valve shims, counter-intuitive... everything okay?

[Fr. Don]

I filled up my '08 KLR (14.2K miles) with gas at lunch today. It's hard to believe it takes a $20 bill to fill up! Anyway, I went to reset the odometer and the reset button wouldn't depress. It's hard to describe, but jammed is the best way I could describe it. As you guys all know, with no gas gauge, the odometer is about mandatory. I would never remember my overall mileage when I filled up and I'm sure the brain cycles required to figure out when I could expect to run out of gas would be too much for my simple brain. I now face the horror of going to the dealer. Has anyone else had this problem with the odometer reset button? If so, were you able to fix it? How? I guess if I bring it in I can make a list of junk they need to fix. Like: 1) Odometer reset button 2) dry rotted rubber washers and cable covers 3) the rear brake line could be replaced. When my muffler fell off (!) at 1,300 miles going 70mph, it lodged against my swingarm and about burned through the brake line before I got it off. I Loctited it back on and have had no problems since. But since it later became an official recall thing, I guess they can look at the muffler bolts too. 4) Not sure if I really want to hassle with this, but my '08 drinks a quart of oil very 500 miles. Rotella is cheap, so what the hay. That said, if I was confident that a rebuild with factory parts would fix it, I would jump at the chance to make them do just that. However, I have read of folks who got their top ends replaced by Kawi (after hassling with the dealer over a lenghthy period of time) only to have the problem continue. Yes I know about how the 685 or 705 kit will fix it, but that's a non starter for me. I just can't afford. It's cheaper to pour a quart of Rotella dino every now and again. So I'm not sure what to actually do about it. It sounds like alot, but the bike has actually been very good. Very reliable. I can't complain. I was even lucky yesterday, which is rare for me. I saw that a screw was embedded in my tire. Yikes! The tire wasn't low, so I thought that must mean that the tube wasn't punctured so I decided to pull it out. I pulled it out and it was a very short screw and I don't believe it even touched the tube. Oh happy day! Esp. since I had left my big tool kit at home. I normally carry it. It has things like patches, tire irons, etc. It would have been bad to be 40 miles from home with a flat and only the factory tool kit to help me out. ) Don+ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Chris Norloff]

To free up my odometer for other tasks, I write my fill-up mileage on my mirror with a grease pencil. The grease pencil ("china marker") lives on the underside of the pannier lid, secured with velcro. Works great, as long as you remember to write down your mileage, and don't clean one part of your mirror too enthusiastically ... Chris -----Original Message----- From: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Fr. Don Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:34 PM To: KLR Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Odometer reset button broken and other ramblings... I filled up my '08 KLR (14.2K miles) with gas at lunch today. It's hard to believe it takes a $20 bill to fill up! Anyway, I went to reset the odometer and the reset button wouldn't depress. It's hard to describe, but jammed is the best way I could describe it. As you guys all know, with no gas gauge, the odometer is about mandatory. I would never remember my overall mileage when I filled up and I'm sure the brain cycles required to figure out when I could expect to run out of gas would be too much for my simple brain. ...

[David Critchley]

Mine locked up at 8650 km, left it for a couple of days and it started working at 11420. Worked for about two fill ups and locked up again. Going to the dealer when I get back. They owe me on this one. DC

----- Original Message ----- From: "Fr. Don" Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 12:34 Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Odometer reset button broken and other ramblings... To: KLR dsn_klr650@yahoogroups.com> > I filled up my '08 KLR (14.2K miles) with gas at lunch > today. It's > hard to believe it takes a $20 bill to fill up! Anyway, I went > to reset the > odometer and the reset button wouldn't depress. It's hard to > describe, but > jammed is the best way I could describe it. As you guys all > know, with no > gas gauge, the odometer is about mandatory. I would never > remember my > overall mileage when I filled up and I'm sure the brain cycles > required to > figure out when I could expect to run out of gas would be too > much for my > simple brain. > > I now face the horror of going to the dealer. Has anyone else > had this > problem with the odometer reset button? If so, were you able to > fix it? How? > I guess if I bring it in I can make a list of junk they need to > fix. Like: > > 1) Odometer reset button > 2) dry rotted rubber washers and cable covers > 3) the rear brake line could be replaced. When my muffler fell > off (!) at > 1,300 miles going 70mph, it lodged against my swingarm and about > burnedthrough the brake line before I got it off. I Loctited it > back on and have > had no problems since. But since it later became an official > recall thing, I > guess they can look at the muffler bolts too. > 4) Not sure if I really want to hassle with this, but my '08 > drinks a quart > of oil very 500 miles. Rotella is cheap, so what the hay. That > said, if I > was confident that a rebuild with factory parts would fix it, I > would jump > at the chance to make them do just that. However, I have read of > folks who > got their top ends replaced by Kawi (after hassling with the > dealer over a > lenghthy period of time) only to have the problem continue. Yes > I know about > how the 685 or 705 kit will fix it, but that's a non starter for > me. I just > can't afford. It's cheaper to pour a quart of Rotella dino every > now and > again. So I'm not sure what to actually do about it. > > It sounds like alot, but the bike has actually been very good. Very > reliable. I can't complain. I was even lucky yesterday, which is > rare for > me. I saw that a screw was embedded in my tire. Yikes! The tire > wasn't low, > so I thought that must mean that the tube wasn't punctured so I > decided to > pull it out. I pulled it out and it was a very short screw and I don't > believe it even touched the tube. Oh happy day! Esp. since I had > left my big > tool kit at home. I normally carry it. It has things like > patches, tire > irons, etc. It would have been bad to be 40 miles from home with > a flat and > only the factory tool kit to help me out. ) > > Don+ > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > D Critchley [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Gary LaRue]

