New bike day, 2013 KTM 990 SMT... anyone have experience with this platform? Reliable? | GTAMotorcycle.com

New bike day, 2013 KTM 990 SMT... anyone have experience with this platform? Reliable?

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DonWiley

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Bought this a bit on a whim, couldn't resist what I hear is a pretty fun bike. 10,300km one owner so low for the age. Fairly light overall at 430lbs dry 480lbs wet, 114hp and 71 ft/lbs of torque from the v-twin. 2013 was the last year for these too so I hear most of the main issues are worked out over the years.

Hoping it will be fairly reliable after owning 8 various Japanese bikes... excited to pick this up. Hoping to hear from other owners anything to look out for and that type of thing.
 
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Welcome to the club! Yours has almost exactly 10% of the mileage of my 2010, so I wouldn't expect any wear and tear at that point. Also, being the last year of production, it probably had many of the "issues" fixed by then. Best to check: Account Suspended however it seems the site has been suspended by the hosting provider for some reason. Hopefully it comes back soon. Off the top of my head, here are some of the common issues which may or may not affect your specific model year:
  • immobilizer failure
  • voltage regulator
  • water pump impeller shaft wear
  • rad cap
  • Loctite flywheel bolts
  • fuel filter clogging
  • fuel mapping
  • wiring harness break/short at steering head
  • TPS failure
I haven't had any of these issues with mine, and hope not to. Hopefully you got both keys, the red/orange programming key, and the key card/tag - all of which you will need if you ever need to replace a key.

When I got mine with 100,000 kms, it needed a LOT of work, but mostly wear and tear items not unheard of at that mileage. I would say the only issue I've been dealing with is an erratic idle, where it starts normally, but then slowly rises to 2500, then 3000, and sometimes as high as 5000 RPM. Nothing else seems to be affected, it's as if the throttle is being held open. Likely a failing TPS, and I'm in the middle of installing it now. Otherwise, it is a fun, comfortable bike.
 
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Relax said:
Welcome to the club! Yours has almost exactly 10% of the mileage of my 2010, so I wouldn't expect any wear and tear at that point. Also, being the last year of production, it probably had many of the "issues" fixed by then. Best to check: Account Suspended however it seems the site has been suspended by the hosting provider for some reason. Hopefully it comes back soon. Off the top of my head, here are some of the common issues which may or may not affect your specific model year:
  • immobilizer failure
  • voltage regulator
  • water pump impeller shaft wear
  • rad cap
  • Loctite flywheel bolts
  • fuel filter clogging
  • fuel mapping
  • wiring harness break/short at steering head
  • TPS failure
I haven't had any of these issues with mine, and hope not to. Hopefully you got both keys, the red/orange programming key, and the key card/tag - all of which you will need if you ever need to replace a key.

When I got mine with 100,000 kms, it needed a LOT of work, but mostly wear and tear items not unheard of at that mileage. I would say the only issue I've been dealing with is an erratic idle, where it starts normally, but then slowly rises to 2500, then 3000, and sometimes as high as 5000 RPM. Nothing else seems to be affected, it's as if the throttle is being held open. Likely a faieing TPS, and I'm in the middle of installing it now. Otherwise, it is a fun, comfortable bike.
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Damn! Thanks, this is great. A fair list of things to keep in mind, hopefully most I don't need to deal with. :) Very reassuring to hear you bought one with 100,000km on it and it's been mostly trouble free. That's awesome.
 
yes, I've got one, a 2011 SMR. 43,000 kms on it now and I picked it up with the same mileage as yours. I need to do a valve inspection on mine and looking for a good place to take it?
 
DonWiley said:
Bought this a bit on a whim, couldn't resist what I hear is a pretty fun bike. 10,300km one owner so low for the age. Fairly light overall at 430lbs dry 480lbs wet, 114hp and 71 ft/lbs of torque from the v-twin. 2013 was the last year for these too so I hear most of the main issues are worked out over the years.

Hoping it will be fairly reliable after owning 8 various Japanese bikes... excited to pick this up. Hoping to hear from other owners anything to look out for and that type of thing.

Picture...

View attachment 68289
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You work for apex dont you?

