post that got erased due to the Thai sporadic internet reliability.

So I landed in Thailand with all my goodies for the KLX 250 w/300 jug (Big Gun exhaust, Bill Blues 34mm Mikuni Pumper carb, Hot Cams 101 grind cam) and got through customs with my 200 lbs of baggage (MX helmet, chest protector, sprockets, spares, etc by claiming I had an injury so could not walk well. They greeted me with a wheelchair and rushed me through immigration and customs in 5 minutes instead of the usual 45 minutes.

I arrived in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) and got to work installing the carb and working on the jetting. I started with the stock exhaust header and Thai aftermarket muffler, Twin air filter and no airbox lid.. I Spent 1 ½ days and was still not happy. This is my first four stroke dirt bike so did not have much relevant comparisons (ridden KTM 450,520, 525 exc’s XR 250,600’s) however the bike was responding lazily with no snap. I went from 38 pilot all the way to 55 and nothing to write home about in terms of throttle snap. Better than the CVK but not what I expect from a pumper. The main I went all the way from 128 to 155 and it was revving but made no power.

I pulled the plug and it was showing lean. I’m in 80-90 degree temps, 80% humidity currently and ride from 1500-5000 feet. Bottom line I was out of jets to go any richer. I really wanted to get it dialed without the lid but to no avail. I even rode up to 5000 feet to see how close we were and it never woke up.

One of the things I brought over was some Dirt Bagz soft saddle bags. Since at the time they had no brackets for the KLX I had some fabbed up over here in Thailand along with a small luggage rack. I am running the bags far enough forward and level with the top of the seat. By doing it this way I was able to tuck the rack in quite tightly round the number plates and keep them aesthetically decent.

Fabbing the brackets up.



Right side. Tabs were welded for the dirt Bagz to clip themselves to. I added the middle leg of the bracket to guarentee the pipe does not melt the side panel.



Left side. with room for the Chase Harper tool pouch to go behind the seat.



Bike loaded and on a 5 day Super motard (nothing but twisties) run.



Returning from a trip the head gasket blew and the motor sucked in water. I checked oil and water before the last 500 KM leg and all was fine. Got home and checked the oil and noticed the telltale white window and filler cap symptoms. Uh oh!! No idea if it took on water the last 2 KM’s or 500 km’s. The one way starter clutch was also not engaging well and making horrible sounds.

Tore the cylinder off and checked the rod. It seemed fine. I then yanked the side cases and removed the clutch pack to check the crank. It rotated fine with no apparent binding. At this point I could just bolt it back together after flushing the water out and prey for good luck and that hope I did no damage. For once in my life I played it safe though and thought since I planned to put some serious mileso n the KLX and cross through a few countries I better play it safe and dive into the motor if I could get spare parts.

The KLX is assembled in Thailand so originally thought spares should be no problem. Wrong. I originally tried to order hubs and rims but no go. They would have to be ordered from Japan and could take two months to get them here. Off to the dealer to see about their stock of bearings for the KLX. They only had a couple so I had to cross reference the rest. Turns out the bearings for the KLX are come from 3 countries: Taiwan, Malaysia and France. I got them at two different bearing supply houses. When I got all the bearings the cases got split.


Typical Thai shop reeking of German quality control and cleanliness. KLX with her innards regurgitated.

Turns out it was a good thing as two bearings were suspect. While I was looking over the crank I noticed the kick start gear was already installed. There is no kick start on the bike an no kick start parts at the dealer so its just extra weight for me sitting on the crank. We all know extra weight is no good if you are looking for snap right? So I removed the offending item in the hopes of quicker response. I had some casting flaws on the ports touched up to smooth the ports out a bit, installed a new timing chain while I was in there and luckily bought over a spare one way starter clutch ( aspring was broken in the starter clutch). I’m going through my spares pretty quickly at this rate. Hope I last through the next six months and don’t break anything else. I then broke out my lumpy Hot Cams

and bolted in them in, yummy. The motor was bolted back together with the Big Gun exhaust.

