Is the Kawasaki KLR 650 Doohickey ACTUALLY a Big Deal? I Asked a Veteran Kawasaki Mechanic.
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- If you buy a Kawasaki KLR 650, the first thing you'll hear from a lot of other owners is "make sure you fix the KLR 650 doohickey right away!" It's a common believe among KLR 650 owners that the KLR doohickey (another name for the counterbalancer chain tensioner) will eventually wear out and fail, causing your KLR to die. The belief in the Kawasaki KLR 650 doohickey problem is so widespread that many people actually replace their KLR doohickey immediately after buying a brand new bike.
I've gotten a ton of KLR doohickey questions since I bought my 2022 KLR 650 Adventure last year, and I wanted to cut through the rumor and hearsay and go right to an expert on the subject. Mike at Power Motorsports, a veteran Kawasaki mechanic with 25 years experience, was kind enough to come on camera and talk about his experiences over the years fixing KLR doohickeys.
His answer might surprise you. Mike has never seen a doohickey fail, nor has he ever opened up a KLR and found a doohickey on the verge of failure. He's installed a ton of KLR doohickey kits at customer request over the years, but he's never had to do one as a result of a failure.
Properly maintained, KLRs will run forever, at least according to Mike.
Big thanks to Matt and Mike at Power Motorsports for being in the video. Check out Power's website here: www.powermotors...
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First and foremost support your local dealer or small independent shop, as they are your lifeline in times of need.
Mr. Dork how can I contact this so called Veteran Kawasaki Mechanic? the E-Mike dohicky is machined from a solid piece of metal sir.
That mechanic is lying to you lol.
The eagle Mike mod is “piece of mind”as this mechanic said for good reason.
I’ve owned KLRs since when they were first introduced, I am a maintenance stickler, I’ve had plenty of springs go limp before doohickeys were introduced. I would never let this muppet touch my bike, well I never let anyone touch my bikes anyways.
It must be nice to have an dual sport / ADV bike that's so reliable that people make up problems to fix. Race Ready KTM should be so lucky.
Anything that gets “raced” is going to require more attention.
At 8000 miles I pulled the cover and checked mine on my 2014,spring had no tensioning ability and was loose………eagle mike is the man of truth here
So before you checked it how many times had the oil been changed? and how often was it seviced? my mech checked the doo on my 2012 wich has 21000ks on it the doo was as new ,, bike has an oil change every 2000ks
Yeah but, I heard from a guy whose brother knew a guy whose sister dated a guy who said he saw one break on a brand new bike and the engine failed so bad he flew over the bars like superman... or something.
Save Ferris!
haha this sounds just like people talking about Rev Tech evo style engines. I had one for over 15 years and 45K miles and never any problems, but the internet commenters say they are junk and they all fail.
😂😂😂
I heard the same thing but forth person. From his nephews older brothers, sisters best friends grandpa. Basically replace the doohickey or you could die.
I did two doohickey upgrades at the same time several years ago. My bike 2004 with about 8000 miles was fine when I pulled the cover. My friends bike with 3500 miles on the odometer (2006) had a broken doohickey spring. I didn't hear this from my brothers sisters uncles cousin, I witnessed this first hand.
My KLR had 33000Km and I got my local Kawasaki dealer to install an Eagle Mike kit. The mechanic said that the spring had lost its tension and it was not working correctly as a result. Nobody would purchase a replacement OEM part so that explains why Kawasaki never have to sell them.
If he done hid own work he'd know that the doohickey is a Kawasaki part and has bern remachined by Kawasaki because several times to eliminate the weaknesses. The spring adjustment system is aftermarket and way way better than Kawasaki's
Eagle Mike's wallet is very happy whit that kind of person as you are.
@@PP-wz7mp I am unsure of what you are saying. Have I done wrong?
@@drewiliffe4855 nothing wrong , only your wallet will suffer...
@@PP-wz7mp I know your type. A know it all who never does anything. You may have noticed I said that the spring had lost its tension. Without a functioning spring the system is non-operational. Only a fool would ignore a potential problem so I guess that makes you the fool. The job didn't cost much, it sounded different after the job was completed and I know that I can ride the bike with complete confidence that it is 100% reliable. You might be tight with money and think that you are so clever by not replacing a known problem part but my guess is your KLR is poorly maintained.
People can think what they want but I can’t fault this guy for just telling us what he has personally experienced. Thats his experience and deserves respect for just that. Good interview Dork, thanks for that.
I agree with the mechanic's and your statement 100%.
Yup.
The question that was not asked was “did the spring have any tension to do it’s job?”
That’s the real issue after 2007.
The sales manager is standing at his shoulder, you can see the discomfort on his face!!
what was the mechanic going to say with his boss standing over him?
Weird because my 18 with 3000 miles the spring was eating the case. I have pictures and all. They DO go bad and they DO fail. This is misinformation man. I live in PA. The spring had ZERO tension and maintenance has always been done.
Yep. Tensioner spring broke on my 2018 at less than 2k miles. And it destroyed the engine.
I had the same experience with my 2017.
Bullfuck
Spent 16 years in a Kawi dealership. Never saw one fail that the owner hadn't been dicking with... That said, only three failures, owner self-inflicted....
@@allanwyatt9683 funny...I never dicked with it and it was loose so pictures and mileage is proof don't you say.
Just did mine on a 45k bike. The doohickey was good. Spring was broken. Glad I did it. I upgraded to torsion spring.
I have done four "Doohickey" upgrades, with new levers and torsion springs. Two 2011s, one 2012 and one 2022. All less than 5K miles. All three Gen II bikes had no tension in the stock coil spring. the Gen III bike still had some tension, not much. All of the levers were intact, no issues, but not as robust as the EM unit. The biggest issues I have found on KLRs is lack of grease in the suspension linkage, swingarm bearings, Unitrac axle and steering head.
