KLE500 First Faults

I decided to simply ride the KLE500 for the first few weeks in order to identify and prioritise the things that needed fixing.

After a few self inflicted false starts (trapping the fuel tap vacuum pipe after removing the tank was one of them) I’d narrowed down the issues to three

There was a horrible strangled bearing noise decelerating on a closed throttle – it disappeared completely when the clutch was pulled in.  Clearly drivetrain related (and from the rear of the bike) the culprit was the rear hub bearing.  A decent second-hand hub from eBay sorted that one out and allowed me to clean and adjust the chain at the same time.

There was also an engine top end rattle. I tried to adjust the cam-tensioner but it was one of the early type ones and simply broke. Again eBay came to the rescue with one of the better (later) types and the bike started to sound much better. Replacing the air filter and modifying the airbox with the “Rimfire” http://www.hoerburger.net/140.pdf (in German but easy to follow) mod improved the running no end. This information can also be found at http://home.arcor.de/wolfgangschwirz/bikes/schraubertipps/rimfireumbau.htm and http://www.dernacken.de/airbox_special.html but as they are also in German I’m not sure who should be getting the kudos for this simple but excellent improvement to the engine’s breathing. I understand that it benefits the later (more strangled) bikes even more than my early ’92 example

My bike also has a fuel tank leak.  It’s form the top left bracket where the “fairing panel” mounts and is clearly the result of a minor accident at some time in the past. I’ve “glooped it up” with J-B Weld which mostly works although it does seep slightly. As this is made worse by the alarming angle of lean on the sidestand, it will be  sorted entirely by the fitting of the SW-Motech Centrestand (post to follow)

Finally (for now at least) I obviously changed the oil and filter soon after purchase. This revealed that the sump plug was damaged. I bought another one before realising that the one on the bike was not correct and had been forced in to try to get round a damaged thread on the sump itself. I carefully refitted a new (wrong) plug and am now searching for a good sump on eBay to finally put that one to rest – I’ll change the oil again after the winter so I’ve got a while to find one.