Bike is a 2013 with 1,040 miles. Pulled it apart and the spring wasn't doing anything, it wasn't broken but was totally relaxed. Another confirmation case of what everyone already knew. Made a believer out of me.
I found the kit with extension springs on Amazon, but I also ordered the torsion spring and bit. I hope to do more riding this year and don't want to worry about the doohickey.
2008 or later, fear not about the doohickey (no known verified cases of Generation 2 doohickey component failures). Spring tension? Could be an issue. The consequence of inadequate spring tension is excess balancer chain slack. Not particularly catastrophic, provided the spring doesn't break and fall into the innards, wreaking havoc.
Wishing you happy and carefree miles of additional riding.
Did the doo. I used the torsion spring. The factory spring did not have any tension. It was not damaged or in danger of falling into the engine, but I feel better.
I'm new on here and I'm sort of befuddled by this cam chain tensioner issue on KLRs. With all these problems wouldn't you think a company like Kawasaki would have resolved this issue long ago? Why haven't they fixed the problem?
First, it ain't the cam chain tensioner, apexal! It's the balancer chain tensioner.
Kawasaki PARTIALLY fixed the problem with the 2008 models; more robust doohickey (idler shaft lever). Don't know of any component failures with this latter-day part.
Yet, spring tension issues surface. Loss of spring tension is rarely catastrophic, compared to doohickey grenading. Bad deal if spring breaks, falls into innards, but these instances are rare. Typical effect would be . . . spring fails to tension balancer chain when adjustment attempted; slack chain leads to excessive vibration. Yeah, yeah; vibration could conceivably shake the bike to pieces, but . . . would take a while.
Dat's da name o' dat tune. Don't know why Kawasaki hasn't fully dealt with the problem, except . . . I imagine a surprising number of KLRs are on the road, over a quarter-century plus of production, with absolutely stock and functional doohickeys.
Upgrading doohickeys remains sound maintenance, IMHO (especially on Generation 1s; torsion springs a good idea on all models).
I changed mine this past weekend. '09 with 1700mi on the clock.
There was no spring tension left. It wasn't going to fall off, but it easily slide off with two fingers.
Given how much stretch can occur in the balancing chain, you would think more tension would be available after only 1700 mi.
I only went to change it because... well... just because...
Everything I've read says thats what you do to a KLR... and the Thermo-bob
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