Projects:
1997 Jeep Cherokee
2002 Honda CRF450
2000 Kawasaki KLX300
1969 Yamaha DT-1B
1983 Ford F600 Engine Swap
Others
The Kawasaki KLR650 Projects
To get the whole KLR story, a little background is in order. If you want to skip sections, use the following links:
My A17 (2003)
KL600 to A17 Transmission Swap
Big Valve Head
The Barbie Saga (now in supermoto clothes)
Stock Exhaust Mod
Engine Tools
I fell in love with big adventure bikes when I saw the Honda NXR750 Paris-Dakar bike. That's when I started noticing KLR650s. Fast forward about 10 years. First came the YZ250WR, then the CRF450, then the KLX300 for the girlfriend. I got tired of driving my Jeep to work, and started looking for an adventure bike. NX650s were hard to find and aircooled, Transalps even harder and more overpriced, Africa Twins...forget about it. F650s were out of my price range and not enough dirt influence, LC4s were a little pricey too and parts cost too much. I would have gone for an XR650R, but plated ones are pricey and less common in California, and I had to be realistic about what I was going to use it for. I also wasn't about to buy an old bike that was only made for a few years (read: 1993-95 KLX650), so that left me with the KLR. Lots for sale, great used parts market and tons of aftermarket accessories.
My A17 (2003)
I looked around for a while for something 2000 or newer. Then I came across an '03 that had a lot of the KLR's shortcomings addressed: DRZ400 forks, Progressive rear shock, IMS tank, gel seat, real silencer, 2 piston front caliper, etc. All work was done by the first owner, not the guy I bought it from. It was $4000, about $1000 over blue book, but seemed well worth it with all the mods. The seller was the second owner, and had put almost no miles on it. He did, however, spank the heck out of it. More about that later. He even sold it to me without the handguards that were in the classified ad picture!
A wad of cash later, and it was mine. I got it home and started my standard new-used bike teardown. Things were looking alright until I got to the airbox. I took it out to clean it, and much to my chagrin, there was a 3/4" diameter hole melted in the bottom on the clean side! I had looked in there with a flashlight before I bought it, and thought I had seen something, but ignored it against my better judgement.
At this point, I almost lost it. I had specifically bought a newer bike to avoid such problems. I pulled the head to find the intake runner coated with sticky grime. Ouch. Once I had collected myself, I cleaned out the head, piston, and bore, and got a new airbox. The slip joint on the pipe had leaked hot exhaust gasses and melted the hole in the airbox. It's worth mentioning here that the pipe was a slip-on with no clamp (a one-off from Pro-tec). Needless to say, the airbox had a better heat shield this time, and I expanded the headpipe joint so it would seal better. The stock heatshield is on the left. It ends about an inch before the joint. The aluminum one was going to be for the A9, but it fit so well that I felt bad about not putting it on the better bike. It took a lot of stretching to get the complex bends, hence imperfect appearance.
I noticed when I had the skid plate off that there was an epoxy patch on the bottom of the engine. When I talked to the first owner, who had built up the bike, he assured me that he wasn't responsible for the airbox or the epoxy patch. Both the airbox and case got beat up in the ~340 miles that the second owner had it for.
One day when it was in the right light, I noticed that I couldn't see any packing in the silencer. When I pulled it apart, there was only about 2" of packing left in it. Nice. It ran a bit quieter after that!
The stock KLR gearing is 15/43, and this one had a 15/42. I got a 16t countershaft sprocket since I did a lot of highway riding. That was it, for a little while. I heard about swapping the lower first gear from a KL600 from the KLR650 FAQ. I found a complete, low miles KL600 bottom end on ebay, complete with the kickstarter. Once I got it, I pulled it halfway apart, and it sat for a while as I moved a couple times and changed jobs.