90% sure thats a bike I was going to look at and the owner traded it in...(That also looks like their garage)
 
PaisaMed said:
yes, I've got one, a 2011 SMR. 43,000 kms on it now and I picked it up with the same mileage as yours. I need to do a valve inspection on mine and looking for a good place to take it?
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The PO of my bike lived in Hamilton and took it to Peak in Oakville for the valve adjustments. Peak has been good for getting parts. I'll probably do the valves myself since they're so simple.
 
Relax said:
Also, being the last year of production, it probably had many of the "issues" fixed by then. Best to check: Account Suspended however it seems the site has been suspended by the hosting provider for some reason. Hopefully it comes back soon.
Click to expand...

Here's a snapshot from Feb on the Wayback Machine:

 
I enjoyed mine (2012) for several years. It was the white one, which is the fastest ;).

Never had any of the issues listed above.

It's a thirsty beast as I recall, a heavy hand empties the tank pretty quickly. I also found the seat to be UNBEARABLE for anything beyond an hour.

Off idle fueling was notchy, but the fix was to either buy a new throttle tube which worked, or to file a groove in the stock one. Maybe the 2013 didn't have the issue.
 
I replaced the TPS and needed to set the idle voltage. If you ever need to do this on a 990 SMT, you'll find that it's impossible to do so with the tank on the frame. The recommended range is .58-.62 V fully warmed up and idling. All the videos out there for 990 TPS adjustment show an ADV with the separate left and right tanks, so they can simply remove the right tank to access the TPS with the bike running with the left tank remaining (which houses the fuel pump).

One option is to set the tank beside the engine on various stuff and hook it all up. I couldn't find enough things to match the needed height and also be stable, and once all the shroud bolts and tank mounting bolts are removed, it's just one electrical connector and one quick fuel connector, so I used a different approach by measuring the various cold and hot TPS values and guesstimating a value that would result in .60 V hot.

TLDR: .55 V using the "Adjust throttle cable" seems to be a good starting point.

I took a bunch of "cold" readings with the engine/coolant at 22 C using TuneECU. They're pretty self explanatory, but if you're not familiar:
"Key on" = TPS position when key is first turned to the On position. The idle stepper does a reset by fully retracting, then extending to open the main throttle plates the prescribed amount for starting based on the engine temp.
"Adjust throttle cable" = a function in TuneECU that appears to fully retract the idle stepper motor allowing the main butterflies to close completely. This is the position you're supposed to set your throttle cable slack at.
"Exit and restart" = after using the "Adjust throttle cable" function, if you exit TuneECU and re-launch without touching the key, you end up with a value somewhere between the fully retracted position and the "Key on" position - interesting, but not useful.
"Key off/on" = matches "Key on" value when cycling the key off/on

Then I warmed up the bike and took the same readings "hot" at 88 C.

My old TPS was set to .74 cold after initial key-on, and slowly dropped to .60 by the time it got to a hot idle. So I set the new one to .74 as well, but for some reason after cycling the key off/on, it dropped to the mid-.60's. So I increased it a bit to .71:

Cold (22c)
Key on .71
Adjust throttle cable .60
Exit and restart .63/.64
Key off/on .71

Hot (88c)
Idle .66
Key off/on .67
Adjust throttle cable .60
Exit and restart .60
Key off/on .67

So my hot idle was .06 V too high. Based on all the data, the one consistent value regardless of hot or cold was the "Adjust throttle cable" setting, so I removed the tank and dropped it to .55 V, resulting in a hot idle of .60/.61:

Hot (90c)
Idle .60/.61
Key off/on .62
Adjust throttle cable .55/.56
Exit and restart .55/.56
Key off/on .62

Took it for a quick 20-minute ride and no more rising/hanging idle. That's without even running the idle relearn procedure, or resetting adaptations (not clear if necessary when changing the TPS or only if loading a new map). Will look into doing those tomorrow, but I'm pretty happy the way it is.
 
