KLX 300 Maintenance Guides from www.klxzone.co.uk Date: March 2003 Guide 11 : Fitting a CRD Sump Guard Important: Please read carefully This guide is not intended to replace the User’s Manual – rather it is a pictorial guide to carrying out maintenance on the KLX300 and does not necessarily represent the Kawasaki approved methods. You should therefore realise that you use this guide at your own risk and neither www.klxzone.co.uk or the author will accept any responsibility for damage or injury caused as a direct or indirect result of using this guide. You use it at your own risk. There being no Haynes or equivalent manual available for the KLX300 and the official workshop manual costing around £60 I thought it may be useful for others to use if they have not carried out such tasks on their bike before. This may seem a bit like a “dummys guide” as I have taken pictures at almost every point. If you find it too tedious then simply skip past the easy or obvious bits. I wanted to make it as foolproof as possible and a picture is worth a thousand words. Tony Saunders

Information The standard sump guard on the KLX 250 / 300 is a narrow aluminium plate under the engine. It may seem to be adequate for general use on easy terrain, but once you start traversing rocky terrain you’ll start to graze the underside on a regular basis. The perimeter frame has two front metal “loops” to protect the sides of the crankcase / water pump / oil filter and they do the job fairly well. However, a proper bash plate will even out any impact and prevent expensive damage to your precious bike. CRD Absolute do a range of after-market protection for the KLX range – including frame guards for the sides of the bike frame. They also make a 4mm TIG welded aluminium plate which wraps around the engine crankcase at the front to provide excellent protection from rocks. At time of writing (April 2003) – they retail in the UK for about £80 and represent great value for money – especially when you consider the cost of replacing the crankcase!!! Fitting is a doddle and can be done in about 20 minutes with ease. CRD Website:

www.crd-international.com

The supplied fitting instructions are a bit lacking and translated from French so this guide may make it clearer.

Bike Information: Kawasaki KLX300R 2002 Model. Tools Required: • • • • • •

10mm Socket 8mm Socket 17mm Socket Ratchet 17mm Spanner or second socket/ratchet/t-bar An old paint roller tray or similar to keep all the bits in.

WARNING: The CRD kit that arrived was missing a nut from the large bolt supplied with the kit. I had one kicking about. You CANNOT use the one off the bike as it is a different thread. Use nut-lock fluid on the bolts and nuts when you install this plate as recommended by CRD.

Figure 1: The CRD KLX250/300 Sump guard Kit. Note: Mine came with a missing nut!! from the long retaining bolt. If your kit hasn’t got one – ensure you get one to fit because the stock nut from the bolt you remove will NOT mate with it correctly without stripping threads!

Figure 2: The supplied fixing kit. (should be a but for the big bolt too!)

Procedure Fitting the CRD sump protection guard is a 20 minute task and only requires a few tools. Even the most mechanically challenged individual will make a reasonable job of this I’m sure. First – with the bike on its side stand – remove the factory installed plate using your 8mm socket. There are four bolts holding it onto the bike – two at the front and two at the back. Put these bits carefully in your bits tray. Figure 3: The front bolts on the factory installed plate (highlighted)

Having removed the plate – you will be able to clean the compressed trapped crud that has accumulated under the plate since you got it ☺ You need to use the two rear stock plate retaining bolts to fasten the CRD plate on. The front of the CRD plate is mounted on the supplied bracket – and the bracket is fastened to the front engine mounting as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Remove the lower front engine mounting bolt.

Save the bolt and nut in your bits tray. Now mount the bracket on with the supplied longer bolt. Figure 5: The bracket in position with the new bolt.

I didn’t tighten the new bolt ridiculously tight as I wanted some flexibility for when I mounted the new plate. It’s not all that easy to get your socket on once the plate is in position. Figure 6: The CRD plate connected to the bracket with the supplied 10mm bolts.

I tightened the front 10mm retaining bolts to about finger tight and left them so that I had some “play” to line up the rear bolt holes under the bike.

Figure 7: The rear mounting bolt holes and the circular access hole for the oil drain bolt.

You need to use the original 8mm bolts to hold the rear of the new CRD panel on. Note the oil drain access hole. Figure 8: The mounted plate

Once you have the rear bolts in place you can tighten up the rest of the bolts at the front. The engine mounting plate bolt (the big one) needs torque: 44N-m (4.5kg-m / 33ft-lb) Figure 9: The bike with the installed CRD sump guard

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------As usual – Job’s a fish!