The Truth Is Out There

An international rider with a KTM in need of help triggered a big response from the Facebook community. Andy Powell, along with some thoughts from on-line helpers, was able to solve the mystery and help a fellow adventure rider back on track.

- Andy Powell

Kevin Bärtschi was travelling from Switzerland to Australia. He’d made his way to Adelaide and was camped at Belair National Park when a problem surfaced with his KTM690 and he sent out a call for help on social media.

The early responses came up with myriad suggestions as everyone rallied to the cause. Another KTM690 owner in Adelaide, Darren, agreed to assist and spent the day going through the initial fault diagnosis. Various common KTM690 quick fixes were tried, but to no avail.

I was contacted through Facebook as I’d produced a couple of troubleshooting guides and had owned a KTM 690 for 80,000km, so I was well versed in some of the more common issues.

Repair HQ

I had some spares for the 690 so we decided I’d send down a replacement fuel pump, fuel injector, spark-plug cap and air-intake sensor to try. The parts arrived via Express Post a day later and Darren took them to Kevin at the campground. Overnight the battery had gone dead and the bike was strangely inundated with fuel. The day was spent charging batteries and trying to at least get the bike running, but by that stage it wouldn’t even start.

It was decided to try the local KTM dealer the following day where, unfortunately, the diagnostics box revealed no electronic issues. But the dealer was able to get the bike to start, although the original rough-running issues were still there. The mechanics commented that the engine didn’t seem to be in the best condition, and a test revealed compression was at only 30 per cent.