Plus, there were a few little hitches. The 1996-on KLRs had a different clutch basket that didn't have the kickstarter gear on the back. To make it work meant using the old style basket ($250), hub ($50), pressure plate, clutch cover, etc. Kawasaki upgraded for a reason, apparently the old style basket was prone to occasional failure. Also, no one seemed to know for sure if the transmissions were partially compatible or swapable. The '96-on KLRs have a 6-dog transmission and the '87-'95's have a 3-dog.
Pause the A17 story here. Along came Barbie (A9). More A17 mods follow.
The Barbie Saga
Scroll down for the whole story, here's the new stuff as it comes.
Because we can't leave anything stock, Barbie is now a supermoto. Highlights include 17" Excels with Talon hubs, CRF450 inverted forks, fat bars, Mikuni TM40 pumper carburetor, White Brothers E2 silencer with custom head pipe, White Brothers Ti pegs, etc. Pardon the poor quality picture, but it was from my phone at night. More details and pics to follow.
Going back in time, this picture (below) was taken after most of the major mechanical work had been done. You can imagine what it looked like before.
After giving this some serious thought, I knew I wanted the KL600 ratios and the kick starter, so I started looking for a '90-'95 complete engine (would have the extra case bolts, old style clutch, 3-dog transmission, and longer output shaft splines). After getting outbid on ebay for a '95 engine for about $500 + shipping, I posted a message on the DSN Yahoo group. I got a response from a guy who was fairly close to me who had a '95 "barbie" that he would sell me for $500...without the wheels. I actually considered buying it without the wheels. I got the whole thing for $700. "Barbie" refers to the awesome color scheme on the '94 and '95 KLRs. I'll either be referring to it as Barbie or the A9. Before I get into this, to the previous owner’s credit, he bought it as-is and didn’t do anything with it. With respect to the owner(s) before him, Barbie did, however, give new meaning to the term "DPO."
The story was that he had bought it as a second KLR to rebuild. Supposedly there was some oil in the coolant (turns out it was algae in the water), and it was overheating, but he had ridden it home. I drained the oil on the spot, and found no water in it, so I went for it. It was beat up, but I was planning on rebuilding the engine, getting the bike into somewhat decent running shape, and testing the engine before I put it into my A17 daily driver.
I ordered new water pump seals, and in the mean time, did a POR15 treatment on the tank (not easy on a 6 gal tank, by the way). When I took the pump cover off, I grabbed onto the impeller, and it fell off in my hand. I have learned to laugh about these things. After doing some research, I found that this failure is more common than I knew. I hoped I could swap the balancer/impeller shaft from my KL600, but no such luck. The KL600 was an '84, and had a different design than the '85 and '86, which were the same as the one I needed.
At this point, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to run this thing before I disassembled it, so out it came. When I took the flywheel cover off, I found the expected broken doohickey and spring, that the balancer chain had dug into the cases from flopping around, and that the lower balancer weight was welded to the shaft. The chain sliders and rubber on the sprockets were also chewed up.
I found a few problems with the rest of the engine. I don't want to bore you too much with the entire disassembly, but here's what else I found with the engine only (previous items repeated).
-water pump impeller broken off at shaft
-broken doohickey
-broken doohickey spring
-balancer weight welded to shaft (with parts of circlip welded too)
-case chewed by balancer chain
-balancer chain sliders chewed by balancer chain
-outside of case chewed by loose drive chain
-countershaft sprocket wrong type and held on by 2 circlips
-countershaft splines ruined by loose sprocket
-crank main drive nut loose
-crank main drive key shattered, but intact
-no thermostat
-oil drain helicoiled crooked
-oil filter was full of shavings and was stuck in housing (broke apart when pulled out)
-corrosion in bore didn't clean up within spec
-clutch basket and hub were deeply grooved, and possibly cracked
So where did this leave me? The reasons I got the engine (clutch and transmission) were both damaged beyond repair. I took a deep breath and ordered the parts required to get the engine going again. I got the doohickey and gasket set from Arrowhead, and they came way before the rest of the parts. That got me thinking. I had already torn apart two of these engines, and I was getting pretty proficient at it. I figured I’d try to put the entire KL600 transmission into the A17. All I needed was the gasket set, which I already had, and if it didn't work, the most I had to lose was the time involved in taking apart the engine and reassembling it.
