So I did the job this morning to my KLX. I have stock air box, snorkle, and filter with bel ray oil on it. At least as restrictive as OEM. I also use stock exhaust for stealth.

The problem I have is hard cold starts, a warm up time requirement before I take the choke off and avoid a stall, and a flat spot when I take off from a stop and feed throttle. Nothing major but I want this thing to run right. Certainly, in the future I would like to open up the intake and exhaust a bit.

So first job was removing the carb. This is buried under all sorts of parts. The hardest part is getting to the carb for removal. Removal is easy. Not sure what all the problems are that people are having. Maybe they fixed it on the 09+ bikes.

So then I took the carb to my bench and clamped it in the vice. I can't imagine doing this job without a vice. First I popped the top and swapped out the needle. Everything went fine except now the white plastic thing doesn't set on the top of the black slide. The little feet are up in the air since the two washers plus e-clip are thicker than the OEM needle flange. I hope this is no problem. Seems like it should work fine. The diaphragm expanded on me and I couldn't get it back in the groove. I was afraid of this. So here's the solution, raise the slide up and stick something in the carb throat to hold it there. Then flop the diaphragm down and set it in the groove. Raising the slide up takes some of the slack out of the diaphragm making it easy to put in the groove. Check the pic for my screwdriver.

Flip the carb over and open up the bottom. Swap the mainjet to 116 per the instructions. Then grab my tinsy drill bit in the pin vice and carefully bore out the choke jet. This is super risky. The hole you are boring out is way down in there and if that bit snaps off then you are seriously screwed. So bore, don't drill. Scrub the bit CW anf then CCW, making sure that you are not putting much any torque into that tiy bit. Eventually you will fall through. No chips were found, but I blew out the passage as best I could for good measure.

Here's a funny story. I went to replace the bowl and it wouldn't set down. Bingo, I thought I discovered that the DJ main jets are much taller than OEM and were bottoming out on the bowl. I called DJ and was on hold when I finally noticed that the hinge pin for the float had slid out and was causing preventing the bowl from seating. You can see in the photo that the jets are different sizes. Also, you can see the missing hinge pin. Doh! Hang up on DJ before I show them how stupid I am. Remove the flat assembly and clean up the needle valve for good measure. Everything goes together fine now.

Good news, the dealer was smart enough to drill out the EPA plug and had already set my mix screw to 2 turns out. I put it out to 2.25, DJ instructions say 3 but my oiled OEM filter should flow less than DJ thinks.

Putting the carb back in was also easy. I have huge hands and fat fingers. This thing slid right in. I spent a lot of time trying to route the hoses. The big pair from the tank vents were particularly difficult to get right. All of the hoses seem too short but they make it to the first bracket so I guess they will work. I took great care to make access to the choke plunger and petcock easy without having to push hoses aside. A couple of extra zip ties should keep it that way.

While I was in there I did not remove the emissions crap or the crankcase vent. I did eliminate the kickstand safety switch. I cut off the plug from the switch, stripped the wires, soldered them together, crimped them in a butt connector, sealed it with liquid electrical tape, and zipped the plug out of the way. Works great now. Removing the emissions junk would really open up the area under the tank but who cares? Plus, I see no reason to ditch the stuff other than to beat THE MAN.

Choke the carb, fill the bowl, and the bloody thing fired right up on the first spin. I let it run for about three seconds before unchoking and it stayed running. I goosed the throttle and it didn't stall! It is cold outside, about 40 degrees and this thing has never started so well and been ready to ride in seconds. Idle speed is unchanged with the jet kit. I used no Kouba screw so adjusting the idle jet by rpm will be challenging but I don't plan on doing it unless there is a problem.

It is pouring down rain so I could only take a short ride.

Anyway, I hope some of my pics and experience help someone.

 

are you sure you got the needle holder around the correct way? Mine had no problems seating the needle washers and e-clip.

The pin for the float is a pain in the butt and seemed to always slide out when removing the bowl...

you should be able to trace the wires for the kickstand up and under the seat one wire is on a male connector and one is on a female connector so you can just remove the switch and join the two wires together.

 

Great write up. Thanks.

I too have the "dead spot" when I first start riding the bike (250SF). No matter how long I let it warm up, when I pull out of my driveway there is always a dead spot between 2000-3000 rpms until I'm riding for at least 100 feet or so. Strangest thing.

I'm beginning to think a Dynojet kit might help with this (and also help the new TBR exhaust I have).



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Thanks for the pix. Today was the first time I tried to start the bike in a month. It took me damn near 15 minutes to get it running and warmed up. Gotta drill out that little bugger...

 

There is no needle holder. Only a white plastic basket that pushes down on the needle and goes inside the slide spring. There does not appear to be a wrong way to put this in. You just drop it down on top of the needle which is pushed down through the black slide.

The 2009 and up bikes are not the same as your older bike with regards to the kickstand switch. The plug is now a single male/female junction. I chose to preserve the wiring harness side of the junction and made the splice on the kickstand side.

 

My bad on the white thingy my brain wasnt working.... i was thinking the needle went through the white thingy..... Been a while since i played with the CVK carb (i have a pumper)..... I think by memory that i had an extra washer or to that came in the dyno jet kit and made the needle a bee's dick too high and stopped the little white thing from seating all the way down.... but can remember.

thats crap about the kickstand switch on th 09's...... took me all of 2 mins to get ruid of it and rewire on the 06.

The needle goes through the

 

Edit - I just dug out my old kickstand safety switch. Yep, snipped wires...oh yeah, now I remember. I did cut and splice the pigtails coming out of the two-prong connector on the switch side. Sorry for the brain fart.

 

Long ago I thought to remove the KS switch. It seemed dumb and since I often go through deep water I wanted it gone. I removed the whole switch up to under the seat where there is a black plug. This is an expensive plug and not just spade connectors. The plug is a double, inside are two prongs, and feels watertight. Within 6" of the plug, the loomed wires dive into the main harness. No additional plugs. You can see this whole mess by just popping off the seat. The harness junction is just to the right of the snorkel.

Unplugging the big double plug doesn't work, the bike thinks the KS is down and won't start. I wasn't prepared to make a jumper right then and I really dislike permanent changes to things like wire harnesses so I put it back until this recent work session. I left enough wire on the KS side of the plug that I could always put the silly safety device back with a simple butt connector job.

Should have taken a photo for you folks. The KS safety switch circuit does NOT include spade connectors on my 2009 US, non-cali, model.

The next safety to bypass is that cheezy looking clutch switch.

 

The kit comes with three washers but the instructions say to use two. This does cause the white spring insert thingy to stand above the bottom of the slide by a pretty big bee's dick. I was worried about blocking the slide vent hole but don't worry, the bee's dick gap allows plenty of airflow.

I am somewhat concerned that the entire spring load is acting to punch that e-clip down through the needle hole. That wouldn't be good.