free panniers and a riding suit for list members

[Stuart Mumford]

From: "Dale Johnson" Subject: Finished my valve adjustment and it RUNS! I put my bike all back together last night and it started up! I am sostoked that I did the valve adjustment myself, that will save me somuch money, Seeing as I can put 3000 miles on my bike in 3 weeks.Thanks again for the help eveyone. BTW the most help I needed was withmy confidence.Dale You are welcome, and I am releived it all worked out for ya, as I was encouraging you to do it yourself all along. I would have felt like a big asshole if you f*cked your bike all up. Welcome to the wonderful world of REAL KLR ownership. I have a lot more respect for people that are total motorcyclists rather than the sissy ass garage queen owning posers, who go to their little dealers and sit there drinking mocha latte double decaf fat free while a real man works on their bike, like they were the mechanics girlfriend or something. CA Stu <-- part of the Los Diamantes Negros, the top secret CA Posse elite.

[Tim Booth]

I know different areas probably have different hourly shop rates but I'll tell you I wish I could match your quotes in the Bay area. I just visited two local dealers(Fremont and Hayward CA) and was quoted $210.00(3hour labor) plus some noise about requiring oil/filter change along with the valve adjustment. Time to use my my new manuals! Tim Message: 10 Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 14:10:10 -0600 From: "Marcus Young" Subject: RE: More oil stuff! Wow, if you can find a valve adjustment for $50, and you trust the dealer, go for it. Here in Denver all of the dealers want about $120 for this service (with one exception, a place I've had bad dealing with before, and they still quoted me at $90). Unfortunately, I have a phobia of digging into my motor, so I may just have to bite the bullet and pay this amount. Marcus Young PS Anyone in Colorado have a favorite dealer service center? -----Original Message----- From: rowdy [mailto:rowdy@...] Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 6:00 PM To: KLR List Subject: [DSN_klr650] More oil stuff! Hi everyone, I've been hanging out just reading all your posts for a couple of weeks now. I've learned a lot so far, and enjoyed all the discussion. I'm the proud new owner of a new "to me" 98 KLR650 with 5500 miles on it. It's box stock right now, but I'm probably going to start tinkering soon. So ya'll can expect lotsa dumb questions! The first two things I was wondering about are the Cobra exhaust. Anyone tried one? Anyone like it? I remember someone saying they had problems. I'm looking for less weight, better power and acceptable sound levels. I'm thinking a K&N, muffler, 14 tooth front sprocket, and jets might really wake things up! Also I'm coming up on a valve adjustment. The dealer wants $50 plus parts. Is this a good deal? I can do it myself, but don't really feel like tearing it apart. Well, enough dumb questions for now! Here is a link to another good article about engine oils. I don't think anyone posted this yet. http://www.activebike.com/index/features/oils/oils.html C'ya later! Mike 98KLR650 99 ZRX1100 Central, Virginia

[Denzfeat@aol.com]

Hey, KLR's; Still haven't had a chance to ride my 1772 mile A 14 after its first valve adjustment so I don't know whether it's going to make more mechanical noise, leak from the valve cover gasket, etc. This is what I found when I checked the clearances: Left exhaust, .005, right, .008; left intake, .003, right .004. Though the two left valves were tight, they were just barely so, being "loose" clearance values. So I loosened 'em up, coming up with .010 for both exhausts, and .007 and .008 for the intakes. Whole operation took less than three hours, including doing other stuff along the way. Hardest part was slipping the valve cover out, found that detaching the radiator (but not the hoses) was a help. While I have both factory shop manuals I found Eldon's instructions (thanks, Man) downloaded from the archives to be more helpful. Shim calc charts realy aren't necessary, it's a common-sense math exercise that can be done in your head. Each shim number represents a .002 increment -- therefore, if you're reading a valve at .005, using a shim two numbers lower (going by fives, as they're marked) will net you a .009 clearance. No big rocket-science brain-twisting here. Having a good selection of tools, a well-lit shop, compressed air and a "starter kit" of shims made the job a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon. Like the re-lubing of the rear-end components, the valve adjustment was easier than the apparent complexity of the bike suggests. Still, with the valves set loose, I don't think that adjustment will be required for another 10,000 miles. I'll let you know the clearances then, too, "information is evrything." I guess the next thing I'd do if y'all could make me suitably paranoid would be to replace the balancer sprocket springs with Eldon's spring-eliminators. In the meantime I'll just run the piss outta the bike. It's cheap and ugly, who cares if it blows up or gets a couple of scratches? Ya gotta love it, Pete the loosely-adjusted Streak

[loumatts@aol.com]