Barbie's engine is in the process of being rebuilt. All of the bad parts are being replaced/repaired. It's also getting a kick starter and KL600 transmission...I couldn't put the plain old stock engine back together, right?
Barbie Updates
I used the balancer chain and sprockets from the KL600 bottom end to replace the ones that were damaged by the loose chain. The parts are identical except for the tensioner sprocket. In the picture below, the A9 sprocket is on the left. They were close enough that I used the KL600 one. You can see why. Loose chains are bad.
All is well again in balancer land (new doohickey not shown). Don't forget to put the timing chain on before the balancer chain sliders... The discoloration on the machined face of the lower weight is left over from machining off the weld. I was able to salvage the weight ($70+) by machining off the poorly penetrated weld. Fortunately it hadn't gotten to the splines.
Deja vu all over again? This isn't funny anymore. Here's the A9's airbox. Look familiar? The silencer/headpipe clamp was left loose. Kudos to Kawasaki for making the heat shield too small. A repair for now, an eBay airbox to follow (I don't need it as urgently this time). I'm starting to wonder how many KLR650s have the same problem, and the owners just don't know about it.
I'm shocked that this bike actually ran, and that someone had the huevos/foolishness to ride it (or to buy it...). I could write a book on the rest of what was wrong with it. It would include the rusty tank, broken headlight frame, seriously bent radiator, bad wheel bearings, bent front and rear wheels, missing speedomoeter cable (housing still there), burned wiring harness, deeply cut swingarm from bent footpeg bracket and master cylinder bolts being mixed up, chain slider eaten to the swingarm, mystery application rear caliper with pads down to the metal, front brake line with deep cuts in it, empty master cylinder reservoirs with goo in the front one, a finishing nail used to keep the clutch perch tight against the bars, a carb with almost every passage clogged, etc, etc.
All Back Together
The bike is mostly stock now, except for the abovementioned and usual mods: KL600 transmission, KL600 kickstarter, opened up exhaust, upgraded “Doohickey,” removed clutch and kickstand safety (failure) switches, removed incomplete evap system, cut off under-fender fender and mounted license plate on the fender, LED taillight, opened up airbox, etc, etc.
She's rockin' again. All back together. The KL600 transmission is nice. My kickstarter lever is a bit worn out (but the KL600 transmission from the eBay bottom end was in great condition)...maybe the P.O. didn't know how to kickstart. It's fairly easy to kick over with the KACR, and when done right is very easy to start on the first kick. Unlike the forgiving electric starter, too much or too little choke prevent it from kickstarting. The procedure is the same as the KLX300: to TDC, to the next resistance right after TDC, and a swift kick.
Yes, it would be nice to have the kickstarter on the A17, but I wasn't happy about downgrading the clutch. Will my new old-style clutch basket in the A9 blow up? Probably not. I came across on the net a guy in Italy who had installed a kicker on his KLX650C, which apparently had the same issue as the '96-up KLR650s, the clutch basket without a gear on the back. I wasn't able to match up any basket part numbers to see if things are interchangable. The fact that the fiche shows the nonexistent gear on the back of the '96-up clutch doesn't help either.
Other things are brewing. In due time.
Stock Exhaust Mod
The stock muffler is sad. A 650 exhaling through a tube less than 1". I removed the last little mini-silencer, and put a 2" tube in. Everything else, including the "turbine core" was left stock. Cheap and easy. It's not loud, and definitely flows a little better.
