1999 Kawasaki KLR650 Engine cooling Problems

“Dt: the contact stated that the doohickey cracked on the motorcycle. The doohickey is an idler shaft lever which puts tension on the chain inside the engine. There were no warning or indicators of a problem. This was discovered by the contact when doing routine service. The motorcycle was repaired. Updated 1/25/2006.”

“With less than 3,000 miles on my 1999 Kawasaki klr 650, during a routine maintenance, a failed lever, idler shaft and spring was discovered and replaced with an after-market product. During this same maintenance activity, two other klr 650's were found to have suffered the same failure.”

“The 1986-2007 Kawasaki KLR650 motorcycle's tensioning system for the engine balancer shaft drive chain is unreliable, and a failure could lead to sudden engine lock-up and loss of vehicle control, potentially resulting in injury or fatality. The most troublesome parts of the balancer drive adjusting system are the idler shaft lever, p/n 13168-1436 and the spring, 92144-1860. The balancer adjuster idler rides on an eccentric shaft p/n 39115-1077, and when the shaft rotates it changes how the tension idler relates to the balancer chain, allowing the chain to be tensioned. …”

“I was riding along in traffic when the motor sized up locking the rear wheel almost getting me killed from the truck behind me. This is the second time this happend. In 1993 I bought a new KLR650 and rode it till 1999 when the motor locked up one day when comming home from work. It cost me $200.00 tohave my dealer tell me that something broke in the motor and would cost me another $2000.00 to fix. So I sold it for parts. It had 36000.miles on it and went out and bougtt a low milage 99. …”