950 not sounding good, oil lamp flickering

The early 950's were a problem in that they occasionally had winking oil lights and such (particularly after a hard ride). The cam chain tensioners dropped their fluid a lot. That led to the clacking noise. But if you rev it and the light goes out, you are probably golden.

I vote ride it. The early 950's were safe to ride, but were crude running. I did for 60k miles with all those concerns. I had the fuel pump replaced twice as a measure, and the clutch slave failed once, but I got her home. Maybe 700 miles on that slave refilling periodically at Walmart.

Or the 05.5 "upgraded" torque limiter

Now that was a clack!

seems like you have not really read what the problem is!?

???

The mechanics did not listen and properly check if the waterpump seal was the leaking. Instead they were accusing the timing chain and wanted to take that out. To do this you basically have to disassemble the whole cylinder, which i stopped halfways...the guy has never worked on such a bike and the boss does not know shit (sorry for my language but he starts to piss me off). The way the things were taken apart was not really professional and you can just imagine what it looked like under and around the bike. I tried to clean up the mixture of parts, oil and coolant in a way that it could maybe be possible to find which screw belongs where....I do not feel comfortable letting this guy reassemble it by trial and error, but to do it all alone will be tough, especially because of the timing chain tension...to transport everything to another shop will be a bit complicated and maybe expensive (at least to Guadalajara) and the question is how willing someone is to clean up the mess of someone else. If anything goes wrong, everyone will blame the other one...
I am considering to contact the headquarters of KTM and ask them for advice.Too many things have been done wrong by "KTM"mechanics so far that I am not willing to swallow the bitter pills all alone. I have told the mechanic of Wilson motorsports/Fresno (who did the big service) about that and asked him to talk to his boss what possibilities I have...we will see

In mid 2005 KTM made big changes to the 950. One of them was a new torque limiter that had a design flaw. While turning over the engine if there just the slightest resistance the torque limiter would clack and loud. It would make heads turn it was such and ugly noise.
The retrofitted. A limiter that actually worked soon after.
But that's neither here nor there for you.


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Have a look at the parts fiche - they go back together very easy. Dont get worked up about the tension the bike has automatic tensioners.

I don't know whether this helps but I've had a similar problem with noisy top end on start up, oil light after take off and after 3-4 minutes reducing to a flickering and then off. I took the bike to a very experienced KTM mechanic and after removing the oil filter which showed the deformed section similar to examples of failed water pumps, but no sign of cooland in the oil. The oil filter (put in by PO) was not a KTM oil filter. The mechanic says he's seen this happen a number of time with non OEM filters, including K&N. OEM filter is in, no oil light on and I ride home. I should add that the OEM oil filter has the part no on the top of the filter, mine had nothing.

what would you do if the mechanic of a KTM-dealer had hammered several times on the cylinder-head to get it off while there were still some screws holding it (of whose existence he did not have a clue)?
I am pretty sure I would get everything together but considering that they might blame me afterwards for any failure...I do not know. THEY did a lot of mistakes and are unable to order the parts, I am the one who found the problem with your help (and who told them from the start, unfortunately by then I did not know that I just would have had to take off the clutch cover).
Yesterday I reached a new climax of frustration: calling him and asking for any news about the parts, he said, noone in Mexico would have it,Asking where he had investigated there was one dealer he mentioned first, thinking hard, he came up with one more. There are 10 in Mexico! I sent a request to all of them and if I order at two different ones I might get all the parts. When I asked why he did not ask the others he said that he does not cooperate with any other dealer...and that IT WAS NOT HIS PROBLEM! that he is waiting for ME to arrange the parts!...
Now I am waiting for an answer from California and even wrote KTM Austria....wait and see

after weeks of waiting, wrenching, being lied to, writing to KTM Austria...I am in Leon now.
The carbs have been cleaned, the valves adjusted (intake on the rear was less than 0.08mm, new oil (filter), air filter...engine seems louder to me (maybe because there is no gear on the bike), does not perform the way it should, is week in the beginning (first gear) and hesitates when accelerating immediately. Seems not to get air or gas...They say it is the timing, maybe something with the airstream...want to check tomorrow...Sounds familiar?

when they tried the engine without the airfilter there was quite some gas (air with gas?) streaming out of the carbs, at least the rear one...they had forgotten to put the triangel onto the airbox and the screw that you have to take out to turn over the engine...

The triangle ain't that big of a deal but forgetting the plug in the ignitioncover is quite terrible.... Are KTM certifications on the Spanish Ebay or something?

I do not want to talk in a bad way about this particular mechanic even though he seems to have difficulties in adjusting valves! But in general it seems that everyone who can wear a KTM t-shirt is allowed to wrench on these bikes officially....I could write a book about the last weeks. It is horrible, not to imagine, a nightmare!
What happens if you do forget this screw and let the engine run for a while, using throttle? Could that be the reason why I could see an air/gas-stream spraying out of the carb?

If I remember correctly, they had even forgotten the screw to lock the engine...

Oil will come out of the there, that is about it as long it hasn't been run dry they will be no issue.

No - that won't be the problem.

then I guess the carbs have not been synced properly...
I think they used shims for the valve adjustment that do not really belong to zhat bike: they treated them with sandpaper!?

As long as they are the right diameter (10mm) then that shouldn't be a problem, many KTM owners buy Harley shims as they are cheaper and even sanding them to size is okay, provided it has been done correctly.

Leaving the locking bolt in is not good!

Is the bike actually rideable? Why not take it back to the US and get a proper mechanic to look at it? There is great guy in Phoenix. Dillion at Zen Motoworks.

I think I met you at the HU meet in Cambria, are you riding to South America, had some battery problems? Clearly you don't trust the current mechanic and you need to, if you are going to keep going.

Yes, I was in cambria and yes, I am heading towards the tip, but I might have to change my plans! I lost so much time, incredible. Help me to give your name a face, please!
The bike is rideable, yes but I am not sure if I mess up something by doing so. The whole thing started with a leaking water pump and now weeks have passed...
To return to the US is not really an option and might even be problematic cause of the visa waiver.
The mechanic is the third one. The first mistreated the bike, the second was "imported"to reassemble it, he was good but did not have more time to wait for shims...thge third made a good impression but does not seem to have so much experience with valves, at least when it comes to this model.
I think he is a little stressed now cause I was kinda put in between and they thought it would be solved in a day. It will soon be a week!

I have just measured the shims that are not used (guess the ones used are about the same) and the maximum diameter is 8mm! at least two of them are magnetic?!