cough, spit and quit

[Keith Saltzer]

Your valves get tighter as you ride. Meaning that they eventually will not be able to close. Then your mpg will start to go down, your bike will run worse and worse, and you will start to burn up your valves/valve seats. Not good, and not fun. Do your valve adjusts for maximum fun. MrMoose A8 (Barbie and Ken special) -- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, "J. Brown" wrote:

> Lots of valve talk recently, so I wanted to ask: > What are the ramifications of NOT doing your valve adjustments? > -j.

[Rick]

I have my valves done. All my spacing except one are at the bigger specs. One of my intake valves is at .009, where spec is .008. If I put the next bigger shim in, I'll be at .006,which is mid spec. We are getting ready to do a 10,000 mile trip starting in 3 weeks. Should I change it back or leave it at .009? Thanks

[jokerloco9@aol.com]

Leave it alone. I did the same thing. KLR valves tighten with use. Jeff A20 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[dooden]

With a difference of .001 go ride it, its not a space shuttle. It will tighten with time. Enjoy your trip. Dooden A15 Green Ape

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "rick" wrote: > > I have my valves done. All my spacing except one are at the bigger > specs. One of my intake valves is at .009, where spec is .008. If I > put the next bigger shim in, I'll be at .006,which is mid spec. We are > getting ready to do a 10,000 mile trip starting in 3 weeks. Should I > change it back or leave it at .009? Thanks >

[Norm Keller]

>I cranked it after i got home and it didn't even >try to start. came back a few hours later and it >tried to run a few times but cannot get itself >going. sounds like timing way off but not sure. >i have not started tearing into it yet, kind of >looking for an educated direction.

Sounds like you may have lost fuel flow to the carburetor. Check the vacuum line to the petcock to see if it was jarred off due to not being properly installed in the past. A quick check might be to drain the carburetor while applying a small vacuum to the petcock vacuum port. The fuel petcock has two rubber hoses, the bigger one facing to the rear is the fuel line to the carb float bowl. The smaller one, up higher and behind, is the vacuum hose from the carb's intake passage.

>sounds like timing way off

This virtually never happens but is a common error by non-technicians which leads them far astray. Most likely fuel delivery issue is the culprit. Following checking for adequate fuel flow from the float bowl, you may wish to use a spare spark plug to check for spark. Almost any spark plug will do so it is not necessary to use a KLR plug or remove the sparkplug from the engine. I discourage removal of the sparkplug unless the tank is removed and high pressure air is used to clean debris from around the spark plug well. Dropping some grit into the cylinder could be very nasty! Please keep us posted as to your progress as a KLR quitting is simply a KLR taking the opportunity to get the potential problem fixed while you are still close to home. They seem to prefer to have any problems occur close to home and at times when we can deal with the issue. (VBG) Norm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]