broke down in savannah...

[nevadamontagu]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I talked with Mike from Eagle. He had me take the outer cover and rotor off again. When I did that, I saw that the woodruff key popped out of its slot and had gotten smooshed between the rotor and the starter wheel. This prevented the rotor from seating which caused the timing to be off. This is why the bike would not start. I ordered new parts from Mike. I'm impressed that Mike saw and replied to my post on the KLR650 Yahoo Group so quickly. Asking me to call him at home on a Sunday is amazing. He was able to help me trouble shoot the problem over the phone in less than 30 minutes. This is an example of excellent customer service. You should all feel good about doing business with Eagle and letting others know too. -N

[Austin]

Well, today was the last straw with my KLR. I've been pretty sick for 3 days and just didn't feel like fooling with it as it's been running alright...just a bit of surging at 4000-5000 rpm. I checked the chain tension and adjust the fuel mixture screw to 1.75 turns out which helped the surging. I rode it to work yesterday with no problems. Started it this morning and it would not stay running on or off choke. kept it at about 2000rpm for a minute or two before heading out. Didn't even make it to the end of the parking lot before it started cutting out. If I didn't stay on the gas when I pulled the clutch in then it would stall and just didn't want to start. When I crank it I hear/feel a pretty loud "thunk" sound...I swear it sounds like it's seizing. Pulled out of the parking lot but had to turn around as it was bucking and snorting and I didn't have time to walk to work. Once parked, it stalled and I tried to restart it with only the heavy thunking sound. When running it's a pretty moderate metal-on-metal sound. yuck I think I'm about done with this one as it sounds pretty bad when it's cranking. I've bent a con rod once and that bike would barely run. When I tried to crank that bike it made a very similar sound. (Note: the mid-80's Nighthawk 650/700 engines with hydraulic valve adjustment do not like to leave the dragstrip starting line at 10,000 rpm.) I'm not gonna run right out and do anything drastic...at least this week. This sucks. Austin in Savannah