KL600 to A17 Transmission Swap
The KLR650 transmission was changed from a 3-dog to a 6-dog with higher 2nd and 3rd gear ratios in ’96. The ’87-’89 transmissions were the same as the KL600, except for their higher 1st gear (and matching mainshaft). ’90-’95 had a longer countershaft sprocket splines. ’96-’07 were a 6-dog and had a nut to hold on the countershaft sprocket. The '96-'07 had a 1.144:1 2nd and a 1.136:1 3rd, compared to the 1.529:1 2nd and 1.181:1 3rd of the '87-'95. The transmission input shaft is common to all KLR650s. In the picture below, the KL600 transmission is on the left. Note the different number of dogs, length of the splines on the countershaft, and countershaft sprocket mounting style. The countershaft on the KL600 and pre'96 KLR650s has a shoulder before the coutershaft sprocket splines (visible), while the '96-later ones have a thrust collar (not visible) since the sprocket nut clamps everything together.
It would have been nice to use the new output shaft with the KL600 trans, but they had a different design and number of splines. The entire KL600 trans swapped directly into my A17. Of course it required that I use an old style sprocket and lock plate. If you get/have one of the old-style lock plate sprockets, it's worth getting a set of sprocket shims from Arrowhead Motorsports to keep things nice and tight. I used the KL600 drum and forks, and the fork rods from the A17 because they were solid (KL600 rods are hollow). The collar on the left end of the A17 countershaft that takes the place of the kickstarter idler gear was also reused. I have heard of possible grinding needed to clear the 39t 1st gear, but mine had plenty of clearance. The only hitch was that I had to cut off my clutch hub nut because it wouldn’t come off. I have the MotionPro clutch tool, and succeeded in dinging up the basket trying to get it off. Heat and an impact wrench were no help either.
While I was in there, I replaced 4 of the bearing retainer Phillips head bolts with serrated flange head bolts, per Elden Carl’s recommendation. Mine weren’t loose, but he said they are sometimes. I also cleaned a ton of case sealant out of my oil screen. It was probably half covered up. Apparently this is fairly common. The new case sealant also fixed the leak at the swingarm pivot. Every time I'd rebuild the linkage, the pivot axle would be coated in mystery oil.
The KL600 trans is awesome. With my 16/42, 1st gear was a bit too high. Now it’ll pull a wheelie with no clutching. Sweet. It’s what should have come in there. It’s a little less smooth shifting than the 6-dog, but a small price to pay in my opinion.
I put the same type of transmission into the A9 engine while I had it apart. It has the stock 15/43 gearing, which I think is too low for street use, especially with the low 1st. The engine gets wound out too fast. It's also a bit hard to compare the two bikes because they feel like completely different models.
Engine Tools
There are a few tools necessary for working on the KLR engine. The MotionPro Clutch holder tool is a must, as is the flywheel puller. Those are both fairly easy to come by. The other two are special order items, the flywheel wrench and valve spring compressor.
Fortunately, we have junk tool dealers such as Harbor Freight who sell tools that you wouldn’t think twice about cutting up. I’m all about staying away from cheap junk import tools, but I have a hard time cutting up a $30+ Craftsman wrench.
Here’s the flywheel holder wrench. A 1 1/4" (yes, inches) open end with a few bends. Following that is the valve spring compressor. A C-clamp with a cut-up socket welded to it. It has tape around it to protect the valve bucket bore. Cheap, effective, and I had them the same day.
Big Valve head
I found a head on ebay with 1mm oversize intake and exhaust and R/D 1006 heavy springs (95-100lbs at 1.280-1.300" compared to about 52lbs stock!). It came complete with cams and cover for under $200. "It was used in a nitrous boosted sand quad making 80hp." I tried to clean up some of the work done in the ports, and the seller was nice enough to send me some SS exhaust valves since the ones it came with were shot. I'm also planning putting stock valve springs back in it. The heavy ones are really heavy, and I'm afraid they'll cause problems. I’m still working on this one. A 685 kit will follow eventually too.
You can tell the difference right? Not so much. One millimeter isn't a huge visual difference.
