Winter Project - Reviving a Wounded FJR

[Streethawk]

Welcome back! (tick) Work on the engine progressed (finally) this past Sunday. (tick) Along with the swing arm. (tick) Reminder: Winter is just getting started. And with the Holidays coming, we're getting a busy around the Streethawk House! So please have patience on the delay of my postings.

(tick)Let's start with the engine. (tick) Then I'll move onto the swing arm. (tick)

What's with the "tick"s??!!! I'm hearing them in my sleep!

tick....tick....tick..... No it's NOT a clock. It's Torque Wrench Time! Everything has been torqued down to spec! So for several hours, tick!

ok ok you get the point!

Doug stopped by with tool bag in hand looking every bit the part of the Bike Doctor making a House Call. The time he brought his Lovely Wife along to hang with mine for the afternoon! (sorry no pics of them)

We picked up by installing the oil pump.

Followed by the chain...

The plumbing next.

Bolt that sucker down.

The oil pickup, while not bad, still had little bits of stuff along the edge.

So! Clean up time! I took it to the sink... then to the compressor and back a few times.

Not exactly new, but much better and acceptable for installation! Pop that puppy in!

Now we moved down to the clutch basket area. Here, Doug installed and checked the functionality of the shift shaft.

Then we cover it back up.

I hear FJRs are pretty smooth running engines... Let's keep that characteristic in tack shall we? The balancer needs to have that dot lined up with the mark on the block (under the rag).

Inserting the clutch basket is a challenge. Lining the spring loaded gears up wasn't an easy task.

There's a toothed spacer in there that also needs to line up down there.

All set in place and snuggly where it belongs!

A gentle rollover will assist with the building of the clutch!

But first, we need to secure everything down. No more rattling parts inside this engine!!

Now we start layering the steels and clutch plates... but not before giving them a little oil bath.

One after the other, each piece gets set in place....

And capped off!

Now bake at 375 for an hour and.... oh that's Lasagna!

Really this is just a reversal of the tear down (obviously).

Next, let's set the water pump in place and get him secured.

The Middle Gear was set in.

The last gear part (next to the Middle Gear) didn't feel quite right. Doug decided to hit it with the compressor and a little oil - in that order.

It just felt like some gunk had settled in there somewhere. The main seal on this piece was also replaced. Yeah, he actually put me to work and I had to put the camera down!

So I didn't get pics of that. Ultimately we cleaned it out enough that both of us were satisfied...

Now, it's ready to be fitted in to it's slot!

And that crazy cut cover that protects the universal joint has to be bolted down.

More caps get put on.... remember... tick!

Watch out for the magnet on this one! It sucks the cover in! (oh and the oil pan and clutch cover is back on... no more pics of gears inside!)

Well, we flipped that puppy over and (inhale) it's about ready to put shoveled back into the frame!

But first! While it's easy to get to, let's check those valves!

(to be continued)

 

[ionbeam]

I hear FJRs are pretty smooth running engines... Let's keep that characteristic in tack shall we? The balancer needs to have that dot lined up with the mark on the block (under the rag).

At the risk of being repetitive, please read this post again. I had my motor flipped upside down so when the balancer was mechanically released the weight flipped 'upside down' letting us see the wrong alignment dot. My bike shook like a Sherwin Williams paint shaker and it was a bugger to figure out why because we were sure that it was reassembled correctly.

 

[rPGoatBoy]

I hear FJRs are pretty smooth running engines... Let's keep that characteristic in tack shall we? The balancer needs to have that dot lined up with the mark on the block (under the rag).

At the risk of being repetitive, please read this post again. I had my motor flipped upside down so when the balancer was mechanically released the weight flipped 'upside down' letting us see the wrong alignment dot. My bike shook like a Sherwin Williams paint shaker and it was a bugger to figure out why because we were sure that it was reassembled correctly.

Let me further add to the confusion by saying my '06 only has one alignment dot, and it's weighted to show when the engine is right side up.

 

[ionbeam]

...The balancer needs to have that dot lined up with the mark on the block (under the rag).

...when the balancer was mechanically released the weight flipped 'upside down' letting us see the wrong alignment dot...