When I bought my brand new, zero kilometres, 2018 KLR650 from the dealership in the spring of 2019 I asked the service manager about the doohickey.
He said the exact same thing as this mechanic with the caveat that most KLR owners do their own maintenance and repairs and he had never personally worked on one.
At my first oil change at 935 kms (580 miles) I bought the Eagle Mike kit and decided to look into this controversy. BEFORE adjusting the doohickey the linear spring had almost no tension. There was less than 0.005" of gap between each coil. And when I loosened the bolt to the doohickey there was zero tension on the spring and it basically slid off the boss on the engine casting. So there is that.
Totally anecdotal, but I feel happier I did mine.
Doo what you want to doo.
It's a dealership talking about a long term problem though. They mostly get warranty work.
Most people are gonna fix it themselves or take it to a local shop by the time the doohickey does go bad.
So I used to work at a car dealership and let me tell you if you want the honest truth about the reliability of a vehicle you have to make sure the tech is anonymous. The manufacturer of the vehicle will come at the dealership if they said anything bad about the vehicles. Notice he said nothing about parts failing it was all due to poor maintenance. Every vehicle has some sort of defect that wasn't made or engineered well because human error is impossible to avoid. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with Kawasaki in particular, I'm just saying if there was and the tech talked about it he'd probably loose his job.
Exactly.
I was thinking the same thing, you can’t roll into a dealership for said franchise and get 100% unbiased opinion, with his boss right there.
Doesn’t matter the brand they will tell you they have never heard of the problem or never seen it. Or if it is something obvious they will tell you they all do that.
So true, like yeah sure he's going to out Kawi and his Dealership. Have a gen 2 low miles 16 and I'll be upgrading this winter. Thermo and the do.
I'm a member of a local Pittsburgh Pa area dual sport club and I've installed 6 Doo-hicky upgrades. Of the 6, not one OEM spring was actively providing tension. Each of them was was found with the coils at rest and the tensioner lever laying limp. That was 4 Gen 2 and 2 Gen 1 KLR650 engines.
I'll be doing the doo on my 2022 because I'm my first hand experience, 0 for 6 survived in working condition because the spring is too long and stops working early in life.
Is that because of material failure or a lack of maintenance? I am just diving into the KLR world, but it is my understanding that every oil change the doohickey should be checked/adjusted? Wondering if failing on adjusting the doohickey in the first place leads to the spring falling off?
@hendrik8861 maintenance has nothing to do with it. You can't really make it break. It's just a bad design. The Eagle Mike doo and torsion spring completely remove the failure mechanism and allow a lifetime of adjustable range. You loosening the pinch bolt and re-tightening have no influence at all on breaking the hook off of the spring that's too long to begin with not does it break the doo plate off of the center hub. Those things break just because they are bad designs.
Three things you will hear from Most dealers accross the board is . “I have never seen that, They all do that or That’s normal”. Must be in the training manuals to memorize that before you go work at a dealer.
I JUST did my doohickey yesterday on my 2002 KLR. i had a 31 year retired Kawasaki and big block race mechanic come over and do the work with me. he has done dozens and dozens of doohickeys and he has personally showed me the bag of 20+ broken doohickeys and springs that he had. when we cracked my bike open after we noticed that the adjuster wasn't doing anything. what did we find? A BROKEN DOOHICKEY SPRING. just sitting there doing nothing. the welded style doohickey oem was perfectly but the spring giving it tension was snapped off. we did the torsion spring and Emike doohickey and I'm very happy i did or it could have been very bad. my doohickey spring 100% failed.
Impossible... That Kaw tech said it never happens
@@chrishoesing5455 "INCONCEIVABLE!" LMAO
I have owned 7 KLRs since 1997. Old and new, never once did I do the doohickey and have never had a problem outside basic maintenance. I have always believed it to be an overexaggerated problem.
the internet tends to over exaggerate things in general lol
You are a lucky guy, between 97 and 2023 then the 7 bikes lowered your risk of having breakages!!, I have a 2013 so ten years, ownership Doohickey torsion spring kit done at 17,000 KMs, faultless ever since, peace of mind intact.😊
I've owned 6 KLRs over the years. I did the doohickey mod on 4 of them. Of those 4, three of them had slack springs with no tension left. None of those three had cracked or broken doohicky's, but they did have grooved cases from where the spring was digging into them. They also had chaffing marks on every one of the springs from the chain. The one klr of the 4 that I did the mod on, had no spring when I opened the case and a piece of the doohicky was missing. I fished almost all of those parts out of the sump hole with a flexible magnet. You can call it a myth all day long, but every one of those bikes would have eventually succumbed to engine failure in the future. My last KLR a '22 model, I sold before it was time for a second oil change, so I didn't open the case on that one.
The next time you attempted a balancer chain tension adjustment with a slack spring, you'd have increased the slack an opened up the potential for huge problems. What the mechanic failed to mention is that about 90% of the bikes he's worked on won't see more than 7500 to 10,000 miles in their lifetimes.
@@timrlang159 Really? Because I cannot find hardly any klr's in my area for sale with under 10,000 miles. Most range between 20k-40,000 miles. And they still want 5 grand for em.
@@KLRJUNE This comment needs to be pinned!
@@KLRJUNE Rubbish, the spring tension is what sets the chain, if it"s broken it can"t do that, it will eat your Gen3 guides too!!, derail the chain , lockup, bend some valves, it"s not the guides job to hold the tension, it's the useless stock spring and the lockbolt!!
@@KLRJUNE I suggest you take some advice from someone who has owned and maintained machines for forty plus years, yes my KLR has the Eagle Mike Torsion spring Doohickey fitted, it is the only solution to the substandard original part, have a nice day.
