93 klr 650

[Golden]

Howdy all, My name is Brian I am new to the list and have just started a major rebuild of my 99 KLR. I guess I should start at the begining, last week the bike started to make a loud nasty noise from the left side of the engine. So I parked the bike and got around to taking it apart yesterday, I have 25k on the bike and have changed the oil, adjusted the balancer chain every 1000 miles since I've had it - I got the bike with 1072 miles on it in 2000. When I drained the oil and pulled the filter there were metal bits on the filter and in the oil, so I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and continued. On the left side of the bike I removed the magneto cover grabed the magneto and was able to shift it slightly up and down and more metal bits. So I start thinking the mains are gone, the manual does say the service life is 18k. After I pulled the magneto I started on the balancer adjuster and much to my surprise the spring and part of the plate with the bannana shaped groove that holds the idler gear shaft was missing (kawasaki fiche description: LEVER,IDLER SHAFT PART#13168-1436). Has anyone ever heard of this plate shearing? The entire top of the collar that goes over the shaft was gone, I'm still in shock. So next day I continue stripping the engine, after removeing all the right side stuff, clutch, oil pump, balancer... I notice that the crank not only shifts up and down a bit it also moves in and out about a .5 in, this can't be right/normal? I also found most of the remains of the above mentioned parts trapped in the oil pump screen, which contained most of the metal frags from getting in the right side/tranny - but bearings are cheap at the local bearing shop (except for the few special order step ones), it would be foolish to split the cases and not replace everything. I have the motor out and am going to split it in a day or two. My new working theory is that the mains went bad and and the in/out movement of the crank caused the starter gear on the back of the flywheel to grind off the adjuster collar, Any thoughts? What follws are some questions I hope that some of you can clear up for me. I have both the manuals for the bike and the fiche but can't seam to determine where the tensioner spring for the balancer adjuster mounts to from the lever? Any suggestions on a entire gasket kit, the only one I've seen is from Dennis Kirk by a company called Vesrah, I've never used them any complaints about quality or suggestions for a different route. I figure I might as well replace the piston rod since I'm going to get the big end bearing replaced, the only ones I've used are IMS hot rods in my dirt bikes - anything better readily available or votes for the factory rod? Any tips, tricks particular to this engine that are not readily apparent in the manual? Any upgrades, enhancments, known weaknesses I should think about since I'm redoing the whole thing... Please excuse my spelling, grammar, rambling... Any help welcome. Thanks, Brian golden@...

[fixerdave@hotmail.com]

> ...the mains are gone, the manual does say the service life is > 18k.

That can't be right, 18K for the mains?? There are people on this list that put that on in a single ride! My bike (A4 / '90) has near twice that and most of that as hard dirt riding. If your motor self-distructed at 18K then something went wrong to cause it. If I were you, I'd take a really close look to make sure everything is machined the way it's suppose to be. My bike has a part that was not machined properly and this made it immpossible to put a keeper on the shaft that holds the balance-chain adjuster - so they just assembled the bike without the keeper. I rode for about 5 years before it caused me a problem - and it cost $5 to fix - but it still goes to show that the KLRs have quality-control issues. I've heard a few other stories like this as well. I'd check for stuff like this while doing your work. Note that on my bike the balancer adjuster shifted off the shaft (during an adjust) so that it bent just enough to eventually get snaged by the large starting gear and then got ground into metal bits. I too drained out a significant amout of filings but I never noticed any play in the crank -- never looked though, but yours sounds way beyond spec. good luck on your rebuild. David... A4, Victoria BC Canada

