Winter Project - Reviving a Wounded FJR

A Buddy recently got a great deal on an 04 FJR and we switched for a ride one day. He on my VFR and I sampled the 1300. The ride was short but I was smitten! I've owned a 99 C-10 for about 9 years now and love it for winter/wet weather. But when that's all you know.....

(side bar: The more bikes you ride the pickier you become!)

So (as most of us may do) I surf the local craigslist for listings to see what's out there. Not really "seriously looking"..... until I came across an ad that stated "2007 Yamaha FJR $2000" - and it was NOT being offered by a Nigerian Prince.

Long story short, it's a well ridden (60K miles) and loved FJR that now has a transmission issue. The seller lives in a townhome and doesn't have the facilities or knowledge to fix himself. The dealer was estimating $800 before they even knew what the cause of the issue was. Out of Butt estimate to fix was $4000. Seller didn't want to put that much into it.

I arrived first and carted the poor girl home! Along with a larger screen, some oil, bag liners and a custom backrest by some enterprising FJR enthusiast I'm sure. Nice piece! So, yeah, I think I got a good deal!



I know there's lots of knowledge here. So I figure some "Armchair Wrenching" may be in order...

The tranny issue symptoms follow: When running (in neutral or in gear) and upright, all seems normal. Revving the engine is fine. Tilt the bike either way it sounds as if two (or more) gears are spinning and rubbing together. Stand it up straight and it engages first through 3rd (on the centerstand - I didn't ride it). When shifted into 4th the engine quite, wheel stopped and was a bugger to get it unstuck. As if two gears wanted to engage at once. A circlip may have let go?
The PO commuted year round as much as possible with longer trips with his wife up and down the east coast.

I haven't done much research yet and am not sure if this issue is documented, but my preliminary prescription is to find a lower mileage engine and just do the swap.
I have a replacement engine on the way from a 10K mile - 2007.......

So the tear down has begun!

Very nice!

Of course you will want to adjust valves and ensure latest version (or manual) cam chain tensioner (CCT) is installed.

It sounds like you will have a great bike at a very attractive price. That's a nice looking shop

I'd also call a dealer with the VIN and check for open recalls. There are posts here about adding a relay to take the load off the (recalled) ignition switch as well as adding additional ground paths and inspecting the "ground spiders" . Although Yamaha has addressed both of these issues, The "beef it up" info here imho is a better fix.

Please keep this thread updated with your progress

Good luck!

Nice project. Hopefully it is something simple but time will tell

Good deal! I too am interested in following you in this adventure. I probably will learn a lot also.

Wishing nothing but the best for you going forward on your project bike! Do keep us posted on your progress.

Way coolio. Keep us posted.

Way cool project. Will be watching for progress.

I am going to guess that 4th has somehow broken lose from its shift fork, or some variation thereof. as the bike is tilted the dog slides over and starts banging around. As for the lockup, that is a bit trickier, it is definitely two gears engaging at the same time, but which two? and why? Of course, with an engine on the way, the intricacies are irrelevant but it would be nice to find out for curiosities sake.

Good luck, great winter project!

Engine transplant is fairly straightforward...sounds like you'll end up with a nice machine.

--G

Coolio! Nice score and best of luck with the transplant. You'll have a great bike when you're done, and as you know, far superior to your old Connie.

And you can probably pick up a "dead" engine for very little money and grab the tranny to fix the old engine. Not worth too much with 60k on it but I'm sure someone could use it.

Chuck35 said:

Very nice!Of course you will want to adjust valves and ensure latest version (or manual) cam chain tensioner (CCT) is installed.

It sounds like you will have a great bike at a very attractive price. That's a nice looking shop

I'd also call a dealer with the VIN and check for open recalls. There are posts here about adding a relay to take the load off the (recalled) ignition switch as well as adding additional ground paths and inspecting the "ground spiders" . Although Yamaha has addressed both of these issues, The "beef it up" info here imho is a better fix.

Please keep this thread updated with your progress

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks All for the encouragement! The previous owner is/was a member here, although I don't know his Screen Name. He's a great guy and really loved this FJR. He had all the original paperwork and all the recalls have been done.

I plan to do more tear down this weekend and will take more pics. I know SOME of us will be entering the "slow to no riding" season, so I'll try to keep the entertainment going to keep you distracted!

I appreciated the complement on the shop as well. It's my basement with a walk in. The slider was replaced with a set of French Doors. I built the bench (designed for a garage) from the Readers Digest website of all places. It works real nice. I now have a TV/Monitor in place with a pc and FIOS..... yeah, I'm working on my dream "Man Cave"!

Buy a shop manual and take lots of pictures for yourself and us. Makes it a lot easier when you get to the "how the heck does this go together" part.

One of the forum members from Portland, OR [Ponyfool maybe] had transmission problem. He split the motor and fixed the problems.

He did a great write up with pictures while he was doing it. This was the only blog I could find on this rebuild.

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=106376

Awesome project!

curious - so how much was the replacement engine?

You have a nice project and great bike when its all done.

I'm a little jealous. This is the kind of project I like. Unfortunately, I don't have the space for a long-term project like this. I barely have the space to change my oil.

I'll be following this project with great interest.

FJRMGM said:

curious - so how much was the replacement engine?
You have a nice project and great bike when its all done.

Click to expand...

I did a "buy it now" through Ebay. A Salvage shop in North Carolina listed the 2007 engine with only 10,000 miles for $950. After a few calls he's assisting with the shipping. They're boxing up in a wooden crate and tie downs and sending it Freight for another $150. I thought that was more than fair. They required a commercial address to ship. A buddy owns a Detailing Shop as I can't get deliveries at my work.

This should be a good project, and you'll wind up with a very nice ride for not too much money. My son swapped an '04 600RR engine into an '03 CBR600RR (they were unchanged between '03 and '04) Gave a grand for the wrecked bike. New engine had 2K miles on it, old engine had 43K miles. We used the wheels and rotors, brakes, header, engine, ECU, and rear shock.

Added some cheap Chinese body work, and presto!, nearly a new bike for about $1,400.

Wasn't too bad with the manual, and runs fine.

Streethawk said:

FJRMGM said:

curious - so how much was the replacement engine?
You have a nice project and great bike when its all done.

Click to expand...

I did a "buy it now" through Ebay. A Salvage shop in North Carolina listed the 2007 engine with only 10,000 miles for $950. After a few calls he's assisting with the shipping. They're boxing up in a wooden crate and tie downs and sending it Freight for another $150. I thought that was more than fair. They required a commercial address to ship. A buddy owns a Detailing Shop as I can't get deliveries at my work.

Click to expand...

so for a little over $3k and some wrench time you will have a great bike. Dang, good deal...