Rolling in Farkles

The farkles continue. This past weekend I devoted some time to remedy last Thursdays stall and difficulty starting. I spent significant time Friday researching the KLR carburetor and proper adjustments as well as a write-up on the .22 cent mod and other carb mods. This thread at KLR650.net really makes it look easy. http://www.klr650.net/forums/showthread.php?t=41112

I decided if I was going to pull the carb I would go ahead and make some of these popular and cheap adjustments to make my pig more responsive, stronger feeling and start up better despite the fact that it may drink a little more. In a sense I figured an attentive adjustment to the fuel system would remedy my running woes and possibly make it better.

Armed with the Clymer manual some detailed reading of the KLR650.net posting above, a pan full of basic tools and a blanket I began my tear down of the carb and connectors. Pulling the carb was surprisingly easy. The only difficult part is stretching the sub frame a little so that the air intake could be pulled from the carb as it was shimmied out and detaching a somewhat delicate choke cable.

Once the carb was out it was disassembled a little and the floats were checked and jets were cleaned with a carb cleaner spray. Overall it was nearly clean as new already. Using a drill the slider was drilled out slightly to increase vacuum a little to improve off idle response. A stainless steel #4 washer from Ace Hardware was placed on the needle as per the directions. We went to drill out the plug on the idle mixture screw and it appeared the previous owner had already done it and the mixture screw was 2.5 turns out resulting in a significantly rich carb. "Maybe that was part of my problem as it would want to stall when it warmed up or hard to start when hot"

The screw was removed and a slightly smaller bolt was ground down and soldered to the end of the Idle mixture screw. Also the insert(hole) to the screw was ground down a little on the carb as to make quick adjustments much easier.

The Idle mixture screw was turned completely in and turned out 1.75 turns as per the KLR650.net suggestion. The carb was completely reassembled and carefully placed back into the pig. Attached hoses and lines as well as choke, re-bolted the sub frame and attached the gas tank. The battery quickly wore down as I tried to crank it over. I grabbed some starter fluid and a battery charger and had it running a few minutes later. The KLR idled for about 10 minutes warming up and the cooling fan kicked in. During this time I reattached the tank, seat and plastics. All seemed fine and after about 10 minutes I cut the engine. Then AGAIN it would not start and the battery quickly slowed the cranking only after a couple 5 sec attempts. "Maybe its electrical?"

The plastics were once again removed and seat detached. It was late so a charge was set on the battery for the night.
The next morning the pig turned right over and was quickly turned off after running some tests on the electrical to check for voltage drops and its ability to hold a charge. It was determined that the battery was not great. The voltage would drop to 6v or so under load frequently after the fan would run while the KLR was powered off. This drain on what appeared to be a weak battery as well as a very rich adjustment was the best guess as to why the KLR would not start when hot or want to stall when warming up.

The Idle mixture screw was adjusted a little more while watching idle speed drops and it was left to idle until hot. We settled on about 1.9 turns out.

After about 7 or so minutes the engine showed 3\4 temp on the gauge. It was powered off and then amazingly it powered back on after the second attempt cranking it over. It was again powered off and again it turned over on the second attempt to crank it over. DEFINITELY AN IMPROVEMENT.

I dawned all my gear and took it for a spin...with my cellphone on me. I worked it hard maxing the throttle and pushing it toward 85MPH. It felt more solid and in a strange way smoother all the way through the RPM range. Those mods seemed to help. I got carried away and at least once red lined it quickly shifting through the gears and feeling the front slightly lift each time I released the clutch under my 260lb body.

I rode back and quickly powered it off. Once again it turned over on the second attempt. Its not perfect but predictable and reliable enough. Conclusion...crappy battery combined with poorly adjusted carb = stalling with hard to start when hot. "I hope"

This has lead me to my very soon to be done farkle. An Odyssey PC545 battery.

There are no guides on installing this somewhat odd shaped but powerful battery in a KLR. I do know it has to be mounted sideways and the negative battery cable will likely need extended. I will do a write-up and picture walkthrough as I do this mod.

Farkles to date:

Tank bag (Original owner mod)
Doohicky (Original owner mod)
Happy Trails engine guard (Original owner mod)
Safety interlocks disabled\removed (Original owner mod)
Reloacated license plate (Original owner mod)
Dual 12V waterproof cigarette lighter outlets. (Original owner mod)
Low profile magnetic drain plug
Eagle Mike drill through 10MM sub frame upgrade
Carb Shim Needle .22 cent mod
Carb slider drill vacuum hole mod
Carb idle fuel mixture adjusted 1.9 turns out
Idle fuel mixture soldered screw on for easy adjustment
Amsoil 20w-50 synthetic oil and filter


Upcoming projects:
Odyssey PC545 battery upgrade
Pro Rally 714 gel grips
Carb T(V)-mod
Tusk bark busters