Relax said:
I replaced the TPS and needed to set the idle voltage. If you ever need to do this on a 990 SMT, you'll find that it's impossible to do so with the tank on the frame. The recommended range is .58-.62 V fully warmed up and idling. All the videos out there for 990 TPS adjustment show an ADV with the separate left and right tanks, so they can simply remove the right tank to access the TPS with the bike running with the left tank remaining (which houses the fuel pump).

One option is to set the tank beside the engine on various stuff and hook it all up. I couldn't find enough things to match the needed height and also be stable, and once all the shroud bolts and tank mounting bolts are removed, it's just one electrical connector and one quick fuel connector, so I used a different approach by measuring the various cold and hot TPS values and guesstimating a value that would result in .60 V hot.

TLDR: .55 V using the "Adjust throttle cable" seems to be a good starting point.

I took a bunch of "cold" readings with the engine/coolant at 22 C using TuneECU. They're pretty self explanatory, but if you're not familiar:
"Key on" = TPS position when key is first turned to the On position. The idle stepper does a reset by fully retracting, then extending to open the main throttle plates the prescribed amount for starting based on the engine temp.
"Adjust throttle cable" = a function in TuneECU that appears to fully retract the idle stepper motor allowing the main butterflies to close completely. This is the position you're supposed to set your throttle cable slack at.
"Exit and restart" = after using the "Adjust throttle cable" function, if you exit TuneECU and re-launch without touching the key, you end up with a value somewhere between the fully retracted position and the "Key on" position - interesting, but not useful.
"Key off/on" = matches "Key on" value when cycling the key off/on

Then I warmed up the bike and took the same readings "hot" at 88 C.

My old TPS was set to .74 cold after initial key-on, and slowly dropped to .60 by the time it got to a hot idle. So I set the new one to .74 as well, but for some reason after cycling the key off/on, it dropped to the mid-.60's. So I increased it a bit to .71:

Cold (22c)
Key on .71
Adjust throttle cable .60
Exit and restart .63/.64
Key off/on .71

Hot (88c)
Idle .66
Key off/on .67
Adjust throttle cable .60
Exit and restart .60
Key off/on .67

So my hot idle was .06 V too high. Based on all the data, the one consistent value regardless of hot or cold was the "Adjust throttle cable" setting, so I removed the tank and dropped it to .55 V, resulting in a hot idle of .60/.61:

Hot (90c)
Idle .60/.61
Key off/on .62
Adjust throttle cable .55/.56
Exit and restart .55/.56
Key off/on .62

Took it for a quick 20-minute ride and no more rising/hanging idle. That's without even running the idle relearn procedure, or resetting adaptations (not clear if necessary when changing the TPS or only if loading a new map). Will look into doing those tomorrow, but I'm pretty happy the way it is.
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Thanks a lot of the info man. Much appreciated. Do you happen to know where in Canada I can the "TuneECU" cable I need to plug my bike in and gain that functionality? So far a lot of the info out there is overseas or talking about making your own.
 
DonWiley said:
Thanks a lot of the info man. Much appreciated. Do you happen to know where in Canada I can the "TuneECU" cable I need to plug my bike in and gain that functionality? So far a lot of the info out there is overseas or talking about making your own.
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I ordered the Lonelec set from England, which was highly recommended. Came pretty quickly, I think less than a week - sent using Royal Mail, and I wasn't charged any additional taxes or duties.
 
Here's another tip - with the rear tire on the ground, wiggle the rear sprocket both in the direction it spins to check if your cush drives are worn out as well as right and left (toward and away from the rear wheel) to see if the sprocket carrier bearing is bad. Also remove the front sprocket cover to check that the countershaft nut is still tight. Even with the bent over washer, my nut was loose allowing the front sprocket to wiggle left and right. In conjunction with bad rear sprocket carrier bearings allowing the rear sprocket to rock right and left, the left side of my tire was getting chewed up by my chain. The chain has kinks, so I replaced everything - chain, front and rear sprockets, countershaft nut washer, and rear sprocket carrier bearings (that was a frustrating job).
 
