Upgraded the balancer chain tensioner A.K.A. Doohickey

I purchased a whole kit on ebay, from a former KLR owner who never got around to installing it.  Along with the genuine Eagle Mike doohickey, it included the rotor holder wrench (OEM), puller, a new rotor bolt, and the Eagle torsion spring.  It took me about half of the day to tear it down and install the tensioner.  I have reinstalled the rotor and torqued it, but cannot finish the job because there are two thrust washers missing from one of the starter gears.  From what I can tell, a previous owner must have had this apart for some reason (without upgrading the tensioner) and somehow left out the thrust washers for the lower starter gear.  They mixed up a couple of the case bolts too, which was a good clue.

The lower starter gear was missing both washers; waiting for them to arrive from eBay...

I was pleased that the original tensioner was intact, including the spring.

I am very impressed by the quality of Eagle Mike's Doohickey, not-so with the OEM part!

Drilled torsion spring hole, "barely (1/16") left of 6:00"

The Doo is done.

I couldn't get the torsion spring to stay out of the way.  I need to find out if this is okay...

Installed dash panel, not wired yet

Today I bolted on the dash panel.  It fit nicely, clearing the gauges; thank you BigCeeEngineering!  The only problem is my fault, the big rocker switch on the left is hitting the windshield mount.

Still waiting for the voltmeter

Notice the toggle switch below (fan-on switch from PO that will be rewired to the dash switch)

Looking forward to painting this fairing and the rest of the plastic.

Quick license plate mod

From what I read in the various forums, the license plate in its factory position gets grabbed by nobby tires and bent up under the fender.  A lot of people move the plate so it's above the bottom edge of the fender.  I took my friend's advice and did his mod instead.  He doesn't ride a KLR, but this did seem like a no-brainer.  Just stick the plate in a vise and tweak it to whatever angle you desire...

(before)

(after)

Installed 'custom' bark busters

Regretfully, I should have purchased the Tusk hand guards w/ the plastic bark busters; I cheaper out.  I had this extra headlight assembly laying around ($10 on eBay, long story) and I noticed that the lenses from it would make decent hand guard plastics.  So here it is, not sure if it's gonna stay or go...

As a nice bonus, you can still see the Tusk stickers.

I made a mess with the dremel, hack saw, etc...

The headlight is from a Honda crotch rocket and was NOS (oh well...)

The lenses were just RTV'd on.

Took the bikes for a winter ride

It was 40° and dry today, so I took both bikes for a ride.  I tried out my new riding jacket, a Fly Terra Trek-2 that I got for Christmas from motorcycle closeouts.

I'm happy to report that the jacket was comfortable and warm.  Both bikes ran good and I had two nice short rides in January.

Received New pegs and shifter pedal from Amazon.com

Today, I received my new pegs and shifter in the mail.  Looking forward to installing them after the Doohickey upgrade.

Fabricated dash panel

I used Big Cee Engineering's template and reconfigured the mounts to suit my needs.  I haven't mounted it yet, but it seems to be a good fit.  Big Cee's plans use the existing windshield mounting holes, which makes sense.  My dash will mount below the windshield and require new holes to be drilled.  I am considering using Dzuz 1/4-turn fasteners to create an easily removable, blind mount.  I purchased two weatherproof accessory lighter outlets and a backlit LCD voltage monitor.  I plan to mount the other outlet near the tail of the bike, wired straight to the battery (in-line fuse); this one will be switched with the key.  The switch on the far left side is a DPDT (ON-OFF-ON) 20 amp lighted rocker.  I will use one side to turn on the headlight and the other side for the cooling fan.  That way, when riding off-road with the fan running constantly, there will be less drain on the battery (because the headlight and tail lights will be turned off).  The switch on the far right side is a SPST 3A lighted rocker which I may use for heated grips.  Both switches will require ground wires, of course, in order to make their lamps light up.  The big rectangular hole is where the voltmeter will mount (currently en-route from eBay Hong Kong).