Kawasaki KLR Forum banner

another Doohickey Questions / Problem

6K views 24 replies 6 participants last post by  pdwestman 
#1 ·
Hi Everyone

this weekend, i'm doing my Doohickey on my 2013 klr.

and i have a problem, something i have never seen on any videos or pictures of "how to" Doohickey

it seems the tension chain is rubbing the low end of the case, and groove the metal.
see pictures below

I bought this used bike 2 years ago,
I thought the Doohickey maybe had already been changed, because there is an orange gasket silicone all around the cover, but it's a "OEM" Doohickey and spring inside.
may be changed by the dealer ?

its seems something is not not well installed, but i don't know what.
i have remove the tensioner sprocket, and everything looks OK according to my Clymer book.
but i am not a specialist... it is my first Doohickey change

has anyone seen anything like that ?










how to make it stop rubbing ?

Thanks
and sorry for my bad English, i hope it is understandable.
 
See less See more
4
#2 ·
It looks like your balancer chain has been run very loose. I would expect that you have similar damage at the upper rear balancer as well.


It would be interesting to see what the inner cover looks like at the spot that the balancer adjustment lever rides on. That may show evidence that the engine was run with the adjusting bolt being loose.

Proper installation of the aftermarket lever and spring should cure this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Weav and Dicky
#16 · (Edited)
...
I also photograph the balancer location
the metal looks sandblasted

>image removed, see above<[/IMG]
To my eye, that looks like the engine was run with a loose adjusting bolt for a while. That would cause the chain to go to pretty much a full-slack condition. At every spot where the chain has to change direction as it goes around a sprocket it will hit the case if there is a case to hit.

You might want to dress that area down so that the lever can't hang up in the grooves and on the sharp spots.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Weav
#8 · (Edited)
Unfortunately, the fix for the chain rubbing on the case is to replace the counterbalancer sprockets. The rubber cush, that the chain rests on, becomes compressed over time, and develops conforming flat spots, which allows the chain to ride deeper in between the sprocket teeth. My understanding, is that the counterbalancer chain stretches a bit too, also contributing to what you're seeing there. I may have some counterbalancer sprockets kicking around for show & tell that illustrate this.

Edit... here you go. This is a set of counterbalancer sprockets out of a '92. You can see the rubber cush are beat up bad, very compressed:



And in comparison, this pic is from an '01 spare engine I'm building up, and the idler sprocket cush has very little compression dimpling:



I suspect that running the chain slack is what accelerates wear on the rubber sprocket cushions.
 
#17 ·
...The rubber cush, that the chain rests on, becomes compressed over time, and develops conforming flat spots, which allows the chain to ride deeper in between the sprocket teeth...
Fortunately, his look pretty good. See post #3.
 
#18 ·
As someone who accidentally ran an engine with the counterbalancer chain full slack, I can attest that you can make it approximately 30 kms before the chain snaps, and the engine grunches to a halt, making expensive noises.

Teardown revealed the end broken off a doohickey torsion spring. I'd done an oil change and doohickey adjustment day before, in prep for a trip. ...ran it after the oil change, thought it sounded a bit different, but ignored that (silly me).

One theory, is that it's possible to nick the spring, if you're using sharp edged needle nose pliers (for example)... or that the edge where the doohickey contacts the spring can wear into the spring - I slightly radius that contact point now when I install a doohickey.
 
#20 ·
I credit @pdwestman and his keen eye for seeing this sort of thing and knowing what it was. The first time I saw it I thought it was fretting and Paul set me straight that he'd seen late-model KLRs running with loose adjusting bolts.
 
#21 ·
moosehead,
In the 1st pic,
I can see the oem spring is still attached to its anchor post. Was the other end still attached to the lever arm, or was the hook broken off? The spring & lever arm tried valiantly to control the slack with an un-locked doo-hickey, by evidence of missing paint (pics 2 & 3) under the spring. At least for as long as it could.

And yes that area that is totally missing paint (looked sandblasted, behind the doo) was also because of running with a loose locking bolt.
Was the locking bolt loose when You took it apart? Or tight in its maximum tension position, of 1st pic?

Is your engine back together YET?

If not back together, maybe you can grab hold of the upper rear weight or shaft and try to feel for slack in those bearings.
Tom Schmitz lost his 2008 engine because of the upper rear balancer bearings failing.

3rd & 4th pics,
If the engine is not yet together, one can use a Dremel burr to relieve that case bolt boss under the chain. That area is Solid behind the threads of the bolt. Of course it takes a lot of rags, tape and vacuum cleaner to suck-up as much cuttings as possible while cutting and clean up the final mess, before reassembly.

If the engine is not yet together, do you have pics of the New Doo-Hickey & Torsion spring, Installed? So we can see how much potential future adjustment travel is available?
 
#22 ·
when I opened, the spring was attached on both sides.

the adjustment screw was tight, but easy to unscrew.

and the OEM Doohickey was in the picture 1 position, completely to the front of bike


the engine is now reassembled.
I took that picture of the new doohickey before reassembled
is my future adjustment correct?




I think the engine was opened before I bought this bike.
there was orange silicone gasket in addition to the factory gasket. it didn't look like a factory job.
the spring may have been broken and replaced by an OEM.

and also, when I put a little tension in the bottom sproket (pic 2)
by turning it a little clockwise
it seemed to me that the chain was going down, in the rubbing groove
for the chain to go back up, I had to turn counterclockwise.
is it only because the engine doesn't run?
shouldn't the tension make the chain go up?

maybe I'll open it again next winter,
to make sure the damage is not worse

Thanks
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top