I think something else is going on here or we'd have many, many reported failures like this. Many of us have way more miles on our KLX's at this point without that failure. Don't get me wrong...I have no idea what it is, but it's definitely curious.

 

Well, I think it is the starter clutch.
If you ride on the road, you have no problems.
If you ride on the dirt and and up at low rpm's, on a up hill, going slow, don't use the clutch much, one has a propensity to stall. Stalling & up hill, tends to kick the engine backwards on the final gasp! I always thought this was the ACR, but I was wrong about this too! It is the starter clutch, which if turned backwards engages the starter and turns it backwards. Unfortunately with the moment of inertia of that system, the gears/bearings cannot handle the sudden load.

 

Darrel, you know how and where I ride probably more than anyone else on this site, and you know the bulk of the miles on my bike are off road and singletrack. Due to an OEM speedo death at some point, I have a minimum of 20K and a max of about 25K on this bike. Now, I will say I don't stall the bike very much, as frankly the bike is darned good at not stalling on sketchy climbs. Still, I think a bit about Cousin Larry and some others who've utterly abused their bikes over time...albeit perhaps with good routine service...and I think this issue may be something else other than relatively normal wear. Not trying to argue with you, but I'm su****ious of some other cause...speculative of course.

 

Sabotage?

 

Hey...you're old enough to remember Bugs Bunny, right? The Gremlin episode.

 

I quite don't know what you mean, are you saying my kawa is powered by gremlin's, i thought there were squirrels in there eating rice!
Stopped by the shop today to check the status..... I guess they got the bushings out, the new starter & flywheel gear & etc are on order. He is still contacting his brother on machining some type of bearing to put in there in lieu of new cases.
He was thinking bronze bearing material. I was thinking tool steel, heat treated steel, or martinizing the steel. I think it would be a lot easier to wear the gear and replace it than mess with those bearings again.

 

Got my bike back from the shop today.
They made some new bronze bushings to go in the cases for the starter idler gear & installed a new clutch-starter gear. The shop buttoned it back together.
I spent the morning putting the new Yacugar shock on my beamer & the afternoon putting probend barkbusters on the kawa. It was a full day.
Still have to do the final yearly maintanence on both, maybe this weekend, but at least they are back running.

 

Yacugar shock?...man, I had to look that one up. Holland...that's unique. Looks like a pretty innovative shock there.

 

I am certain that the original shock has been blown or just a POS on the trail.
This one is a little pricey, but it is fully adj race shock & rebuildable. I got the remote preload adj'ster & spent about a day modifing the mount to get the resevoiour hose away from the exhaust pipe.

 

Well the bike was leaking oil terrible from the left case on my first spring ride getting lost going to Cherry, Az so I tore it open today. The guys at the shop forgot to install the 2 bolts inside the starter idle gear area. Don't know that I can blame them as they didn't take it apart. I think I'll add some goop on the gasket, just so I don't have to get in there again for oil leak issue.

It ran like a champ, except the dribble from the left case.

Anyway, ordered some new gaskets today, we will try again. Got to get it running again before I can investigate the steering hunting issue.