KLR 250 Project: Part VIII

KLR 250 Project: A photo-less update

A few productive days at last.

Over the weekend, in between family and chores, I was able to sneak in to the garage and put the old wrenches to some good use. First, I went through the swingarm and tightened the shock in place with blue Loctite. I then reinstalled the airbox, and bolted rear subframe in place, again with blue Loctite. Now the bike is finally starting to look like a bike. Rear fender, which was completely stripped, was reassembled, including lights and license plate mount, and broken electrical connectors for lights were replaced with bullet-type quick-disconnect ones. With all that done, the fender was mounted in the subframe. At long last, I feel like I am getting somewhere.

Tonight, having only a limited time in the garage, I decided to tackle an issue, which has been on the to-do-list since the beginning: Drain plug and front tire.

Lets begin with the tire. I bought a new Kenda 80/100 x 21 Trailmaster tire, as the front was pretty worn out. A while ago, when I started riding my G650GS in the woods, I bought two tire spoons (an 8” and an 11”), just in case. Today was time to use them for the first time. Well, the last tire I changed by hand was a bicycle tire some 25 years ago, and it was much easier. The short spoons required more “oomph” than I wanted to give it, but once enough force was applied, the tire came off its rim. Boy, am I glad I did this first in the garage and not on a trail on the rear of the BMW! That would be very interesting, fighting with a tire in the mud somewhere. Well, long story short, the Kenda is now on. The only thing that puzzles me is the fact that this tire does not have any directional arrow on its side. It appears that it can be installed either way.

The plug: The previous owner managed to strip the threads in the crankcase, and got away with the dirty fix – an expanding rubber plug. Well, I find this unacceptable, especially since, while taking clutch cover off, I discovered some of the rubber in the oil strainer. The original drain plug was a 12mm bolt. After contemplating my options, including inserts, helicoil, epoxy, larger bolt, and self-tapping plug, I chose the least invasive one (in my opinion): a ½” drain plug.

The reasons for this:

Inserts are expensive.

Epoxy may or may not leak over time.

Helicoil is not available locally in the size I need.

Self-tapping plugs exert large, unnecessary force on the crankcase, which may or may not damage the case.

Therefore, tap and bolt it came to be.

The original being a 12mm thread, stripped out, I wanted to find something close to its size, as drilling into the crankcase is not the best idea. Well, a 14mm bolt would have been too big, and 13mm bolt is virtually non-existent around here. Thus, the ½” plug came to be just about perfect. ½” is just about 12.7mm diameter, which is only .7mm larger than stock. The threads being stripped out completely, I did not need to drill at all, and using a tapered ½” tap, I was able to create nice, solid thread in the old case, without taking it apart.

On the plus side, I found a good ½”x20 plug of the right length, along with magnetic top to attract any engine shavings. Speaking of shavings, when tapping the new thread, I greased the tap with White Grease, and all the aluminum shavings stuck right in it, and came out with the tap. Of course, I’ll give the motor a good flush with fresh oil before final fill and assembly.

This brings me to my final point today:

I’m opting out of rebuilding the entire engine at this time. Initially, I was going to split the crankcase to ix the plug issue, and while at it, replace all seals and gaskets at the same time. Well, since the plug is no longer a problem, and the engine does not leak anywhere, I’m going to keep it the way it is, and see if it runs. I have the entire gasket/seal kit anyways, and may do a complete rebuild at a later date.