wes to the rescue... again

Last week the mighty KLR was taken down once again by wet weather. This time, no amount of coaxing would bring her back to life. I had ridden her to work, in the rain, with no problems. But, when I tried to start her at the end of the day, no go. Crank crank crank crank BAM! Big backfire with an 8" flame out the tailpipe.

I proceeded to take the seat off to get a better reach to some electrical stuff: coil, plug. Disconnected, connected, sprayed with WD-40. Tried the dry gas, which worked the last time I had this problem. Nothing was going to work though. So, I called tech support/KLR road service.

Wes promptly arrived, and we loaded the KLR into his minivan. He was happy to know that a bike would actually fit in there, and I was too ;-) We drove cross town to my house and unloaded the sick looking beast. She looked like a corpse in the back of a hearse. This was not one of my happiest days.

At home, we took the tank off, looked for corrosion on connectors, tried to find bad electrical connections, then put her back together. Still no go. I decided to call it a day, and told Wes that she WOULD start the next morning, once she dried out. Next morn, she started. Been riding her since without problems, though the weather's been dry.

I posted to the DSN list to try to get an answer to what is up with my bike, but only the usual answers came back: do the T-Mod. Actually, one guy suggested checking the gap on the plug. I don't really go to the DSN list any more, but did this time 'cause I thought I'd throw a question to more people and get more answers. That didn't quite work out. I'll probably stick to old faithful next time, the MADS list. I get less answers at the MADS list, but seem to get higher quality answers.

So, coming up this weekend I'm going to take the old girl apart and jizz every electrical connection with dialectic grease. I'm also going to do the T-mod, for what it's worth. I really don't think this is a fuel issue, but I should do that mod anyway. Hopefully I can trouble shoot this issue and solve it once and for all.