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Nasty cold weekend

2K views 31 replies 11 participants last post by  Rail32 
#1 ·
Gonna finish painting helmet and sissy bar on Rail America bike . Than I would love to finally tear down old KLR motor to the bare cases to find what I suspect a broken shift fork that caused balance shaft to break . just a guess , but the more I study small peice of metal in crankcase I am %95.67 sure that's what it is . Also would be hard enough to break shaft after crank smashed it into the balance shaft . yep it's coming apart this weekend . too freaking cold to even think about outside activities .
 
#4 ·
I feel your pain. It is 65 degrees here in Fort Lauderdale, FL at the present time. There is an annual Everglades Seafood Festival in Everglades city tomorrow. It should get up to 70+ tomorrow so I am going to chance this ride anyway :smile2:.
Hopefully I won't hit any love bugs >:).
 
#5 ·
Seafood festival sounds awesome , but a bit far away :wink2::grin2:
With it only going on 11am I am pretty proud of the work have got done . So I am in the house making a meatball sub for a mid day snack.
As of now sissy bar is done , final blue on helmet is done , and seat is all mounted and ready to roll and Rail America bike art project . After I destroy the sub :wink2:, I think KLR motor crime scene investigation will begin. Wheeler (shop mouse pro killer ) is enjoying the day hanging around me . It's been a long winter for her also . She is 10ish and does not go outside in the winter anymore at all. Currently she is riding the RA (Rail America ) bike . ...... And sleeping .
Ok sub is toasted and ready to be sank :wink2:
Enjoy the day
Oh pix of everything before sunset as I know " or it never happened " :nerd:
 
#8 ·
Highly productive day here in blustery cold central wi.

Next step is stars on in a few days after blue is %100 dry .

Sissy bar and seat completely done . Next step is finding old school chopper headlight and make that and twilight solar powered somehow .

Wheeler sure loves the attention she is getting today .

Ok enough of that lets get to the bottom of 2010 KLR death . It's unreal how amazingly clean this 36k nothing but 15w40 Rotella motor looks inside . Every pix is shown without any cleaning what so ever ,,,unreal .
Will be running Shell Rotella. 15w40 in 2012 KLR no freaking doubt after seeing what you are about to see .
 
#9 ·

Min wear on cams and journals .
Now the bad .

Broke chunk out cylinder bore sleeve .

Nasty gouges on crankshaft .

Marks on secondary balance shaft weight .

Holy crap. Where did that chunk come from ,,oh the bottom of the crank housing . OMG
 
#10 ·
That must have clattered for a bit. Did the engine finally seize or did you get it shut down before?


When you're done with the diagnosing of the dead motor I noticed the mixer was sitting there all cleaned up for you to make a batch of cookies.


Allen
 
#13 ·
I was coming home from work at 60-65mph and the shaking got a bit more noticable . I ran it up into shop and revved it quite high as I listened to different areas of moter with stethoscope . I first found counter balance shaft busted a few months ago . never really figured out why till today . I bought another KLR a couple years newer with 55OO miles very ,very well taken care of and like showroom condtion . Got to get Rail America bike done to get 2012 to get race tech suspension on, eagle mikes tensioner spring for counter balance chain, GPS mount , elect heated gear plug , and a few other items on new to me KLR as summer is right around the corner :wink2:
And yes that's the mixer that Betty makes those almost world famous Darkside cookies in ....... And yikes it's empty :surprise:
 
#11 ·
WOW!~ After what your oil has done to keep this engine that clean, I just may change my brand to Rotella also ~

Thanks for posting!!

Ronnie
 
#12 ·

All. This damage had to come from a super hard piece , let's get the gear rack out , it's gotta be a shift fork ,gotta be !!!

Oh yea here's where that piece of alum. is supposed to be .

Well I was wrong it's 4th gear with a broken piece of casting . It's between shift fork groove and gear drive dog . one dog is completely tore off . that's what went through crank and bore sleeve than through crank and counter balance shaft breaking that , which took out water pump oil seal and caused horrible wobble shaking as balance system was not in balance anymore .
bottom of connecting rod that broke balance shaft on down stroke . lines up perfectly ,mystery completely solved fatigued casting at weakest part broke at a shift at some point .

MORE damage this is bottom of crank housing ,ugly Nast deep , almost through case .
So bottom line is I am super happy my gut told me to not repair it . I was told by many to fix it prior to this , but I knew deep down there was a whole lot more to the story . So I have completely tore down the KLR into itty bitty pieces and now understand why these things are a thing of magic and held by many as the gold standard in adv bikes . Bear in mind this bike ran till I tore it down due to shaking more than normal . But it was rolling 60 mph before dropping side stand . All the bearings feel bad except crank bearings , piston ,bore , and head is all amazingly flawless yet. taking jug into work Monday to measure wear, along with cams . I believe I will very little wear . A bit of carbon build up on piston head , but nothing horrible . Amazing thumper motor that's clocked 36k ,,amazing .
Ok so that concludes today's motorcycle wintery cold stay inside shop day . A good day and now it's sushi for supper as daughter is home after picking out her wedding dress . The roller coaster of life is nearing the top again ,,,,,weeeee !!
 