Love the mythbusting! Had 25k on my klr zero issues.
comment back here when you do your mod and find the spring or worse failed.
Fair play to you mate, but I honestly don’t regard 25,000 miles as being that thorough of a test.
Not a myth. You can find plenty of examples on forums
Sure. I had about twenty thousand miles on my 06 and I asked my Kawasaki Mechanic about the doohickey. He backed up what your mechanic said. At 22,000 + miles cruising a state away at 70 MPH, the engine made a funny sound and locked up. I have a broken doo hickey sample, a broken spring' two bent intake valves and a cracked piston. Needless to say, my local kawasaki Dealer wasn't my choice for a solution. A 685 kit and aftermarket doohickey made me very happy again. At 31,000 miles now.
Curious, how long were you riding at 70mph and what was the condition of the bike/doohickey prior to the failure?
I read the proper cruising speed would be around 55mph for this bike, especially for heavy set riders.
@@Turco949 I often ride my 06 model at or above 70 on the freeway, (it uses way more fuel at 75 than it does at 70). and yes, I am a fat old fart, so, heavy rider. My doohickey had long since failed when i did my upgrade/repair at 11,000 miles, but fortunately didn't do any damage to the engine. See my earlier post here for the story of my doohickey experience.
With time the spring can break, but the damage to the doo hickey is caused by over torquing the retaining nut causing the doo hickey to get deformed. I have nearly 300,000 miles on KLR and I have had 1 spring break on an engine with 140,000 miles.
Ps the same mc wow or
My 2007 KLR's Doo spring was missing after less than 5000 miles when we opened it for the Doo. If I had done the routine maintenance procedure prescribed by Kawasaki, I would have destroyed my engine. The guy who did the Doo for me showed me a bowl of more than 30-40 broken doohickeys. The original Gen1 had bad welds and the Eagle Mike Doo has more adjustment in it (for when the rubbers on the sprockets wear). The Kawasaki dealer where I bought mine (with 3000 miles on the clock) also denied that the Doo is an issue. The bigger issue is the rubbers on the balancer chain sprockets that wear out.
I've done 10 doo hickeys 6 were broken or broken springs. The lowest was a 7 year old bike but it only had 15k km on it.
Wow! yes, that's what I've also heard from local KLR experts (one of them has done 50 big bore kits, so he knows the engine well)...@@jeffp366 I suspect Kawa did the calcs and found it was not worth it admitting there's an issue and spending to fix it.
@@GreaseAndGravel I suspect the cracked doo's aren't actually kawasaki fault its only meant to be tightened to 8ftlbs most people crank it down not wanting it to come loose. My personal bike had 30k km on it when I bought it spring was broken and there was a crack in the doo itself, I suspect it was user error of previous owner. For the cost of a case of good beer I replaced it and did the torsion spring upgrade, now at 105k km I still just loosen and tighten it every of change without worry 😀.
Note: I own a part time bike shop in Alberta Canada and focus on older metric bikes, although I've bought and sold hundreds of bikes I always come back to my klr.
What routine prescribed maintenance are you referring to ,? The loosening the bolt and tapping the case and then re torking to proper ft lbs ? Only asking because I just got a 2014 that was not very well maintained and am all paranoid now about the doohickey ! Was going to do the loosen and tap and retorque until I read the " might ruin the engine" part of your comment .
@@1stofer I had a 2003 A-model and did that procedure without any issues (i.e. lay bike slightly over to other side, loosen bolt, tap, tighten). No worries. Then I bought a 2007 and learned about the Doo, so I was too scared. Took it to a KLR expert in Cape Town who's done 100s of KLRs. He opened it up with me watching... spring was missing. The lever was intact. But... if I had loosened the bolt, the lever would have gone the wrong way and the chain would have been totally slack.
There is a pretty good chance you'll be okay... but I would not have been. Good luck. I hate these situations!
Sounds like a stock answer from a Kawasaki dealership mechanic. I was at a local dealership looking at the new KLRs when they brought them back out and asked if Kawasaki had done anything about the doohickey. The salesman pretended to not know what the doohickey was until i asked the sales manager the same question, and he acknowledged that the doohickey was a problem, then all of the sudden, the original salesman knew all about the doohickey issue. Now, my experience with the doohickey. I’m 65 years old and have been riding and working on motorcycles since i was 10, even worked as a mechanic at a local Yamaha dealership starting when i was 14. I have owned motorcycles continuously since i was 12, and always do all of my own wrenching on them. I have a 2006 KLR 650 that I bought new. When it had 11,000 miles on it, I decided to do a doohickey upgrade with the Eagle Mike kit and opted for the torsion spring fix. As I began the upgrade, I pulled the left side cover from the engine, and found that I was not doing an upgrade, but instead, I was doing a doohickey repair as the spring had long since broken and the adjuster was already set at full travel, from the factory. The spring had broken so far in the past that the nub end of it had worn a groove in the bottom of the case, I was very lucky that the tag end that had broken off had apparently came out with an earlier oil change and somehow didn’t do any damage. I finished my repair/upgrade, and all of the sudden the engine was much quieter, possibly even quieter than when it was new. I still have this bike today and still enjoy going both on and off road with it. The stock KLR doohickey is beyond question a problem and to say otherwise is just laughable.
NOTICE TO FELLOW KLR650 OWNERS!!
BEFORE you just order in/replace your replacement/upgraded 'Doohicky' setup... CHECK your BOTH your balance chain guides!! WORN/DESTROYED guides WILL give the same symptoms of a knackered tensioner spring/'Doohickey' part.
UA-camr - Shaun Murray did a 2 part video on this and IT IS WORTH checking out!!
Video title - '!BEWARE ! Kawasaki KLR 650 , another doohickey video . Part 1.'
There is a part 2 to this with the conclusions of findings.
