p d nerf engine guard

[gpokluda]

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., "philipnoyb" wrote:

> Hey all, > > At what mileage are people replacing the doohickey? I've got 2700 > miles on my A-15. > > Philip

Listers, There seems to be Doohickey mania invading this list. Yes, it is true that there is a possible design flaw in the lever and I'm not trying to discourage anyone who really feels that they need to make the mod. However, I do not feel it is a necessary modification to a KLR with less than 20K miles. Heck my 95 had almost 40K and I never thought about replacing the lever. I just don't think new KLR owners who just bought new bikes or have KLRs with only a few thousand miles need to worry about this. The problem with lists is that they amplify a topic far beyond its real scope. Gino

[guymanbro]

There may be a bit of mania taking hold but the reality is, there is no mileage figure. Some have gone 40K without replacing it, others, like myself, have had the part fragment with fairly low miles (somewhere between 6K and 12K miles). And you may not have given though to replacing the lever, but then again, there was no replacement available until very recently. So it's a crap shoot. The dice are in your hands and the table awaits your roll.... dat brooklyn bum

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., "gpokluda" wrote: > --- In DSN_klr650@y..., "philipnoyb" wrote: > > Hey all, > > > Listers, > There seems to be Doohickey mania invading this list. Yes, it is true that there is a possible design flaw in the lever and I'm not trying to discourage anyone who really feels that they need to make the mod. However, I do not feel it is a necessary modification to a KLR with less than 20K miles. Heck my 95 had almost 40K and I never > thought about replacing the lever. I just don't think new KLR owners who just bought new bikes or have KLRs with only a few thousand miles need to worry about this. The problem with lists is that they amplify a topic far beyond its real scope. > > Gino

[Devon Jarvis]

I have to agree, people are going a little over the top. Considering that even with a broken doohickey, the spring seems to hold everything together for a couple thousand miles. I do suggest that people occasionally inspect the doohickey. This is not hard to do, requires no special tools, and the second time you do it, takes 30min. I replaced an intact doohickey, but it was noticeably looser at 10,000mi than at 7500mi. I would have run out of adjustment at 17,000mi, at the wear rate I observed. Maybe it would have gone 20,000 miles or more without trouble, who knows? Also, Gino is talking about a '95, which was before the design was "updated" again and so is not exactly the same. Not to mention that the problem could be bad heat treat or welding on the newer batches of OEM doohickeys, which were certainly made well after Gino's bike. IIRC there are one or two people who have taken their new bikes to dealers with a nasty noise, and had doohickeys replaced under warranty with low mileage. Devon gpokluda wrote:

> > > Listers, > There seems to be Doohickey mania invading this list.

snip

> Heck my 95 had almost 40K and I never > thought about replacing the lever. I just don't think new KLR owners > who just bought new bikes or have KLRs with only a few thousand miles > need to worry about this. The problem with lists is that they amplify > a topic far beyond its real scope. > > Gino >

[RM]

On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, gpokluda wrote:

>mod. However, I do not feel it is a necessary modification to a KLR >with less than 20K miles. Heck my 95 had almost 40K and I never thought >about replacing the lever. I just don't think new KLR owners who just >bought new bikes or have KLRs with only a few thousand miles need to >worry about this.

Unless, of course, the well-meaning new KLR owner, adjusting it for the very first time, backs the bolts out too far with the bike on the sidestand which allows the doohickey to get crooked on the shaft (no circlip on the newer bikes). Then he tightens the bolt, feels binding, turns a little harder, snaps the doohickey, has a piece of it fall into the cam-chain, hits the starter button, and his engine goes BANG. Stu can probably describe that noise quite well, although in his case it was probably something else that derailed his cam-chain. Scare the newbies? Me? Never.... RM

[gpokluda]

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., RM wrote:

> > Unless, of course, the well-meaning new KLR owner, adjusting it for

the

> very first time, backs the bolts out too far with the bike on the > sidestand which allows the doohickey to get crooked on the shaft (no > circlip on the newer bikes). Then he tightens the bolt, feels

binding,

> turns a little harder, snaps the doohickey, > RM

Is the possibility of this error in adjustment completely eliminated with the new doohickey? Gino

[s2mumford]

> On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, gpokluda wrote: > > >mod. However, I do not feel it is a necessary modification to a

KLR

> >with less than 20K miles. Heck my 95 had almost 40K and I never

thought

> >about replacing the lever.

SNIP Seems to be the later models that are having the vast majority of the failures. Maybe 99 (A13) and newer? I'm thinking maybe the factory part on the newer years isn't very stout? Or maybe the newer owners are a little more ham-fisted? Mine vaporized at about 15k, the most recent one I have heard of locally (Cheramy's) I think was less than 10k. FWIW I never thought about replacing the lever either, until mine pooped its pants. I rode it 750 miles after I knew it had failed, too, which may have been a bad idea, seeing how I had to rebuild the engine less than 8 months later. Anyone take a poll on the model year of the KLRs with failures? Stu

[kcuf_oohay_666]

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., "gpokluda" wrote:

> --- In DSN_klr650@y..., RM wrote: > > > > > Unless, of course, the well-meaning new KLR owner, adjusting it

for

> the > > very first time, backs the bolts out too far with the bike on the > > sidestand which allows the doohickey to get crooked on the shaft

(no

> > circlip on the newer bikes). Then he tightens the bolt, feels > binding, > > turns a little harder, snaps the doohickey, > RM > > Is the possibility of this error in adjustment completely

eliminated

> with the new doohickey? > > Gino

I think the new doohickey fits the shaft better. which wont allow it to get crooked. I think RM has a good point.

[snslawr]

Being new to this board and only contemplating purchase of a KLR650 at this point, is it *safe* to assume a problem that has been around since at least 1999 has now been properly addressed by Kawasaki should I order a new 2003, and I won't have to worry about it? This has not been made clear anywhere in this thread or if it has I missed it. If it hasn't then (sorry to step on anyone's toes) I will have to assume Kawasaki, however respectable they once were, are now roughly the same quality as Harleys made under AMF ownership. Should I take a tube of K-Y jelly with me and proceed directly to the BMW dealer? (Where at least I know from experience they address a problem promptly, issue a service bulletin, and fix it even out of warranty if the problem was there when it rolled out of the factory.) WHY isn't Kawasaki doing that for all you guys who have this bum part?

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., "s2mumford" wrote: > Seems to be the later models that are having the vast majority of the > failures. Maybe 99 (A13) and newer? > I'm thinking maybe the factory part on the newer years isn't very > stout? Or maybe the newer owners are a little more ham-fisted? Mine > vaporized at about 15k, the most recent one I have heard of locally > (Cheramy's) I think was less than 10k.

[RM]

On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, snslawr wrote:

>WHY isn't Kawasaki doing that for all you guys who have this bum part?

Not a damn thing, other than replacing them under warranty when applicable. Every single subsystem on the KLR has cheaply remedied shortcomings and/or defects yet KHI is happy to keep banging out the same bike year after year - and people are buying them.

[Lujo Bauer]

> Not a damn thing, other than replacing them under warranty when > applicable. > > Every single subsystem on the KLR has cheaply remedied shortcomings

and/or

> defects yet KHI is happy to keep banging out the same bike year after

year

> - and people are buying them.

Of course, since everything *does* have a cheap remedy, I think it's still pretty damn convenient to get a KLR and then apply a few hundred bucks worth of remedies, rather than the thousands that it'd cost to get a BMW or some such, which will need its own buch of remedies. Which is not to say that I'd turn down a GS or GS/PD if someone offered to trade. -Lujo [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]