We thought it was dirt fuel in Maya, we had a few pops back through the carbs in Bolivia but when we got into Brasil it got worse, we added carb cleaner and meths but it made no difference.

Back track to the Rio post we only made it 33 km (big day) from Rio De Janeiro ....nearly as far as Itacoatiara when a Suzuki car pulled up beside Sheldon and said where you going?, Sheldon says talk to the guys up front cos they are leading, so the Suzuki pulls up and the dude says where ya going, I replied and said dunno but north and we are turning right here.

A quick conversation before the lights changed he said, there is a nice beach etc follow me so we did, we pulled over further down and he said there is a nice beach etc and if you want you can come and stay at my house .... done deal!!!

Paulo our host took us for a local ride and an inland loop for the day, we had a great ride taking in local places and sights, on the way back we hit some rain as the weather was due to cave in, to correct Sheldons report with our slide we hit a patch of oil or diesel on a corner causing both front and rear to kick out a bit, we were lucky we were not leaned over very far so it was just a reminder to keep the mind on the job.

Paulo, Ev, Sheldon, Ellen and I



This is a picture of a picture, unfortunately the cloud had come over so we did not get to see this from the viewpoint.



Back to the issue closet to my heart at this moment of the bike running badly to the point we did not want to ride any small back roads because it was very hard work and it cannot be good for Maya either.

As time moved on it did not get any better so now we are in Itacoatiara and with Paulos contacts we got to Moto Biu, the guy has a great shop and all the tools and we could do all the work ourselves.

We set to and removed the carbs for a spiffing clean, there was some gunk in the jets but for nearly 60000 km that is to be expected, a thorough clean netted nothing as far as the bike running badly still popping back through the carbs.

Nice and clean now :clap



At this point we deiced to dig in deeper and have a look as it really could only be valves, spark plugs or colis. The coils were taken out of the equation testing ok, the spark plugs being iridium and only 10000 km old still looked like new and tested ok.

Given the start for the big job was the next morning we walked back to the shop catching up with the guys who were heading out on a ride. I was lucky enough to sit on a new red F800 adventure .... yes I did like it, nearly as cool as a KTM :rofl(actually they held me at gun point and forced me to smile to pretend I liked it :lol3)





Back to the main job .....

Having gone as deep at the spark plugs we were only one cover away from a valve check so we did that.

Shite pic but there you go



All four exhaust valves were in spec all four inlet valves were so tight they had no clearance .... problem found, the valves were essentially being held almost slightly open causing the popping back through the carbs.

This is what concentrated work looks like, I really enjoyed sorting it out properly and doing my own valve job



My only hope is the valves have no suffered any damage and I guess time will tell.

We did though have a very frustrating time as the cam bridge bolts were so heavily overtightened it was ridiculous, we bent and twisted hex head sockets and allen keys along with mauling the heads and having to use a coal chisel to help budge them so I was not seeing the funny side of it at all.

Bent :cry



Twisted :cry



At 10000 km we should not even had to have been there so I was pretty pissed off, Sheldon did like to take the advantage to pick on KTM but this was a careless mechanic problem who clearly didn’t give a shit, we also discovered some parts that were lost and not fitted to the bike ... so yeah not a KTM problem.

Comes time to pay, although we had down 95 % of the work we still used his space and we swapped shims etc, not speaking Portuguese the discussion was held on Goooooogle Translate :clap



This is the sign of happiness, a KTM back together and running like it should and an owner having accomplished a valve check in Portuguese rofl .... picture with m is Biu, top bloke and very very nice and helpful clap



Now Maya seems to be running near perfectly again but given the crappy Basilian fuel loaded with additives it is running lean so we fueled it up a little with our flexijets which is great :clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere