Today I spent the afternoon amusing the crew at the Local Kaw shop while doing CPR on the KLR 600.
You can bring it back to life with a very precise mix of 2 compressions of the kick start, and one deep breath into the airbox. It is especially effective if you hook up the battery charger while shouting "CLEAR" for effect...
And need only the turn signal switch to have it back in pre crash order. I have scavenged the assembly and wiring harness from a spare bike I bought, but the switch itself was nothing but pieces on both accounts.
Any Suggestions?
And now for the useless ramblings because it hurts to move with road rash on the rump....
For a little background into the subject.....
I am pretty lucky since the guys at the Kaw shop let me wrench on my stuff (KLR 600 and 1500 Drifter), using their tools and borrowing their expertise.
Mainly so that I can say what they want to, to the annoying customers who ask if the ATV they dropped off in the morning for a complete overhaul is done at 2 in the afternoon, and since I don't work there, I cant get fired..
For instance, everytime I come into the shop I ask in a very loud manner, "Is my bike done yet?" Even when I don't have one there.
It all started on the 22 of Sept. Last year, when I dropped off my KLR because it was overheating, as I rode the hell out of it one day after I bought it in West Virginia.
Being the good mechanics they were, they promised it to me by deer season so I could chase poachers. To my ignorance I forgot to ask which year...
Come to find out, the head was melted, and the valves looked really funny, so off went the top end to the machine shop..
After we got the motor back together, it ran really well, except it still wanted to get hot. Some say it has something to do with the shavings laying on the machine shop floor, but I detest. The seat AND the title says 600cc, so that has to be what it is

As luck would have it... After the motor was back together, the guy that had an electric start KLR 600 with a cracked head, decided he wanted to sell his to get rid of it. This of course could have not been done the day before my bike was reassembled so that it could have electric start, but in the interest of me saving money and not having to buy a thighmaster it was after..
So, now having a wealth of parts to play with, I installed a second fan on the cool side radiator, and hooked it up to the factory plug. And wired the factory fan into the key, with a relay so that it is always on.
While slogging around in the clay mud in first gear, saying I love you to my buddies with ATV's in the way only a fine mist of soupy mud can, it has yet to exceed 1/2 way on the always accurate factory gauge.
So last week after realizing my rear tire was going low, I came up with the brilliant idea that I would ride about 30 miles to put a new tube in it. Needless to say this one will not make the top 10 of my brilliant things I have done in the past 26 years list..
After waltzing into the shop looking as if I had been inserted into a extra large Laundromat dryer with a pregnant alleycat, I asked them if they would mind getting my bike since it was laying in the middle of the road about a mile from the shop.
I now am an even stronger supporter of wearing gloves and a helmet. And for those that say tobacco is bad for your health, I can say that it saved my ass. Literally, as there was a perfect circle worn out of my jeans where the can of Dip decided to sacrifice itself to the asphalt gods and save my right cheek.
So, this brings me back to the shop this afternoon, and after bolting on a new set of handlebars, and reinstalling the somehow untouched mirrors, I tried to put the left side assembly on and the turn signal switch fell out, in a lot of really little pieces. All of which were sacrificed to the parts washer that eats things that should have been made out of metal in the first place..
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Richard M Waite II
KY Dept. Of Fish & Wildlife
Wildlife & Boating Officer
Madison County Rescue Squad
Dive Team Leader
BK KY III
KG4KFI
AOL IM: KYFW907
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