125-200cc 09 WR125 New to me ride report & questions

Howdy all,

I recently picked me up my first small bore 2-smoker, and I have to say, I'm hooked.... Coming off a 08 CRF450R, was a HUGE change, and I love the excitement that comes with the smoker, vs the tractor.... Since owning this new little bike, The 450 has finally developed a nickname "The Pig"

I took it out for a shakedown ride last Thursday, and putted around pretty close to the truck (or always uphill anyways). Everything went great, messed with the clickers a bit, and noticed the carb needed a litttle tuning, so messed with that a bit..

Decided to go camping Sat/Sun to really get some miles on this zinger... Saturday was flawless... Never missed a beat, and took her on roughly 40 miles of gnarly, muddy trails.

Sunday, was a whole different ball game... After finally making the top of the "hill of the day", I noticed that my right fork tube had a ton of oil dripping down in, and fork cap was full of oil as well... What is the problem here?? I assume I need a special tool with fingers in it to get the cap off? Is it simply the cap wasn't tightened down? or did I blow a seal, etc...???

Sunday, about 5 miles into the day, I fouled a plug. I figured no biggie, I'll keep riding, and mess with the carb when it isn't caked in mud... Threw a new plug in and away I went...

20 miles later, same scenario, I think... Feels like a fouled plug and dies... I kick it just to be sure, and she fires, so off I go... Get another .5 miles up the trail, and she bogs / dies again... So, i pull the plug, and put the third plug of the day in. She fires right up, and off I go...

Fast forward 5 (yes 5) minutes... Brand new plug, same scenario..... Now we are on the road, so, I know there is no way I fouled the 3rd plug in 5 minutes... I kick her, and she idles fine.... I put it in gear, and hammer down on the road towards the truck... It dies every mile or so, and I have to come to a complete stop, let it sit for a few seconds, then after several kicks, she will idle... I ended up getting towed the last 3 miles to the truck...

I got home tonight, washed her up, and took her down the block and back, ran fine for the 15 seconds I was out... Any help from you pros out there????

EDIT: BTW, I was WFO, and about half throttle the times it would die... Not lugging around..

1st pic is the fork oil

2nd is the plugs...
The one on the left had roughly 8-10 hours on it, Middle plug had 2-3 hours on it, and the right has about 5 minutes on it..

had same problem with my wr/cr125, wr bike with cr ignition.
too rich on main and pilot.
initial tmx settings 35 pilot and 400 main, adjusted float level and went with a 25 pilot and 370 main, bike now runs great from luggin around in slop to wot 6th gear on uphill fire trails.
live in australia 500ft elev and 30 degrees celsius, bike ran great, no more bog just before powerband no overheating.
i thought i might be too lean going by everybody elses jetting recommendations but the plug looks good and its hard to compare with different mods etc.
my advise is play with the jetting and float level and read the plug.

What number plug are you using?

Are you sure you weren't running low on fuel in the tank? The petcock screen on these bikes sits up off the tank bottom about an inch. If your fuel level gets low enough, it can splash around the tank and starve the carb. When you stop, the fuel line and bowl fills back up, it'll run fine for a bit until the bowl and line empty. I learned this lesson the hard way on my CR 150.

The two plugs on the right do not look "fouled". They look like they were running way too lean.

Hey Blake,

The oil on the forks is from the o-ring on the comp adjustment, I cleaned it up and it had been fine for a couple rides. Looks like it came back. Order up an o-ring and I will help you fix it and bleed them properly.

The plug fouling issue... I am 90% certain that it is a ground issue. That bike never fouled a plug that I can remember. But mine did last month, after 1100 miles of no plug fouling all of a sudden it fouled 4 plugs in 50 miles. We sanded down the coil mounting points, put dielectric grease on all the connections and no more plug fouling.

Later,

BR9EG

I'm sure I wasn't out of fuel... That is the first thing I checked when I thought I fouled plug #2... Not only that, but I packed an extra liter with me each day to make sure I made it back to the truck....

I need to get the jetting dialed in... They look lean eh?? How long of riding should it take to turn the bottom flat surface brown??

Jake, I will order that O-ring, and a f-ing washer that goes on the clutch lever, since when I pulled the lever to gind the end smooth, I lost one.. Where around here do you order these parts from? I doubt lanpheres is gonna have this stuff...

On the ground issue: Again, I don't know anything about anything, but for some reason, when I was out on the trail, and the way it was acting, I thought to myself, this may be an elec issue... Give me a little more insight on what you mean by coil mounting points plz....




Thanks for all the replies!!!

You can use a B9 plug without the R.

What is the difference?

The R is a resistor plug, a non R plug can cause issues with electronic ignitions. The WR has an old school ignition and the non resistor plug should be fine.

Later,

Right on, thanks for the info gents!

Dudes...I agree on the old same ignition and no logical need for the R plug but Norm...do you remember the dilema my 07 WR had ...not the same as this guys but the high rev breaking up...tried everything for several days and you even said ..just for kicks try R plug....solved! I will never run non R plug again. Brand new non r plugs had no effect change...still broke up up top.
I had float bowl baffel aissues. Jay at HAlls does a mod to these to prevent that WFO stave issue. Cheap and it worked. Call Halls.

I had the same issue as Joe on my '02... it came to me used with an BR8EG and jetted fat, so I rejetted and put a B9ES in it and wouldn't run right. I put in a BR9EG, problem solved and ran the same plug for a long time. My '09 has only had one plug change in 2 and 1/2 years and I probably didn't have to do that.

Hey Blake, you might keep up with me at Mt. View now both mine and jakes frames had corrosion and/or moisture between the coil poles and the frame tabs. My tabs also had more than 50% of the grounding surface still painted, which caused the corosion i think since that left a gap where the paint was removed. I sanded all the paint off, applied conductive grease, cleaned the mounting bolts up as well.

As to the WFO bowl porting, take a look at the bowl nut and the threaded boss in the bowl. You will notice mikuni never drilled the holes to allow fuel in the nut recess when fuel levels are below the lip of the nut/boss. Any other carb you look at has these holes. They even machined a groove to allow the drilling without affecting threads.

Ben

Blake's WR has a Kehin...

I drilled mine and Shane's after seizing mine on the WFO run at Idaho...

Later,

Is this Ben B?? If so, I doubt I'll be able to keep up with you Last I rode with you, I think you were on your fo-fiddy, as was I, and I bonked towards the end of the day...

What Kehin does it have Jake??

Also, looking like I'm gonna make a last minute attempt to be at the husky gathering this wkd!!! Excited to try some of Bill's machines out there...

whoops, thought this was the blake i raced vintage with that was always checking out my husky at the track. Not ben b, i got hair

Apparently there are too many Blake's and Ben's in the world.

It the PWK AG I believe, it is from a KTM and it is the same dimensions as the Mikuni. The standard PWK is bigger, it works but people complained about it making the air boot rub the shock.

Later,