On Sat, 16 Apr 2005, fredgwest1999 wrote:
>
> Last week going home, I noticed that the bike seemed louder. Pulled
> over to have a listen...it seemed to be louder...was runing a little
> uneven and there was a slight changing coming from the general area of
> the engine...although, it didn't die, i'm concerned that there is
> something wrong with the motor...this is a 2002 with 12k+ miles...
> Stopped riding it till I can get it to the shop...I know, my details
> aren't very good but, asny idea has to what could be wrong??
Well, could be the doohickey, that'll cause the engine to run a bit
rougher. Or could be that your air filter is clogged and causing the spark
plug to foul because of the richer mixture. Or could be that your valves
need adjusting. Or could be .... well, lots of things.
I'd focus first on the maintenance items. Clean your air filter, check
your valve clearances, change your spark plug (might as well, spark plugs
are dirt cheap) and see if the old one is fouled. Then if you haven't done
the doohickey, do that.
> Could it be a burnt or bent value??? What would that sound like?
Uhm, this is a one-lung motorcycle. If there was a burnt or bent valve,
you'd know it. Believe me, you'd know it. That's not your problem.
Beyond that: KLR engines are not quiet engines. There's enough whirring of
chains and counterbalancers and stuff that you wonder that the whole mess
doesn't disintegrate into a pile of metal shards. But it doesn't. It's
just a noisy engine. Now, one thing that happens as the bike ages is that
the muffler decides it wants to change sounds. It may be that you're
hearing a sound that was previously hidden by the muffler going whump
whump whump, that no longer gets hidden because the muffler now goes tweet
tweet tweet. Or maybe not. In any event, check all the normal maintenance
items, and get back to us.
-E