05/012008
Several months ago, Jay Bass, Rod Morris, and I were north bound in Baja near Punta
Prieta when we passed three north bound KLR650s which we later found out were piloted
by Phillip Orth of Sierra Vista, Arizona and two female companions.
Meredith, one of the two ladies, phoned me the other day from Mexico near Cancun to
discuss transmission problems in her pre-2008 KLR650. Meredith informed me that her
stock shift lever had broken and was being welded. If you have a pre-2007 KLR650, one of
the first things you should do is replace the crummy stock shift lever with one from MMP. I
broke three shifters in the early 90’s before eventually convincing Chuck MacDonald of
“MacDonald Products” that he should be the first one to make a reliable replacement part.
Chuck agreed and presented me with a copy of the first run with my name stamped on it.
That lever is still doing duty on my main KLR after more than a decade of being moved up
and down.
The other problem Meredith reported was that her transmission would not stay in second
gear, popping into neutral unless held in position with the shift lever. This condition sounds
like a shift fork and/or gear problem which would probably mean splitting the cases, unless
there is some mitigating circumstance that Meredith is not aware of.