I’m guessing the head gasket failed due to the Thais not so stellar standards. When the valves clearances were last checked I bet the previous owner just reused the same head gasket. **** rolled downhill and I managed to be on the receiving end when I picked up the bike used.

The freshened motor fired up no problems and burbled away cleanly.

However I could not figure out the horrid lack of throttle snap. The carb was torn apart and the culprit was a bound accelerator pumper piston. The fuel stream resembles a 70 year prostate cancer victims urine stream. Stripped apart, bored out, cleaned, readjusted and put together to resemble a 20 year Irish man urine stream after a pub crawl. There we go, better throttle response. Still not yanking the front end off the ground but getting better. The carb was new from Bill Blue who is a stand up gent and reflects nothing on him. I’m sure I could of sent it back for him to correct however now I’m out of country I’m on my own.

I hurriedly got dressed for a break in dirt bike ride. How did the bike and ride go you ask??? Stay tuned for the next thread as it was not at all pretty.

 

Maaan U one crazy dude, but it shooo looks like fun!

 

Dean - not crazy at all, just searchng for a fun time. The riding over here is great both on and off road. Instead of losing my liscence for speeding over here I just have to smile, chat with the Thai cops a bit and most times let off. Worse case is a $3 fine and I'm on my way. Great compared to America and Britain with the Gatso cameras and rude coppers.

 

Wow, that's an awfully lot of parts your engine is in. I feel for you man, hope it all works out.

 

the one problem with riding over there is they got sh#%%t that'll eat you. i was in the P.I. for a stretch and would not even think of getting in water like that. looks like fun though.

i like the frame guards you have. where did you find them?

 

Brian - Yea, I was stressing splitting the cases and getting it back together correctly. So far it's running ok.

Frame guard is a replica of a Works Guard. Nice and big as boots rub the square frame tubes about a foot high with the square edges of the tubes taking the brunt.

I'm off on a 3 day off road exploration to see if the motor holds together. A 48 tooth is on the rear now for some needed accelration. The 42 tooth and motard rims have been shelved for some powder coated enamel black dirt rims.

I forgot to mention in the post the motor has 18k KM's, 300 tank, GPS hardwire, Commair cooling fans and the airbox lid is replaced after the fiasco two days ago I'll get to later. See you soon.

 

Team..
awesome adventure, very cool.
The pumper in stock form has the rod that signs off the pumper function after about half throttle. We made some shorter ones from welding rod of the same diameter, I forget how much shorter..something like .100" ..Shadetree has some info on it as does Bill around here somewhere..it does make higher rpm roll on power better. Just from observation, this pipe/carb combo doesn't like the airbox lid removed. There is such a thing as intake resonance, it's associated with airbox size, which is blown out the window with no airbox lid.And this could be part of the searching for correct jetting. My bike has the large snorkle, pumper and the HMF pipe, and I added a glass wrapped Yosh quiet tip. The jetting is sorted , here's the numbers:

Stock pilot. Hard to believe I know, but mine was always very hard to start with anything else
Standard needle at full rich, last notch towards the narrow end.
Shorter pumper rod
140 main.. I have a 142.5 to try , just for grins.
T handle airscrew set between 1.5 and 2 turns.
Make sure the bellcrank isn't rubbing the frame.There is about one mounting
angle that's right, and it can rub otherwise. Also, don't smash the little nylon washer under the needle's clip, it will tilt the needle to one side, causing the bike to run like crap. It's easy to overtighten the 2 hex head screws that hold the slide mechanism and smash a groove in that washer.
Lots of folks seem to come up with that 140 MJ when they are through sorting it out.
Have a great trip!

 

Bake - thanks for the tips. When I had the airbox lid removed I had jets all the way to 155 main jet and 55 pilotand it was still to lean. I have replaced the airbox lid and am back at 140 main jet, 40 pilot, clip on third position down from the top of the needle,and it seems a tad rich ( I'm at 2500 feet, 80% humidity and 90 degrees). So far its still not dialed with the jetting. But we're working on it. I'll also check the needle to make sure its mounted squarely, thanks for the heads up.

Still won't lift the front off the htrottle even with 48/14 gearing. All my wheelie photos are using the clutch.