nklr back from the mojave and admo tours trip

[hens_p]

That is the dohickey. If I have the bike torn down (like you do), I would replace it with a Jake "Clever Lever" Pat / Austin

--- In DSN_klr650@y..., "Combat_Tourer" wrote: >I then noticed what looks VERY much like this doohicky > thingy. What the hell is it and how do I deal with it? Can I torque > this bolt down? > > This is not cool, not good news to here about this failure. I am > beefing my KLR up to take to South America this fall and I sure don't > need to be breaking down in the middle of the friggin jungle. > > Help please. > > Todd (Springfield, VA) > toddbpeer@s... > > --- In DSN_klr650@y..., Tengai650 wrote: > > At 2:47 PM -0400 6/15/2002, Krgrife@a... wrote: > > >In a message dated 6/15/02 9:51:42 AM Pacific Daylight Time, > > >guymanbro@e... writes: > > > > > > failures. > > > That means that 1 in every 333-1/3 bikes could be affected (if > we are > > > a scientifically sound sampling of KLRs on the road). >> > > > > > >I don't think these are accurate figures, my '91 failure was > reported to this > > >board 4 years ago. It was in the "catastrophic" catagory. This > was one of > > >the early failures that triggered a lot of discussion including > accusations > > >that I was being alarmist in some kind of plot to drive down > prices of used > > >KLR's. > > > > But as I recall, wasn't your failure due to the tensioner system > not > > working properly and/or running out of travel due to the weak > spring > > and keeper plate embossing on pre-96's? > > I think Tumu was referring only to failures of shattered and > > broken-weld doohickeys: > > http://www.personal.psu.edu/mjv2/IdlerLever.jpg > > Mark > > B2 > > A2 > > A3

[foshad]

Hello, I am in the process of replacing my factory doohickey and spring with new ones from Jake at Sagebrush Machine Shop. I have the old ones out and am about to put in the new ones. Q1) Is it necessary to file the new doohickey to provide clearance for the starter gear? The new one already has a bevel grind on it. Has anyone changed their doohickey without filing it? Q2) Is it necessary to modify the engine case to provide additional clearance for the balancer chain? I have about 11,000 miles on my engine and it shows no signs of the chain hitting the case. Has anyone changed their doohickey without modifying the case? Is this a model year specific problem? Q3) Is it ok to re-use the cover gaskets, or should I use RTV sealer or similar? My gaskets came off just fine and look like they could be re-used. Anyone have any leakes after re- using their original gaskets? By the way, my original doohickey appears to be fine although very slightly bent on the thin outer ring. It seemed to be a little cocked sitting on the shaft, probably from loosening the adjustment screw too much. I was suprised to find that the tension spring was broken on one of the hooked ends. I never did find the missing piece. I'm hoping it went out with the drain oil. There were no metal shavings anywhere. Thanks in advance for any advice. Looking forward to a new riding season. Bruce Bordt, A14 Milford, MI

[Steve Green]

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

> Q1) Is it necessary to file the new doohickey to provide clearance > for the starter gear? The new one already has a bevel grind on >it. Has anyone changed their doohickey without filing it?

My Sagebrush doohickey and spring fit right in with no mods to the original KLR parts.

> Q2) Is it necessary to modify the engine case?

NO, Fits right in.

> Q3) Is it ok to re-use the cover gaskets, or > should I use RTV sealer or similar?

I have done about 5 doohickeys and always reuse the original gaskets. Just loosen all the cover screws and tap cover with a rubber or soft mallet to break gasket free. Cover will then come off without ripping gasket. Then remove screws and cover. Exercise caution still so you do not tear it. I never use Silicon sealant on these gaskets and have no leaks yet.

>I never did find the missing > piece. I'm hoping it went out with the drain oil.

The piece might be behind the metal screen accesible from the right side of the engine. Remove the right clutch cover, and you will see the screen. A magnetic drain screw from Fred at Arrowhead might give you peace of mind. Steve G.

[Mark St.Hilaire, Sr]

> Q1) Is it necessary to file the new doohickey to provide clearance > for the starter gear? The new one already has a bevel grind on it. > Has anyone changed their doohickey without filing it?

First, you can check my procedure with pictures if you get stuck: http://klr6500.tripod.com/doohickey.htm and/or Devon's at: http://www.devonjarvisphoto.com/posted/KLR650/doohickey/ I have done a few doohickey replacments, and found that it's kind of a 50 / 50 thing. I put the new Sagebrush doohickey into place, and found that one "spoke" of the large starter gear just kind of kissed the top of the doohickey. A tiny amount of filing was enough to get the necessary clearance. I think I've heard that Jake has machined the current batch so that this is no longer a possibility, and therefore no longer necessary. The last one that I did was on a friend's bike, using an Eagle lever, and it fit without any troubles. Generally though, you should do a test fit just to make sure all is well before you button everything back up.