I'm GLAD I saw this video as when I ordered a replacement Balance Chain Tensioner, I ALSO ordered a new chain AND both chain guides too, and yes, one of the guides also showed signs of concerning wear! So PLEASE, don't just think just an upgraded 'Doohickey' part will solve your problems and/or potential future worries! Be aware of associated parts too!
Ride safe ride free peeps! 👍 😎🇬🇧
All KLR650 owners know that it's real and a real problem. He wants you to think he is a dork for believing a Kawasaki paid mechanic, but like a manipulative female it's just for the comments to his page.
🙄
Well I have an 09 I bought with 13K miles, when I checked it the spring was intact but completly slack and there was no way it was able to adjust the chain. I'm not disputing the mechanic's comments but I've seen enough pictures of broken / slack springs to justify doing the DooHickey. I will say I am a freak about maintenance on all my toys, but in 40+ yrs of riding and racing motorcycles I can't remember ever having a breakdown due to a maintenance problem.
Did mine at 12k miles and there was no more tension on the spring, it was just laying there and rubbing on the case.
I heard this same story from every Kawasaki mechanic I spoke to. So I didn't really worry about the chain tensioner breaking. Finally after 50,000 miles I opened the crankcase up and both the lever and the coil spring were broken. What the dealer mechanics are saying sounds like fake news.
Interesting counterpoint to the Big Rock Moto vids featuring Eagle Mike. Thanks Dork for the fun content. I love Ryan from Fortnine "the cheapest thing on a KLR... is the rider." 🤣🤣🤣 keep the rubber side down. 👍
Always good to hear multiple viewpoints if you can!
Eagle Mike makes his living off his "upgrade." As someone who has owned two KLRs, both of which have seen north of 20,000 miles, I can tell you with confidence that the doohickey is a myth. Both of my bikes have had no issues and when my former MX sponsor went to adjust them he found that they didn't even need adjustment. Again, we're talking bikes with over 20,000 miles on them that have been ridden like they were in baja by a former MX/hare scramble racer so I'd say the doohickey is far more solid than people claim
The “mod” does not make the “tightening” of the cam chain any “easier.” The process is exactly the same. Loosen the bolt on the side of the case, let the spring take up slack, tighten the bolt back down. The difference is Eagle Mike’s torsion spring works where I’ve seen more than one spring on a Gen 2 be out of tension before 10,000 miles. If you’ve taken both bikes apart (Gen 1 and Gen 2, or 3 at this point), it is clear that the lever itself is better in Gen 2/3 and unlikely to fail. But if you’ve taken more than a few apart, you also know the stock spring can run out of adjustment way too soon.
Yes, he is obviously clueless. It's so hard to find a competent mechanic these days
Regular maintainance is to adjust the balancer every few thousand miles or less if you have the time.
But yourself a torque wrench that is in INCH pounds.
Not foot pounds.
Then take the rubber cap off the adjusting bolt way down by the shift lever.
Unscrew the bolt counter clockwise two full turns and no more than that.
Take a rubber hammer, or a block of wood and use a hammer to give the case a few hard taps.
This will reenter the balancer.
Retighten the bolt to
78 INCH pounds.
Good to go.
Good information. Thank you for sharing this.
Doohickey was broken on my 2007 at maybe 6,000 miles when I decided to check and do the door. Half in the crankcase, half still under the adjusting bolt. Bought new, adjusted per manual.
I never had a problem with mine. It all ways started and went wherever I pointed it. Thanks for sharing
The doo does break, I've seen it several times. I've never seen it destroy anything, always found in the oil.
Yeah mine was just broken in two on the weld. It was hanging out in the case. I'm not comfortable with chunks of stray steel just chilling in my motor though, lol.
A Kawasaki mechanic saying that the Doohicky is not a big deal. SORRY BUT THAT IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST. He is not going to shit on his shop or brand for good reason. From what I have seen myself, they do fail and Kawasaki have mad a few changes on the new model but they are still failing at low KM's
The dude standing on the right, who appears to be of some importance at the dealership, has a look on his face that sort of indicates "Mike, if you say something bad about the KLR, you will be looking for another job".
Yeah that's Matt. If he looks sketched out it's because I was not technically supposed to be in the shop cuz insurance reasons. ;)
I have seen numerous KLR's with over 70k miles on them still running well. They all had the doohickey replaced. It's mostly done by people that seriously ride the bike, not your average sell it or trade by 15k miles guy. What you won't find is a KLR out there with 70k miles still running with the original doohickey parts because they fail ! Seems to be alot of comments on here acknowledging the springs with no tension, wears marks in the case, etc. So why say it's not a problem or that someone found a way to sell gimmick parts. Just ain't so fellas.
I can also confirm this as a technician. We’ve had bikes in for top end rebuilds with 50k miles and the chain and tensioner are fine. Also, Kawasaki is one of the best for warranty work. I’ve seen them goodwill replace so many things that they felt were on them it’s nuts. I personally don’t own a Kawasaki, but they have stellar ethics. So if it were a real problem I believe it would have been resolved.
Well, I am a life long Kawasaki owner/fan. I have had different experiences than you with Momma Kaw warranty, specifically with a well known issue with the bags/panniers (Concours 14) simply flying off the bike when you hit a pretty hard bump. On the forum, people said all the time that this was happening, I wrote it off as someone not latching or locking the bag properly, not so! It happened to me in Wisconsin on a group ride with witnesses. Kawasaki never addressed the issue, the fix is to drill through the lower mounting bracket and "ears" on the bottom of the bag and pin it...problem solved! Only issue is, it was about $1,000.00 to replace a bag if you weren't lucky enough to see it come off or someone else didn't see it. On the forum, I had to eat crow, listen to others! Moving on to the KLR, just picked up a used 2022 with 4,500 miles on it, I AM doing the modification because it is a known failure, you don't just make this stuff up and I plan on putting MANY miles on this bike as I do all of my bikes, I am a 33 year journeyman mechanic and wont ignore those that have had this issue. Change the SOB and move on!
