Kawasaki KLR250 Carb Tinkering

[@toomanycastles4923]

Thanks for uploading this. Enjoyed the watching and made opening my klr250 carb a whole lot easier! Need to make some more!

[@MechitBetter]

Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it. Good luck with your carb. We’ll make some more vids if we’re ever allowed to be in the same place at the same time again.... 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@stuartlloyd8276]

Great to see you guys back. The Bandit woes continue but we are attacking it mob handed tomorrow. Need it running as we want to use it for Moto Gymkhana. I will let you know what is occurring . Be high speed and low drag Foggy

[@MechitBetter]

Cheers Foggy. How did the mob handed fixing go?

[@birbeck87]

Nice to have you back guys

[@rhyswickham8281]

Thanks for the vid, very light hearted and informative. I have a few questions, so here goes. 1. Is or was your KLR difficult to kick over from cold or hot? 2. Did you do any work on the top end of the carb? Diaphragm etc... 3. What work manual do you have for your KLR250? I'm about to strip and rebuild the carb on my KLR250 so this will be a big help. Thanks lads 👍🏻

[@MechitBetter]

Hi Rhys, Thanks for taking the time to message. Appreciate the positive comments. I did have occasional problems with starting but most commonly hot starts. Sometimes I would just have to wait for it to cool down for at like 5-10mins, which was really annoying after fueling up at petrol station. As for the carb, the top end was a massive oversight on my side. I completely blanked on that. Never actually got in there. It most likely would benefit from a fresh needle or at very least an adjustment to it. The main manual that is used/referenced is for the KLR600 (part no. 99924-1050-01) which then might have slight model specific adjustments according to the KLR250 Supplement manual (99924-1051-01) (These numbers may have changed with later releases) The 250 has taken a back seat for the moment. I did replace the cam chain which seemed to help overall but then it needed more playing with and I haven't got round to it. I was very fortunate with a great deal on a CB500X which has taken over my everyday riding and I just love it. However, I'm happy to help with your own tinkering efforts if you have more questions or need to bounce some thoughts around.

[@rhyswickham8281]

@@MechitBetter thanks for the fast reply. I have a KLR600 and a KLR250 currently. Had the 600 a while, but its kick only and the compression is a killer. Love the bike though so looked for a 250 and picked one up a few months back. It's a tidy motor and had a lot of work done to it, but on a recent ride green laning in South Wales if it stalled it was a bitch to restart. Will try a carb refurb, new plug and lead and try and make sure the fuel system is set up correctly. Fingers crossed I see some improvement. Hopefully you get around to your KLR again, could always slap some aggressive tyres on and hit your local trails 👍🏻. Thanks again and I'll look out for more videos.

[@jonb6660]

As ever a brilliant, entertaining yet informative series. Although the dog could probably do with a bit more screen time to keep the audience happy 😉 I have noticed that you very helpfully buy bikes I own or am thinking of owning. Cg125 and klr. Cheers for that, when I'm thinking of a new bike I'll just see what's on your playlists and save on the research 👍

[@wakaka9168]

Hello friends...Thank you for all the help with my yamaha T50 ,because of you this girl runs like the wind...Btw i am the Greek dude that had that crappy old ymaha T50 that used to talk to your facebook page back in summer...I tried to get in contact with you but i cant seem to find your facebook page anymore.When i click on the link in the description it goes to facebook and a text pops up telling me that the site doesn't exist.I hope you have a fantastic day guys and keep up the awesome work :))

[@MechitBetter]

Hello Friend! I’m glad to hear your T50 is running well. I was wondering if you’d managed to fix everything! Sorry, it seems that the Facebook link is broken for some reason. Here is the link now >> facebook.com/mechitbetter/

[@SurreyRider]

Well done guys similarly my KLR's next job is the carb after fighting to remove the battery box, exhaust and air box yesterday! 👍

[@MechitBetter]

Thanks dude. Sounds like a complete frame strip down... What you got planned?

