KLR650 Parts Bike or…Not?

I need to keep myself busy, so I sold a few outboard motors that I didn't have a boat for and bought this KLR650 for cheap. How cheap you ask? Pretty cheap...

It had exactly two things going for it, it would start long enough to hear the engine run and it has a registration.

Otherwise it's been beaten hard and is in bad shape, it has the wrong rear shock on it and the exhaust is full of holes and is obnoxious. I believe every piece of plastic is cracked and I think it needs fork seals. Oh and it hasn't really run according to the po in 3 years.

Step one: It came with a carb kit. Well, it came with most of a carb kit. So I took the carb off and drained out what appeared to be mixed gas and rust in equal parts. First impressions are that the carb wasn't that bad inside just set up wrong. Air bleed was bottomed out, I believe the needle was installed wrong. The kit included new jets so I installed those as well. 
I'm no carb pro but I put it together again and despite the choke being mangled (common klr problem/parts are on the way) the bike fired up, held an idle after it warmed up for 30 seconds and would rev up which it wouldn't before. 
Also worth noting , as far as bike carbs are concerned this thing is huge! At least compared to what I've worked on in the past.

It looks like all the plastic is aftermarket, so no loss if it is cracked. That should be much more fun than outboards without boats.

In reply to matthewmcl :

How can you tell? Honest question, they have clearly been poorly painted. Unsure if I'll paint or try and wrap the panels and tank when done the mechanical stuff. Either way I'm working on repairing using permatex plastic weld and it works super well. 

In reply to 1SlowVW :

My bad, I was entirely incapable of comprehending that someone would go to so much trouble to paint KLR plastic, even if done poorly.

If it bothers you that it looks poorly done and wrap is an option, check the cost of sticker kits. That is pretty easy and covers a lot of faults. It can also look more "on purpose" than a solid color.

In reply to matthewmcl :

The same kind of person who takes a whole carb apart and doesn't use the new jets or o rings in the carb kit. 
 

While the plastics are curing and I'm waiting on choke parts I better do something about the boogered together cobra exhaust. 

Assembled with the finest self tappers and not an ounce of packing left. Plan A was to repack it and ad a downturn to the end but honestly the whole can was in bad shape so I moved on to plan B. 
 

Universal ATV muffler was found in old stock at work and sold at a deep discount. 
Some chop saw fabrication and I'll rivett this together so it's serviceable in the future. Still needs a support tab welded but very happy with how it came out so far. 

Everything seems to be off to a good baseline here. I'll second a sticker kit and or just slapping random stickers on the plastic.

In reply to clutchsmoke :

Thanks for the positive words, looks like most of the graphics and or sticker kits online are for the 08+ body style. We'll see what happens. May just spray it all white via rattle can and call it good enough. 

One step forward 3 back, battery sits in the airbox but someone cut it up. So battery was held in by zip ties. Will need to fab brackets. 
Fixed 6 twist and tape wiring connections as the bike had a short somewhere under the seat. Re-routed and zip tied wiring out of the way...
 

Big thing for the evening was finishing the exhaust with braces and filling the last couple pin holes in the pipe before the muffler. 

Built a battery box tonight. Tried to salvage the petcock but it leaks like crazy so I ordered the finest manual offshore produced unit I could find. 
Painted the pipe with vht then I test painted one panel. The pipe came out great. The panel not so much...maybe a re sand then some adhesion promoter this time? We'll see. Choke parts are due tomorrow just before the hurricane makes landfall. 

With a new choke plunger installed and float raised a bit it would idle and take throttle ok but still seemed hard to start. 
So off comes the valve cover only to discover one intake valve has 0 clearance and one exhaust valve is tight. Swapped a couple shims and got 3 out of 4 in spec. Going to the kawi dealer on lunch to hopefully grab a 245 shim and then button this back up. 

I could tell the plastic had been painted since this generation of KLR only came in Kawasaki Green for one year. And it wasn't faded any since the plastics on these fade after like 3 days outside. Luckily you can scrub the fading off.

And they like valve adjustments often for sure.

In reply to GCrites :

Yeah, it's a shame about the plastic. The bike was originally white which was a good look.

Valves are in spec now and it certainly seems to run better but seems lean and still doesn't love starting.

Picked up an 08 rear shock yesterday and a brake lever so maybe I'll get a little work done tonight. 

Since the plastic was already painted I figured why not fix the cracks and give it a coat of something a little less in your face. 

Duplicolor forest green and some generic white spray paint all clear coated from a rattle can and I'm pretty sure it's a cosmetic improvement. 
I also had a little test ride yesterday, bike seems to work alright. New rear tire should arrive tomorrow and I'll probably toss some rear wheel bearings in there while I'm at it.

That color is a lot like the late '90s/early 2000s plastic. Weird thing about the late '90s plastic is that it looks green in real life but photographs dark blue.

In reply to GCrites :

Yeah, I might still spray the tank silver to get closer to an oem look. 

Pic from the other side showing the final exhaust.

New tire is almost on the rim but gave up for the night when blood sugar went low.

Next up is gauges (tach worked and now doesn't) and a headlight. I think I'll go single round and forget highway comfort. 
 

Clearly not a parts bike. Every first gen KLR looks like that if they've been ridden for the intended purpose. 

Good for you if you got paint to look decent on those plastics. I tried painting mine orange as a faux KTM but it was riddled with fish eyes so gave up and sprayed it with bedliner. 

Be sure to check the doohickey spring and replace the bolts for the rear subframe if you plan on carrying anything moderately heavy on the rear rack. I have an 'Action Packer' case drilled to fit that rack with all the hardware I'd give you. Not worth the cost of shipping due to it's size but if you're close to PA you can have it.

In reply to ddavidv :

David, 

thanks for the offer on the topper but I don't even have a rear rack haha. That and I'm north of Maine in that strange land of maple syrup and mooses.

The paint wasn't as easy as I hoped, eventually I got a system down where I sanded down with 220 then a heavy wash down of super clean degreaser. Hose wash, pat dry 2 coats of duplicolor then hit it with clear before the paint fully cures. Doing anything other than that resulted in fish eyes of that lovely spidery finish. Still may pull the tank and paint it silver.

A buddy of mine has a spare KC day lighter so I'm thinking that will be the headlight and I'll just rig up a small led spot for a daytime running light. 

Klr650, now featuring a real rear tire and a working tach! Good hour in the garage tonight. 

First try on the tire was a failure, but today I had some help and access to a tire machine , an experienced hand helped me pull it off, patch the pin hole and put it all back together. Proper tools make all the difference sometimes.

With that done I took the bike for a 5 mile shake down. It still needs forks and brakes done and the handle bars straightened. And it cold starts poorly. But it's getting better and better. 
 

Yesterday was warm and I didn't feel like wrenching so I hopped on the KLR and went for a little ride. Was probably about 5 miles from home when it cut out. Luckily a pheasant hunter gave me a lift back to town and when I went back to get the bike with a buddy it fired up and made it home (all be it while lean popping and seemingly starving for fuel). 
I think the carb just gummed up from sucking some rust particles and gunk from the tank. Maybe I'll pull it apart some night this week. 

Ugh a bike dying while out on a ride is never fun

i had to pull and clean out a carb because of the same thing once.   But on my little Honda it was about a 6 minute job to get off the bike 

In reply to jfryjfry :

It's probably only a couple minutes to get this carb off, access isn't bad at all. Might do it tonight...but probably not. 
The guy who picked me up was a legend, drove me too my doorstep, refused my offer to buy him a coffee or sandwich down the road for his help. Said he has an xr650 so maybe he'd been in my shoes before. I was just happy he saved me a few hours of walking.