The Truth Is Out There

This entry is part 4 of 19 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #30

An international rider with a KTM in need of help triggered a big response from the Facebook community. Andy Powell, along with some thoughts from on-line helpers, was able to solve the mystery and help a fellow adventure rider back on track.

Kevin Bärtschi was travelling from Switzerland to Australia. He’d made his way to Adelaide and was camped at Belair National Park when a problem surfaced with his KTM690 and he sent out a call for help on social media.

The early responses came up with myriad suggestions as everyone rallied to the cause. Another KTM690 owner in Adelaide, Darren, agreed to assist and spent the day going through the initial fault diagnosis. Various common KTM690 quick fixes were tried, but to no avail.

I was contacted through Facebook as I’d produced a couple of troubleshooting guides and had owned a KTM 690 for 80,000km, so I was well versed in some of the more common issues.

Swiss rider Kevin Bärtschi (left) found himself in a spot of bother with bike problems in South Australia. Author Andy Powell, right, was able to sort out the problem and get Kev back on his way.

Repair HQ

I had some spares for the 690 so we decided I’d send down a replacement fuel pump, fuel injector, spark-plug cap and air-intake sensor to try. The parts arrived via Express Post a day later and Darren took them to Kevin at the campground.

Overnight the battery had gone dead and the bike was strangely inundated with fuel. The day was spent charging batteries and trying to at least get the bike running, but by that stage it wouldn’t even start.

With Kevin and the bike in the workshop we had the motor out of the frame in 40 minutes.

It was decided to try the local KTM dealer the following day where, unfortunately, the diagnostics box revealed no electronic issues. But the dealer was able to get the bike to start, although the original rough-running issues were still there. The mechanics commented that the engine didn’t seem to be in the best condition, and a test revealed compression was at only 30 per cent.

A worn engine was the prime candidate to be the cause of the trouble, but there was a distinct possibility there was still more to the problem.

Off with the top end. It had done a lot of kilometres, but didn’t look to be the cause of the problem.

While all this was going on I’d decided to buy a 2016 KTM 690 Enduro, swap over the Rally Raid gear from my existing 2011 690 and sell my existing bike for spare parts. So suddenly I had a spare engine and, in fact, a whole bike’s worth of spares.

I suggested Kevin and his KTM get themselves up to Brisbane where I could work on the bike myself and troubleshoot the defect.

A spare engine and, in fact, a whole bike’s worth of spares.

Answers

With Kevin and the bike in the workshop we had the motor out of the frame in 40 minutes. The head and piston were black with soot, so we stripped the head and barrel but could find nothing catastrophic. Piston and rings looked worn, which was to be expected at 80,000km, but the engine oil was heavily diluted by petrol.

Kevin decided we should go ahead and fit my engine. To just reassemble his existing top end with piston and rings would be $1500 anyway, and there’d be no guarantee the bottom end would last much longer. We knew my motor was in good shape.

The following morning during the install Kevin commented he had to transfer a vacuum tapping to the new engine inlet at the head for his vacuum pump.

That sparked my interest.

The Quest Rally kit uses a vacuum pump to transfer fuel from the front slab tanks to the rear. I posted a question on the advrider.com ‘KTM 690 Wunderfest’ thread, asking if anyone could explain how engine oil could get a gutful of fuel on an EFI bike and mentioned the Quest vacuum set up. We got a response from an inmate who was spot on the money: a ruptured diaphragm could allow fuel to leak into the inlet manifold.

With both bikes freshened up and running well, life was good.

Let’s ride

A few local calls and a visit to a nearby bike dealership led us to a lawnmower shop which had a Kawasaki Mikuni vacuum pump gathering dust on a shelf. It was $55 and it had the same mount holes as the original.

Kevin decided to keep my engine fitted as his was clearly a high-kilometre proposition, overdue for a refurb and the top-end rebuild was same price as my engine. Sticking with my second-hand motor meant he got a fresher bottom end as well.

So with a new lease of life for his engine and the vacuum pump fixed – I’d managed to complete my 2016 swap over along the way – we planned a ride to give both bikes a shakedown.

Everyone’s a winner

The ride went perfectly for both bikes.

My previous 2011, 80,000km 690 was now transformed with a 2016 12,000km bike under the cover of my rally kit, and Kevin’s bike, with my 2011 49,000km motor was a much fresher unit.

We took Kevin through some of the best local riding and he had a ball. In a great conclusion one of the advrider.com inmates contacted me to buy Kevin’s old engine, and that helped soften the blow to Kevin’s bank account.

I think we all came out winners. I’ve sold my motor, Kevin has a life extension to his bike, we had a great time with some great riding and one of the advrider.com inmates ended up with an engine to bring his shed bike back to life.

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