Wilsons Sandbox

It has been two months since my balancer chain broke and my rebuild project has proceeded slowly but is now in the final stages. My damaged left side engine case has been welded up and is again serviceable. I have gathered all the parts to redo the balancer system, thanks to Steve Pye who shipped me good used parts and a new balancer chain which he purchased for me in Canada at a much better than US price. With help from Toby Lampson we determined that the KLR 650 tranny will take the input shaft and the lower first gear from the KLR 600 thus giving a 15/39 first gear rather than the 650's 15/34. I got new bearings for the tranny shafts and also had to replace the countershaft since it was badly worn on the right side. To finish up the bottom end I got new balancer shaft bearings and had the crankshaft trued and the bearings inspected. The final step in the bottom end is to replace the sprockets for the cam and balancer chains that are pressed on the left end of the crank. Assembly of the bottom end will happen in the next 10 days or so with expert guidance from Elden Carl. The top end will also be fresh, when we pulled the head it was obvious that my oil consumption problem was caused by the valve seals on the input side. The intake valves were heavily carboned and there were heavy carbon deposits inside the head around the intake valves. The exhaust valve seats were in a bad way also and the head was rebuilt by my buddy who builds Bonneville record engines. It spent some time on his flow bench and I've been told that after some cleaning up of the intake and exhaust tracks it now flows 8% better than stock. My valve guides were like new so were left in place. The guides were obviously well lubed because of the leaking seals. My cylinder was well within spec after being honed so with new rings and wrist pin the whole top end will be fresh. While the motor is out of the frame I have cleaned and greased the Uni-Trak and the cross bolts. Also had my shock rebuilt by ProAction Suspension in San Luis Obispo and added the Progressive Roessler 350/450 spring. The LR front springs will also be added. Also replaced front and rear wheel bearings with double sealed ones and got new sprockets and chain. This has been a very educational experience, I've learned more about my bike than I could have imagined and since this has been such a "hands on" project I will have a very high level of confidence in the motor when it is back together. This could not have happened without the generous advice from Elden, the parts help I got from Steve Pye and I am also indebted (literally since I haven't paid him for the parts yet) to Toby for obtaining the KLR 600 tranny parts. I have been going through serious motorcycle withdrawal but since my main riding season is the fall and winter in Baja it feels good to know that my bike will be better prepared than ever. Before this project I really didn't want to get into things like taking off the subframe and dismantling the Uni-Trak. Now that I've had it apart I realize how easy it is. Routine maintenance is going to seem a lot easier from here on. A final report will be posted when the bike is back together. 2-3 weeks I hope. Regards, Kurt Grife Avila Beach, Ca