Get'r Done

The job I had been dreading wasn't all that bad and was actually kind of satisfying. Last week I skinned both knees when I fell push-starting the KLR. It had a hot start problem and down deep I knew it was probably not a serious sign but .... the fix was going to be a pain, not as bad as road rash on the knees though.

I tried the easy stuff, checked the battery and electronics. There is a great resource on the web KLR.net, a forum of owners who help each other. After signing up a quick search told me what I suspected, a valve adjustment. There are a lot of easy things to do to the KLR but adjusting the valves requires removing the seat, tank, head cover, and both cams just to make an adjustment. You see, replacing the shims under the cams are what needs to be done.

An old Fiat 128 that I owned back in the early '70s had the same kind of adjustment but the shims could just be popped out without removing the cam so this was not my idea of a well planned out engine. It took all day but turned out nicely. Tomorrow it's time for a ride.