53 replies to this topic

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

Beezerboy, on 21 November 2012 - 12:43 AM, said:

the headlight fuse is a 10 amp? if so, what happens is sometimes the hi/lo switch hits both circuits at the same time & that takes out the fuse, change to a 15 or 20. mine blew it's first one & replaced with a 15 and it lasted 8 years & going strong.

I was blowing 20 amp fuses.  But it's fixed now.

Beezerboy, on 21 November 2012 - 12:43 AM, said:

the forks need a bit more oil... add 10 cc to each side & try that. if still soft add 10 more. stick withe 10 wt oil or ATF. 10-15 psi air on top helps too.  when you can afford it go to the Ricor valves

Why do you say they need more oil?  I've alread done my front suspension.  Pregessive rates, oil, seals, preload.

[Beezerboy TT Bronze Member]

I thought you said the forks were still bouncy.... when they are bouncy, you add more oil and/or air pressure. both adjust the quantitly of air in the fork, which adjusts the softness ... you neeg some, but too much results in fork dive. the Kawi manual can be confusing too. best way to set the oil level is to pull the springs, collapse the fork, and fill until oil is 170mm from the top of the tube

[slugdung TT Newbie]

Can't believe someone else out there is fixing up a KLR 600. Bought an 84 about 8 months ago and have been working on bring it back to life. Found a guy in SoCal that had modified a 650 swing arm to fit a 600. I picked it up for $150, then another $25 for a rear brake caliper and master cylinder, and finally another $100 for a 650 rear tire with rotor ( the guy thought that the rim was bent and it wasn't). So now I have a rear disc set and with the stainless steel front brake line and an 08 front master cylinder thing brakes so much better. I have a set of DRZ front forks and triples on the way which will take care of the front end. And like you I would like to get some more power out of it, found 98mm pistons and aftermarket cams that I'm looking into, but would like to mount a 650 jug on it so that I can install a 103 mm piston which would bump up the displacement to around 630? Just do know if it will work or how much it will take. When I get a chance I will post some pics of the bike in progress, haven't been good about recording the process. I really dig your bike and love the color, had an 04 ninja the same color, Kawi green!

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

Over Thanksgiving.

https://www.youtube....&feature=g-crec

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

Not bouncy but I continue to bottom on jumps.  I called racetech.  Gave me some tuning tips.  Will be about a month or so.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

Some snow riding.

Yeah it wasn't easy.  We made it to about 3 miles with the trail like this.  The entire thing was like this for us.  Hard work.  But loads of fun.  We ended up turning around and heading out.  And as we went out we were looking at our tracks and they were all over the place.  There was aobut 4" of snow with ice underneath.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

slugdung, on 27 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

Can't believe someone else out there is fixing up a KLR 600. Bought an 84 about 8 months ago and have been working on bring it back to life. Found a guy in SoCal that had modified a 650 swing arm to fit a 600. I picked it up for $150, then another $25 for a rear brake caliper and master cylinder, and finally another $100 for a 650 rear tire with rotor ( the guy thought that the rim was bent and it wasn't). So now I have a rear disc set and with the stainless steel front brake line and an 08 front master cylinder thing brakes so much better.

I saw that bike build thread.  He went a little overboard.  I did consider his rear swing arm though.  I should have tried to buy it.

slugdung, on 27 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

I have a set of DRZ front forks and triples on the way which will take care of the front end.

I hope they are the inverted SM ones.  They are still soft and need tuning though.

slugdung, on 27 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

And like you I would like to get some more power out of it, found 98mm pistons and aftermarket cams that I'm looking into, but would like to mount a 650 jug on it so that I can install a 103 mm piston which would bump up the displacement to around 630? Just do know if it will work or how much it will take.

Look at Wossner for the piston.  A 650 jug is a tight squeeze.  Infact I don't think you'll be able to get the valve cover off with it.  I've measured it based on my buddies bike and it's tight enough I don't want to spend the money to try.   That extra 1/2" is critical.  That Wossner piston is sweet and do that with a port and polish and you'll have plenty of power.  You also can't use a 650 piston on a 600 rod.  The pin is a different diameter so you'll have to put a 650 crank and rod for the extra stroke.

slugdung, on 27 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

I really dig your bike and love the color, had an 04 ninja the same color, Kawi green!

Thanks.  I'm actually trying to see if I can fit a KLR250 tank on now.  I want a plastic tank with a screw on cap.  Mine keeps leaking when it's full.  I can't get a gasket anywhere and I've made my own and it still leaks.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

Been working on the front suspension.  I was under the impression that the forks were pretty much identical to the 650 forks.  The springs are the same, and both 38mm.  However when I went to install the cartridge emulators from racetech, they don’t go down all the way.  They stop about 6” from the top of the fork tube.  Well turns out the 600 tubes taper to a thicker wall at the bottom triple.  So the internal dimension is 29mm vs 31mm.  Stronger forks than the 650.  Racetech helped me out in measuring my stuff and getting me the part that would fit.  The new ones are on the way.  Which is good because I already drilled the holes in the dampening rods which essentially means I can’t go back.

Just in case you are reading this and don’t know what an emulator does, it basically allows you to adjust your dampening and rebound independently of each other, by putting a valve in the fork. So it’s been on my stand for a couple of weeks looking like gonzo from the muppets.



This has allowed me to do a couple things that I’ve been putting off.  No excuses now because I can’t ride.  I fixed some wiring issues.  I wrapped the harness in places where it was rubbing in rubber tube.  I also rerouted it to remove some pinch points.  Finally I made a new hot lead and my ends were pretty bad.


I also took off my stator cover again and JB welded it as I whacked it on the snow ride and it was leaking again.  I need to work on some skids.

Edited by hadfield4wd, 07 February 2013 - 05:30 PM.

[Flagstaff TT Bronze Member]

Think you'll like your emulators, I love mine in the fast, rough stuff. But on snow and ice, and the tough techinical stuff it's still a big heavy motorcycle.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

Well she’s back together.  The emulators went in great.  I ended up with FEGV-3501.  For reference for me later and tuning I used the yellow spring with 4 turns, 15w oil 160mm from the top.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

The emulators worked awesome.  What a huge difference being able to tune the forks.  I was able to keep the front end planted.  I was able to do stuff I wasn’t able to before.  I’m really very pleased.  I’m sure I have some fine tuning to do.  I want to see how they do at peddler next weekend.  I hope these cure all the bottoming.
Also I finally had to let go of the old Kawasaki bag.  It was tearing pretty bad and I was afraid I’d start losing tools.  I bought a Moose one and I like the quality.  Comes with a rain cover.  It’s a little bigger than I wanted but I can get both tubes in with a small tool kit so I’m happy.

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[lobeau TT Newbie]

You need that spring to releases the compression for starting. Centrifical  force overrides it once the engine is running. I took mine of to trouble shoot some other issues and it is no fun to kick start without it.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

lobeau, on 30 March 2013 - 07:13 PM, said:

You need that spring to releases the compression for starting. Centrifical  force overrides it once the engine is running. I took mine of to trouble shoot some other issues and it is no fun to kick start without it.

.

Well thanks for the description of how the automatic compression release works, but I'm not sure what it has to do with my thread.  I'm sure somebody will benefit from it.  Or you may have wanted this in another thread.

Edited by hadfield4wd, 31 March 2013 - 04:59 PM.

[hadfield4wd TT Bronze Member]

She's been burning some oil.  Well OK alot of oil.  So I checked the alst oil change was 3000 miles.  Oops.  hopefully this is jsut the typical KLR oil burn.  We'll see.  I have 2 projects int eh garage now.  I don't want another.