As I mentioned earlier in the DR350 thread the valve clearance spec you have is wrong. I was not sure so I looked it up this morning. The exhaust spec on the 94+SE was changed from .08-.13mm to .17-.22mm. You need to readjust the exhaust valves.
Thanks, I will readjust them to .12 intake and .22 exhaust! Edit - Set the valves to .12-.13 intake and .22-.23 exhaust. You have to triple check valve clearance so you don't mess up. I am happy that I don't have to look at these for a long time!
I figured out why I couldn't wire my brake light to brighten up while braking, the ground wire was broken off near the brake light bulb! I have no idea how I made the brake glow and the turn signals brighten instead Here is my new helmet and video set-up. I like how it matches the Suzuki Blue! Waterproof, shockproof, 1080P at 60FPS =D Zipties can do anything! Velcro strip holds the bottom to the helmet, and a bolt holds the camera to the plexiglas. Visor still opens and closes
Uphill Bog Riding with Slick Tires + 16/36 sprockets! A minute of my ride this morning, looking for the highest roads in Anchorage! This was actually the easiest part, it took me 20 minutes to get 30 feet past a pile of rocks right before this video. Had to go up a mud hill, push past dense trees, and ride into deep mud to get around. I probably shouldn't have tried this before I put the new tires on..... And changed sprockets. Had fun tho!
Yesterday at full-throttle for close to a minute video. I really like this helmet cam, I see all kinds of crazy stuff when I ride and I feel a bit safer in traffic too.
On the way back from the videos above, my 350 was not running well at all. Today I found that it was sucking water into the carburetor until it ran strangely! It started running strange soon after I laid it on the petcock side to slide it on the mud slope ride, so I think the far side of the gas tank somehow had water in it and it ran down to the left part when I laid it down to slide it. I drained the carb right before I left today and there was a lot of water in it. It started bogging this morning too so I drained it again and there was more. Ugh. The annoying thing is that the petcock is not the lowest part in the tank, so the water pools away from the gas filter thing until a bit of it bounces around and gets sucked into the carburetor bowl. I'm going to drain+dry the tank in the sun 2mro to fix it. Really weird problem, I only noticed it when I was getting up to speed from a stop. It felt like someone was turning my bike off and on about 5 times a second until I drained the carb. Riding to Wasilla was awesome, I rode about 200 miles today. I did a GPS test, and the GPS says 61-62 when the 350 says 65. Speedo's are always high, so it's good to GPS test it once.
16/36 is too tall unless I want to cruise over 70 a lot. I am going back to my 15T and normal case saver. I have to change the oil, tires, brake pads, and buy insurance which runs out today. 21 years and 7,100 miles! Time for some new tubes and new K270 tires
The carburetor is running too rich for me, so I switched my 140 MJ to a stock 127.5 MJ from the carb. rebuild kit bag. My needle has these 6 spots in it so it must be aftermarket... I moved the clip one leaner (to the right) from here and it stumbled at high RPM. I ordered a stock 5FP96 needle, which will lean the fuel mix out and should be more tolerant to adjustments. (EDIT - Does not work, runs very poorly at all clip positions) The middle setting might be too lean with my opened up air box and exhaust, so I will set it a clip spot lower and test it from there. My current 6-clip needle (bottom) is a Dynojet needle for the DR350, which is the best kit for extra power! I will keep it and the 140 main jet in case I get the Need for Speed in a few years! I am happy the P.O. did not drill my slide holes bigger.
I changed the oil at 7300 miles with half 10W30 full synthetic and 10W40 normal oil and I put a new oil filter in. The old oil had no white goo in the bottom, which is great news. I think cleaning out all the watery goo that builds up around the dipstick hole really helps. If I don't get it every tank of gas, the white water goo just sinks to the bottom of the engine case and gets into everything. The oil was 10-20% goo when I bought it at 3000 miles. Seems like it has been cleaned out by the good oil since then. I get a stock 5FP96 carb. needle in the mail later today. I went from a 140MJ to a stock 127.5 MJ a week ago and it sounds good, it barely pops and sounds almost the same when I go from full-throttle to no throttle so it's not lean. It seems to have a tiny bit less torque, but it is worth it for slower wear on the valves, piston rings and oil rings. Edit - The 127.5 sounds good riding around the block, but when I put the carb. boot back on it was wayyyyy too lean and could barely get above 6K RPM in 2nd gear. Back to the 140MJ, I'll probably buy a Mikuni 135MJ to replace the 140.
