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I thought I would document my rebuild as it progresses.
This was my first motorcycle. Purchased this 2008 in late 09. It had around 6700 miles on it and had been dumped a few times. It came without hand guards, tool kit, a slightly bent radiator, lowering links installed and a bent kickstand I think to match the new height, lightly dented gas tank and a god-awful monster energy drink M paint job on the front fairings. Pretty much stock. I think they bought it and beat the crap out of it. I was looking for something that I could ride to Alaska and back if I wanted and couldn't afford a BMW.
I bought the Happy Trail crash bars, highway pegs, center stand, wolfman bags, replaced original dog bones, spray painted it flat black and began doing mods while getting some good street riding in and prepping to eventually take a long informal trip with some money I saved up. I had a local shop do the doo for me. As I was getting ready to take off on a long trip the oil burning got really bad. Cancelled that and rebuilt with a 685 kit sometime in 2010 through Wymanwinn on klr650.net. I pulled the snorkle and dialed in the klx needle. This was the start me getting into the nitty gritty mechanic work. Loads of issues with my 08 but I always loved the bike and enjoyed tinkering and made me familiar with the ins and outs. Moved to Chicago from Florida and my impeller shaft broke. I have no idea how this happened. The bike just started overheating one day. This is a big PITA and I lived in the hood without a place to work on my bike. My Dad passed away and I moved back to Florida to my Mom's house and the bike sat in the garage with the parts I ordered to fix it until now, 8.5 years after it broke!
Times are different, my Mom is 80 and my cat is 17.5 and I am not planning any extended ADV riding. The bike was running great before and so much fun. I have no plans to ever sell it. I want to pull some extra weight off and make a really fun ripping around town and go wherever I want bike here in sweltering Sarasota, FL. I love the 80's Delta Force/Mad Max aesthetics.
I really fell in love with this thread and pulled some other ideas doing extensive forum lurking after a 10 year hiatus.
advrider.com
I fixed the impeller shaft by opening up both sides of the crank case. The gas tank and modded manual petcock rotted so I replaced them with IMS 6.6, raptor petcock and replaced the original Thermobob with a Tbob2 to free up some space. Carb was cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner and rebuilt. The engine is back together with fresh oil, coolant and iridium plug and runs. Everything else will be gone through and replaced/cleaned/rebuilt/removed due to rotting and not leaving well enough alone. I have a two stage pod filter/air box delete at the moment but will probably L mod my airbox and get a unifilter to throw in there if I go into some nasty trail riding. Bulky headlight fairing and dash will be replaced with a Vapor and old school headlight as seen below. I'm going to see if I can move most of the wiring and maybe the lifepo4 battery behind the coolant overflow.
Bike currently has 14,100 miles on it.
I'll edit this post and update my mods/parts list here:
685 Kit
EM Doohicky/Torsion Spring
IMS 6.6 gas tank
Raptor manual petcock
Acerbis locking gas cap/vent mod
Headlight/Dash delete
Trail Tech Vapor
Air box delete
UNI two stage pod air filter on carb
Crank case breather filter
Chain guard delete
Rear sub fender delete
Relocate license plate/LED lights plate lights
Rear rack delete
Happy Trail skid plate
Battery Tender adaptor
KLX needle
Thermobob 2
Stebel Nautilus horn
HTP4-8-3B OSR racks with spacer mod
WOLEX505 Wolfman Expedition saddle bags
Kickstand safety switch delete
Clutch safety switch delete
Stead slide choke/cable and lever delete
Extended fuel mixture screw
AIS/CAS system removal/EM plug
EBC Sintered Double H brake pads
SS brake lines/5.1 fluid
Pro Taper 7/8 ATV High bars
Rox 2" pivoting risers
Shinko 700 front/rear tires
EM oil cap
EM subframe bolt kit
EM fork brace
EM prevailing torque nut
EM carb screws
EM front master cylinder screws
EM low pro magnetic oil plug
NGK Iridium sparkplug
Primary Drive Steel Kit & X-Ring Chain
Deep Hole fix
Low Buck Exhaust Mod
Pro Grip 714 grips
Emgo headlight mounting brackets
7" H4 headlight
Mobil 1 Synthetic 20w-50 oil
Zerex Asian Red coolant
3D Cycle Parts turn signal stalk delete kit
PDWestman banjo bolts
Hydraulic rear brake switch
Tusk billet foot pegs
Pre '96 clutch
'97 stator
'03 flywheel
'94 cdi
'05 ignition coil
'92 idler gear
'84 KLR600 kickstarter arm
Future mods:
Gen 1 ignition
Kickstarter
Electric start delete/hole plug
Starter switch/kill switch delete
Battery delete
Minimalist wiring harness
Twin Headlight Ernie extended clutch arm
100% oil filter mod
Clutch cover crank oil restriction
Cogent Moab
Cogent DDC fork kit
Leo Vince X-3 slip on
LED tail light
LED headlight
EM caliper plate/320 front rotor
This was my first motorcycle. Purchased this 2008 in late 09. It had around 6700 miles on it and had been dumped a few times. It came without hand guards, tool kit, a slightly bent radiator, lowering links installed and a bent kickstand I think to match the new height, lightly dented gas tank and a god-awful monster energy drink M paint job on the front fairings. Pretty much stock. I think they bought it and beat the crap out of it. I was looking for something that I could ride to Alaska and back if I wanted and couldn't afford a BMW.