[@SurreyRider]

At the moment I'm considering an Acerbis fuel tank and possibly military theme. It is going to be an adventure bike capable of long distances and some mild off reading. I do like the idea of it remaining scrambler styled tho so these mods should be completely removable.

[@MechitBetter]

@@SurreyRider 😁 "some mild off reading" sounds like it could be fun... Enjoying a short novel along some greenlanes 😉 (but yeah, i get what you meant) One of those bigger, plastic, tanks is it? Cant be a bad thing to up the range. So the stuff you've removed, is the plan to leave it off and do some custom bits instead?

[@SurreyRider]

@@MechitBetter I'm re using what I have and improving it if I can. I may reject the carb, not sure yet. I'm not messing too much with it, might give it a facelift tho.

[@robloudon8124]

Welcome back, was wondering what had happened to you.

[@MechitBetter]

Thanks Rob. Thankfully nothing sinister. We just had a lot of conflicting calendar situations and minor life changes to tackle: Got some-what distracted by it all. We're still clattering on with our machines and delivering the shoddy results to the internet... Just a bit slower. Cheers for sticking around 👍

[@TheAlpineProject]

It's always the bowl gasket or the needle and its seat, it seems like. I rebuilt my TW200 carb and after some time, maybe 6 months, I noticed there's fuel residue on the carb body so I'm still leaving my fuel tap off to be safe. Anyhow how's the bike doing? Did you get the leaking fixed? I'm curious how your caliper and master cylinder rebuild has held up. Any loss of brake pressure or fluid or anything like that? I just got a '96 KLR250 the other day with the Barbie color scheme. It needs a front brake rebuild as well as a lot of small odds and ends, but it somewhat ran and was an okay deal. The color scheme and general potential of the bike led me to bring it home. Allegedly rebuilt but it doesn't like to start or idle very much at all so I'm going to check valves and the rest of the top end and go through the carb. If I can't get anywhere with that I may have to go get a compression tester before I put a bunch of work in for nothing. I did read that a DR650 master cylinder is an easy upgrade for these so I might do that if mine looks too far gone. Anyhow hope you're well and getting on with the bike.

[@TheAlpineProject]

Also I'm curious where you got the rebuild kit with the bowl gasket and such. Does it come with a seat for the needle?

[@MechitBetter]

Hi, sorry for the slow response. The bike is going well, thanks for asking. Carb has had a bit more attention and seems to be working reasonably well now. I doubt I'll ever be completely finished getting it juuuust right 😄 Not exactly sure where I got the rebuild kit from: it's been quite a while, but I'm pretty sure it was sourced on eBay. Come to think of it... I don't think I ever touched the needle... So the kit definitely didn't include a seat. I should probably look into that 😬 Brake is holding up just fine as well. It could probably still be better but it hasn't failed me so far. I think I've done about 1000 miles since working on it. How are you getting on with yours?

[@2StrokeSmoke544]

What was that small silver plug for in the rebuild kit u talked about. U never showed in video

[@MechitBetter]

It was to bung in the hole where the mixture screw lives, to stop people messing with it 👍

[@2StrokeSmoke544]

Thanks for the info man. Good video!! A buddy of mine calls it a welch plug. Lol

[@wainedodd8055]

Wish I was as good at fixing things, as I am at breaking them.

[@MechitBetter]

That’s where it all starts. We’re both good at breaking things. Add a dash of poverty and you soon get better at fixing stuff!

[@GinMotoLoko]

Hi guys...where are you now 😁

[@MechitBetter]

Hiya! We’re still kicking around. We’re currently separated by COVID restrictions, so no videos or team rides for a while. 2020 has been a complete write-off. Hope you’re doing better wherever you are!

[@GinMotoLoko]

@@MechitBetter yee nice!! Doing fine here 😁 keep safe brothers! COVID will end soon. ✌️