Carb works great at 2 clips up (like pic above) on the Dynojet needle. The stock 5FP96 needle is too lean, it can't even run on the richest clip. It just stalls at 3K RPM if I give it a quarter throttle. I have an opened airbox, larger header pipe, and a FMF2 DR650 exhaust. I can't even run a stock needle anymore! Dynojet needle it is then! EDIT - The stock needle is likely a 5CD16, not a 5DC56 or 5FP96. I think the 56 was used on a DR, maybe the 250? Whatever, the Dynojet needle might be a bit aggressive/rich, but that's fine with me!!!
Chains and sprockets I use a 15$ non-o-ring chain from ebay. Spending extra money doesn't make a chain better. I put my old motor oil on it every 500 or so miles. I see zero wear on my rear sprocket after 3000 miles, some rear sprocket teeth haven't even had their paint worn thru yet! The oil flings the grime off - it is a great way to keep a chain super slick and clean. I used to carry a file. Now I carry 7$ master-link pliers, 8$ chain breaker, 2 spare master-links, and I use 1, 3, and 5 bit sections of chain. I bought a 120-link and made bits from the extra. I can swap from 15T down to 11T and switch from the 5-bit link to the 3-bit link. 5 minutes to change the front sprocket and less than that to swap chain bits and adjust the axle adjuster. Works for me, and I can repair a snapped chain on the side of the road in under ten minutes! It's harder to swap master links often on o-ring chains, and if a single link has a bad seal it becomes a weak link... Putting the oil on mine is a bit annoying (toothbrush, Gatorade of old oil, and a dish-glove), and it drips oil on the garage floor after the first ride. I park over cardboard, kickstand too. Here are some really cheap links, I hope this helps! Chain breaker for 8$ shipped - ebay.com/itm/111491599687 Non-O-Ring chain for 15$ shipped - ebay.com/itm/401117068619
I fixed my cold-starting problem. I turned the fuel screw out a quarter turn from where it has always been and I lowered the idle speed from 1700 to 1300. Now it starts cold in 2 seconds without having to use the enricher! Lowering the idle speed helped a lot - if I give it a tiny bit of throttle it won't start so this really helps start quickly. I bought some brake pads and brake fluid. Time to change it - it is probably 21 years old!
21-year-old rear tire finally got a puncture at the end of this video! Rode really slow back home and the rear rim is fine
Oil burning happens a lot with the 3x3 upgrade and/or when a DR is re-jetted for more power. More gas means more carbon buildup from incomplete combustion, and it doesn't get hot enough to burn the carbon off. Mine just started losing oil, not sure how fast tho I changed the oil a few hundred miles ago and it is down by about a third on the dipstick already. Probably a carbon'd oil ring, I knew I should have dropped my main jet from 140 to a 135 and raised the needle clip sooner. Piston still looks black when I look in the spark plug hole. It's hard to get an engine hot in Alaska, even in the summer! On the plus side, I can see into my spark plug hole and the two valve rims I can see look great. I'll try and un-stick the oil ring with some carbon remover, might take a lot of fuel additives and other tricks before I give up and re-ring it. Never had it's top off and I don't want to break the seal if I can help it. I will put a bottlecap of 50-50 acetone+ATF in the spark plug hole overnight and ride slow around the block 2mro. Google says the mixture is magic with carbon, so it should help unfreeze the oil ring where my leak probably is. I can't check to see if the oil level is dropping until I fix the flat rear tire. It must be either the piston oil ring or a bad valve seal, both take under 50$ to fix but at least 2 hours of work. Easy to do it myself if this doesn't fix it, but I have enough maintenance waiting as it is.... Here are my two case savers. The one on top is an un-modified one I bought on ebay, and the bottom one is my 16T case saver. The thickness doesn't change much if you use an old chain to wear it in! I haven't seen a side-by-side of these, so here ya go guys :)
Alaska1WD-thanks for posting up all your information, fixes and rides too! It looks like you're having a good time and learning quite a bit. Not sure I'd have the patience you've shown, but when you're in love with your bike..you gotta see it through. Maybe I'll see you around town on my TW or my VStrom.
