EMS_0525,

I fully understand the feelings you are having right now. They are NOT enjoyable, not good and certainly not deserved.

After enduring that once in my life, I found a cure for the situation. Another reason why I think Multiple Bike Disorder needs to be put into a pill form! So you can take a pill and develop the malady for yourself.

Why is it so good to have? Well in your situation, you simply climb onto another bike and enjoy the ride while the KLX is being repaired.

Sure am interested in finding out what the problem is. Please keep us informed. Sounds like you might have a decent mechanic. If necessary, bring him a six-pack of his favorite adult beverage so you can find out what really was wrong with your KLX.

 

If i could afford to have that disorder.. i would believe me... yea i guess on the upside of this whole thing is that i seem to have found a good shop/mechanic... ill keep you guys uptodate dont worry.

 

EMS, I don't know if you read my report "two 950's and two 250's..."? My day ended on the side of the road waiting for a friend with a truck to come get me.

It sounds like the same symptoms, yesterday was the first time in 2600 miles that I had to add oil. I did have a spill, and the bike was upside down for a few minutes, I thought that I had lost oil from that. But after hearing about you losing oil, maybe it's burning oil? Just before the engine quit it was running rough, It then started tapping like crazy, next I heard a loud snap, engine quit and I coasted to the side of the road. I'm going to pull the valve cover tonight to take a look. But I think the compression release gave way.

I'll keep you posted.

 

yea i read that... if that compression release just broke apart i dont know if the enging would stop unless it got all the way over in the timing chain.... i would think it would just make alot of noise vibrating around, and possibly mess up one of the cams... good luck with your bike man... problems suck....

 

When I was talking to Sullydirt on the cellphone last night, he told me he was running down the road, the bike started to make some noise and then it just stopped running.

When he hit the starter button, the bike just turned over and over. Kind of sounded like there was little or no resisitance.

I've never pinned the compression release open, but it sure does sound like that is what went wrong with his bike. If the compression release has both valves open, the motor would just stop running and it would turn over, very easy.

I'm waiting to hear what happened.

 

Mmmm, I don't know. If the compression release was holding the valves open, you'd have a problem when the piston came up to TDC. One of the fundamental tenants of matter is that two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time, so either the values aren't being held open, or something's the matter with the piston if a valve was held open. (e.g.: the piston has a new hole).

In any case, there are two many people in the KF community that seem to have similar sounding problems around that compression release device. Considering the number of people in our community, is that statistically significant with regard to all KLX250 sales, and if so, should Kawasaki be doing some kind of proactive recall? (I suppose that would depend if people were getting hurt by the device failure, or are engines just breaking without any risk to the rider - in which case the warranty coverage is sufficient.) You'd think the frequency of this would be at least a blip on Kawasaki's radar.

If Kawasaki chooses to address it through their warranty program, I wonder if dealers could be persuaded to proactively replace things BEFORE they break, since it would result in a lower repair cost (e.g.: just replacing the cam), than if they were to wait, and risk having a larger repair cost (e.g.: pulling the cylinder & splitting the case to replace a broken piston)? On the other hand, maybe they've already done the statistics and found that most failures occur AFTER the warranty expires, in which case its more revenue for Kawasaki AND the dealers?!??

So, here's the plan: We figure out a way to actually CAUSE the compression release to fail before the warranty expires -- ideally in a way that also destroys the piston. Then, since the dealer has to pull the whole top end anyway, we pay the difference in cost for the 300cc upgrade and have it installed for FREE.

Sound reasonable, or did I just have too much coffee this morning?

 

mmm.... i like your thinking..... unless you get caught messin with it to keep the release open...

 

I took my valve cover off yesterday, it doesn't look good, the intake camshaft gear is gone (dropped down into the engine), the timing chain also dropped. The exhaust cam seems to be locked up, I can't tell if it's because of the KACR, but it seems to be. I didn't want to investigate too much, I'll let the dealer do that. I had to add oil for the first time that day and it looks like there was definately oil starvation in the top end. Not good.

When EMS and Deej were complaining about tapping I mentioned that I had a tap as well. One day Jellyfish was over and his bike had a few hundred miles on it at that time. We ran both bikes next to each other and it sounded like he had the same noise, so I assumed I was being paranoid.

If you think you have a tap, get it checked out, and keep a close eye on your oil level. I had checked my oil the morning before my ride and later that day after 100 some miles I had to add half a quart.

I'm not sure what I'll do when the bike is fixed. I'm afraid it will never be the same. I'm going to try and get the bike to the dealer today. Jellyfish, if you're not busy, can I take you up on your offer to use the truck? I'll buy dinner and fuel.

 

wow man that really sucks.... good luck with ur fix... i would be worried that it wouldnt be the same either... i feel you pain man.... just makes you wanna [sm=shootshoot.gif][sm=violent053.gif] good luck with ur warranty work....

 

Man, sully, that couldn't suck any worse. I completely hate it for you. Like EMS, I agree that I would always question the bike. With that much carnage in there, you might push for a full engine replacement. In lieu of that, maybe you can push for a free multi-year warranty extension since the engine will always be suspect.

Just a thought. I hope this ends well for you.

Chris