KLR You Experienced? I am now...

Jimbonaut

Over 1,000 Posts
DTT SUPPORTER
Another November in Montreal means another 5 or so months of riding absolutely nowhere fast. It does mean however that the $$ I made from selling my Sportster opened the door to some more-than-speculative evenings on kijiji, where I shnaffled up this '00 KLR650C (yes, it's the C model, more on that later) -

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13,000 kms on the clock (all off-road - this bike had never seen legal asphalt), several un-careful owners (goes with the territory) and now mine.

Before I go any further I want to post this and see if damn Imgur works. Holy shit photobucket, you and your very frustrating interface just shaved days off my life expectancy.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Tidy. Hello Imgur, fuck you forever photobucket. Ok, onwards.

From the test ride it was clear this thing had a few issues. None of which I was warned about. So the fact it had no rear brake whatsoever and very limited front meant the fence at the bottom of the hill arrived quickly and in a manner most unforgiving. It was also pissing gas all over my jeans, spraying oil out of the forks and making a weird noise out of the exhaust. Nothing however too major hopefully, and all good in terms of bargaining chips. Ended up shelling out $950 US for it, and promised the missus the smell of old gas in the car on the drive home would dissipate eventually.

Home -

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Hope Rhonda approves. They'll be spending some quality time together.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

It's very green (which I dig) and very purple (which I dig less). Reminds me of an 80's skiing outfit my Mum was very proud of. Not sure how it's gonna end up after I've put my stink on it but we'll see, have a few ideas percolating. I do however love the look of the C model. No offence to KLR guys but the regular A model (and later E model) is not my favourite looking dual sport - truth be told they're a class of bike built for what they can do rather than how good they look doing it. As far as these larger 650's are concerned - and in my very subjective opinion - this C model is the looker of the bunch. It's more dirt-oriented than the A model with better suspension and brakes, and with a tank that doesn't look like a camel with elephantiasis of the hump. Good looking fairings and an absolute blast to ride.

Had to overhaul the front and rear callipers and rebuild the rear master cylinder completely. Anyone who followed the Rhonda thread will know I'm totally winging it - everything I do is a first. This build will be no different. And so it was with the rear master cylinder. Took fucking forever until I realized one washer was on the wrong way round - after days of learning new swear words finally got the thing to pump some fluid. Front calliper no problem, ditto fork seals. New Shinko rubber too, and a new petcock so I no longer wear the gas, I burn it. Better. Slung on some reflective stickers and passed the safety inspection needed here in Quebec to plate the bike for road use.

Armed with official legitimacy, could now start tearing it all apart -

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and really starting to dig the look of the bones of this thing -

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The plan is to really get into the engine (never done anything like that before apart from checking valve clearances) so this'll be an adventure.

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Smells like...victory
 
KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Tell you what, getting a single-cylindered thumper engine onto the workbench is a helluva lot easier than an inline four. I'm happy, my osteopath will have to scalp some other poor victim.

Carb hero shot -

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One of the handlebar clamp bolts sheared off in the triple tree which sucked balls, and the kickstand bracket on the frame was so bent that it meant the bolt wasn't moving for love or money and I couldn't remove the kickstand. Once everything else was off the frame I hauled it to my guy here in Montreal who removed both and helicoiled the triple tree so a new bolt can later be installed. Which was a very good thing. Turns out the C model was never sold in the US and is rare as hen's teeth here in Canada - finding replacement parts is not easy. Glad we could salvage the triple tree otherwise, well, bollocks.

Valve cover removed and everything looks as it should in there, 2 overhead cams, 4 valves, no signs of oil starvation or grim-reaper style engine wear...

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Clymers held my hand as the cams came out...

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...and assured me the cylinder was not beyond me either. $10 Breaker bar from Canadian Tire turned out to be the best ten bucks I'd spent in a while. Head bolts out -

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and cylinder off (after a few love taps with a rubber mallet) -

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Removed the stock piston

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as I'll be replacing it with a 685cc Wossner piston and boring out the cylinder. See? Sounds like I really know what I'm talking about. I don't though.

Piston removed -

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And this lovely lady for no other reason than she’s a lot prettier than my workbench -

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Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Using my fingernail to clean off all the carbon shit from the piston. Not the worst idea ever, but far from the best.