Thanks! It really helps people when there is good info on motorcycles, and it helps me keep track of what I have done to it too. Slow and careful really helps with motorcycle problems, and I'm really good at fixing or making anything myself. I've always had patience as well, it's the most valuable motorcycle tool! Yeah I love riding around Eagle River, awesome roads around there. That road to the nature center is great, and my profile picture is at the top of Mile High road. I'm a fan of the VStrom, one of 5 or so motorcycles I've been on but I really liked it. It felt like a huge DR350 to me I like your moose profile picture! I actually volunteer at a moose calf rescue center in Anchorage that has awesome motorcycle trails behind the moose areas, there are miles of old paths back there you can't even see on google maps! Every other day or so I cut and bring some birch and willow branches to the calves and help bottle feed them. I don't think they want me to post pictures, but the calves are great. They love the milk, get super excited and kick a bit trying to get it quickly. I'm going to give the ladies there a motorcycle helmet next time so they don't get kicked again! I helped save a moose calf a few years ago (long story, before I helped at the rescue facility). I put a picture of it licking my ear up on Reddit and it got close to a million views overnight! Everybody loves moose :) Here is a cropped version of the picture. She is a totally wild moose, but we have been friends since she was a calf :) I only see her a few times a year now, I think she lives in a different area I think this is the first pic of me I've posted here, it should make a good first impression!
Here is a picture of my 11T sprocket. It is not a recommended size (like a 16T) but it should work. I haven't heard of anyone actually using an 11T before! You can see that only about 4 teeth or a bit over a third of the sprocket is pulling on the chain... The bigger worry IMO is there is a lot more force on the chain slider due to the smaller radius, and you can see in the picture that mine has a crack in it already. A small rear sprocket like my 36T increases the friction tension too. I use motor oil on my chain to make it slick, but if it gets dirty and dry it could eat the slider really fast. Smallest I will probably run is 13T until I put my spare slider on. Anyone use an 11T? It will be cool to cruise at 75 MPH on the highway with a 16T, then swap to an 11T when I get to off-trail riding! It's tough riding up a mountain in what feels like second gear, so being able to raise the RPM by up to 45% is really useful. I can remove 2 links of chain, adjust the rear axle a click or two and swap from 16T to 12T which should only take 5-10 minutes!
I can't go on my planned Denali Highway ride on August 20th, I got a flat tire and started burning/losing oil....... My To-Do list is pretty long, I'll write it here so I can keep track of it Stop oil burning - probably carbon'd oil ring, but could be a bad valve guide.... Header-exhaust connection leaks a little. Tighten clamp and adjust heat shield change main jet again to lower carbon buildup more? Move needle clip up half a clip install little kick start parts install new chain slider find out how the rear shock adjuster works change tires buy spare tubes buy a tube patch kit buy more tire spoons buy rear brake pads buy brake fluid front and rear buy front fork fluid buy oil filters buy extra oil buy rear brake rotor clean air filter again? clean the black box make a passenger right leg heat shield wash bike and then oil the chain clean + loc-tite blue the rear sprocket bolts make a toolkit+box to replace the stock one upgrade brake bulb to LCD? replace old battery rear brake line holder on swingarm? grease the axles, swingarm, and steering column adjust rear fender ziptie battery wires more change shock fluid? orange reflectors 30 to-do's looks like a lot of money, I spend mine on college instead I should be ready next summer. I have a MUCH better trip in mind
Great posts! I can definitely tell you're having fun! Moose are super cool and you are right...Everybody loves Moose! And, your list is doable for sure. Heck you've only got 9 "buy" items. The rest is labor and if it's yours...it's free. The Denali Highway isn't going anywhere and can be ridden (usually) well into September if you're inclined. Good luck, ride safe and see you around town.
