If it ain't one thing, it's another

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wfooshee

O, Woe is me!!
Joined
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Those who follow every breath I take and every turn I make in my life, despite your best efforts to ignore me, may recall my oil leak post some weeks back, wherein it was theorized that I was an idiot for re-using the o-ring on the starter when I put the replacement in. Of course, the replacement was covered in my bad starter post last summer.

So I got a new o-ring, tore the **** down to remove the starter and put in the new o-ring, and I'm feeling all good about myself, life, the world, and everything. I did notice that the body of the starter was pretty damn clean-looking for something supposedly the source of an oil leak, but it had to be that o-ring, so on it went, and back together the bike went. This was late January.

Yet I still find little piddles of oil on the garage floor. And the side of the bike still gets all nasty-looking and ookey. Like a '70's Harley. Or a '60s MG. But I replaced the o-ring. I can't still be leaking oil!!!! But look at my left lower fairing . . . . .

DSC_5593.jpg


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So today, instead of enjoying this damned gorgeous day being out and about (although truth be told, it's pretty damned windy out there) I yanked everything out from behind the engine YET FOOKING AGAIN and see what I can see. Ya know what I found? Do ya? Huh?

One of the bolts on the cover plate for the rear balancer was less than finger-tight. The others were tight, but one was loose, and sure enough, the case was kinda spludgey right around that area. Like the thread title says, if it ain't one thing, it's another. Kinda has be, actually.

Removed the cover, and the whole mating surface is clean except within an eighth inch or so of the loose bolt, and it's dirty around there. Evidence of oil passage. The loose bolt was in the lower left in this picture. The one full of oil . . . . Oil would pool in the valley under the starter (leading to the idea that the replacement starter was the cause) and run out the side when I put the bike own on the sidestand. It's not a LOT of oil, certainly not enough to run the bike out between regular changes, but it's gotten messy.

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Not having a new gasket handy, the old one was not too badly torn, although it did have a couple of small areas where it stuck to the metal. I should replace it, but I can't get one today, and I need the bike back together. I cleaned the mating surfaces and reused the gasket with a touch of black RTV, replaced the cover and started reassembly.

I'm not quite done, I got hungry and decided to stop for a break.

That's a lie. . . . I decided to stop for a break so I wouldn't take each and every tool I have and beat the motorcycle with them. I was 10 minutes from being finished, and dropped a bolt down into the space under the throttle bodies. I was remounting the intake air pressure sensor, the one that lives on the fuel rail, and dropped one of its bolts. The neighbors learned a few new words, or least some combinations. My magnet stick can't reach it, or more correctly I can't see the bolt in order to direct the magnet stick, and blind poking has not retrieved it.

So it's time for a sandwich, a break with my buds on the forum, and then I get to tear all that fooking **** off again that I just tore off and put back on.

Yes, that sensor would sit there forever with just one bolt, but that's just not . . . . correct. A half hour from now I may be wishing I'd decided otherwise, though. :)

Go ahead. Laugh. None of you has ever dropped something into an impossible to get location, have you? (At least I didn't drop anything into the crankcase while the balancer cover was off. . .)

 
wfooshee, sorry to hear about the dropped bolt. How about trying to use compressed air to see if you can blow that little sucker out on to the garage floor?

I was wondering could you please post a wider angle shot of the balancer area to put it in perspective for some of us who've not been down this far in the engine.

 
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For smartass first: Hey, I had to miss a riding day to do this. It wasn't just sitting in a freezing garage waiting for me to do something with it.

:p :p :p :p :p

For JamesK: That's the #3 intake port just above the balancer in the pic, so if you had the tank up, this would be hidden under the throttle bodies. I cropped the original pic to make it fit the post, but I've already deleted the original. Sorry. For position reference, you're looking almost straight down, from just right of where the fuel filler would be if the tank was still there. Imagine sitting on the bike, looking down at the tank, and the tank, intake system, and cover plate for the balancer are all invisible. There you have it.

And air probably wouldn't do anything but make it rattle. That's a bit of a valley down there, and not open to the sides (which is why the oil collected under there) and too much stuff above it to pop it vertically. The bolt ended up being underneath the starter, just as I'd figured, going in.

