Another Ticker confirmed (04)

[James]

I started noticing "the tick" at around 16,000 miles last summer. It has gotten progressively worse, as I expected, as the miles have passed. After WFO-5 this summer I thought it was bad enough that it would be obvious to the dealer & cause me fewer problems explaining. Went in in September at around 30,000 miles, 4000 miles after I did the valve clearance check, they called Yamaha who authorized a valve clearance check to see if that would make it go away (I had told them I had done one). They found everything in spec, but did "center" the gaps just in case. No one there could hear it, but I could as I rode home. They also knew about the oil loss I had been seeing (around a quart between changes), but said Yamaha wasn't worried about that untill it got to the quart/500 mile range. I had pulled the lowers to make things easy for them, but they didn't pull the exaust headers to check for oil (I had explained that test & had them order new gaskets to re-assimble if needed).

As it has continued to worsen I figured I'd go back "at some point" & when I got my recall letter figured that would work. They did the TPS and now, at 31,000 ish they can hear it. Cooler weather may have alowed them to see the bit of oil smoke at start-up, which may have helped. Parts are ordered & I'm scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving, & get a Radian as a loaner bike while they do the work . I still need to call Yamaha as they want to bill me for the valve adjustment they autorized, but we'll see how that goes. I think this is their first ticker repair, but their mechanic's have a very good reputation here in town, and I am an optimist. And I'm a minimum of an hour away from another Yamaha dealer, who I don't know & may have never repaired one as well. I'll report how the experiance goes, good or bad, "at some time".

James

 

[Joe Nardy]

I started noticing "the tick" at around 16,000 miles last summer. It has gotten progressively worse, as I expected, as the miles have passed. After WFO-5 this summer I thought it was bad enough that it would be obvious to the dealer & cause me fewer problems explaining. Went in in September at around 30,000 miles, 4000 miles after I did the valve clearance check, they called Yamaha who authorized a valve clearance check to see if that would make it go away (I had told them I had done one). They found everything in spec, but did "center" the gaps just in case. No one there could hear it, but I could as I rode home. They also knew about the oil loss I had been seeing (around a quart between changes), but said Yamaha wasn't worried about that untill it got to the quart/500 mile range. I had pulled the lowers to make things easy for them, but they didn't pull the exaust headers to check for oil (I had explained that test & had them order new gaskets to re-assimble if needed). As it has continued to worsen I figured I'd go back "at some point" & when I got my recall letter figured that would work. They did the TPS and now, at 31,000 ish they can hear it. Cooler weather may have alowed them to see the bit of oil smoke at start-up, which may have helped. Parts are ordered & I'm scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving, & get a Radian as a loaner bike while they do the work . I still need to call Yamaha as they want to bill me for the valve adjustment they autorized, but we'll see how that goes. I think this is their first ticker repair, but their mechanic's have a very good reputation here in town, and I am an optimist. And I'm a minimum of an hour away from another Yamaha dealer, who I don't know & may have never repaired one as well. I'll report how the experiance goes, good or bad, "at some time".

James

James,

Sorry to hear about your ticker. Can you please take a look at this thread: Ticker dealer thread and post the name of the dealer that is doing your repair? I'm compiling a list of dealers that have dealt with tickers to help other members get theirs fixed.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[James]

An update- I called Yamaha, and after talking about the whole story w/2 people, they called my dealer to hear what they had to say & agreed to cover the cost of the valve adjustment done to see if it'd make the tick go away (even though it was in spec). I dropped the bike off this morning, rideing a '87 Fazer home as a loaner, they start on Monday & plan on being done Tuesday. This is their first FJR ticker, so I'm a bit nervious, but feel they have the ability to do a good job. Will report when done, ect.

James

 

[keithaba]

Sorry to hear about that... at least you have gotten a lot of miles out of it!

Let us know what happens when you get it back. I'm scared, my 04 only has about 7200 miles on it, but I've heard you usually know by around 10-15,000 miles if you got a ticker or not.