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., Golden wrote: > Howdy all, > > My name is Brian I am new to the list and have just started a major > rebuild of my 99 KLR. I guess I should start at the begining, last week > the bike started to make a loud nasty noise from the left side of the > engine. So I parked the bike and got around to taking it apart > yesterday, I have 25k on the bike and have changed the oil, adjusted the > balancer chain every 1000 miles since I've had it - I got the bike with > 1072 miles on it in 2000. When I drained the oil and pulled the filter > there were metal bits on the filter and in the oil, so I got that > sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and continued. On the left > side of the bike I removed the magneto cover grabed the magneto and was > able to shift it slightly up and down and more metal bits. So I start > thinking the mains are gone, the manual does say the service life is > 18k. After I pulled the magneto I started on the balancer adjuster and > much to my surprise the spring and part of the plate with the bannana > shaped groove that holds the idler gear shaft was missing (kawasaki > fiche description: LEVER,IDLER SHAFT PART#13168-1436). Has anyone ever > heard of this plate shearing? The entire top of the collar that goes > over the shaft was gone, I'm still in shock. So next day I continue > stripping the engine, after removeing all the right side stuff, clutch, > oil pump, balancer... I notice that the crank not only shifts up and > down a bit it also moves in and out about a .5 in, this can't be > right/normal? I also found most of the remains of the above mentioned > parts trapped in the oil pump screen, which contained most of the metal > frags from getting in the right side/tranny - but bearings are cheap at > the local bearing shop (except for the few special order step ones), it > would be foolish to split the cases and not replace everything. I have > the motor out and am going to split it in a day or two. My new working > theory is that the mains went bad and and the in/out movement of the > crank caused the starter gear on the back of the flywheel to grind off > the adjuster collar, Any thoughts? What follws are some questions I hope > that some of you can clear up for me. I have both the manuals for the > bike and the fiche but can't seam to determine where the tensioner > spring for the balancer adjuster mounts to from the lever? Any > suggestions on a entire gasket kit, the only one I've seen is from > Dennis Kirk by a company called Vesrah, I've never used them any > complaints about quality or suggestions for a different route. I figure > I might as well replace the piston rod since I'm going to get the big > end bearing replaced, the only ones I've used are IMS hot rods in my > dirt bikes - anything better readily available or votes for the factory > rod? Any tips, tricks particular to this engine that are not readily > apparent in the manual? Any upgrades, enhancments, known weaknesses I > should think about since I'm redoing the whole thing... Please excuse > my spelling, grammar, rambling... Any help welcome. > > Thanks, > Brian > golden@i...

[David Kelly]

Carlos A Perez writes:

> hello all, > i'm one of those lurking around pulling together a plethera of KLR (and NKLR > info) > i found this in our local paper:1993 KAWASAKI KLR 650 Dual Sport. > Accessories included. $2350 > a called the guy and it's got 33k+ miles on it, tank bag, side bags, updated > shocks, two sets of wheels (highway and offroad), never been out of the > country, and never been dumped... > i'm going to check it out today, and get a better idea... > > i had a deposit on a 2001 650, but this just showed up, and it's 2k less... > is it a good deal?

I agree with the other message that it has too many miles for the price. Especially if its only $2,000 less than a new one. To give you an idea, my 1996 KLX650R-D1 is a stripped off-road only KLR with a higher quality of components used in the suspension. I paid $2,000 for it with the original knobby tires still mounted but in need of replacement. Suggests to me that it had less than 1500 miles on it. Those were rough miles. I've replaced a spoke, throttle cable, brake lever, vacuum diagpragm and throttle slide in the carburator, welded front tank mount back in place, and of course the tires. Need to find a supply of those nice 6mm bolts with 8mm flared head which Kawasaki uses as I need to replace some that are missing and replace some that are not that bolt. Am guessing you are relatively new to motorcycles? Reason that I ask it that the 33k miles didn't seem to cause you to blink. That would be an exceptionally low mileage for a car of that year. Its getting high in motorcycle mileage. If its carefully maintained there is no reason the motorcycle won't go 100,000 miles. But I've seen an awful lot of good motorcycles that were trash by 20,000. At least half I have seen in salvage yards have less than 30k, and not necessarily there because they were wrecked. An automobile with 33k miles may soon be looking for new tires. A motorcycle has had several sets by then, and several chains, sprockets, factory shock(s) is long gone. 1996 KLX650R-D1 Green Monster 1998 PC800 Pacific Coast 1984 VT500FT Ascot -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@... ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.