Sunday, September 9, 2012

Weekend Maintenance and I'm an idiot.

Spent the weekend with FJR parts strewn all over my garage. Actually, many of them are still there. I've got a few things to finish up tonight and button it all up.

First up, 7K+ miles on this baby means it's time to go. This tire was on the bike when I bought it so I have no idea how many miles Steel put on it before me, but Rockwall Yamaha refuses it seems to put the bike's mileage on their receipts so that spot is blank on all of Steel's impeccable paperwork.



I had my little helper assisting with the tire change.





With new tires, it was time to finally dig in and check those valves which was long overdue. All in spec with a couple of exhaust valves close to the loose end of acceptable parameters. Will have to keep an eye on those.

I'd like some time with the engineer who thought that was a good place for the radiator fill cap! Did a cursory change of the fluid. Not a full flush per say, but I did say a 1/3 flush. So that's out of the way too.

And finally, installed my wynpro covers. Wow that makes things so much nicer. Next throttle body synch will be SO much easier!

Here we are, before the install.



And after....



Note the nifty cap on the airbox. Picked up an assortment of caps at autozone and had one in there that was just perfect.

Closeup shot of the covers.



And lastly, why I'm an idiot. Ok, the first part isn't so idiotic. The question is...why do we cover holes up with paper towels or something? This is why!



I was so glad that I'd taken the time to do this when I dropped that little bolt in there. That sucker would have been gone. Easily retrieved I'm sure with a magnetic wand, and would have necessitated me actually finally buying one, but not this time.

And lastly, got the bike semi back together for a function test. This part always gives my stomach issues after doing this much stuff. Last valve check I did I pinched the gasket and found myself sitting at a gas station wondering where all that oil was coming from. Anyway, I go to fire up the bike and it cranks and coughs once or twice but nothing. Hrm, not getting any gas. Fuel line is all hooked up and all clicky parts are clicked. This is not looking good.

"Hrm" I think. Gas was very low when I brought it in here. I figured this would be a good thing when removing the tank from the bike. I bet the fuel pump isn't picking anything up with the tank propped like that. Drop the tank and she fired right up! Woohoo! Whew! No leaks, ran the bike to four bars and then shut her down and went to bed. Tonight I'll top off the coolant and button her back up for a ride in to work tomorrow!

Thanks for reading up on some boring idiotic routine maintenance! Thankfully we had a cold front move through this weekend as it was 88F on Saturday. I always seem to get stuck changing tires when it's 104F outside but not this year. Fun stuff wrenching in the garage but I'd have rather been riding this weekend with the new great weather!