> Q2) Is it necessary to modify the engine case to > provide additional clearance for the balancer chain?

I didn't do the case on my own bike, but that was partly because I didn't see that there was any contact being made. There was no sign that the chain had touched it. Devon, I think, is an advocate of doing this, and because there's no reason to NOT do it, I'd say it was probably a good idea to just get it out of the way. Like the doohickey change itself, just one less thing to worry about.

> Q3) Is it ok to re-use the cover gaskets, or > should I use RTV sealer or similar? My gaskets came off just fine > and look like they could be re-used. Anyone have any leakes after re- > using their original gaskets?

I'm very much in favor of using the non-drying silicone, such as Yamabond. When my friends' bike was found to have a broken collar on the doohickey, I replaced it with my own stock one until he could get the parts and time for me to change it out. I used the Yamabond, and when I pulled the side cover the second time, I found that the gasket came off PERFECTLY. There was no hassle removing it, and it stuck entirely and evenly on both the outer and inner covers. He bought the gaskets, but there was no need to use them. You might get away without using the silicone, but why take the chance. It's easier to take an additional couple minutes to correctly apply it, and gain the benefit of an installation that you know won't leak, and that you know will disassemble with ease should the need ever arise. I hope that helps, Mark KLR650 Motorcycle Pages: http://klr6500.tripod.com/ HomePage: http://home.adelphia.net/~msaint/index.html My Adelphia Email can be "iffy." If you don't get a response, please try: KLR6500@...

[TM1669@cs.com]

With the new Doohickey from Fred (Eagle lever) I had to file the top a little due to one of the spokes of the starter gear slightly rubbing it. The bike was laying on its side when I spun the starter gear and I dont know if that contributed to the spoke rubbing on the doohickey or not but the filing done was minimal. The inner and outer gaskets were reused with no problem so far (550 miles) on my A15 but in retrospect I wish I had just put new gaskets on and didnt have to sweat out any leaks. If the inner case leaked it was back to the start of the project that I had borrowed the rotor holder/puller from a generous lister to start, and the same tools were already in the mail back to the owner. 12 more dollars at least for an inner gasket is money well spent IMO. Might as well modify the engine case while your in there. It cant hurt.

[Schelzig]

So I had the broken lever, but the spring still was in place. Replaced the system with Jake's parts and fished around the both sides of the engine with magnets, searching for the broken off parts, but found nothing but some rubber bits in the screen on the right side of the engine. So I closed everything up again, put on a magnetic oil drain plug. So now what? Do I just drain the oil often and hope for the best? Cheers, Erik A15, Miami

[Chris]

I'm back, and still sore from the ride...three days later. It was the most punishing thing I've ever completely enjoyed doing to myself. If you aren't in decent shape, this is a trip that will outline just exactly how bad a condition you really are in. I thought I was bad, heh, and it was worse. I was already awed watching Dakar riders and Malcolm Smith riding footage as it was, now I REALLY can't believe those guys can do it. Until I write the whole thing up, I'll just say that what I did is true dual-sport riding and I learned a TON from an awesome instructor along the way. In a nutshell, I rode around widely varying desert and mountain terrain in extreme southwest NV, into the Mojave preserve in CA. Anything from hill climbs with baseball sized rocks as the 'trail', to single track sand through Joshua trees and cactii, to rather deep sand wash conditions. Speeds from near zero, riding the back brake down off the top of 7k foot peaks to 50mph or so in the open sand in the valleys. It was all there and I'll never forget the experience. http://www.admotours.com/ was the outfit I hired for the day and they do trips of all sorts in CA/NV and also global tours. I got the reccomendation for them from a lister and I can't say enough positive about them myself. Fantastic! I'll link back when I flesh out a full review. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge the friggin camera battery for that morning and have no pictures of the ride at all. Shoot me now.

[rob_fchs]

I've owned my 1993 KLR for a couple of months and one of the first things I've noticed from this board and from FAQ is that the major issue with the KLR seems to be that the "doohickey" is prone to failure. Beings I'm a bit of a paranoid guy, I wonder if the best course of action is to just change this part out. My paranoia stems from a long history with old British bikes. I've been stranded many times. Is this "doohickey" a design flaw or does the metal just get brittle? Does anybody know the actual rate of failure? Are the after market parts just built better? Based on what I've seen on this board it's not "if" it will break, it's "when." It worries me when I see "Doohickey Parties" posted on the web. It worries me even more when pictures of these parties include participants flipping off the old doohickey. It looks to me that changing this part would take the better part of a day maybe longer if you've never been deep inside the KLR before. Are there local experts located around the country that hire out? My local Kawasaki dealer would not admit that this is an issue. He told me the bikes are "bullet proof" and need nothing.