#15 ·
Today's huge project

Well right before I went in the house yesterday Wheeler (shop mouse killer ) started to roll a screwdriver over towards the tool box with her head . I took that as a sign I probally should fill tool box back up again with stuff that goes in there . Maybe sweep a bit . Oh heck close a few drawers while I am at it.
Ok after some more thought there may have been some residual meatball sub drippings on that screwdriver , but non the less it's probally a good day to tidy up a bit .
So Sunday is not only Valentine's Day guys ,,,it's ,,,,,,Tidy Cat day >:)
seroiusly what is wrong with me
1. Was it the 110volt jolt from fork prongs into the recep. At 2 years old /
2. Was it the fall from top of hay mow at uncles farm to barn floor when
I was 12?
3. Really bad bike wreck when I was 14 and did not wake up for a day ?
4. Or maybe God just wanna to see what if ???? With me on 13th 1965
 
#16 ·
Well right before I went in the house yesterday Wheeler (shop mouse killer ) started to roll a screwdriver over towards the tool box with her head . I took that as a sign I probally should fill tool box back up again with stuff that goes in there . Maybe sweep a bit . Oh heck close a few drawers while I am at it.
Ok after some more thought there may have been some residual meatball sub drippings on that screwdriver , but non the less it's probally a good day to tidy up a bit .
So Sunday is not only Valentine's Day guys ,,,it's ,,,,,,Tidy Cat day >:)
seroiusly what is wrong with me
1. Was it the 110volt jolt from fork prongs into the recep. At 2 years old /
2. Was it the fall from top of hay mow at uncles farm to barn floor when
I was 12?
3. Really bad bike wreck when I was 14 and did not wake up for a day ?
4. Or maybe God just wanna to see what if ???? With me on 13th 1965

or maybe steps 9 through 16 were missing in the instruction manual for your assembly. That would be the wiring to the computer (brain). There could be several wires crossed there or some guy just like you did the wiring and just kept connecting things till you began to function (sort of).
 
#19 ·
I have always found the workings of anything mechanical fascinating . Than in my late teens I found out how far one can push the limits of anything mechincal . Engines can be disassembled and modded to a very unreal point , but reliability is always compromised. seeing the abuse this single longer took while grinding up tha gear amazes me . today I found my long lost old school bore gauge . Amazing even more the 36,000 mile single longer running nothing But Shell Rotella 15/40 is only wore .002 90 degrees of crank . I would have guessed .015 or better scratches .
'Pix coming tonight of bore , yes I got side tracked from cleaning . We all knew it was only a matter of a few hours. 3.66 hours to be exact :laugh:
the shop is 1/2 clean though ,just sayin. :wink2:
 
#21 ·
Pretty bad when the cat has to tell you its time to clean up after yourself, and respect her house!
 
#25 ·
Some things it's just safer not knowing ,just sayin .:wink2:>:)
 
#23 ·
John Jones !!!!
Recognize this old school tool ??
I know you read here , so I figured a little fond stroll down memory lane from your auto wrenching days .

I misplaced this year's ago and found it today as it fell behind a cabinet along with 2 916 wrenches , a Phillips screw driver , and what looked like a very very old tootsie roll . What a sad death for a delish tootsie roll . Anyways

At zero degrees

At 90 degrees
and no taper as I went up and down bore .
This is freaking unreal . I doubled checked to see if gauge was stuck and nope as smooth as a baby's butt.
.002 worse case wear found ain't nothing for a single lunger with 36,0000 miles . I had a XR with 15000 that was out of round .014 and taper wore ..019 . Only wear marks not finger nail catching scratches on any part of bore. Will be keeping this cyl.as its still good even with broke bottom skirt. Ok so back to shop cleaning I thought to myself .
 
#24 · (Edited)
Done and pretty impressive .

Sadly now I will not be able to find anything ever again. .
But it's clean and tool box is full and even rolls around the wood shop area very nicely .
Wheeler is freaked out its so clean and feels like it's not a place she feels comfortable in again . Devin just left and told Wheeler as she was leaving to not worry as by end of the week it will be right back to the norm .
Dang super smart physic masters degree girl .......
 
#27 ·
Oh yea Goodwill 1/2 sale today and found 2 belts now on green army bag also accomplished today .
It's hard to see in the movie and still pix , but that's what attaches bag to sissy bar . Chain, padlock , and helmet finishes sissy bar end of project . Still looking for old school tear drop headlight assembly .
 
#30 ·
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