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Thanks for the advice regarding stand spring. Not the easiest of tasks, for me anyway, but managed.
My strategy was to place larger spring on first and then thread smaller through, attach one end and then the other. Wife thought i was going to have a coronary with the effort involved.

Neil

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pleco (Post 117538)

Hello Guys. Thanks for all the input. The fact that Mutha also had the same problem only after a service, put me onto the items I replaced. As I was loosing both cylinders, I took a look at the plugs (8EA as supplied by the bike shop according to their book). I could see from the colouring, that they were running very hot. When all else fails RTFM. (read the f... manual!) The manual specs a 9ea. So I go looking at the web and found the following:
Heat range

The operating temperature of a spark plug is the actual physical temperature at the tip of the spark plug within the running engine. This is determined by a number of factors, but primarily the actual temperature within the combustion chamber. There is no direct relationship between the actual operating temperature of the spark plug and spark voltage. However the level of torque currently being produced by the engine will strongly influence spark plug operating temperature because the maximum temperature and pressure occurs when the engine is operating near peak torque output (torque and RPM directly determine the power output). The temperature of the insulator responds to the thermal conditions it is exposed to in the combustion chamber but not vice versa. If the tip of the spark plug is too hot it can cause pre-ignition leading to detonation/knocking and damage may occur. If it is too cold, electrically conductive deposits may form on the insulator causing a loss of spark energy or the actual shorting-out of the spark current.

As I was experiencing similar problems, I went out this morning, and bought 9ea plugs.

Problem solved right away. Bike peaks out at 165 KMH again, and I have the surge of power back around the 7000 RPM range.:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Kumuya if you are running the 8ea plugs, you must have set the timeing and or fuel mixture to compensate, or it is very cold there by you guys. We are running at about 30 deg celsius day temps here. Apparently all of the above affects the heat range of a plug.

The max torque is at abot 7200 RPM, so I change gears there about if I look for a bit of oomph! No use in running to the red line as the curve comes down quite a bit after 9000 RPM.

I hope this solution will help somebody in the future, as the bike shop books specified the wrong plug for my bike in our hotter climate.

Regards

I have a KLE500 with a question pertaining to spark plugs.

When I did a service at 30000km, I decided to replace the plugs, as I had taken ownership of the bike at 27000km at the beginning of March 2010 and didn't know when last the plugs had been changed. Kinda fanatical about things like this.

The owner's manual says DR9EA is the plug to be used, but after driving to, or phoning 10 bike shops, I was eventually told by one techie that I could use the DR8EA, of which they had in stock, and that it would be fine.

Firstly. I'm wanting to know if the DR8EA can make such a difference as mentioned in this thread. Should I try source DR9EAs or just clean and put the old plugs back, or can I leave the DR8EAs in?

Secondly, prior to me servicing the bike, when cruising at 80/100/120, if I opened the throttle quickly to overtake, the bike would hesitate, almost as if it was momentarily flooding or being starved. When I took off the airbox to clean the air filter when doing the service it was full of petrol.

Then, a few weeks ago, after a ride, I noticed a puddle under the bike, and on inspection discovered it was petrol running out of the drainage pipe from the air box. I checked the float levels and they measured 12mm instead of 17mm. I adjusted the levels, and the petrol running out of the air box has stopped, but the hesitation when cruising and suddenly opening the throttle is still there.

I was told that it is most probably the needles and seats that are worn, so I've ordered replacements. But I've also been told that this should not be the case at 30000km.

Could the problem be caused by the incorrect plugs now, but prior to me changing the plugs, by the incorrect float levels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Youngatheart (Post 296629)

Just spoke to the techie at a Kawasaki dealer, and they do not even stock the DR9EA. They use the DR8EA, and he assured me that this is 100% Fine. :confused: He should know what he's talking about.........I hope.:unsure:

So, then it must be the needles and seats that are worn that are causing my hesitation problem. Any thoughts?:helpsmilie:

kle 500 1996 overheating and spark plug fouling

hi guys.
im new and i have a few questions that im sure you pros can help me with.
i bought a 1996 kle 500 a few months ago, works gr8:thumbup1: (but not as powerful as my old gpz500):thumbdown: but i like the kle better due to the fact that its more rugged and convenient.
ok now for the issues, it worked great up until about 2 months ago. first it stopped starting so i got very nervous. but all it was, was the spark plugs were dirty. so i took em out and cleaned them well. put them back in and the bike runs like a baby. and this happens every 2 weeks or so depends on how much i ride it.. and for the second issue the bike overheats, (the guy before me installed a thermometer) it reads and average 190-200f. but then when i ride the bike at high speeds (8000rpm or so) it shoots up to 235-245 degrees Fahrenheit.. so i flushed the antifreeze and it helped for like one day. so i just never rode the bike hard.....(btw i dont have a thermostat in the bike)

ok now on the same page as the spark plugs i decided to clean the carbs, so i took those apart and cleaned every little hole and jet with carb cleaner and air. and then i brought it in to do a balancing. the mechanic balanced the carbs and also checked the valve clearance and adjusted them.. now i got home and the plugs fouled in one day and my bike is still overheating with new coolant.

so now i have my radiator off and i flushed it with a hose and hopefully that will solve the overheating issue. but if you think of anything else i can check or adjust please give me some advise.......:confused1:........ thanx

Only a motorcyclist understands why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.:mchappy:

Overheating???

Check the lines to and from the coolant filter on the LHS of the bike. Mine never overheated; but when i changed the coolant at 70,000km, I discovered that the filter was almost completly blocked by some silicone sealant applied at the factory.

I am in Aus, and for our climate the DR9EA plugs are the go - anything hotter is a no-go!

Have done the KTM pipe mod recently too - sounds better and saves a coupla kilos as well!

cheers

Ian

whats the KTM mod?..
and so i took off the radiator and cleaned it out really well and now it doesnt overheat anymore.. :clap: and to the spark plugs i just have to give it time to see it fouls again since my cleaning..

how much did it cost you??

Hey all!

I am having a bit of a problem with my suspension and didn't want to open a new thread so I will bring this one back to life.

Here is my problem: In the spring I have made made my suspension softer as it was to hard for my weight. I have set it from 5 to 3. Riding became better and softer but there is one down side.... Rear wheel is destroying my license plate. I have been trying to make the suspension harder again but cant get the wrench in to turn the ring on the shock. Any thought on how to turn the ring without having to dissasebmle the whole bike.

Thanks!

Use a hammer and big screwdriver, or drift. That's what I did.

Thanks to everyone!

Hi guys,

I'm a new member to this site but have been reading this forum and troubleshooting my own random issues for the past year. I own a 1992 KLE500 that had 82000+ klms on the clock when purchased, and still it ran well and didn't want to stop. Another 20000+klms have been added to that since I got on it and every K has been spectacular.

I had to join and say thanks to everyone who contributed on this topic as I've had at least half of the issues mentioned here, hehe. Without all of your input (admittedly unknown until now) and my surprisingly trustworthy mechanic, I'd have wasted a great deal of both time and money.

1992 KLE500 with 100,000+k's on the clock - still going strong!

Thanks again everyone,

Pete