I've done reading and found that the 09 klx has issues with valve cover gasket sealing after it's been removed especially if left off for a duration of time such as to order parts. Sadly I didn't find this information til it was too late. Anyone have any tips for getting the valve cover gasket back on without ordering a new one? Heating it with a heat gun and pulling on it to stretch it or something of that nature? I'll give just about anything a whirl since as it stands now I'll need to order a new one anyway.

Also, has anyone found anyplace that sells these gaskets online? The only place I can find is on ebay and there's only one person selling them from what my research has found.

 

Don't know any tricks but Rockymountain atv show 6 in stock. Unfortunately not cheap @ $40.

 

you could put it in boiling water to allow it to expand and stretch a bit. I know that was one of the tricks to keep the diaphragm of the carb in shape when working on the carb, put the slide in very hot water. Can't hurt trying it.

From now on, do what I did - when you take off the valve cover to do anything, put it back on if you need to let the bike sit for any length of time.

When I was reshimming my valves I had to order shims. I had read of this issue, although I don't know that it is isolated to the 09 and newer, I'm betting it is pretty much true of all of them. I had the cams out, but I put the cam cap back on with two bolts snugged down, then put the cam cover back on with the bolts snugged down - gasket stays in place in shape.

 

Yeah I didn't have the luxury of finding that little gem of information before leaving my gasket off for 3 days. haha lesson learned! I will try the boiling water trick in the morning and let you know if it helps any.

 

They will stretch. I always use a little bit of rtv to hold the gasket into the grove that in the cover.

 

Mine was off for less than 2 hours and shrunk to the point that it would no longer seat correctly.

We tried hot water, heat gun, every trick in the book, had to fork over the money for a gasket in the end.

 

I'm pretty sure the problem is with the '09 gaskets. I don't have any issue with my '06 and the '10+ folks don't mention it from what I recall. A new replacement gasket shouldn't have the problem.

Hot water with the carb diaphragm is interesting. It doesn't stretch, but instead it gets stiffer and shrinks a little. Very counter intuitive.

 

The issue was specific to 2009. If I recall correctly, Kawi changed suppliers/factories in that year. I bought a new one when checking my valves. Also, I used the Yamalube grey sealant to re-seal the valve cover (it's awesome - dries in minutes!)

 

it put me in a bad mood and I might have been a bit extreme, I used super glue and glued it to the valve cover, worked.