1500 miles status post laconia and da headlights out

[Donnie W. Jennings]

Hi! I had a piston bust on my KLR 650 and after having replaced the piston, rings and valve stem seals and test riding it, I realized I left a bolt out! It runs great! It is the bolt that holds the cylinder down which is underneath the upper front cam chain guide. It is a 6mm by about 25mm with a 8mm head. I'm told that its purpose is to equalize the sealing surface around the timing chain tunnel and has no compression pressure or proximity to water jackets. It is on page 28 in the cylinder illustration of the Maintenance DVD and is bolt T2. It only torques to 87 inch pounds. Is this bolt necessary? The head bolts torque to 48 pounds after this bolt is tightned to less than 9 pounds. Do I need to pull the head and correct or should it be OK? If it does not work, am I likely to encounter anything worse than an oil leak? If I fix it now, I will need to pull the head, install the bolt and put on a new head gasket. If I don't do it now and it starts leaking, I will have to do that, plus install a base gasket. Suggestions? Donnie

[tradestrategy9]

My KLR 650 just passed 1500 miles, bought new 2007 from Greater Boston Motor Sports and I've used it mostly as a commuter. I did drive it up to Laconia from Boston, with a top speed of 92 mph, not trying to go fast, but cruising right along as it were. The highway vibration was intense at 4000 rpms but seemed to lessen after 4800 - 5000 rpms, (anyone else notice this?) I got pulled over last night by a local cop who zinged me doing a whopping 44mph in a 35, he checked my license and let me go without a ticket saying, "You need to slow down". I'm definitely feeling older (but wiser) as the kid cop might have been 24. Yes sir officer, sorry I didn't pop the clutch and wheelie over your hood. Anyways, I got on it tonight (11pm) to go to work and the front headlight was out - hmmm, did I leave the ignition switch on park again? Or do I need a new bulb? I'll figure it out tmrw, as I had to hop into the car to go to work on time. At Laconia, there were a lot of people actually looking at my KLR 650 - as it stood out from the herd of like styled Harley's and other stock bikes. Imagine that, a bearded Harley dude pointing a finger at the KLR. I got a few laughs out of that. While riding one length behind my brother in law while on a back road in Gilford New Hampshire (next to Laconia) - a deer pops out of the woods at midnight, and slams into the side of my brother in laws bike with him and his 22 year old son on it. The deer flipped up and over the bike snorting like a wild pig, tumbled to the ground falling two more times, adn seemed to hobble off into the woods with a leg injury. My brother in law just kept on going as if nothing happened. Heart pumping encounter though, and we were all lucky. Lastly, every Tuesday night up here in Massachusetts we have a pretty good showing at motorcycle night - you can check it out at motorcyclenight.com Take care, Michael

[Norm Keller]

Donnie, unless several people have left this bolt out with no problems, you're going to have to roll the dice but I'm sure that you knew that already. My take is that it depends on whether you do long distance tours. If you do long runs, IMO, you'd be better off taking the time to do that bolt. Wish my memory was better but I'll bet that you can get that bolt in without pulling the head. Couldn't you remove the cam sprockets and slide the chain back enough to reach the area with a long extension? Can't remember if the chain guide will interfere or can be shifted enough but someone with a functioning memory will know. If you don't do long tours, and since the worst looks to be an oil splash leak (as opposed to a pressure leak), my call would be to run with it. Just be vigilant as to oil leakage. With the clamping action of the cylinder bolts and the relative rigidity of the box structure of the cam channel, I agree with your call that leakage should not occur. Hope we're right! Wish you were around here. I'd give you a hand doing it. The problem is that I might not be able to resist pulling your leg about forgetting........ (VBG) Norm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]