I bought the Happy Trail crash bars, highway pegs, center stand, wolfman bags, replaced original dog bones, spray painted it flat black and began doing mods while getting some good street riding in and prepping to eventually take a long informal trip with some money I saved up. I had a local shop do the doo for me. As I was getting ready to take off on a long trip the oil burning got really bad. Cancelled that and rebuilt with a 685 kit sometime in 2010 through Wymanwinn on klr650.net. I pulled the snorkle and dialed in the klx needle. This was the start me getting into the nitty gritty mechanic work. Loads of issues with my 08 but I always loved the bike and enjoyed tinkering and made me familiar with the ins and outs. Moved to Chicago from Florida and my impeller shaft broke. I have no idea how this happened. The bike just started overheating one day. This is a big PITA and I lived in the hood without a place to work on my bike. My Dad passed away and I moved back to Florida to my Mom's house and the bike sat in the garage with the parts I ordered to fix it until now, 8.5 years after it broke!
Times are different, my Mom is 80 and my cat is 17.5 and I am not planning any extended ADV riding. The bike was running great before and so much fun. I have no plans to ever sell it. I want to pull some extra weight off and make a really fun ripping around town and go wherever I want bike here in sweltering Sarasota, FL. I love the 80's Delta Force/Mad Max aesthetics.
I really fell in love with this thread and pulled some other ideas doing extensive forum lurking after a 10 year hiatus.

On a Diet, A lightweight KLR650 Naked Streetfighter Project.
Just wanted to show you guys a project I have been working on. Inspired partly by SamM's KLR650 lightening project, I wanted to shed some weight from...

I fixed the impeller shaft by opening up both sides of the crank case. The gas tank and modded manual petcock rotted so I replaced them with IMS 6.6, raptor petcock and replaced the original Thermobob with a Tbob2 to free up some space. Carb was cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner and rebuilt. The engine is back together with fresh oil, coolant and iridium plug and runs. Everything else will be gone through and replaced/cleaned/rebuilt/removed due to rotting and not leaving well enough alone. I have a two stage pod filter/air box delete at the moment but will probably L mod my airbox and get a unifilter to throw in there if I go into some nasty trail riding. Bulky headlight fairing and dash will be replaced with a Vapor and old school headlight as seen below. I'm going to see if I can move most of the wiring and maybe the lifepo4 battery behind the coolant overflow.
Bike currently has 14,100 miles on it.
I'll edit this post and update my mods/parts list here:
685 Kit
EM Doohicky/Torsion Spring
IMS 6.6 gas tank
Raptor manual petcock
Acerbis locking gas cap/vent mod
Headlight/Dash delete
Trail Tech Vapor
Air box delete
UNI two stage pod air filter on carb
Crank case breather filter
Chain guard delete
Rear sub fender delete
Relocate license plate/LED lights plate lights
Rear rack delete
Happy Trail skid plate
Battery Tender adaptor
KLX needle
Thermobob 2
Stebel Nautilus horn
HTP4-8-3B OSR racks with spacer mod
WOLEX505 Wolfman Expedition saddle bags
Kickstand safety switch delete
Clutch safety switch delete
Stead slide choke/cable and lever delete
Extended fuel mixture screw
AIS/CAS system removal/EM plug
EBC Sintered Double H brake pads
SS brake lines/5.1 fluid
Pro Taper 7/8 ATV High bars
Rox 2" pivoting risers
Shinko 700 front/rear tires
EM oil cap
EM subframe bolt kit
EM fork brace
EM prevailing torque nut
EM carb screws
EM front master cylinder screws
EM low pro magnetic oil plug
NGK Iridium sparkplug
Primary Drive Steel Kit & X-Ring Chain
Deep Hole fix
Low Buck Exhaust Mod
Pro Grip 714 grips
Emgo headlight mounting brackets
7" H4 headlight
Mobil 1 Synthetic 20w-50 oil
Zerex Asian Red coolant
3D Cycle Parts turn signal stalk delete kit
PDWestman banjo bolts
Hydraulic rear brake switch
Tusk billet foot pegs
Pre '96 clutch
'97 stator
'03 flywheel
'94 cdi
'05 ignition coil
'92 idler gear
'84 KLR600 kickstarter arm
Future mods:
Gen 1 ignition
Kickstarter
Electric start delete/hole plug
Starter switch/kill switch delete
Battery delete
Minimalist wiring harness
Twin Headlight Ernie extended clutch arm
100% oil filter mod
Clutch cover crank oil restriction
Cogent Moab
Cogent DDC fork kit
Leo Vince X-3 slip on
LED tail light
LED headlight
EM caliper plate/320 front rotor