There seems to be little mention of the maintenance required for "Doo hickey"
We.re from AUS and like you,ve done Dork, I,ve checked with any number of long term Kwaka mechanics and most noteworthy with twenty + experience.
They all advise that nil Doo Hickey problems have been presented to their workshops over many years- here in OZ.
My understanding of Doo Hickey adjustment, is to undo the the bolt at the very bottom of the left side sump, then hit the sump casing with a rubber mallet to loosen and allow adjustment
of the
Doo hickey spring, then re tighten. I,ve been advised that if this is done at service intervals (6000 kms) you should be OK. They also advise that should you hear any untoward noises,
in day to day riding seek advice!
My 2018 KLR has done near 40k and nil issues/noises thus far- Doo hickey not upgraded..
One recent mechanic pointed out that USA KLR yearly sales collectively are more than collective total yearly motor cycle sales in OZ!!!.
I have a 2018 also. I removed the ridiculous California emissions that make them run dangerously lean over long term. Every oil change (I judge by when it gets difficult to see the slotted shiny metal in the sight glass) I do the tension adjustment. It takes seconds to do and I think people running across states and not doing the tension adjustment are lots of the problems. They aren't really designed for sustained highway travel. I switched to a 16 tooth counter sprocket to drop the revs as I do lots of blacktop travel.
@@tomservo5347 I also have the 2018. It has over 70,000 kms and no doo hickey replacement. The engine has not exploded!!!! and runs sweet like the day it was bought.
I also do the adjustments at recommended intervals. Australian mechanics who service many long range KLR,s suggest that replacement is not required nor sought.
Katherine is right! My Mechanic suggests that even if the doo hickey were to fail, the chain guides within the motor can likely cope without major catastrophe. The guides may wear in time , granted but my motor is running well. I,m not replacing mine and saving some cash and time.
@@Mikethebike-ov1yp I think it's the companies selling the aftermarket parts putting out the propaganda. I really doubt Japanese engineers would leave a 'flaw' after 30 years of production.
He can't even keep the balancer chain and the cam chain apart. (After about a minute) And the dealer principal is standing next to him making sure he does not say anything wrong? If he really has never seen a failed doohickey: I have worked on KLR650s a lot for the last 22 years and I have a pickle jar full of them.
I replaced doohickey on my 2009 with 8000 mi. using your excellent tutorial a few years ago. While the doohickey wasn't broken, the tension spring was doing nothing. I installed the new doo and torsion spring and the bike ran much smoother. Thanks!
So hundreds probably thousands of KLR owners that have dug springs and parts out of thier engine covers must just be making it up because one mechanic hasn't seen many.
Ben you really are the perfect embodiment of a dork. In an internet world of self labeled "journalists" and "influencers" you have really found an authentic niche. Just be kind, humble, and dorky for the win!
Thanks man
At 16k miles on my 2017 I opened it up to just check it. The Doohickey was fine, the spring was properly attached, but there was no tension left in the spring. I did not think the spring was in danger of slipping off but it was a little loose. I suspect it was still tight in the bike until I loosened the adjuster to get the cover off, but I do not have a way of knowing that. I changed my oil every 1000 miles and adjusted the tensioner independent of the oil change about every 3000 miles (5 times total), but I felt like nothing happened the last time and maybe the time before. With it open, I thought about just running to the hardware store and getting a shorter spring, but instead I went ahead and installed the Eagle Mike torsion spring. What I noticed is the torsion spring puts way more tension on the balancer chain than the factory original, and I wonder if that will wear out the balancer chain or chain guides prematurely. When all was finished, I want to say the engine seems to produce less vibration in the nasty 3.9-4.4k rpm range, but I am not 100% sure if that is real or my imagination.
I know this is a year old, but I noticed the same on my bike. It is now way smoother than before. At 55mph, i can hardly feel any vibrations. I thought I was alone in this, but apparently not.
Dork, I really do enjoy your content and approach so accept this feedback from a fan….. You did not ask him how many completely slack springs he has seen, no tension in the spring mean there is no tensioning function on the counterbalanced chain. As a former KLR owner I researched this issue extensively and my own tensioner spring was completely slack….. you asked how many tensioner broke…. It’s the springs that get slack fall apart or break as a result and get into the motor that is the bad part besides having an out of balance Counter balancer creating more vibration on the highway etc…. So the actual tensioner may be a crappy looking item and folks refer to the issue as the tensioner problem, tensioner breaking…. But it’s the shitty springs that have always been the issue… so it seems you may need to have another look at your understanding and then go back and ask the right questions, slack springs, broken springs and what happens when a spring breaks or what can happen? I do know however know several , maybe even “many” KLR owners who have never done the doohickey and seemed worry free and had no issues and so were blissfully unaware of their doohickey at all. So there is that. But again, the issues is not fracturing breaking doohickeys or tensioner it’s the spring that creates the tensioner that is the issue generally. I hope that makes sense.
at 2:07 I asked "and people say the springs wear out, lose their tension over time. Is that not something you see?" Is that not what you are talking about?
which makes me think this guy is a total liar or something. because its a massive problem. I just did mine and found the spring was totally snapped off.
@@DorkintheRoad When I pulled apart my klr the spring was completely out of adjustment and just loose in there. It's not that the spring wears out, it's that there is not enough range of adjustment in the stock setup the spring is a bit to long, so once there becomes enough slack in your chain that the spring comes all the way in. and it's just kind of shaking around in there doing nothing. then it can just vibrate around to the point were things start wearing through and coming apart. because there is no spring tension to hold the spring firmly in its place. I could definitely see a dealer trying to convince someone into thinking that it is from excessive chain wear and selling them a counter balancer chain replacement. Which is simply not the case. Just more dealership mentality BS. When I took mine apart to check it I was like Hmm I could literally just put a bit shorter spring in there and it would go for a long time again. But I had already purchased the eagle mikes kit. So another example that if you want to hear a total line of bs, go talk to a dealer.