Don; Yeah, it's been $20 US the last few times I've filled up my '08, too. I'm getting about 47 or 48 MPG (almost all freeway) which has me hitting reserve at almost exactly 230 miles. I have just under 4K miles on it right now, but as far as I can tell, it has never used a drop of oil, so I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. Odd, though, there has been some black stuff on the rear fender. I guess it could have come from riding with the choke on, too. I've done that a couple of times. C-y'all; Lash ----- Original Message ---- From: Fr. Don To: KLR dsn_klr650@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 12:34:04 PM Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Odometer reset button broken and other ramblings... I filled up my '08 KLR (14.2K miles) with gas at lunch today. It's hard to believe it takes a $20 bill to fill up! Anyway, I went to reset the odometer and the reset button wouldn't depress. It's hard to describe, but jammed is the best way I could describe it. As you guys all know, with no gas gauge, the odometer is about mandatory. I would never remember my overall mileage when I filled up and I'm sure the brain cycles required to figure out when I could expect to run out of gas would be too much for my simple brain. I now face the horror of going to the dealer. Has anyone else had this problem with the odometer reset button? If so, were you able to fix it? How? I guess if I bring it in I can make a list of junk they need to fix. Like: 1) Odometer reset button 2) dry rotted rubber washers and cable covers 3) the rear brake line could be replaced. When my muffler fell off (!) at 1,300 miles going 70mph, it lodged against my swingarm and about burned through the brake line before I got it off. I Loctited it back on and have had no problems since. But since it later became an official recall thing, I guess they can look at the muffler bolts too. 4) Not sure if I really want to hassle with this, but my '08 drinks a quart of oil very 500 miles. Rotella is cheap, so what the hay. That said, if I was confident that a rebuild with factory parts would fix it, I would jump at the chance to make them do just that. However, I have read of folks who got their top ends replaced by Kawi (after hassling with the dealer over a lenghthy period of time) only to have the problem continue. Yes I know about how the 685 or 705 kit will fix it, but that's a non starter for me. I just can't afford. It's cheaper to pour a quart of Rotella dino every now and again. So I'm not sure what to actually do about it. It sounds like alot, but the bike has actually been very good. Very reliable. I can't complain. I was even lucky yesterday, which is rare for me. I saw that a screw was embedded in my tire. Yikes! The tire wasn't low, so I thought that must mean that the tube wasn't punctured so I decided to pull it out. I pulled it out and it was a very short screw and I don't believe it even touched the tube. Oh happy day! Esp. since I had left my big tool kit at home. I normally carry it. It has things like patches, tire irons, etc. It would have been bad to be 40 miles from home with a flat and only the factory tool kit to help me out. ) Don+ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Jeff Saline]

On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:33:35 -0000 "bensherwyn" writes:

> Hey Guys, > > Welp, I lapped my valves... removing a lot of carbon grit from the > exaust side and likely a bit of metal in the lapping process. The > thing that doesn't make since to me is: After re-checking my valve > clearances at the shims, things seem to have tightened up a .5-.15" > rather than loosening. My exhaust side now requires 2.30's (which > is > at the smaller end of the spectrum). Does this make sense? I > would've thought that after the clean-up and lapping things > would've > loosened up. Hmmm... > > Thanks, > > Ben

<><><><><><><><><> <><><><><><><><><> Ben, The clearance getting tighter is normal. The amount you posted doesn't make sense to me as you have it between 50/100" and 15/100". Either of those amounts is huge. I'm pretty sure you were just in a rush and fat fingered the wrong numbers. Maybe you meant 0.0005" and 0.0015". I'm guessing you didn't move the valve 0.015" as that's still a large amount from lapping and would be a shim change of about 7 shim sizes. If you need a 230 now that would mean you probably had a 265 shim in there before. When you lap the valves you shouldn't be taking off much metal as all you want to do is clean up the seating surfaces on the valve face and the face of the valve seat. But when you do that you are moving the valve deeper into the head. So on the other side you are moving the valve stem further out of the head which closes the clearance. Best, Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT ____________________________________________________________ Click to become a master chef, own a restaurant and make millions. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3m4pC9zDvUw2V2c5IYf2FuvtmgVlIN74uZA97f96jDEy2LHW/