Wilsons Sandbox

Hi, I've been lurking here awhile and now I have a question. I've got a friend who has a well maintained 94 with 14,000 miles on it. I may consider buying it, I'm riding a XT600E now. I was reading Eldon's site and this is what he says about these years.

>From 1990 thru 1995 the KLR 650 engine stayed about the same, >spitting out pieces of broken springs from the back of clutch basket >and breaking springs at the balancer adjustment lever (with >occasional adjustment lever failure) The front and rear balancers >were spinning off pieces of noise dampening rubber, breaking cush >drive pins, springs and occasionally causing water pump failure.

I figure a lot of you have put many miles on 90-95,s, are they really as bad as he says? I'm skeptical. What's been your experience after 20-30,000 miles? Thanks! Gary Blakley Del Norte, CO

In a message dated 2004-02-29 6:59:23 AM Pacific Standard Time, garyblakley@... writes:

> Hi, > > I've been lurking here awhile and now I have a question. I've got a > friend who has a well maintained 94 with 14,000 miles on it. I may > consider buying it, I'm riding a XT600E now. I was reading Eldon's > site and this is what he says about these years. > > >From 1990 thru 1995 the KLR 650 engine stayed about the same, > >spitting out pieces of broken springs from the back of clutch basket > >and breaking springs at the balancer adjustment lever (with > >occasional adjustment lever failure) The front and rear balancers > >were spinning off pieces of noise dampening rubber, breaking cush > >drive pins, springs and occasionally causing water pump failure. > > I figure a lot of you have put many miles on 90-95,s, are they really > as bad as he says? I'm skeptical. What's been your experience after > 20-30,000 miles? Thanks! > > Gary Blakley > Del Norte, CO > >

Gary, The only problem my 95 KLR had was the day it got centerpunched by an SUV. The day it died I had 48,000 very, very hard miles on it. It never suffered from clutch problems nor dohickey problems. The problems listed by Eldon do not happen every KLR and its debatable rather its happening to that many KLRs. Pat G'ville, Nv [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mine is '94 KLR650 with almost 28k miles on it and still running strong. '94 KLR650 with 14k miles is a good deal if the price is right and if you really want it. good luck, Kenneth

--- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, "gcblakley" wrote: > Hi, > > I've been lurking here awhile and now I have a question. I've got a > friend who has a well maintained 94 with 14,000 miles on it. I may > consider buying it, I'm riding a XT600E now. I was reading Eldon's > site and this is what he says about these years. > > >From 1990 thru 1995 the KLR 650 engine stayed about the same, > >spitting out pieces of broken springs from the back of clutch basket > >and breaking springs at the balancer adjustment lever (with > >occasional adjustment lever failure) The front and rear balancers > >were spinning off pieces of noise dampening rubber, breaking cush > >drive pins, springs and occasionally causing water pump failure. > > I figure a lot of you have put many miles on 90-95,s, are they really > as bad as he says? I'm skeptical. What's been your experience after > 20-30,000 miles? Thanks! > > Gary Blakley > Del Norte, CO

--- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, "gcblakley" wrote:

> Hi, > > I've been lurking here awhile and now I have a question. I've got

a

> friend who has a well maintained 94 with 14,000 miles on it. I may > consider buying it, I'm riding a XT600E now. I was reading Eldon's > site and this is what he says about these years. > > >From 1990 thru 1995 the KLR 650 engine stayed about the same, > >spitting out pieces of broken springs from the back of clutch

basket

> >and breaking springs at the balancer adjustment lever (with > >occasional adjustment lever failure) The front and rear balancers > >were spinning off pieces of noise dampening rubber, breaking cush > >drive pins, springs and occasionally causing water pump failure. > > I figure a lot of you have put many miles on 90-95,s, are they

really

> as bad as he says? I'm skeptical. What's been your experience

after

> 20-30,000 miles? Thanks! > > Gary Blakley > Del Norte, CO

My 94 has about 26,000 on it, and I put the last 16,000 on it in just the last 11 months. Now I do take care of my KLR very very well, but the only parts that I have taken care of that Elden talks about, is the doohickey and spring. What he writes about, did make me very nervous about the future of my 94. But how I ride it, and the fact that it just keeps on going problem free, makes me feel reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaal good about 90-94 or ANY KLR for that matter. I'm serious when I say that "I RIDE THE HOLY LIVIN PISS SH$%#$@ F$%^&&#@IN D@#$%!ING J@#$#% CRAP OUTTA MY BIKE"......but she just keeps on going strong, and smooth. I am CONSTANTLY lifting the front end, jumping sections of road that are ramp like, redlineing the tach, slipping the clutch, power sliding, stopping as HARD as I can, attempts at stoppies, racing (and beating) all other bikes over mountain twisty roads, scraping the pegs in corners (with Avons on) etc etc. KLR's rule. MrMoose A8 (Barbie and Ken special)

gcblakley wrote:

> Hi, > > I've been lurking here awhile and now I have a question. I've got a > friend who has a well maintained 94 with 14,000 miles on it. I may > consider buying it, I'm riding a XT600E now. I was reading Eldon's > site and this is what he says about these years. > > >>> From 1990 thru 1995 the KLR 650 engine stayed about the same, >> spitting out pieces of broken springs from the back of clutch >> basket and breaking springs at the balancer adjustment lever (with >> occasional adjustment lever failure) The front and rear balancers >> were spinning off pieces of noise dampening rubber, breaking cush >> drive pins, springs and occasionally causing water pump failure. > > > I figure a lot of you have put many miles on 90-95,s, are they really > as bad as he says? I'm skeptical. What's been your experience > after 20-30,000 miles? Thanks!

Ehh, that's Eldon's opinion which at times has little bearing on reality. The pre-96 KLR's, IMO, are just as reliable as the later KLRs, though they have different failure modes. The whole doohickey thing really took off after 95 when BigK went with solid counterbalancer sprockets. The cush springs in the