stage 1 of resurrection

[Dash Weeks]

Attachments :With a Big HideeHO! Wifee says that F-Day and my B-day present this wkend is a KLR project bike that I have dumped thousands into, she'll wrap a nice red bow on it for me. What I really want is a New Technik Mach 1, but anyway..... Months of tedious, painstaking research, trial and error R&D on my part and few paychecks are coming together. I only await my inlet hose screen for Skip's tank Mod, and a few locking nuts that I sorta misplaced in my "hardware in a big bucket trick". I have them but they need replacing, yeah that's it. It is very, very satisfying to have a project bike. I have touched every single part on the bike, I know they are clean and I know that they will work. OK so I didn't split the case, but the tranny was just fine before I started so I didn't feel the need. My digi-cam kinda sucks so please don't rate my mechanical ability by my digital ability. I've attached a JPEG of Stage 1. I have done nearly everything to this bike so I have to be concise or I'll be wasting a whole bunch of bandwidth. One day I'll write a web site and be very thorough. If you have specific questions, I'd be very happy to share my experience with you. Now that it is really just beginning. SO... I started out with an '88-A2. I fell in love the second I saw it on our local "Lemon Lot". I was in the process of designing and procuring materials for my new backyard shop. Well stupid me... this I had to have. Needless to say my new shop is still staked out in the back yard awaiting concrete forms... another day perhaps. Well this bike had 31K miles on it. It ran great and it sang like a canary. When I was test driving it, the shifting lever broke. OK... So what next? The seller knocked $50 off and I handed him the cash, $1400 That night it rained (rare, maybe its my fault) so I spent hours and hours researching the bike, the accessories and the people who ride them. That's when I met most of you, at least in the archives. Next day I called Fred, Nice order for a KLR Newbie... Fork Springs, ss front line, new shift lever, filter, oil, fork oil, brake fluid, cable luber, Clutch Cable and gel grips. Installing the Gel grips I discovered that the throttle sleeve was cracked... well that Just won't do... I searched and called all over the country... that's when I Found Doug and Glenn at Pointe Cylce in Pittsburg PA. I'm a very loyal customer now as they were genuine, fair priced and extremely helpful, not to mention sympathetic to my situation. (life and death Ya Know) Oh yeah, I'm not new to motorcycles so I had an idea what I was in for when researching everything. OK so, I start into things... first it was installing this and that and cleaning here and there. Then.... I should do a complete bike maintenance just to be sure. So off comes a bunch of parts, and more parts and while I'm at it, why not check this and that... well before I knew it it was a snowball downhill and the rest is history. The turning point was the removal of the swing arm... Rear end hanging from the rafter of Daryl's Garage. (Daryl is my best bud, next door neighbor and now the owner of a 97 KLR with some upgrades that I talked him into.) Anyway.. "So Daryl should I just take the whole thing apart and paint the frame?"... He's not as mechanically adventurous as I, mind you. The look of "your freiking nuts" gave me the answer so out comes the engine off comes the T-clamp and forks and out comes a bigger bucket for all the hardware. WHOO HOOO no turning back now. So I have this pile of parts, buckets and boxes and.. well lets just say that I literally consumed his two car garage. I already decided that the outer plastic and tank would get a desert camo paintjob. Not the traditional pattern but a method of my own. The frame and inards just had to be Olive Drab or O.D. Green, So that's what it is. I sand blasted every square inch of KLR that had paint on it and all of the plastic parts too. I primed all the metal parts with a standard primer and then shot it with OD Greeen. Plastic parts descriptions come later even though I did those first. I built a spray booth on the front of my house, quite functional, not pretty. As things progressed I figured that I'll have better paint protection with a satin clear coat. Not the effect that I wanted, as it made it a bit too shiny for my tastes but it made the colors deep and rich and very nice looking, no to mention that it magnified the few runs that occurred. So to match... everything got clear coat. On with it Dash you are rambling....... What I have now is a frame with the engine mounted, the swing arm, linkage knuckle and rear shock mounted as well. That's what is in the picture. I have been working on a stainless hardware kit, No I haven't forgotten, just takes a while. I want stainless but I don't want white dots. In the mean time I took all the standard hardware and subdued the heads, the threads that show and the nuts. I used Dupli-Color High Heat Paint (1200 Degree) then I baked all the hardware in my oven for 3 hours at 300 degrees F. I didn't change the integrity of the hardware if you are heading in that direction. I am a metallurgist by education and I am well below any harmful temperatures to the hardware. Oh yeah that paint will not come off under wrenching, unless you abuse it. I thoroughly tested that and I am very happy with the results. Everything currently in the picture is torqued to spec and I also used loctite. So that's stage one... But let me tell you that there is a truck load of stuff that went into it before I got here. The engine.... New mech seal on H20 Pump, New clutch springs (Vesrah), New Stator (electrex), new gaskets all around, H20 Pump and Thermostat covers were bead blasted and then high heat painted and baked, valves are all on the high side of spec., the engine was thoroughly cleaned with de-greaser and tooth brush, new magnetic oil plug, new oil filter cover and seals, clutch plates all within spec and I suspect recently brand new, the springs were getting tired though. I'll save my stator nightmare for another day. But its in. And this bike was in perfect mechanical condition when I bought... as my wife keeps reminding me. The rear shock is a stock shock with a 500/560 Progressive spring mounted. The swing arm got all new needle bearings and seals. The linkage knuckle was cleaned and re-greased. I considered installing zerks... Here's why I didn't. I used Valvoline Syn-Power grease on all the bearings, it is fortified with MoSi2 and it is rated very highly for high pressure, high heat and H2O proof applications. I didn't want to go out and buy another grease gun for that particular grease. See you shouldn't mixes greases. They use different soaps and are not always compatible, esp with a synthetic. So each winter I'll get to take my bike apart again to clean and re-grease my bearings, I don't mind. I put on a new chain buffer as the old one was nearing its end. So that's about the long and short of it for now. If you have questions or comments or any "you have to do..." before I get any more together then I welcome them. Oh yeah, I did ride it quite a bit before I started this. I work across the street from a ski hill and there's logging/fire roads and single track all over the place here. Some Lunch breaks eh? It started out with a GP-110 rear and a ChinSheng 858 front. I didn't like them at all, too slick in the snot. Front was terrible in the sand. Rear was good on the road though. LaterZ Dash