All resolved!!! Many thanks to this forum for saving me a lot of money and waking my bike up. It's still not a KLX450 (wish it was), but it's so much better now than when I bought it.


First off, I never did anything mechanical in my life. This forum gave me confidence to try. THANK YOU!!!


First. Thank you for the help on my fluid of oil blowing out my weep hole. It was the seal in the water pump and a few other broken internals. All fixed at dealer for $400 bucks. They could not believe the bike actually lasted the 60 miles I rode with fluid and white smoke blowing out of the weep hole. But you all on here were the first to diagnose it. So thanks for that!!!

After all this I wanted to do the free mods. I kept reading the forum but my bike had a bunch more crap on it than others on here had. So I was confused. I kept at the forum and someone asked, maybe I have the California one. Perfect question as by someone on this forum.

I searched more and confirmed I am already the fourth owner of this machine with only 2500 miles on it! Original bike was from California. So yep. I have all kinds of other crap on my bike you all do not have. I have 2009 KLX250s California Model.


Now that I know it's a 2009 California model, I was in business to dig in. The bike was back from the dealer and ran so lean it was blowing blue flames out the back on deceleration while popping like someone was shooting from behind me with a shot gun.

So I took off all that California crap with the help of this forum. Took off the air injection system and some charcoal canister thing no one discussed on here. All these systems also went to some other canister which no one mentioned on here. And that canister also went to the gas tank in 2 places, the canister, and the air box as well. Bottom line is, once I removed everything I had to plug up 2 airbox holes (not only one) and 2 holes on front of carb near intake boot (not only one).

And since the gas tank had 5 hoses on the bottom of the tank on this model I had to handle that. Two of course go to the petcock and then the other is overflow. The other two are labeled red and blue and ran into that other thing I removed that no one mentioned on here. I now routed these hoses with 2-1/2 feet of fuel line hose from Auto Zone to the bottom of the bike as I figure they are just extra vent holes now and serve no other purpose. That seems to work out fine.

Removing all this California crap solved the blue flame issues, but she is still very lean as it requires no choke to start and it heats up fast. It's also slower to rev but I figure that's the lean issue maybe. Plus it has trouble holding a constant RPM which I also figure is a lean issue. Issue will be solved soon. Dyno Jet kit on the way!

Oh yes. To do these free mods, I had to remove the seat, tank, and all side and radiator plastics. This whole adventure was a confidence booster and it took me all dang day to figure it all out. Well worth it!!! Thanks to you all.


The bike came with a PowerBomb and FMF Power Core. While doing this adventure I also used 3 screw drivers and put on a new front tire and heavy duty tube by watching You Tube video on how to do it. Its a D606 per this forum's reviews on that tire and now matches the rear since that is what is on the rear (it's 1/2 worn rear).

I will invest in a set of tire irons though for when I change the rear as I did scratch my rim doing it this way. So thanks for the confidence to do this. The shop wanted to charge me $45 bucks to install the tire and tube. It took me an hour to work through this. Well worth it too! So thank to this forum, my confidence is high enough to do basic maintenance on my own. I may not install a 351 kit on my own, but simple mods and maintenance is now fun!!!

I also put on Renthal 110mm rise Jimmy Buttons that I love since I am 6'2''. Cables are snug, but reached just fine. This bar really makes the bike feel bigger. Only thing I don't like is they are wider than stock. But I will deal with that as I did not want to cut them.

I also put on a cheap MSR folding mirror that is worthless but keeps me street legal and won't break when I fall on the trails. I also went to a 13 tooth front sprocket.

Oh yeah. I also learned on this forum how to disconnect my kick stand kill switch on a recent post. So thank you for that. I removed it and twisted those wires together and capped those wires. I hated that thing so glad it's gone.

So now my bike is almost complete. All I have to do is the DynoJet kit once it arrives in a few weeks since it's on back order from the manufacturer I am told. Guess you all decided to buy all those kits!!! And thanks to this forum, I feel comfortable tearing apart the bike to do that carb work to get her running like a KLX250S should run.

Oh, but after the DynoJet is installed, there is one more thing I dream of. A 3.2 Gallon Tank for the bike that will just slip right on without any modification to the bike. I really need 150 mile range or better to feel comfortable taking her around the Arizona Desert since the closest gas may be 20 miles away (so that's 40 miles round trip before I even begin to ride!). IMS, come save my day!!!

Ya'll rock. Hey, anyone around Phoenix want to ride sometime? Let me know. My schedule sucks as my days off are Tuesday and Wednesday. Those days off will change to something better in August I hear. But if anyone wants to ride, I am all for it.

 

Glad to hear it all worked out! You might consider a set of BarkBuster handguards! I had the jungle applying the brakes for me before I got mine. Also will save you a few $ not haveing to replace bent levers.

Cheers Jim

 

$400 to replace the seal - ouch! That's almost a big bore kit! That was probably $30 in parts! haha

Good job on getting it sorted out though. Now you can have fun again

 

Wow, by you typing so much, I'm guessing you are really happy. And yes, California is the special state where they screw up most good things. They even have their own special PCM programming on vehicles. So now that you have your KLX back, let the good times roll.

 

BTW, it starting with no choke would indicate a rich condition, not lean...

 

Yea the no choke thing is a rich issue, not lean as that is a deal where you have too little gas not too much. The jet kit may still help but it dosen't sound like your problems have much to do with leaness.

 

WOW you did a lot in a few weeks! Welcome and enjoy.. ur going to love the bike once its dialed in (and even if not dialed in)... cant stop riding mine!

 

Seeing as the bike came with an after market pipe. you might want to check to see if the jetting has been changed already. If it has then the pilot jet screw cover would already be missing. Might save you some cash. Just a thought.

 

agree that the jet kit may already be installed.

and ICBW, but i thought all the 09s where all the same (i.e. 50 state legal, no special bike produced just for CA, at least that is what my title said).