@@DorkintheRoad - What you didn't ask him was what the mileage of the bikes he worked on was. The majority of motorcycles sold are used for puttering around town and brief weekend fun rides when the weather's nice. Most of those bikes won't see 10,000 miles in their lives. That means the doo' has only been adjusted once, and yeah, both it and the spring will probably survive that. The reason it's never been a warranty issue is that they'll survive till after the warranty runs out!
@@miraclo3 you must be very ignorant...
It is helpful hearing the objective experience of a mechanic who does not have the inherent bias of skin in the game (selling Doo Hickey mods).
Still, nothing wrong with modding it. I wouldn’t mod it before the warranty runs out though.
Best advice: Maintain your bike properly and at least according to spec.
No diggity.
I believe Eagle Mike.
I own a 1st gen KLR, bought the Doohickie, replaced it at 2200 miles. THE FACTORY SPRING WAS BROKEN!!! 2200 miles!!!
You dont have a clue until you open it up. By all means, do it!!!
pulled mine apart and the thing was broken in half, 38k miles on a 06, had to fish around in the bottom case and find half of doo
I wonder why Kawasaki has comeup with a new and improved version (several times) over the years.
Proper maintenance is inspecting and replacing worn parts. So technically a Kawasaki employee with a company man standing beside him can be "ACTUALLY" honest on camera without losing his job.
He was choosing his words very carefully. Da fuck outta here with that bullshit.... old boy looked like he was pinned down on Judge Judy
load of BS, they fail spectacularly on gen 1's, and gen 2's for sure stretch out the chain and make the tensioner useless until fixed
Thank you. I was wondering how someone with this much "experience " says theyve never seen one fail
I just pulled the side casing to take a look. The chain is perfect everything is where it needs to be but the doohickey is split in half. If I were to have loosened the adjustment Bolt to put tension on the Chain it would have completely slopped my chain and the top of the doohickey would have been in my casing. I'm uploading the video now
This message is brought to you by Kawasaki.
the 1993-96 KLX-650 was an upgraded KLR engine (no doohickey tensioner) with a modern perimeter frame and suspension, but it didn't sell well at the time
11 klr /6k miles, no spring tension whatsoever. no amount of maintenance will overcome no tension on spring. facts.
I'm glad I held out for the 2023 KLR as I will now get my pearl solar yellow color. I honestly didn't think Kawasaki would bring it back so soon.
Mine cracked in half when I loosened it to check it. The spring was broken. 23000 miles when I bought it and checked.
Just bought a 2017 KLR immaculately maintained w/ 10k miles. Doohickey mod never done, but
Maintrnance records
galore came with bike.
So happy I found this video! Thanks DORK! I really like your content. This was super helpful.
The USMC diesel conversion performed by Hayes technologies removed the counterbalancer mechanism in it's entirety (the spring,chain and tensioner/aka doohickey). The counterbalancer was designed to "soften" the vibration that big single cylinders are known for. This conversation did have "shakes" but if the parts aren't there they ain't gonna fail. The Gen 2 had a strengthen adjuster and after 2008 the adjuster (aka doohickey) was much less prone to break.
This video is a joke. Maintenance has nothing to do with the doohickey spring getting coil bound … unless the oil was never changed or run so low the chain wore out. My OEM spring was nearly coil bound when I changed it out at 3,000 miles.
Mine broke at 4300 miles on my 2006 on the way home from Walmart. No damage was done. Vibrated like hell limped home at 25 mph. Now at 4300 miles how much maintenance did I miss? According to him keep up on the maintenance and you'll be fine. Changed the oil at 500 and 2500 miles, yes filter also. Even checked the valve clearances in that time. Also replaced the factory rear tire since it was wore out and lubed and tensioned the drive chain. Adjusted the throttle and clutch cables. Nearly 46k miles on the aftermarket "doohickey" replacement. So again at 4300 miles how much maintenance did I miss?
I had the tensioner spring break on my 2018 at
Can they run just fine without the doohickey? Yes! My bike had a broken spring at 7000 miles. Every bike I’ve replaced the doohickey on has had a broken spring or doohickey. The only reason someone typically pulls that side case is to change the doohickey so it’s not surprising that a mechanic doesn’t see them break. I’m very surprised that he hasn’t seen broken springs and at least a few cracked doohickeys
I bought the Eagle Mike doohickey kit and asked a motorcycle mechanic to fit it to my Gen 2 Kawasaki KLR650. The original doohickey was not worn or about to fracture, but was replaced anyway. The mechanic remarked that the original spring had no tension, so he replaced it with the shorter EM spring. My bike had covered 25,000 Kms.
25,000km before or after your mod?
@@ianmackenzie686 25,000 KMs before the mod.
I gotta say, I took my cover off and found the doohickey was fine but he spring was broken and had a groove worn in the side of the spring. Soooo glad I checked. REPLACE your Doohickey and install a torsion spring people.😁
Thanks, Mr Dork in the Road. Very informative. I won't worry so much about my doohickey. Manufacturer-recommended maintenance is always a good rule of thumb. I have over 100,000 miles on my Harley Electra Glide and it still purrs like a kitten. That equates to 40 oil changes with a new filter every change. Wow! - that's about 160 quarts of 20W-50 motor oil! It's been with every penny!
I’m sorry. Appreciate your video, but I have seen to much for myself. When I opened my KLR at 30K the spring was hanging, ZERO tension. And there are far too many videos available to prove the failure of the the tensioner and spring. I don’t believe that mechanic, that is what I would call a “compromised” environment. He’s not going to piss on his own brand.
