Labor Day KLR Shakedown - easy riding around magnolia

EVENTS & RIDE PLANS
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Howdy, and apologies for the short notice. Planning to bring the KLR out tomorrow to play in the dirt and make sure all of the work I did in the engine shakes out. Thinking of Golden Gate canyon (with possible detour up Robinson Hill) and then play around at Magnolia. Maybe go up Rollins pass if everything is checkout out good. Should be a pretty easy day and will be big bike friendly if anyone wants to tag along. I’ll be at the 7/11 at 10am and leave around 10:20ish

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Hi Joe, You will be going right past my house. Unfortunately I have work to get done and went riding today with Mr. Dave on Saxon Mountain. Remind me… what did you do to your KLR engine? Have fun mañana. Esteban

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Can’t make it but thanks for posting!

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It started off with a doohickey check (and later learning the modified doohickeys are just loud)… then I took the tensioner out of the cam chain to check that out but failed to check valve alignment, so the cam chain jumped time and I bent valves when I went to start it back up. Which lead to me replacing valves, and checking the clearances. I was going to check the clearances this winter anyway, but I guess the bike had other plans. Anyway, yesterdays ride went great, and I only had one issue with the bike overheating a bit (likely due to a coolant air pocket). Let it sit for a few minutes to draw down some of the fluid in the overflow and didn’t have an issue after that!

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Hi Joe,

Thanks for writing back. Interesting to read about your KLR sagas.
I’ve had 2 KLRs (a 1999 and a 2003) for over 70,000 miles and never heard of or had a "loud doohickey.” The counter balancer chain tensioning mechanism (doohickey) is silent when installed correctly. I actually does not even move except when loosened to allow for adjustment during periodic maintenance. I am also not sure what you mean by “valve alignment.” Maybe you mean valve clearances (between cam and stem)?

As for overheating, have you check that the fan is operating properly? Needs to turn on and off with the temp sensor in the radiator, spin freely, and that the fan is not melted. (Original fans are nylon and can melt if not spinning due to bent fan shroud.)

  • Check that the fan spins by hand.
  • Check that the fan comes on when bike hits higher temperatures.
  • Check that fan motor is working by grounding out lead to temp sensor on radiator.
  • When ever you fall on the left side alway check that the fan spins freely after.

Steve

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When the tensioner was removed the engine was not at top dead center. The cams (or crank I dont know exactly) rotated back due to spring pressure from the valve springs. I had no clue the cams chain jumped or that the cams were no longer in time until I went to start it up. In hindsight, I should have tried to turn the motor over by hand once or twice…

as for the overheating, I had the coolant exposed to ambient air so some of the water evaporated out and the glycol stayed in. No big deal now that some of the new fresh coolant from the overflow tank moved into the radiator, but maybe Ill flush it eventually.