I've ridden the 2001 KLR650 for 11 years and it's been a good fit for me. Alas, about 2 years ago, it decided that it was a little bit British and started to leak oil. I looked and looked and tried several approaches to fix what I thought was the leak. I replaced output shaft seals, oil drain plug washers, anything and everything near the leak. Finally, I found it. There is a crack in the crankcase, running vertically through the treads of the oil drain. #*!##**!
After much hemming and hawing, I decided that the only right way to fix this was to replace the crankcase with a good used one. Rebuilding with a new part would have cost more than half the value of the bike, so used was the way to go.
Of course, at 35k miles, I would need to hone the cylinder at least and probably need to bore it and up the size of the piston and rings. I guess you could say that I got a case of the "might as wells".
The lovely piston in the pictures is an aftermarket forged piston that reduces the mass by 25% and is said to significantly improve the vibration of the engine. In addition, it bumps the displacement from 650 to 685 cc with a 2 mm bore increase. Smoother and more torque, might as well indeed.
In case the piston looks a lot like a car piston, you would be correct. The piston diameter is slightly more than 4". Now you know why they call them thumpers.
Looks like I'm behind on projects again. Combine that with travel for work and I better get busy.
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