Correct.
I did my doohikey at 12k miles. Owned the bike since 500 miles and every oil change I adjusted the tension spring according to the manual. When I did the doo there was ZERO tension on the stock spring and it had been laying against the case rubbing on it. Do the doo.
"It allows for the tension of the doohickey to be adjusted a little bit easier"
No, it does not do that. They adjust the exact same as the oem. This guy doesnt know what he's talking about.
I had a 2004 and my doohicky broke at 3000 mls. The head needed to be completly rebuilt including all new valves. I used an Eagle Mike replacement and had no more problems. It was no longer an issue. Sold it at 58,000mls.
I have replaced two with Eagle Mike’s do hickeys. One was ok and the other one was cracked at the slot. The material is thin and it’s work hardened because the two piece design is welded.
You do what you want.
I have an '07 with 36K+ miles no doohickey, hardly any maintenance, and beat to crap. Runs great! I think the people that cry about the doohickey are the same people that claim you cant go 90mph on the highway...i'll leave it at that.
you said it yourself you hardly do any maintenance so you probably don't even know the bike that well. willing to bet you have a broken or bottomed out spring.
@@miraclo3 well I guess Kawi “doesn’t know the bike that well” either? Don’t worry if I’m ever side lined from anything remotely related to the doohickey I’ll be sure to update this post. Now excuse me while I go put another 80 or so miles on my virgin non-doohickey bike…ohh the fear.
My stock cam broke on my 1999 KLR 650 at 18,000 miles. It sheared at both ends of the slot in the cam. The spring broke free and was cut in half. I had three large pieces of metal in the bottom of my oil sump that I fished out with a magnet. I always followed recommended maintenance on adjustment of the cam tensioner. I installed the after market cam and have not had a problem since. The bike now has 45,000 miles.
When I bought 2016 Concours 14 I was immediately greeted with friendly “recommendations”, like “you surely want to use an oversized cam sensor o-ring, cause OEM one leaks” or “you definitely have to pin the side cases, cause they tend to fly off”. Or complaining on buggy keyless FOB system.
Guess what? None of those concerns are valid any more. All that noise is coming from the folks parroting and old rumors of some teething problems in the first year bikes. And some of those problems are likely user-induced (people not attaching the luggage properly).
I have an OEM o-ring and no sign of leak. I’m very happy with how KIPASS works. And never had a problem with a luggage in 40k miles
I find that hard to believe to be honest. Mine was in pieces in the bottom of my engine, and in my oil intake screen. I have checked ONE bike, and that's what I found. People post photos of bad ones all the time on klr forums. This just gives people false trust of the part.
I’m glad you went to the source with this. I haven’t been too concerned but I’ve been really curious and this was very informative
I'm about to pull the trigger and buy a KLR 650 Adventure and this makes me feel even better.
2015 KLR owner here. Never done the doo and never will do the doo. However.. . Asking someone associated with Kawasaki about a potential engine flaw??? The answer maybe biased. ALSO... asking someone who sells all the tools and parts to replace the doo... The answer maybe biased.
i had a 31+ year Kawasaki and big block race mechanic come over with a big bag of 20+ broken springs and doohickeys. didnt think it was a big deal untill we opened mine and found the spring snapped off. its atleast worth changing the spring to torsion so you dont get metal parts floating around the engine.
I will go with the mechanic rather than the internet. Keep it adjusted
Thank you. I think it was an excellent idea to ask a technician that has been around these a while this question. It makes since that Kawasaki wouldn't fix this all these years now.
It sounds like good peace of mind to change it if you ride hard and maybe neglect perfect maintenance. If you are riding like most owners and doing your maintenance on time, don't worry about it.
Got mine from Power! Rode it home in a freak snow-storm. Need to get the fuel pump replaced as per Recall. Commenter down below in another thread said, it's not the Dohickey, its the chain wear bars that wear out and cause the slack. The mod only adds more tension to said chain.
Never seen a doohickey fail?? Lolol. HOW? I just bought a '99 with 13,500 miles with a doohickey that was broken in two.
Having ordered and installed the eagle Mike replacement, it's a much more stout version.
I've got a 1999 Gen 1. I've too never have a proble.. we r currently riding all over ALABAMA and no issues. I've got 9 motorcycles. Everything from harly,s yamaha,s suzuki,s . Triumph. If I had to keep one bike. My klr would be it. It does everything I want. Your channel is awesome and I just subscribed. Thanks DORK
7/27/23 My new KLR 650 S with 1300 miles was making loud ticking noise and I did timely oil changes and treated it like my baby. Kawasaki put in new cam tension assembly and new cam chain under warranty. I have had three previous KLR's over the last ten years with no problems but not this one.
Would love to hear about the thermobob as well!
I just bought a 2023 klr, I’ve done my own research and I will be doing the eagle mike torsion spring mod at 5,000 miles. It’s not something I want to do but for peace of mind I will. Also if it’s such a well known problem, any and everyone who owns/ed or knows someone that has a klr has heard of the doohickey spring. I’m not one for following the heard but in this case there is too much noise about this specific mod it’s a no brainer to just get it done.
They do fail and the springs run out of travel. seen it personaly. This dude's tripping.
I've had a 15 model ,and 2 17 models that the springs had no tensioning left in them at all. also one spring was almost rubbed in half. all 3 bikes had under 8k miles. All 3 bikes got the eagle Mike kits and problem solved!! This is a very well known and documented issue! just change it to a torsion kit and be done with it, its not hard!
Smart video choice Ben....clickbait gold!
At 17,000 miles my 2006 spring was broken. The gen-2's doo's don't break, but the springs are still an issue.