Let me further add to the confusion by saying my '06 only has one alignment dot, and it's weighted to show when the engine is right side up.

That is actually good to hear. Many parts in my Gen I engine had two dots and in every case the FSM only mentioned one dot. The joke at the time was that if you aligned the whole engine with the second unmentioned dot you would end up with a French 100 mph FJR.

 

[El Toro Joe]

I have never seen that much wear on a shifter rubber! While mine doesn't look like new after 105,000 miles, its nowhere near that worn. Either the guy rested his foot on it all the time or its been HARD to shift for a long time.

I'm on my third one...with almost 82k miles on my bike (and I don't rest my foot on it). I would think it has more to do with how many shifts (up/down), more than mileage.

 

[Bokerfork]

Oh please do not use the term Dohickey!!!! SHHHH The KLR guys might hear you.. I think they have it copywrighted.(Prior KLR owner... been there, done that)

if you begin to type KLR Doohickey into google.. you wont get past the first d and google will fill in the rest

(it's actually a little interesting)

It actually gets crazier than that. If you click on KLR Doohicky in google, the first thing that comes up is Amazon.com. Click on that and you are taken to a page actually offering Doohickeys for sale.

Oh Internet Gods, what have you bought us!?

 

[Streethawk]

Merry Post Christmas and Happy Pre-New Year! Lot's O progress made last Thursday and Friday by Doug, my Son and myself. Not as many pictures taken but I do have some!

But first, let's take a look at the valves.

Here's a shot of the top of the engine:

The center water ports needed to be cleaned (done) and the o-rings replaced.

The valve cover gasket looked...... well, ok.

I'm not screwing around with it however. It's replaced with new.

Here Doug hits the valves with the gap feelers. Only one pic as each spot is the same! Every measurement recorded and thankfully within spec. No changes needed.

What's that thing sticking out of the engine there?

That's right Kiddies... it's time to replace the Cam Chain Tensioner! A brand new Green Dot unit to be put in....

As we all know now, Doug moves pretty quick!! Here's he's putting the new piece in.

Click! Torquing each bolt down to spec of course.

Now, lets move onto another miscellaneous item... The installation of the starter. Kind of important as Yamaha forgot to install a kick starter lever!

Let's move to the valve cover and those little reed valves under the air box plumbing.

And after a bit of cleaning.....

The valve cover itself got a little cleaning as well. Yeah, it's hard to tell....

And then there are these little gems! I made a little donation to Mister WynPro and these arrived soon after.

In cleaning the water ports in the head I stuffed a rag in the whole to keep anything from trickling down.

And vacuumed up anything and everything I could before removing said rag.

All assembled and looking snazzy!!

Let me see about catching you up on the swing arm now.....

 

[Streethawk]

My pics have gotten a little out of sync and/or order. So I apologize if I get them posted out of order.

Continuing the removal of the shock. The preload adjuster is loosened and removed.

Move the adjuster around...

Things are coming off quickly now. The swingarm hangs freely now.

Loosen up and remove the bolts on the swingarm.

Here's a little plastic cover piece that'll need removal as well.

Now this side needs to be removed.... um, and cleaned!

For the removal, here's the combination of tools I learned from the Collective Mind here at FJRForum.com - A 3/8 to 1/2 adapter and a Spark plug socket reversed.

It worked pretty good!

Attack this Bolt with Extreme Prejudice! - well, just removing it is good too..

Here's how I did it...

That plate on the far side was a little annoying in getting the bolt out. I eventually was able to move it around and get it out.

And out comes the well used, dirty and possibly weeping stock shock!

Now the swing arm moves toward the "off" position...

And OFF!

The linkage also got a good check up and cleaning.

Some Simple Green and a bit of wire wheel action (on the bolt) AND -

This seal on the swing arm will be replaced. It was still doing its job, but it's starting to crack.

Much better! New seal pressed in.

All the bearings looked ok so everyone was re-greased and re-assembled. Oh and thanks to silver spirit here for offering up a fresher stock shock. Much cleaner and a lot less miles (for a much lower price than aftermarket!).

