05 WR450

Brenan225 · Post by **Brenan225** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:28 pm

Just bought one and the salesman says I can do a number of things to "open it up".
I know about the pulling out the exaust baffel, and opening the top of the air box?
What I need to know about is jetting and how to get rid of the polution plumbing,
any advice?

WR_Dave · Post by **WR_Dave** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:31 pm

Go to www.thumpertalk.com and do a free mods search and also try www.thumperfaq.com , most of the mods work on the 450 as well. Good luck--WR Dave.

Post by **dirtyboy** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:57 am

Good advise on the thumpertalk, but there are lot's of changes to make.

Airbox - try it without the left side airbox cover on first to determine if you need to mess with that.

IMO, the first stuff to do is:

Check the valve clearances. My WR250's have been incorrect from the factory. Set them on the loose side of the range because they tend to get tighter as they wear. My dealer swaps shims for me at no charge. If the forks feel funny check the oil level. Oil level also off from factory.

Your throttle stop will only allow 2/3 throttle. Cut it or get a YZ throttle stop.

Grey wire needs to be removed from the connector. In 2005 the WR's in Canada have the same setting as the USA. 2004 and prior we didn't need to do the grey wire.

Exhaust baffle, remove the tiny restrictor and your bike will go from 82db to 96db.

As for the plumbing, do some research to see if you really need to do that. I read that it may not give much difference.

Congratulations on the new bike. I'll be looking for blue at Crowsnest Pass.

Brenan225 · Post by **Brenan225** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:08 am

Thanks for the info - thats about what I found too. I am thinking of having Pro-Action do the forks befor I even ride it. All the other mods seem fairly straight forward, the only thing I am unsure of is jetting. If it was a 2 stroke - no problem, but this 4 stroke, I don't even know where to start.

MtnBlue · Post by **MtnBlue** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:11 am

I agree with DB. Once you've done all the above mentioned items then you can remove the AIS. One of the thumpertalk members makes a kit that they sell through their online store. You'll also be looking at jetting changes at this point

Post by **dirtyboy** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:40 am

Brenan225 wrote:Thanks for the info - thats about what I found too. I am thinking of having Pro-Action do the forks befor I even ride it. All the other mods seem fairly straight forward, the only thing I am unsure of is jetting. If it was a 2 stroke - no problem, but this 4 stroke, I don't even know where to start.

When you make the above changes, it will change the jetting. The jetting hardly needs to change at all for temperature so it's not tempermental like a 2 stroke. The biggest change to the jetting will be the muffler change.

When the muffler has less backpressure, richen the jetting. Maybe BidD will pipe up and share his jetting, however he bought the JD Jetting kit from TT. I use that kit too and highly recommend it.

Brenan225 · Post by **Brenan225** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:23 am

I just got off the phone with the TT store. I have a AIS kit, JD jet kit, a decom plug, and a zip ty air screw coming, BUT none of it will be here before Racehorse creek. I will change the throttle stop but without the jets should I pull the baffel out? or do the air box mods?

BigD · Post by **BigD** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:35 pm

Brenan225 wrote:but without the jets should I pull the baffel out? or do the air box mods?

I would you should be able to get away with just putting in a bigger main jet. If needed maybe moving the needle and adjusting the fuel screw.

I am not sure what the 05's have in them seeing as they are green sticker bikes and have the AIS. I could see them having leaner jets.

When you do all the mods and get the JD kit, I find that a 48 pilot, blue needle #3 from the top and 165-168 main jet seems to work the best. Pulls hard from idle all the way to the top.

Brenan225 · Post by **Brenan225** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:01 pm

Thank you Big D, just having the jetting info is a huge load off my mind. I have torn down the bike to get the suspention out, going to Pro-Action on Wednesday, What a pain in the ***! My old KX was for bolts and the sub frame was off. I have never seen so many wires and hoses in my life. I did notice that the forks and shock seems to weigh about half of what my KX did. I do have a couple of other questions
1. The coolant tank, do I have to run that or could you just run the overflow down the front frame and out the bottom?
2. Why do wires come out from my clutch lever?

BigD · Post by **BigD** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:08 pm

Brenan225 wrote: 1. The coolant tank, do I have to run that or could you just run the overflow down the front frame and out the bottom?
2. Why do wires come out from my clutch lever?

No, you don’t need to run the coolant tank. I am not right now but after that muddy race in rocky my bike was boiling over and I could of used the over flow tank.

The wires are there so that the bike cannot be started in gear unless the clutch is pulled in.

Post by **dirtyboy** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:16 pm

The bike will only start in either neutral or with the clutch pulled in. There is a switch on both of them. I remove the clutch switch and jump the wires together behind the headlight so that it will start anytime. I've even used the starter motor to help push the bike up a nasty hill before I had the autoclutch.

I just finished putting my shock and forks back on as I dropped them off at Pro-Action yesterday afternoon. Fast turn around, about 24 hours and they are done. I didn't actually take the subframe right off. The bolts and short wires are removed but the back wires stay so the subframe sort of sits on the back tire.

Brennan, one more thing you might want to do is move that big vent hose on the top of the cylinder so that it won't ever dangle in water, and take 2 of the carb vent hoses (one from each side) and do the same thing. I run these hoses up and along the subframe rails on the top edge of the air box. This keeps it more waterproof which may be a factor at Crowsnest Pass. These bikes are submarines with these hoses re-routed and the air box intact.

I found out the hard way that the "poly lube" that they refer to in the manual is garbage. They use it in the swingarm and linkage bearings. I had to rip the "poly lube" (orange string cheese stuff) out of the bearings and replace it with good grease. They improved the seals for 2005 so the grease lasts longer. Mine is still perfect since I did mine in January. You'd probably get away with not doing this until winter but I wouldn't leave it for next year. I had to replace bearings because of that stupid orange stuff.

Brenan225 · Post by **Brenan225** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 5:07 pm

Well the mods are coming along slowly. I can't believe that after paying what we do for new bikes we still need to go over every nut and bolt. I have found a number of bolts that were not quite tight, my swing arm pivot was almost hand loose and my linkage took a lot of grease.

I had to guess on the famous grey wire. The only grey wire I could find came out of the CDI and into a block of 6 wires so I cut it and put in a couple of connectors in case I am wrong. I can hardly wait to get it all together and ride it!

Post by **dirtyboy** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:17 pm

Sounds like you got the right grey wire.

It'll be worth the trouble. Sounds like your bike will be well prepped and ready to go soon.

MotorEd · Post by **MotorEd** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 6:41 am

You guys should try one of those orange 2 stroke bikes

Post by **dirtyboy** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:42 pm

MotorEd wrote:You guys should try one of those orange 2 stroke bikes

Do those come with electric start ?

If they came out with a 200EXC with E-start, I'd buy one immediately.

Well, I'd have to analyze if the 2 stroke has the kind of traction I'm used