Relax said:
Here's another tip - with the rear tire on the ground, wiggle the rear sprocket both in the direction it spins to check if your cush drives are worn out as well as right and left (toward and away from the rear wheel) to see if the sprocket carrier bearing is bad. Also remove the front sprocket cover to check that the countershaft nut is still tight. Even with the bent over washer, my nut was loose allowing the front sprocket to wiggle left and right. In conjunction with bad rear sprocket carrier bearings allowing the rear sprocket to rock right and left, the left side of my tire was getting chewed up by my chain. The chain has kinks, so I replaced everything - chain, front and rear sprockets, countershaft nut washer, and rear sprocket carrier bearings (that was a frustrating job).
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Thanks for the lead on the cable. Going to order it.

I will definitely do that tomorrow and confirm the countershaft nut is tight so I can avoid any issues.
 
Here's another one - if you're only getting about half the mileage you think you should be getting, and then when filling up it only takes about half a tank or less, take a look at the bottom corners of your tank at the lowest point. There are knobs on each side with a rubber hose joining them - it's to balance the fuel between the two halves of the tank because of the way it sits over each side of the frame. The knobs control the valves that can be closed when you need to remove the tank. Sometimes people forget to turn them back on afterwards. Both need to be opened counterclockwise or the gas will sit in the right side of the tank while the left side empties (the side with the pump).
 
Relax said:
Here's another one - if you're only getting about half the mileage you think you should be getting, and then when filling up it only takes about half a tank or less, take a look at the bottom corners of your tank at the lowest point. There are knobs on each side with a rubber hose joining them - it's to balance the fuel between the two halves of the tank because of the way it sits over each side of the frame. The knobs control the valves that can be closed when you need to remove the tank. Sometimes people forget to turn them back on afterwards. Both need to be opened counterclockwise or the gas will sit in the right side of the tank while the left side empties (the side with the pump).
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I'm really glad I made this thread because you know a crazy amount about these bikes, I got lucky. Very much appreciated. Will also take a look at this too. I haven't even ran a full tank through mine so I don't know my mileage. I reset my trip metre when I filled up to see how long until the low gas light comes on. It is too bad there isn't a proper gas gauge but oh well, I've had bikes without anything before so the low warning is appreciated at least.

Do you know approx how much distance I have left when this light comes on?

I've been reading that archive of the 950info site for the last few nights and the amount of information on there is insane. Hopefully it comes back online someday.
 
I've only had mine since last September, so I had to learn a lot in a short time since it had so many issues. But they were all wear and tear items, and parts were reasonable, so I can't complain considering the mileage and the low price I paid. I'm just glad I can DIY to avoid labour costs, otherwise I'd be singing a different tune. Lots of knowledge out there on the ADV versions of this bike, but there are enough differences with the SM models that some procedures don't apply. It's been like pulling teeth asking the same question on multiple KTM forums trying to find specific SM/SMT info. Very different experience from the Ducati forums where knowledge is plentiful, even on much older models.
 
DonWiley said:
Do you know approx how much distance I have left when this light comes on?

I've been reading that archive of the 950info site for the last few nights and the amount of information on there is insane. Hopefully it comes back online someday.
Click to expand...

The SMT has a 19L tank capacity, and supposedly the reserve comes on at 15L, so there should be 4L when the light comes on, or about 1/4 of whatever your odometer was when the light comes on. This thread has a bunch of people reporting different numbers depending on the situation, as low as 30kms to as high at 70: SMT reserve range

I don't think that site gets updated much, so you probably aren't missing anything from the archived version.
 
Relax said:
I've only had mine since last September, so I had to learn a lot in a short time since it had so many issues. But they were all wear and tear items, and parts were reasonable, so I can't complain considering the mileage and the low price I paid. I'm just glad I can DIY to avoid labour costs, otherwise I'd be singing a different tune. Lots of knowledge out there on the ADV versions of this bike, but there are enough differences with the SM models that some procedures don't apply. It's been like pulling teeth asking the same question on multiple KTM forums trying to find specific SM/SMT info. Very different experience from the Ducati forums where knowledge is plentiful, even on much older models.
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Thankfully as of now I have no issues, but its good to know what to look for.

The oil change process is pretty interesting. A lot more to remove and check than I've ever seen for a bike oil change. Going to do one soon because last time it was changed is unknown.

That is a decent reserve, definitely enough distance to not ever get stranded commuting or just out and about.
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