I am adjusting the valves on my 97 KLR per the good instructions Eldon Carl provided. No problems but I do have some questions. When I line up the mark with the mark on the side cover inspection hole the lines on the cam sprokets do not line up flush with the head surface. Instead they are about 10 degrees above the head surface. This is the way they were when I opened it up. Is this a problem? The bike has been running great. I am going to re-shim. Is there any place I can order shims online? Thanks. Lou in Minnesota

[bill e goat]

--- In DSN_klr650@egroups.com, loumatts@a... wrote: Instead they are about 10 > degrees above the head surface. This is the way they were when I opened it > up. Is this a problem? The bike has been running great. > I am going to re-shim. Is there any place I can order shims online? > Thanks. > Lou in Minnesota Hi Lou. It's been since last winter that I took a look at my own valves but if I remember correctly the arrow should be nice and level with the top of the head surface where it mates to the cam cover. The cam lobes should also be pointing exactly opposite each other with the axis exactly horizontal and parallel to the head surface. I think it is important to get it as close as possible to be sure the valve that is lifted by the compression release is adjusted correctly. You may have the wrong mark on the flywheel, they are hard to see (at least with my old eyes...I shine a real bright light in there, and use my good glasses.) You can find TDC by feeling the piston come up with a stick of wood or some other non-harmful feeler if you need to be sure.

[Fred Hink]

[b]Lou,[/b] [b][/b]  [b]I have all the shim sizes in stock.  When you figure out which shims you need, let me know.[/b] [b][/b]  [b]Fred[/b] [b]www.arrowheadmotorsports.com[/b] [b]'00 VFR800FI[/b] [b]'00 XR650R[/b] [b](2)'94 XR650L 4 sale[/b] [b]'94 XR250L 4 sale (300 mi)[/b] [b]'78 Z1-R 4 sale[/b] [b][/b]  [b][/b] 

----- Original Message ----- [b]From:[/b] loumatts@... [b]To:[/b] DSN_klr650@egroups.com [b]Sent:[/b] Tuesday, December 26, 2000 9:45 AM [b]Subject:[/b] [DSN_klr650] Valve Adjustment I am going to re-shim.  Is there any place I can order shims online? Thanks. Lou in Minnesota

[spye@hvgb.net]

-----Original Message----- From: loumatts@... To: DSN_klr650@egroups.com Date: Tuesday, December 26, 2000 1:45 PM

>I am adjusting the valves on my 97 KLR per the good instructions Eldon Carl >provided. No problems but I do have some questions. When I line up the

mark

>with the mark on the side cover inspection hole the lines on the cam

sprokets

>do not line up flush with the head surface. Instead they are about 10 >degrees above the head surface. This is the way they were when I opened it >up. Is this a problem? > Lou in Minnesota

Lou, I had a similar situation with my 93'. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the marks to line up 'perfectly'. At top dead center the cam sprockets were like yours, lines were slightly off from parallel with the case. I was worried but couldn't see any solution. I put it back together and to my relief it ran perfectly. Started well, idled well, pulled to redline smoothly. Maybe this is just a little factory variation in assembly? Steve Pye

[thesquasher@hotmail.com]

I took my KLR to the dealer for the 500 mile service. I figured he would check everything over and make sure the bike was OK. The best part was the mechanic let me watch and showed me how to do the valve adjutment.

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., rlwalker7@w... wrote: > I forgot to ask this question on the above post. Has anyone ever start to adjust the valves on the 500 mile maintenance check and found that they didn`t need adjusted but were within tolorences. Thanks, Duosportnut

[Rev.Chuck]

>I forgot to ask this question on the above post. Has anyone ever start to adjust the valves on the 500 mile maintenance check and found that they didn`t need adjusted but were within tolorences. Thanks, Duosportnut

I have done the 500, 3000 and 6000 mile in-shop scheduled maintenance trips and every time the valves have been in spec. I trust the shop and they provide documented clearences every time. I can see a change developing, but still in tolerence. == Rev. Chuck :^)>+ A13 http://klr650.www.50megs.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _____________________________________________________________

[Rev.Chuck]

>I forgot to ask this question on the above post. Has anyone ever start to adjust the valves on the 500 mile maintenance check and found that they didn`t need adjusted but were within tolorences. Thanks, Duosportnut

I have done the 500, 3000 and 6000 mile in-shop scheduled maintenance trips and every time the valves have been in spec. I trust the shop and they provide documented clearences every time. I can see a change developing, but still in tolerence. == Rev. Chuck :^)>+ A13 http://klr650.www.50megs.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _____________________________________________________________