I was buzzing home yesterday evening after a short ride to visit a friend in the hospital who almost cut his hand off trying to cut his front fender with a razor knife (always cut *AWAY* from yourself) and the bike sputtered a few times and died. Luckily, I was in the right lane and was able to coast to the next side street. The lights were out and it wouldn’t turn over. I took off the side panels and looked for trouble. I found a harness that had worked itself loose.

This is pretty much how it looked,

The harness is located here.

I assume it has to do with keeping the battery charged. I plugged it back in until it snapped and tried to start the bike. The lights came on but weak and the starter would only spin once or twice then the familiar clicking was heard. I had to have my wife leave a friend’s birthday party to come and give me a jump. This leads to me a question: The manual says to never try to start the bike by catching it in gear. Of course I tried to do just that in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears but no go. I could get my now sold 2004 TTR 225 to start in 2nd or 3rd with little trouble but the KLX250 wouldn’t. On page 62 the manual says to not catch the bike in gear to start but it’s under the catalytic converter heading so I assume it’s just to please the EPA. My other concern is that is says to not connect the NEG lead of a jumper cable to the NEG terminal on the battery. I couldn’t get the bike to start with an unpainted portion of the bike so I put it on the NEG terminal and it fired right up!

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to add my first bout with trouble. I know that if this would have happened to some of my *smarter* friends (see above/knife boy) they would have been hitching a ride home. So, if your bike quits on you, check all the connections. The harness didn’t even look disconnected but if you check the photo you can see it’s not plugged in all the way. Hope this info helps. I’ll be starting the mods tomorrow!

Anybody know if the clutch lever is the same as any other models? I’m looking for a shorty…

 

Ya I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I found the same problem. Its nice that it was no major problem.

 

Heck, I'm logging off right now and go tie wrap that thing up !

 

Ryan, my thoughts. Once you battery gets below 10volts, the ignition won't work. Therefore push starting may or may not work. If you do push start it the excess fuel in the exhaust may damage the CAT, but I wouldn't be too concerned about it. As for jumping, the standard procedure is to hook up the RED and then the BLACK to frame as to keep any sparking from igniting any battery gasses. If you hook up the bike first,red/red,black/black, then hook up the other source (car), red first, then black to frame. That should be just as safe.

 

Isn't this bike just like the KLR650 in this reagard? i.e. no battery needed to run the ignition? If so, it should push start just fine with a dead battery.

 

I wasn't able to push the KLR with a dead batt, but I have with a low batt(not enough for the starter). Most electronic ignitions require a minimum voltage. At times I miss the old points ignition, but only when I'm pushing be myself. There is a fine line between go and no go.

 

The ignition system on the KLR650 doesn't require any juice from the battery at all to start. It's on a dedicated circuit out of the windings on the stator. That's one of the great things about that old tractor of a bike is it can be push started with dead lump of coal for a battery. I believe the KLX is the same but I don't know for sure.