I saw a few with the springs not attached back in the 2000's when they were replaced....
I think this video was long overdue, you have answered my question and I must say thank you very much God blessings.
Thanks for watching
I replaced mine today on my 2023 and it still had 3/4 inch left of travel but the factory spring was completely out of tension. It was collapsed 100%. Im not saying that the Eagle Mike solution is perfect, but it’s a lot better than having a useless tensioner.
TLDR; you can trust 1 guy whos seen thousands of bikes, a small minority of which are maybe older models from gen 1 and 2 or you can trust the thousands of guys who own the bikes theyve had to do this fix to specifically. Type in KLR doohickey failure and youll get thousands of people talking about this issue and they also predate internet forums by about 2 decades so theres probably 10s of thousands more people who would have posted about the problem as well.
If kawasaki never acknowledges its a problem, then there is no problem. Ive had 3 KLRs personally and seen all 3 doohickey springs fail, ive pulled 2 broken doohickeys out of those 3.
Thats not counting the 2 dozen or so other KLRs ive helped people with changing their doohickeys out. Out of those 2 dozen i saw one that the original springs still had spring capacity and it was a 2022 model with 1000 miles on it.
99% of the time people who own KLRs arent bringing those bikes to the dealer because you can get them for $1,000 and theres no reason to bring a used bike to a dealer for service unless youre really rich or really lazy. Thats why mr mechanic has never seen one thats failed but hes also not a "KLR mechanic" hes just a kawasaki mechanic that sees thousands of bikes in general not specifically KLRs.
Bottom line is that if kawasaki ever owned up to this issue being a failure on their engineering department theyd have to issue a recall for the 10s of thousands of bikes theyve sold over 40 something years and its not really a super big deal since the aftermarket (thanks eagle mike) toom care of the "not a problem" problem.
That's the way I see it also, there is plenty of evidence to prove there is a problem.
i had an 07 and when i took it apart to change the dohickey it was in 3 pieces and the spring was GONE!!
the bike had less then 10000kms on it..
change your dohickey!
my 2017 was okay but i still changed it..
I live in The Bahamas and owned 2 KLR’s 1994 and 2004 both had doohickey issues. We ride hard and it’s always hot here so that explains a lot.
Good to know from a Kawasaki mech. I just bought my 22 and don’t plan on doing the doohickey the one who pushes the mod is the guy who came up with it so he has a vested interest in you doing it so of course he will tell you the doom and gloom to get you to do it.
Nobody who sells doohickey parts pushes people to buy them. If so please point it out.
@@3dcycleparts Eagle mike is who I am talking about. Thicken the skin sir.
@@Trevorburk1 Eagle Mike doesn't push the doohickey parts on folks. It's not about thin skin, it's about facts. You said something that is flat out not true. I asked for examples. You gave none.
@@3dcycleparts he has put out videos saying that your engine will grenade if you don’t replace the thing he has been carnying rubes for years with gimmicks up engines and telling hayseeds that see here this engine was about to go so now he has an army of rubes who have to say that this widget works or admit that they are the rube. As long as there are gullible people carneys like Eagle mike will make money off them. A fool and his money will soon make a slick richer.
Man. I have a new 2022 KLR, I'm not touching my dohickey !
i bought a klr that the previous had just changed the stock spring to a heavier spring which of course snapped the lever and grenaded inside the engine. It was still running with all the pieces inside the screen in the middle of the engine. I installed the eagle mike kit and it ran really well for about 4000 miles and then the counterbalance chain broke which was catastrophic engine failure. i ended up finding a klr for cheap that is running great bone stock and im gonna do the eagle mike kit right away on it and im sure it will run forever after that
My doohickey FAILED and came out the oil drain hole with the oil when I was doing an oil change.
For so much experience, how in the hell has he not seen it...
Go watch Eagle Mike. He probably has little more experience.
Yes, go listen to the guy trying to sale you a product, he won’t try to persuade you at all…..
@@PrestonGladd did you even read my comment? My doohickey failed, thats how i learned about eagle mike...
@@kyleruhe1098 I did read your comment, you said "go watch eagle mike. he probably has a little more experience". No one is saying they don't fail, and from what I have found the 2008+ don't break like years prior. But that also doesn't mean the guy selling the "fix" doesn't have a biased message. The real issue that no one seems to be talking about was the chain guides wearing and failing, which is why the springs no longer had tension, which led to the doohickies breaking. This year they addressed that by beefing up the chain guides.
@@PrestonGladd no one is saying they dont fail? Bro thats what this whole video is based on... the mechanic is saying they dont fail and he has never seen one fail. Also, go to a couple KLR forums that dont just talk about the 2022. They have plenty talking about the chain guides wearing and how thats bad for your engine. And from my reading and wrenching on my KLR the chain guides wear when the doohickey fails to apply tension. So it comes back to the doohickey failure.
@@kyleruhe1098 Jesus, ok, you win, not wasting anymore of my time on this.
I think the reason why he hasn't seen this problem is because he works for a dealership. My understanding is that these things fail outside of the warranty, so people are unlikely to go to a dealership to get it fixed at that point.
2005 with 51,000 hard miles and completely original including the doohickey . Regular maintenance, Oil changes, adjusting valve clearances and using a torque wrench on fasteners.
I call BS, I owned 1 klr with 15,000kms on and when I took the engine cover off
The doohickey hadn't broken yet however the spring has broken
Just about to buy a gen 1, doing research and all i could find is freakn doohickey!! Made me worry! Thanks for this video brother
Good to know man, by the way yesterday I went & bought a bran spanking new KLR from those folks. My only complaint with them they didn’t give up even a Kawasaki sticker. Asked about a hat or jersey & man nothing for free there😂. Serious tho good service & people & not to mention inventory. Wow there wasn’t anything that wasn’t already there
Do the doo.