[Eric L. Green]

On Sun, 15 May 2005, rob_fchs wrote:

> I've owned my 1993 KLR for a couple of months and one of the first > things I've noticed from this board and from FAQ is that the major > issue with the KLR seems to be that the "doohickey" is prone to > failure. Beings I'm a bit of a paranoid guy, I wonder if the best > course of action is to just change this part out. My paranoia stems

Probably so.

> that hire out? My local Kawasaki dealer would not admit that this is > an issue. He told me the bikes are "bullet proof" and need nothing.

My bike had 20,000 miles on it when I changed out the doohickey. The doohickey was intact and so was the spring. However, there does appear to be a great deal of individual variation between KLR's. Two factors appear to detirmine whether you will have doohickey problems or not: The fit of the doohickey upon the eccentric shaft (it is a press fit, rather than being a bolted/splined piece), and the amount of torque applied to the adjustment screw when you adjust the balancer chain tension. A poor fit (at the factory) of doohickey upon eccentric shaft causes the adjuster spring to be worked thousands of times per second, as well as causing the eccentric shaft to hammer at the doohickey thousands of times per second, eventually causing one or the other to fail due to metal fatigue. Too much torque applied to the adjustment screw causes ridges in the doohickey, which then hang up and prevent adjustments from taking place, and eventually possibly even causing the adjustment slot to break due to the brittleness of the stock metal. And finally, because the doohickey is a press fit, if you do not have the bike leaned to the right when you adjust the balancer chain tension, a poorly-fitted doohickey with slack on the eccentric shaft could slide to the right and cock at an angle, and then screwing the doohickey down could cause the doohickey to shatter at the eccentric shaft. The aftermarket doohickeys are a much stronger one-piece design and will not break like the brittle and flimsy OEM weldment. The springs that are shipped with these doohickeys typically are of a higher quality than the ones shipped by Kawasaki too. However, if they are not a tight press fit on the eccentric shaft, even the better-quality spring is not going to last long. Thus it is important that you check the fit of the doohickey upon the shaft, and, if it is not a tight fit (as in, only barely goes on), get with the manufacturer of your doohickey to see about getting a special order one that has slightly tighter tolerances. So yes, *if* your doohickey had a good fit on the eccentric shaft at the factory, and *if* nobody has ever overtorqued the adjuster screw, there's probably no problem. But the problem is that you don't know the answer to those questions until you take everything apart to see. And if you've taken everything apart to see, you might as well just replace the thing with the superior aftermarket parts. -E

[matteeanne@yahoo.com]

"Boy did you open a can o' worms" or "Let the games begin" It is a design flaw in that the metal is brittle. I believe the failure rate is like 5% or something like that. Failure CAN cause seziure (at 80mph this can be a bad thing) but I have not heard of any accidents atributed to this. I am told that if it fails your motor will let you know if only by the racket it makes alone. I have a stock doohickey on my A-18 with close to 10k miles. It is on my "to do list", but I hate spending the money, and my business has not been prifitable enough this year to afford it without rearranging my budget, which to a miser like me is unthinkable. I could lay out 2k right now for that, and all the mods I would make if I had the capital. But right now I am just hoping to get new tires, running racing slicks right now ;o( --- rob_fchs wrote:

> I've owned my 1993 KLR for a couple of months and > one of the first > things I've noticed from this board and from FAQ is > that the major > issue with the KLR seems to be that the "doohickey" > is prone to > failure. Beings I'm a bit of a paranoid guy, I > wonder if the best > course of action is to just change this part out. > My paranoia stems > from a long history with old British bikes. I've > been stranded many > times. Is this "doohickey" a design flaw or does > the metal just get > brittle? Does anybody know the actual rate of > failure? Are the after > market parts just built better? Based on what I've > seen on this > board it's not "if" it will break, it's "when." > It worries me when > I see "Doohickey Parties" posted on the web. It > worries me even more > when pictures of these parties include participants > flipping off the > old doohickey. It looks to me that changing this > part would take the > better part of a day maybe longer if you've never > been deep inside > the KLR before. Are there local experts located > around the country > that hire out? My local Kawasaki dealer would not > admit that this is > an issue. He told me the bikes are "bullet proof" > and need nothing. > > > > > Archive Quicksearch at: >

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