Swingarm and area all cleaned up and re-assembled. All points have not been torqued yet however.

Next up, addressing the rear wheel and correcting the broken screws.

 

[Streethawk]

I started out by using a smaller bit and concentrating on not messing up the existing threads. A bit of a tap to get the bit started. (note: pics here are "staged" as I did them myself.)

Then started drilling.

Each of the two holes were hit with a bit bigger bit.

I was amazed at how well it went.

Fast forward to this past week and Doug (once again) came through for me with an extractor. I was working on something else and didn't get pics of his work. But here's the results!

He was able to cleanly pull both screw parts out and replacement screws were found and inserted!

 

[Streethawk]

"OK, who is stronger?" Doug asks me and my 21 year old Son..... Duh!

I point to Scott (said Son) and say "He is!". So Doug says, "Alright Scotty, it's you and me!" ...... um, ok..... I'll just snap a quick pic and run around and make sure the rear mount bolts get set.

A bit of positioning and maneuvering by all three of us (so no pics) and BAM!

Yeah, I didn't get a chance to paint the frame sliders. I still may try to get them done, as we have not yet torqued all the mounts yet.

A bit blurry this one, sorry...

Checking the top.....

Here's my boy - well, Young Man now! He was grateful for the opportunity to help. He was "Jones'n" to work on a bike. -What?-

I think I'm more grateful for his help!

Doug assists Scott with throttle bodies. Adjusting the throttle cables as well.

The Air box gets set in place and secured.

And as it happens with most projects like this... The air box comes back out as we forgot the upper "mid" engine mounts. Again, the hazzard of having multiple people moving around and putting parts together. At least I caught it!

As it sits now! Hey that's a Motorcycle!!

I'm hoping to do more work tomorrow (Monday 12/30). And will update when I can.

Thanks for your patience (and in some cases impatience

) and for following!

 

[Niehart]

What a journey!

Thanks for taking the time to take photos and even more time to post them for us. It's much appreciated.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Great to see the bike going back together. You'll be ready for a test ride in no time!

--G

 

[rogdeb]

What a journey!
Thanks for taking the time to take photos and even more time to post them for us. It's much appreciated.

A helluva journey I might add. Who knew there were soooo many parts to an engine? OK .. you all did except me

 

[jmgrif]

Aside from the seal on the swing arm, how would you rate its condition? I had my centre stand out earlier in the year but decided (convinced) it probably isn't necessary to service the unit as "most" haven't had a problem! Just curious?

 

[PhilJet09]

This thread is awesome! Nice job.

 

[Streethawk]

Aside from the seal on the swing arm, how would you rate its condition? I had my centre stand out earlier in the year but decided (convinced) it probably isn't necessary to service the unit as "most" haven't had a problem! Just curious?

All the parts were in very good shape considering. As stated before, the Paul (the PO) wasn't able to store the bike inside and rode pretty much year round! But all the bearings were ok and still had a good amount of grease packed in them.

I just put a fresh coat of grease on each and re-assembled.

 

[supertankerm60a3]

You guy's did great! You give hope to all. That is the most in depth work this forum has seen as far as I can remember. (that is at least a week, I think...) Certainly the best documented.

 

[.paul]

A motorcycle again, congrats!

I got myself a motorcycle again - scooped up a 2014 KTM 1190 ADV for my birthday. It's a pretty nutty motorbike, I'm still getting used to it, it's a bit of a handful in Sport mode. The Ducati back there belongs to my brother, some of y'all might remember him from EOM in Johnson City, TN - he was the guy that was riding the Kawasaki C-14.

 

[Bugnatr]

A motorcycle again, congrats!
I got myself a motorcycle again - scooped up a 2014 KTM 1190 ADV for my birthday. It's a pretty nutty motorbike, I'm still getting used to it, it's a bit of a handful in Sport mode. The Ducati back there belongs to my brother, some of y'all might remember him from EOM in Johnson City, TN - he was the guy that was riding the Kawasaki C-14.

Welcome to the other Black and Orange!

 

[dcarver]

Wonderful thread - tx for taking the time to share.