2008 Kawasaki KLR650 Engine cooling Problems

“Cover side hole that lower starter gear pin rides in is milled too deep and can result in severe engine damage. While installing a balancer tension spring upgrade (another issue with these motorcycles) I found I had this issue. I had to install a spacer to fix and prevent the other side from coming out of engine side hole and causing damage.”

“2008 Kawasaki klr-650 motorcycle. Muffler fell off wile riding down the road with only 3,000k on odometer. All 3 mounting bolts fell out. This was a recall for other klr bikes. My bike was not recalled. One of the mounting bolts welded nut fell off also. Dealer gave me new bolts, I replaced one bolt with a locking crown nut and cotter pin.”

“The starter idler gear shaft hole/sleeve is bore/milled to deep on the outside casing. The shaft moves to the casing side and loses contact with the inside bushing/sleeve, wich forms a gap at the main housing side. There is now enough space for the spacer washer to fall into the bottom-end and cause huge/catastrophic failure.”

“The starter gear shaft can migrate out in the left side engine cover, leaving the gear unsupported on the inboard side and allowing a washer to migrate loose into the engine--potentially causing the transmission to lock up or the timing chain to skip teeth and cause the intake or exhaust valves to hit the piston top, bending valves and making the engine inoperable.”

“2008 Kawasaki klr 650 starter gear cover is improperly bored allowing support shaft to become unsupported on one end. This could cause thrust washers to drop into the rotating flywheel at speed, locking the motor and causing loss of control. Older and newer models both have a ridge in the outer engine cover that prevents the idler gear shaft from drifting out too far and loosing support in the inner engine cover. This was clearly a machining error. I inserted a small spacer in the hole to prevent the shaft from moving.”