head cover gasket...

[D.]

I've been debating about it for years now, first time around before buying my GL500, then before getting the 91' Nighthawk. I always liked what the KLR is supposedly able to do(everething) but somethign just rubbed me the wrong way about them. What changed now? I got a DR350SE-wicked little bike,my first dualsport. after riding it for a few days i was hooked on the 1 cyl dualsports that i wasnt too crazy about before,and sitting on the KLR in a dealer showroom felt right at home( guess its because its same height if not lower as the DR) After i sell my god forsaken katana 750 project i want to get a KLR because the DR isnt much of a long-haul bike for couple reasons and i like simplicity and ease of maintenence of a 1cyl,water cooling and longevity it promices. Now i am curious about some things about the KLR- Life span of a Camchain? Life span of top end between rebuilds? Life span of a balancer chain?(without any weird mods that make you cut a chunk out of the crankcase for some extra clearance) From what i remember some KLR's i looked at made some odd sounds that awfully remind light bottom end knock? is that normal??????

[Zachariah Mully]

john muldowney wrote:

> Hey...I have a 2000 KLR with over 54,000 miles...I started seeing oil > seeping out of a drain hole in the top portion of the head, I uncovered > everthing tonight and as I figured, the head cover gasket is leaking > (bummer, is this early/late for this to happen?...regardless it's > happening)... So I go to check the torque of the cover bolts and the first > one I test is loose and I think oh this might help, but as I turn it it does > not tighten...just turns, turns, turns....oh sh-t!...any work done to/with > the motor-top end has only been done at two dealers, so one of them screwed > up...(the rest of the bolts were fine).

The gasket is most likely fine, it's a fairly heavy duty rubber gasket that should last nearly the life of the bike. The dealer that screwed it up might not have applied sealant to gasket when they reinstalled it. You don't say which bolt was stripped, if it's a left hand side bolt, it's an easy fix, as those thread into the LHS cam caps. Pull the vavle cover, remove the offending cam cap and using a heli-coil to repair it. If it's a RHS bolt that's stripped, it's going to be a pain in the ass, as those bolts thread into posts that are cast into the head. You can certainely heli-coil them, but they're a bit harder to get at that's all.

> Oddly enough the gasket is leaking in an area where the bolts are > fine/tight..so I guess I need to put a new gasket on if I don't want oil > running down the motor, well that is not a priority, but it could get really > dirty over the months/years if I did not change the gasket. But then I am > looking at having to fix the stripped head cover bolt... fun fun...

My A12 doesn't have the RH exhaust side valve cover bolt. The PO cracked the cast post probably while trying to heli-coil it. After trying many things in vain to cast a new post out of epoxy and other moldable materials, I simply put sealant all the way around the gasket. I plugged the hole in the valve cover with a rubber bung. That was about 7,000 miles ago and it's not leaked a drop of oil. Z DC A5X A12X