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Anyway, the things grow back. I'll be using the piston as a cigar ashtray. I've always wanted one.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Ok, doohickey time. Anyone that owns a KLR (at least the older models) knows - or should know - about the doohickey. It's a pie-slice-shaped lever on the balancer chain. There's a engine casing mounted spring that keeps tension on the lever, and therefore tension on the chain. However the stock spring and lever are universally considered to be utter shit and for good reason - they always fail. There's a guy called Eagle Mike who's the guy for all things KLR, and he makes the go-to doohickey replacement lever and spring. When I bought the bike I asked the PO if the doohickey had been replaced and he looked at me like I was talking Russian, so figured it probably hadn't. Turned out, I was right -

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See that spring at the bottom of the pic with the broken end? That's what you don't want to see. At least the lever was still in one piece, and only a small part of the spring had gone for a ramble inside the engine casing. Anyway, to get to it you need some special tools (which I borrowed) and a few beers. Here's a shot of the new lever installed along with the far superior torsion spring -

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Thankfully anyone needing to do this procedure on their KLR has a wealth of vids and walkthru's online - it's literally a mod that any KLR owner needs to consider. There's a groove already machined into the lever for the torsion spring to sit in, but I had to dremel out the groove further in order for it to seat. Parts cost about $60 I think. Gotta be done.

During the process I learnt what a woodruff key is. A woodruff key is this little mite -

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and sits in the crank to stop the rotor and starter gear from de-locating. So there you go. Done the doohickey.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Next job was to see if I could track down the snapped off piece of spring. Should have fished around in the oil pan with a flexible magnet but a flexible magnet I did not have. Time to crack open the other side of the engine then. Off comes the water pump, impeller and seals -

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and then the side engine casing -

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No sign of the broken spring part in the oil strainer so it's either come out in a previous oil change (best case scenario) or doing laps of my crankcase -

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- but what looks to be a smashed up oil seal in there so that gives pause for thought. Took the oil pump apart to check for signs of wear -

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- and all seems well in its little world so I'll be leaving well enough alone. New gaskets and buttoned it all back up. Phone rang, cylinder's ready from the the machine shop so picked it up along with my new Wossner piston. It's really light compared to stock, and considerably prettier. Apparently I'll get a bit more horsepower and a bit more torque with less engine vibration to boot, plus the whole process had been a great learning curve too. Here's a comparison shot -

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Piston installed without too much drama -

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And that pretty much brings us up to speed. Cylinder is eating to be installed, covered in flash rust that hopefully WD 40 will knock off.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Cylinder is absolutely not eating anything. Waiting. It's waiting.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

I like the big KLR, a trailie for hairy chested meat eating chick loving men. I am definitely in!
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Ah yes. Big bore thumpers for the win. Following along. Love it

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Cool project. I usually drop the oil pan on new(to me) bikes to see what tales it has to tell, gives you an opportunity to clean the sludge out and look for your missing spring piece.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

I think i saw that missing piece of spring still sitting in its recession in the casing, right there in the picture. Covered with a bit of oil.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Nice project, I like the frame on this girl, will this be a restoration or a mod or in between?
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

datadavid said:
I think i saw that missing piece of spring still sitting in its recession in the casing, right there in the picture. Covered with a bit of oil.

I wish. Trick of the light sadly - hooked part of the spring is definitely MIA.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

CrabsAndCylinders said:
Nice project, I like the frame on this girl, will this be a restoration or a mod or in between?

Think I'm going the resto-mod route. I like the fairings and look of this C model too much to bin too much of it, so I'm going to do a bunch of upgrades to the bike, learn a bit, and maybe go balls out on an air-cooled thumper for my next build. This KLR has a honking great radiator and coolant reservoir up front which would really stretch my limited skills to replace/relocate - thinking an air-cooled engine will look cleaner once I sling the fairings.

The purple tank is incredibly purple however and the rear fender could use a clean up. Kinda winging it as I go along but have a few ideas shaping up.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

After a call to Wossner to order a new, oversized head gasket I learnt that I'd totally fucked up the piston ring gap. I'd gapped the new Wossner rings based on the Clymers OEM specs and luckily the very helpful bloke on the phone gave me the correct specs for their rings. I was halfway through a (unrealized) very strong IPA at the time which I'm blaming for then over-filing the ring -

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Only went over by 0.1mm and after another call to Wossner was assured that as it was the second, oil scraping ring that I should be ok. Cool, back to the IPA. This stuff'll put hair on your eyeballs -

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- but goes down extremely well. Apt name too. Just replace "Universe" for "piston rings".

Cleaned up all the frame and gubbins ready for powdercoat -

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- and I'm off to the races.
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

The Jimbonaut said:
I wish. Trick of the light sadly - hooked part of the spring is definitely MIA.
Tell me i at least made you go and look again its probably ground up to a fine powder or pressed into a gear cog by now anyway!
 
Re: KLR You Experienced? Err, kinda not really.

Signing up. I'll let you know when I get your gasket kit out of Maine for you!
 
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