I have noticed rattle in engine almost since new. At 21000 miles I opened up the l side engine case. There was a broken engine balancer chain adjuster and many chunks of metal in crankcase. I checked the internet and apparently this is very common. I believe this failure could cause a real wheel lockup/seized engine and consequent loss of control with devistating consequences. Both my dealer and kawasaki USA indicate they have never heard of such a problem. This is a well known defect in all klr650's built since 1986!
2001 Kawasaki KLR650 engine complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 15 of 15, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Counter balancer adjuster failure.
Failure of counterbalance adjuster. Part shattered into three pieces. One piece lost in crankcase, requiring further diassambly of engine to recover
Balancer idler shaft, tensioner lever failure on a 2001 kawasaki klr 650 motorcycle, resulting in pieces of steel entering oil sump, crankcase and transmission of engine.
Kawasaki klr650 balancer tensioner and cam spring on motorcycle less than one year old with low mileage. After reading of similar failures in other motorcycles some of which reportedly resulted in injury, I decided to open the engine housing to investigate. Both components had shattered resulting in metalic fragmentation residue drawn into the oil pump mechanism (but stopped by oil pump metalic screening).
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