I took it apart, and the order in which I did it. I went over that list when I put it back, double checking everything. Yes it can be done a lot faster. But I was in no hurry, and the last thing I wanted to happen was to get it all back together, then realize I forgot something and have to pull the engine again. I learned that the hard way many years ago. I spent a month building a VW engine ('72 Bug) getting everything just right. I had it all together and was about to put it back in the car, when I realized I had left a small but very necessary part out, that required a total engine teardown and another rebuild to fix. It was my first VW engine rebuild, and I was not familiar with it. This job was the same way. First time I ever did it. And the last.
I never did find out how long it took Roach to rebuild that engine, but he didn't seem to be in a hurry.