 
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Good for ya. You found the real culprit in a round about way. Sometimes the only way to find out what a problem is, is to find out what it is not. Smart of you to take a break when you started to get frustrated. Been there. Don't kick or otherwise harm your defenseless FJR. It is just a dumb machine, with no evil intentions. Not like a damned horse, that will bite you, kick you, throw you, and then lay down and die for no reason at all.

 
he can't James...it would surely go the way of his OEM spark plug wrench... :rolleyes:

HEY!!! You're gonna want something someday . . . . .

Besides, I HAVE my spark pluck socket, thank you very much. . . . . :p :p

It is just a dumb machine, with no evil intentions.
Then why is it spitting oil at me for no good reason??? :) I've never had that cover off before, why'd it get loose by itself?

No evil . . . . Fat lot YOU know!!!

 
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Dropped bolt, ouch!

Well.... at least it's outside of the engine/tranny. It maybe a lost bolt. Hopefully it won't cause any issues and you can get a replacement quickly.

Good luck.

 
Go ahead. Laugh. None of you has ever dropped something into an impossible to get location, have you? (At least I didn't drop anything into the crankcase while the balancer cover was off. . .)
On five occasions I have dropped nuts, bolts, screws and a socket into the intake tract of a VFR or the crankcase of a KZ1100 or a friend's Sprint ST .. and each time I have been able to get them out. Now I am meticulous about covering intakes with duct tape, chain cavities stuffed with rags (but forgot to take one out once ... !) and using electrical tape to hold extensions, adapters and sockets together in sensitive places.

But some day I suspect I'll have to find a way to pick up the bike, hold it upside down, and shake it!

 
That's one of the components which makes the high frequency whine in the FJR. It turns twice the speed of the crankshaft -- 18,000 rpm at engine redline.

 
'Nother time, 'nother place I was trying to find a misfire on my GS1000 Sazook and after removing the plugs I was taking off a coil and dropped a nut-Yep, nothing but net right thru the plug hole..One would think it would be possible to easily fish it out but the damn nut was about one micron smaller than that the plug hole.....

 
If it ain't inside the engine and I can't find it after a reasonable look see, I just get a new bolt and let the old one RIP.

 
I was wondering could you please post a wider angle shot of the balancer area to put it in perspective for some of us who've not been down this far in the engine.
Hey, found this pic that I'd used in another thread to illustrate starter access, lack thereof. The tank is off, fuel rail is off, the airbox is out, the throttle bodies are still on, and the starter, under the #1 throttle, is still completely hidden. Anyway, the bolt you can see under the #3 throttle is the very bolt that was loose.

DSC_4422.jpg


 
That's one of the components which makes the high frequency whine in the FJR. It turns twice the speed of the crankshaft -- 18,000 rpm at engine redline.
AH HA! NOW I realize what that loud whine is! I think my left balancer is really really loud, but it's gotten better. It used to be loud enough to hurt my ears. I hope it wasn't overtightened and has now chewed itself to bits. I'm scared to look. Looking at wfooshee's pic, that's exactly where the noise is coming from, too.

 
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That's one of the components which makes the high frequency whine in the FJR. It turns twice the speed of the crankshaft -- 18,000 rpm at engine redline.
AH HA! NOW I realize what that loud whine is! I think my left balancer is really really loud, but it's gotten better. It used to be loud enough to hurt my ears. I hope it wasn't overtightened and has now chewed itself to bits. I'm scared to look. Looking at wfooshee's pic, that's exactly where the noise is coming from, too.
The gears are straight-cut, too, which contributes to the whine. But helical gears need thrust bearings and complicated **** like that.

ah, well ah, when can I come by again for a TBS and spark plug change??? :rolleyes:
Soon as it stops raining, and the college girls leave. Wouldn't want to see you around college girls. . . . . :dribble:

 
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The gears are straight-cut, too, which contributes to the whine.
One could learn to love the sound of straight-cut gears... :rolleyes:

But helical gears need thrust bearings and complicated **** like that.
'Herringbone' (two helical, back-to-back) eliminates axial thrust -- but, both designs are "power robbers". :(

 
The gears are straight-cut, too, which contributes to the whine.
One could learn to love the sound of straight-cut gears... :rolleyes:
Oh I don't mind the noise, I love jets too, except it happens to reflect off my Cee Baileys' at just the right angle, plus I just could not find the problem, no matter how much I searched all parts of the intake tract, looking for a crack, or missing seal, or SOMETHING wrong...

I have to wait for my ignition switch recall kit to get here from Ron Ayers, so I can put my triple-clamp and handlebars back on, and I can get back under the tank.

 

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