Having all this cool stuff in hand, I decided that I couldn't wait to do the upgrade and set out on the job first thing this morning.
I ordered the complete kit that includes (in addition to the Doohickey, Torsion Spring and a new Rotor Bolt) the inner and outer crank cover gaskets and the special tools (Rotor Holder Wrench and Rotor Puller). The kit was $138, plus $13.45 shipping so the whole thing came out to $151.45. The only things that needed were my stock tools, two quarts of oil (I did not change filter), some gasket sealer, grease and thread locker...oh, and my Service Manual.
There are so many videos and writeups on the Doohickey that I'm not going to waste your time reading through the horny details of my Doohicky Upgrade. I'll give you some thoughts and ideas and then, suffice it to say that the mod was fairly straight forward following the instructions provided by Eagle Mike and tracking the associated steps in the Service Manual. I personally don't think that this project is suitable for someone who doesn't have a good deal of automotive/motorcycle repair/maintenance experience.
I'll tell you one thing, it's jobs like this that make me wish I had a motorcycle lift table. I'm nursing an injured knee and being able to work at waist level would have been a lot better than working a ankle and knee level. However, where I normally use my modified jack lift for working on my motorcycles, for this job I laid out my hitch carrier right on my garage floor and strapped the KLR in for the job. Worked out great; really sturdy...
...but the work area was still pretty low and uncomfortable.
One thing that I learned in this process was that the Doohickey is not a constantly active chain tensioner and this new knowledge resolves one of the areas in maintenance that had me a little confused.
Among the routine maintenance procedures is the "adjustment" of the tensioner (i.e. doohickey) every 7,500 miles. The procedure is to loosen the idle shaft lever bolt and then torque it in at a specified level. That's no adjustment; that's loosening a bolt and then tightening a bolt. Nothing got adjusted!
Ah, but something did get adjusted, the tensioner on the counterbalance chain. The loosening of the idle shaft bolt frees the tensioner spring to pull on the tensioner lever drawing down on the counter balance chain. Once the spring has done that, the lever is tightened back down. This is the only time the tensioner, in fact, tensions the counterbalance chain. It is not constantly doing it as I had thought. Viola!
Speaking of the tensioner spring (as shown in the photo above), the problem with Gen2 KLR650 tensioner springs is that they lose their spring, they get sprung and stretch out becoming ineffective. So they say, anyway. Mine had all kinds of spring left in it at 3,700 miles and the tensioner was working fine.
Here's a look at the hole that was drilled in the inner case to accommodate the torsion spring. I was thrown a little on this procedure because my inner case was different than any other that I'd seen on you tube videos and write ups. At the end of the day, I just followed the 5:00-5:30 location relative to the torsion lever hole. Seemed to work okay and nothing blew up when I ultimately got to starting up the bike.
One point on the cases is that there are two levels, and inner (as shown in photo above) and an outer (as shown in next photo). Each of the cases has a metallic gasket and I purchased new gaskets ($44 Retail Value) for this mod. That was done in an abundance of caution should I damage one of the stock gaskets (and the Service Manual calls for new gaskets), but otherwise the stock gaskets were about what you'd expect at 3,700 miles. They were nearly perfect. While I did replace them, I saved the old ones should I ever find myself in a situation needing the gaskets.
The other replacement part was the Rotor Bolt ($17.00 Retail Value), also called for in the Service Manual. Another questionable expenditure. It's a big bolt and while the ultimate torque on this bolt is 130 ft/lbs, when you hold it you're left with the impression that it can take the pressure of that torque more than once.
The gaskets and the bolt are $61 in retail value, but the total, combined kit is discounted from the individual retail values. By my calculations, if I'd excluded those three parts and paid the same postage, the total parts costs would have been $110.25 compared to the $151.35 that I paid. Something to think about.
Finally, the photo below provides a look at the new doohickey and torsion spring.
Like I said there are many tutorials out there on how to accomplish this upgrade. There are a lot of parts to deal with and risks associated with lost parts or not getting things back together properly. As I also said, the job isn't for someone who hasn't had a lot of experience working on engines, and motorcycles in particular. For me, it was a three hour process, but I took my time and made sure everything I was doing was in accordance with the instructions and Service Manual. I can see guys that have done a lot of these knocking them out in an hour.
What did I accomplish? At this time nothing. I removed a perfectly healthy appendix. However, if the masses of KLR owners are right about the tensioner becoming sprung and ineffective, then I got an early jump on it and can focus on more important stuff...like riding (when my knee heals up).
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Added 5-29-16.
I see a lot of people who buy used KLR650s ask how to tell if the doo was done. It would be nice if you could just take off the outer cover for a peek. But looking over all my photos, I really think it's a matter of getting behind the fly wheel/rotor and starter gear and that's a good deal of work.
I made a record in my log and I put the littler sticker that came with my Eagle Mike Doohickey Kit on the side of the fuel tank, under the side cover to protect it. That's about the best I can doo (no pun intended).
What kind of gasket sealer did you use? Some of the forums suggest installing the gaskets dry. I plan on doing this upgrade soon.
ReplyDeleteThe gaskets are metallic; I didn't know that going into this project. I purchased the Eagle Mike Kit that included the inner and outer gasket ($44.00 Retail Value); I was exercising an abundance of caution in the event I ripped a gasket during removal. That's much less likely when carefully removing a metallic gasket. I can now say that the gaskets that I removed were perfectly suitable for reuse. While I did use the new gaskets (since I bought them) I've saved the old gaskets for potential future uses.
ReplyDeleteI used a hi-temp RTV silicone that is both oil resistant and suited specifically for aluminum. The product I specifically used is Pro Seal Red Hi-Temp RTV (No. 80726)...because I had a tube of the stuff. If you've got to get some, get the clear or grey. The "red" resulted in more cleanup on my black engine cases.
When applying the silicone as a sealant the old adage, "less-is-more" applies!
As far as using a sealant, the Service Manual requires sealant for the sensor lead grommets and area of the cover where the sensor leads come out. Otherwise, it doesn't call for sealing the whole gasket surface area. It also calls for replacement of the gaskets, which, as mentioned, imo could be reused in my case (no pun intended :) ).
However, metal engine parts expand and contract giving rise to potentials for leaks. Also, I had just laid new metallic gaskets in place of the gaskets that had expanded and contracted into form with the covers over the last 3,700 miles. I think a thin layer of sealant is worth the effort.
Maybe those guys recommending against sealers didn't have a problem, but what if you got this project done and there was a small oil leak originating from the "inner" case cover (remember there are two layers of crank case cover and two gaskets)? A leak from the outer case cover wouldn't be too difficult to tackle, but a leak from the inner case would require pulling the flywheel, starter gear, cluster gears, etc. That would be quite a bit of work that I avoided with a thin layer of silicone. Perhaps over cautious. I don't have any leaks either.