Ok Boys & Girls. It looks like it's my turn now!

[majicmaker]

Last night I started the engine to warm it up. It was as smooth as silk. I went in the house to finish suiting up. Went out to go ride and found the bike had shut

down. (I was in the house for about 5 minutes). I started it up again and I heard the dreaded sound of marbles in the engine along with a god awful smell of

raw fuel while it idled like absolute crap! I shut it down immediately. (About 3 seconds). From all that I've been reading here lately, it sounds quite familiar.

I'm putting it on the trailer and heading to the dealer. I've got 32K on it. I thought I had plenty of time to put a new CCT in it at my 52K valve adjustment if that

is in fact what it is. Got a killer trip planned for the Thankgiving Day weekend. I hope it's back by then. I'm pissed because the weather here is getting gorgous

for some riding. But, I've got a big smile on my face knowing that I've got two years left on my Y.E.S.! Wish me luck for a quick turnaround so my P.M.S.

(Parked Motorcycle Syndrome) won't be too bad. I had to drive my car to meet up with all of my riding buddies last night. They tortured me all night saying shit

like, YOU SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT A SUZUKI!!! I felt like Al Bundy getting tortured by his family. It wasn't fun!! I'll keep you posted!

 

[johnny80s]

Good luck.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

That sucks! Especially as I have 30Kmiles and Gary isn't at Mondak to buy a CCT. I think this is the lowest mileage CCT failure (if that is what it is) I've heard of. And I "saved money" bypassing the extended warranty. Damn... bad news but I hope you salvage some riding soon.

 

[BwanaDik]

Yes, please keep us up to date on this. I've got the same bike with 32,000 miles but so far no problems.

 

[RadioHowie]

Ping bhkfjr...he can turn you on to his dealer, who NOW knows how to set cam timing.

 

[bhkfjr]

You seem to have the same problem that I had and you are also going to the same dealer!!

I think we've got them trained. Read my thread, you'll recognize the characters.

 

[majicmaker]

I just got home from the dealer. Good News! (I hope). Service Manager saw me drive up and walked out to meet me. He said, UH OH!. I said yeah, It sounds

like Marbles in the engine with terrible idling and the smell of raw fuel. I said It might be the CCT. He said, Yeah, you might be right. I asked if he had any

experience with FJR CCT's and he said Yep, I just finished with two of them in the last month. I asked, How did they turn out. He said, they were like brand new

engines when they left. That made me feel WAAAY better. I asked if he knew that the CCT is the weak link in this engine and he said he did know and it is.

That's good cause I was ready to turn him on to RadioHowie's thread on this Forum if he didn't. We rolled it off the trailer and he jumped on and fired it up. It

idled like silk. He twisted the throttle hard, real hard, maxed it out a couple times. Still smooth as silk and the sound of 50 marbles being slapped around by the

pistons that I heard last night was gone. What was happening now is the sound of one ballpeen hammer banging on the engine every few seconds or so with no

predictable pattern and it didn't sound like it was coming from inside the engine and no raw fuel smell. He said he thinks he knows what it is and he'll dig into it

on Tuesday. Perfect timing, because about a month ago I had a new set of PR2's installed and he saw that I had one stuck piston on my right front brake

caliper. Since my Y.E.S. is still active he decided to order a new caliper instead of trying fix it. Since he did that, I told him that my High/Low beam switch and

my Turn Signal switch were working whenever they felt like it and never when I needed them to work. He ordered a Left Handle Bar Assembly too. They are in

and I'll get it all done at the same time. Man, I was pleasantly surprised. I slap a $20 bill on everybody who does anything to my bike. I'm sure that didn't hurt.

Thanks for the Well Wishes guys. I'll let you know what the outcome is when they get done!

 

[majicmaker]

Ping bhkfjr...he can turn you on to his dealer, who NOW knows how to set cam timing.

We've chatted. We use the same dealer!!

 

[dbvolfan]

OK, so I am pretty much convinced that my CCT is going to be replaced when in for the 52k valve check in a month.

 

[dsmack]

I just got home from the dealer. Good News! (I hope). Service Manager saw me drive up and walked out to meet me. He said, UH OH!.
... I said It might be the CCT. He said, Yeah, you might be right.

... We rolled it off the trailer and he jumped on and fired it up. It idled like silk. He twisted the throttle hard, real hard, maxed it out a couple times. Still smooth as silk and the sound of 50 marbles being slapped around by the pistons that I heard last night was gone. What was happening now is the sound of one ballpeen hammer banging on the engine every few seconds or so with no predictable pattern and it didn't sound like it was coming from inside the engine and no raw fuel smell.

Majic ~ While I share your enthusiasm for having found a SM who has worked on some FJRs, I'm not particularly impressed with his methods!

