570 longevity question...

Hey guys. Just about to tear into the 570 and I have some questions for you all. I’ll try to keep it short but there’s some history. This thing is a 2009 with 13000 miles on it. It was that way when I bought it and those miles seem like hard-ish ones. I can’t quite tell but there seems to have been some ham-fisted wrenching done. There was a screw toe-nailed into the 70 degree rear tank for the plastics. Someone obviously jacked that nut up and just decided to change the angle to go straight into the plastic of the tank and create a way worse problem and hope he never had to take the plastics off again. Same at the top of the front tank where they put a longer screw in the fuel pressure regulator and poked a hole into the tank and also stripped the threads. So with that knowledge of previous owners I’m not sure where this bike stands maintenance-wise over it’s life. It also got stolen and wrecked while I owned it. I fixed a twisted triple and replaced the steering bearings. It’s straight and everything works.

So I’ve had all the suspension done at Super Plush in San Francisco and I’ve fixed all of the leaks in the tanks. I adjusted the valves when I first bought it and they were close. One of the shims had been indented a bit (concave on a flat side) which could be a problem but I haven’t gotten in there since. That being said other than that small possible problem, everything I could see while the engine was open looked super clean. The splines on the final drive look great for that many miles with no cush hub. (I think it might have spent some time of it’s life supermotoed.) The gas definitely boils but it doesn’t yet have a fan kit. It usually runs great. It stranded me once with the fuel pump but I replaced it with CA Cycleworks. Now I think the injector needs cleaning so I’ll go through all the filters in the meantime and adjust the valves again to see if the new shim took a beating like the last one did.

All this to say, should I keep this bike and just love it and ride it or move one? I thought I’d sell it and get a newer smaller displacement bike like a Beta 390 because this thing is such a monster in the slow stuff. But now I’ve gotten a 250 2 stroke to rip around and learn on so that plan is obsolete. Can I make this 570 my dirt fun dual sport bike and my DR650 my heavy road biased dual sport? With this many miles is it reliable enough to take into the desert and trust it’ll get me out? I rode one 3 day trip around Jawbone canyon on this thing and it was so damn fun and ran great. Also carried the weight without protest.


So, should I keep it?

Is there anything I should look for while I’m in there adjusting the valves to see where the engine is at in it’s lifespan?

Any advice on making this bike do another 5 or so reliable years where I can pack it up and feel great about going out on some hard trips.

Are parts still gonna be around to fix things, maybe do a top end if necessary?

I like working on bikes and I do all my own maintenance except suspension (so far). But I’m still not a great mechanic and I don’t have a ton of time so I want to just ride and do oil changes. I don’t mind doing deeper work like valves when they need to be done but I don’t want to have constant issues I’m dealing with as this bike gets older.

What say the wise old 70 degree owners?!

Rainerio said:

Parts should available for more than 5 years. Not cheap to rebuild top end if using OEM. Clean/replace all 4 fuel filter , injector. Clean up any wire connections loose or corroded Dielectric Grease use it on all connections. Maybe get new plastic for the future it’s getting harder to find. If removing shrouds be careful/patient with the screws brake free is helpful let it set for days

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Yup. Those screws in the shrouds are already stripped from the previous owner. Been looking for a way to get stripped holes rethreaded in that plastic. I’ll get into the motor in the next couple weeks and see if a top end is necessary. Not totally sure what to look for in that regard. Don’t want to spend a bunch of money so maybe I’d move on.

Rainerio said:

Parts should available for more than 5 years. Not cheap to rebuild top end if using OEM.

Click to expand...

The KTM equivalents are just as expensive or is that not an option? Guess I’ll do some research on that and non-OEM.

Got an 8% leak down test result. I think that’s good enough to not spec the piston. The rockers are super beat. I’m replacing them and the rocker shafts with the new KTM ones with the groove for oil. I’m figuring the groove goes at the “top” even though with the 70 degree Bergs the top isn’t quite the top. Replaced all the fuel filters and the injector. Any advice on putting new parts in? My dad gave me some assembly lube so I’ll make sure things are lubed up. Cam looks good. Might shine it up with some crocus cloth. Haven’t decided. Got advice on both sides, one saying don’t polish it and one saying definitely polish it.

So mid valve adjust. I took the cam out but the rockers wouldn’t fall back far enough to access the shims. The manual says “raise the rockers” and I remember distinctly the last time I adjusted valves I could roll them back all the way. I think. This time the intake rocker hits something that stops it. I took the intake rocker out and then the exhaust rocker freely rocked back all the way.

Is this normal? Is something drastically wrong.

Also I released the cam chain tensioner by way of just pushing up on the cam chain guide until it released (like you would on a table). The chain seems tight. Can it get too tight? The manual says to push from the top (with a special too) but I wasn’t sure if this would create a different tension than compressing it from the bottom. I thought maybe that little button on the top was a different release than the full compression release. Anyway, I’m paranoid about the tension.

I think it has to be the intake rocker hitting the inside (right side) cam bearing. I can’t imagine anything will interfere with anything else when the cam is in and everything is only moving hundredths of millimeters so I’m fairly sure I’ll just start it up and see what happens but let me know if this is a bad idea.

Otherwise it’s coming along nicely. New rockers and shafts. Valves perfectly in spec (after many errors, math and otherwise). New injector and fuel filters. Wrapped my mid pipe and repacked my FMF canister. I hope to run it this weekend.