Couple of doo' questions from a happy customer

[aerojon]

Hey Eagle Mike,

This is my second season as a klr owner and rider. I purchased a '96 KLR650 last year with 74k kms on it, it's my first bike. I bought it expecting to have to tinker with it and over the course of the next couple of years I expect to pretty well have to replace everything (suppose its a bit of a backwards financing deal, but instead of the bike getting worse over time, she's hopefully gonna be getting better, ).

At the start of the season, my stator decided to pack it in, leaving me stranded in a gas station parking lot. After having the bike towed home, I took out the stator and decided to inspect the doo' while I was in there. Sure enough, I found the original doo' broken, but still clamped by the adjustment bolt. What's more is the original spring was still in good shape, and under tension!

Ordered your doohickey and subframe upgrade kits from aviciouscycle.ca and I'm thrilled with the quality of what I recieved (not to mention the terrific service I constantly get from them)! That said, my own installation skills may leave some things to be desired, including answers to the following questions:

1. I installed the tension spring, but also have the torsion spring in hand (I know, should'a installed the torsion spring, it was a late night installation with an eager desire to get 'er done and no expectation I'd have to drill into my engine that led to the decision to leave the torsion spring out) ... Now I'm really regretting the decision and have pretty well committed to redoing the job and putting in the torsion spring. The bike hasn't really run since I did the job, it was started a couple of times while on the stand to check out the stator, but that's it. Question is: Do I need to replace the rotor bolt if I redo the doo'? It's been torqued, so it's had the stress applied, but it hasn't been really loaded by anything more than that (I can only imagine it might see some thermal cycle loads from parts heating up as it runs) ...

2. Regarding the subframe upgrade: thinking about using the spacer you supplied as a drill guide... Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Jon