Based on everything I've read here concerning potential CCT failures, and the damage that can be caused in a literal heartbeat by running the engine, I think his "jumping on and firing it right up" was not a wise choice without taking a close look at the cam timing first.

Just sayin', and hope that all turns out to be OK inside with no lasting (and expensive/catastrophic) damage.

Keep us informed as to that the cause of the "marble in a can" sound turns out to be.

Don

 

[Wee Willy]

IS the CCT really troublesome with this design? Are there many documented cases of failure?

Curious,

W2

 

[majicmaker]

I just got home from the dealer. Good News! (I hope). Service Manager saw me drive up and walked out to meet me. He said, UH OH!.
... I said It might be the CCT. He said, Yeah, you might be right.

... We rolled it off the trailer and he jumped on and fired it up. It idled like silk. He twisted the throttle hard, real hard, maxed it out a couple times. Still smooth as silk and the sound of 50 marbles being slapped around by the pistons that I heard last night was gone. What was happening now is the sound of one ballpeen hammer banging on the engine every few seconds or so with no predictable pattern and it didn't sound like it was coming from inside the engine and no raw fuel smell.

Majic ~ While I share your enthusiasm for having found a SM who has worked on some FJRs, I'm not particularly impressed with his methods!

Based on everything I've read here concerning potential CCT failures, and the damage that can be caused in a literal heartbeat by running the engine, I think his "jumping on and firing it right up" was not a wise choice without taking a close look at the cam timing first.

Just sayin', and hope that all turns out to be OK inside with no lasting (and expensive/catastrophic) damage.

Keep us informed as to that the cause of the "marble in a can" sound turns out to be.

Don

Don, I agree. I guess he felt it was safe to twist the throttle only after it started up and had no sound of marbles and was idling smooth. The way I looked at it.

If he really screwed something up real bad, he's the SM and he was going to fix it for free until it was running properly. It's all on Yamaha's dime. :yahoo:

 

[majicmaker]

IS the CCT really troublesome with this design? Are there many documented cases of failure?
Curious,

W2

WW,

Oh Yeah!, read RadioHowie's thread and many others. If my problem turns out not to be the CCT. I'm getting mine replaced at the 52K Valve Adjustment.

 

[Fred W]

majic,

If yours has actually failed (and it doesn't sound like it has yet) yours will be the first '06 or second gen that I am aware of. TheAxeman heard the marbles on his '06 too, but when he got it to the shop it was quiet. I do not know if he had his CCT replaced, but I think not.

 

[majicmaker]

majic,
If yours has actually failed (and it doesn't sound like it has yet) yours will be the first '06 or second gen that I am aware of. TheAxeman heard the marbles on his '06 too, but when he got it to the shop it was quiet. I do not know if he had his CCT replaced, but I think not.

Fred,

I hope mine isn't the first GenII to blow. From what happened at the dealer, I think I'll be OK. But, I'm planning on a new CCT at 52K. It will be a VERY

INEXPENSIVE Insurance policy!!

 

[SockMonkey]

IS the CCT really troublesome with this design? Are there many documented cases of failure?
Curious,

W2

Short answer: On Gen II bikes, no. And, as far as that goes, CCT failures on Gen I bikes are not even as common as the anecdotal evidence on this forum would suggest.

I think people often need to take a deep breath and just relax. Just as not every freckle is cancerous, not every odd noise is a CCT going south.

 

[Fred W]

+1 for sure. I'm going to be replacing mine this winter and I only have ~32k miles. For one thing, I want to get a copy of the updated CCTs in my hot little hands and compare it to how the old tensioner is and feels.

I had an opportunity to play with a used CCT that ionbeam had removed from his bike (or someone elses? ) and also the chain guides / slippers removed from his bike, and it is easy to can see that you can twist the spring up in that baby, effectively increasing the "preload" and get the kind of tension that seems like what the engineers had in mind. But I want to see one of the the new units with the longer plungers first.

edit - The monkey speaks the truth. Just as there were a multitude of false "tickers", there will be a number of false marbles in a can here. The big difference is that if neglected, the marbles will F*** your bike up in an extremely expensive way. The tickers... not so much.

I don't have a noise. But I know the design of the CCT now, and I am not impressed. There is too much room for incorrect assembly of the components that make up the tensioner. And my YES expired in September this year, so I am not willing to take the gamble of just letting it go and see what happens.

 

[Patriot]

We're also hoping the "new and improved" CCT with a longer plunger and stroke will put a real damper on this problem.

 

[Fred W]

It might, Mike. But if it still depends on the assembler to put the right number of turns on the torsion spring it may have the same problems to a lesser extent.