IronBrian762x

Oh hellllllll yeah!!!! 2003 KTM 950 Adventure. I forgot how hard these bikes RIP! I also thought it was 8:00 p.m. and not 10:00 p.m. and I just woke up all the neighbors! Luckily, I own the road.

Valves adjusted, air filter housing replaced, front brake bled, clutch slave replaced and bled, rear brake bled, fuel pump re-built, carburetor replaced with a fully rebuilt spare from my stock, oil and filters replaced, all electrical connections cleaned and sprayed with ACF-50, handlebar switches cleaned, bypassed the clutch lever safety switch, puzzled over the wiring diagram for hours while searching for a no-crank-no-start fault that ended up being a stuck relay (as far as I can tell...need testing). Probably a good number of other things I'm forgetting at the moment. There was a helluva lot.

Next up, rebuild the forks and replace front brake pads and re-re-re-bleed the rear brake. Because it goes pretty fast...but it sure as hell doesn't stop very fast at the moment. The 8-year-old 50/50 dual sport tires on gravel probably weren't helping though, LOL. Gotta figure out the high beam not working: uncertain if that's a ballast issue or the HID itself. It flashes with flash to pass button but doesn't stay on and doesn't seem to be HID when it flashes. Not something I'm familiar with, so more to learn.

Oh and dump the cooling system full of hose water and detergent.

I got to say, the Power Probe remains one of the best electrical troubleshooting tools that I own. Here, I'm using it to apply both power and ground to the starter relay, verifying that the battery has the juice to spin the starter, the starter works, and the starter relay works. This tells me that the error is Upstream somewhere. Now if only I can figure out what is going wrong between the key and the ignition cylinder, the diode pack, the auxiliary starter relay, and then down to the starter relay... without going completely nuts trying to trace a million wires inside the cockpit area of this KTM 950 adventure. Overnight we went from ignition on instruments on lights on fuel pump cycling but no crank...to no lights no crank no pump no start. And obviously the only wiring worse than your own, is dealing with somebody else's aftermarket wiring.

Vibrating ni**le clamps FTW! 😂

Love me a multi-purpose tool! And any tool that makes me smile or laugh while I use it is doubly worth having! 😂😂😂

Seriously, these started as a joke but this clutch system was entirely dry when I started and by the time I was done getting the slave mounted, the line was already dribbling. Firmed up quickly and if I'd already had the banjo bolt mounted and bleeder cracked, there would be basically zero mess and no looking for a syringe. Pretty darned easy. And I smiled the whole time. 😁

**leclampsftw

Big thanks to my favorite Paul Hart for sending up his Cyclops Adventure Sports dual desert race lights so we can continue making the air-cooled challenge fleet just a little more ridiculous for the homies. Twin lights on the 1984 CR500 and 1998 XR400, big 8inch Trailtech on the 1986 xr600. Cyclops helmet lights all around!

See you in September at amigo! And we'll see everything out there in the dark, come October 31st!