Marine Corp KLR 250 Info Needed

[knighthawk]

I recently purchased a partially restored Marine Corp KLR 250 and am finding it difficult to locate much information on these bikes. Can anyone answer the following or point me in the right direction?
1) A history of the purchase contract s for these bikes including the differences between earlier and later conract KLR 250 and how many were made.
2) A comprehensive wiring diagram for the military bikes that incudes the blackout lighting system. It appears the military and civilian ignition switches and wiring are different.The previous owner of my bike seems to have combined parts from both and as may be expected only part of the system works.
3) Any source for the military only parts including a military wiring harness?
Thanks for the help

 

[Ruppster]

1) The main difference that I know of between the first batch of KLR250's from the mid 80's and the second batch that was ordered around 1990-1991 and given the M1030 designation is the fuel tank. The mid 80's bikes had stock metal fuel tanks while the 1990-1991 versions had a larger plastic tank made my a company named IMS. The other main differences between the two are in the hand guards and engine guard/crash bars. If I remember correctly (if I'm wrong I know another SS member will be sure to correct me) the 80's version did not have them, only the 1990/1991 version did. Plus the front blackout light was different. Not sure about the rear one.

2) Sorry, don't have that. Would love to get my hands on that too.

3) The company that converted the bikes for the military is still around. They might be a source for the blackout light stuff. Don't know if anyone has contacted them about private sales though. Otherwise the only other source for parts that I know of is something like the classified section of SteelSoldiers or eBay. As far as wiring there's not much to the blackout wiring as far as I know and most likely was made by hand when they were modified for the military. So it shouldn't be too hard to replicate the wiring.

 

[knighthawk]

Thanks Ruppster,
Would IMS also be the company that converted the 1986 bikes? It also appears from looking at every picture I could find that the 1986 bikes had the blackout lighting anf the later bikes had infared lighting. Is that correct to your knowledge?

 

[Ruppster]

No, IMS only did the tanks and they are an off the shelf commercially available item. The company that converted the bikes for the military is a company called Hayes. Here's the web site for Hayes:

Hayes Diesel Technology

But as I mentioned I don't know if they will sell stuff to the public or not. If they do it would most likely be at the same price they charge the military (if not higher). In other words the stuff won't be cheap.

As far as blackout light versus IR that I'm not sure about. I have a 1986 version sitting in storage and I haven't taken the light assembly apart to see what's in it. I've just heard them referred to as blackout lights but they may in fact be IR lights on all of them. If no one else speaks up about this question in the next day or two I will go out to where the bike is stored and take a closer look at the light assembly.


Edit: Just saw this thread that was further down the page. It has some info about the blackout/IR light question.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/motorcycles-atvs/79244-ir-light-m1030.html

 

[knighthawk]

I am familiar with Hayes and their involvement with KLR 650 Diesel but was not aware that they were involved with the earlier KLR 250 bikes. Are you aware of any published material referencing the KLR 250 contracts.

 

[MWMULES]

Artillerydan Knows more about the 250s than anyone I know. #1 (permalink) You can shoot him an Email, he is not on this site very often. He did several complete rebuild restorations on the 250s. If I would have had the money at the time I would have gotten one from him to go with my 650s.
Hayes in the past ans questions about the bikes but lately not so much. Might try them.

Can't speak about the 250 but the stock M1030B1 the small light above the head light(btw from a 250) is B/O you can see it with naked eye. I only have the one bike that came with the armored white and IR light and both have 12v bulbs in them.

 

[knighthawk]

Thanks I'll try to contact him.

 

[SrBenelli]

Hey there! You didn't happen to buy your bike from a guy named "Dustin" up in the mountains, did you? If so, he's a friend of mine..... and I have one of your bike's "brothers" sitting in my garage! We got them at the same time from the same surplus dealer (who ended up with 5 of them, if I recall correctly).
I haven't done much to mine yet (other home projects have kept me from the bike)... but we should chat sometime! I'd love to compare notes with you!

Steve