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Had 37,900 on the clock, but more importantly the cam tensioner was all the way in, no more adjustment. Bike is running fine. From Zanotti's I had ordered a cam chain with master link ($38?), 2 cam cover gaskets in case one ripped, and 2 half moons.
Figured I would do this twice, and wanted to be prepared. Didn't need the second gasket though. SWMBO brother offered to help, he had so many nice tools I could not say no. Besides he is a
maintenance mechanic / pipe fitter / tinsmith, 30 years of practice...
July 26
When I took the cam cover off and turned the engine by hand, the chain would snap as it crossed over the bridge. I didn't measure the old chain, but laid it out next to the new one and it was much longer, maybe 2 or 3 links longer IIRC.
I started with Jurek's tip. The original cam chain had no master link, so I made one by grinding one of the link pins flat, punched it out and hooked the new chain to the old. Put a string on the ends and I hand turned the engine, keeping the chain on the sprockets, and warned my brother in law to HANG ON to the end coming out. Suddenly I could not turn the engine, it was jammed. I asked him where the end of the chain was? Yup, he dropped the old chain and string back into the crank case. Under the Hy-Vo, balled up under the crank....
After several hours of fishing for the chain, we removed the oil filter housing, oil pan, AND oil pump trying to fish the chain out the bottom, I finally gave up and removed the cams and head. Got the old chain (still attached to the new chain) out FINALLY. Thinking I needed parts quickly, I phone ordered a head gasket ($81), oil pan gasket ($9), cam tensioner gasket ($2) from a local Yamaha dealer - Race's, Bradford - full retail, durn it. Took all the lower parts to the parts cleaner tub, then wrapped them in oil
damp rags, wrapped the engine in two garbage bags, went on vacation for a week. Had to wait for a week the gaskets anyway.
Came back, spent hours after work carefully scraping old gasket material off the oil pan, valve cover, head and block. I used a light application of crocus cloth to clean the head gasket area. There was some pitting near the exhaust side, but not in any critical areas. I spent hours carefully scraping carbon off the piston crowns, there was LOTS, till I could read the numbers. I placed the head upside down and packed the combustion chamber
with rags, then dribbled some grocery store ammonia onto the rags, enough to wet them, then I covered the rags with a block of wood to keep the fumes to a minimum. Two days later I wiped most of the carbon out with a rag. Ammonia turns rock-hard carbon deposits into black mud. (DO NOT do this to the pistons, unless you are doing a full rebuild, with cylinder hone.) The
recesses in the combustion chamber held on to a little carbon, so I
carefully scraped that out. I left the valves in the head, but had taken the lifters off when I originally took the head out.
Then my brother in law was back on day shift, so he came by after work to help assemble. I wanted HIM under the bike getting dripped on when he put the oil pump and oil pan back in. I also needed him to help with placing the head on the studs. I followed the Clymers manual exactly. First I routed the new chain around the crank and in the chain guide. THEN I TIED IT TO THE
FRAME. Priming the oil pump was easy. I poured oil in, my brother in law turned the gear till oil came out the other end. Then just bolted in. Oil pan was easy also. Placed the head gasket and head. I torqued the head bolts carefully, positioned and torqued the cams carefully. I used assembly oil on all the contact areas. It only took two tries to get the cams timed
precisely. Master link for the cam chain was easy. I held a block of steel, brother in law punched the link pins then peened them over. Yeah, I checked. Put the cam cover on, verified "T" was when #1 piston was at TDC. Tensioner in. Put the carbs back on, positioned the gas tank, and let some gas in the carbs. Used
the kick starter a couple of times to circulate oil. Hooked up the battery, cranked it once and it started! I CAN"T BELIEVE IT. Got oil pressure and everything. Left the muffler off knowing I was going to blow lots of carbon dust out, and I didn't want it to clog the baffles. Ran fine! Nice sound by the way, 4-1 MAC with no muffler. Shut it down after a moment, it WAS loud.
Put the fairing on, put the tank on, hooked the lines up. Put the seat on, sides on, filters on, pushed the button, nothing!!!. Got lights, signal, horn. Not cranking. So off comes the fairing, off comes the seat, off comes the tank, off come the filters. Got my new (used) multimeter and traced everything I could identify. Found NOTHING wrong. Tried the starter button and it started! OK, put it all back together, watching in case I was hitting a wire or something, and yup, NO STARTER!!! Lights, horn, signals,
no crank.
Found how the starter button works. Read Mike Hart's article about a bike that won't crank. Tested the connector back by the starter relay that was supposed to close the circuit when the starter button was pressed. Nothing. I still had a Tkat starter button in the desk drawer, and since the old one was held in by tape, and it was not working (arced up pretty good), figured
I might as well replace it. MY STOOPID brother in law wanted to replace the button. (I have GOT to cut his hands off) Still nothing!! The starter relay would not kick. I could spin the starter by crossing the terminals. But the relay itself would not work when the button was pushed. Upon close inspection again with my new multimeter, my BRAIN DEAD brother in law had forced the button in, the switch came apart, and he put the back plate (yeah, the one that CONTACTS the starter button) in backwards. After THAT was fixed, I had continuity to everything, that starter relay would NOT work. Ordered one from Zanotti's, ($74.02 / $51.80 my price, not in stock, 6 days delivery).
August 17
I still had this nagging doubt that the starter relay was not the problem. Yesterday, at my request (pleading) my wonderful son in law, who is an electrical and building contractor, came over and started retesting to either prove me correct or disprove me that the starter relay was at fault. He did all his testing and verified the relay was not working. Then he looked closely at it, and saw parts of a washer corroded on the one terminal. He cleaned it, assembled the terminals and HOLY COW IT WORKS!!!! I started it several times, it STILL works!!! Put all those removable parts back on AGAIN. Pushed the button, it WORKED! It's alive!! AND, it is running horribly! Missfire, backfire, stalling, hard re-starting, won't idle...
BUT
I knew exactly what the problem was. As the sun was setting on yet another XS-less day, I pulled on one of the pickup coil wires, got the hourglass shape. AHA! My wonderful son in law tested continuity on all the wires, and that one wire was bad. He spliced / soldered, connecting to a part of the old wire that does not flex. I hit the starter, it started immediately, backfired once, settled into a good idle. I blipped the throttle a few times, no problems. One weird thing, the right handle bar vibrates a little
at idle, touching with a finger stops it. Went to fill-up, ran
TERRIFICALLY! New power, got a marvelous surge at about 3750RPM and another at 5800RPM, just like a turbo kicking in. No oil leaks, nice sounding exhaust. It is POWERFUL, it is sm-o-o-ooth, it is fast, it is like a new bike all over again. Got 100 miles on it already and I worked all day yesterday. I love that bike. That FZ1 is just going to have to wait. This is too much fun! IT'S ALIVE!!!
Life is good again.
What I did do:
Followed the Clymers manual.
Cleaned LOTS of carbon from the combustion chamber and pistons
measured the cams - still in original spec.
Intakes #2-#3 1.449", #1-#4 1.448"
Exh - #2-#3 1.429", #1-#4 1.428"
measured the lifter gaps - intakes .006-.007", exh .008-.009"
cleaned all gasket surfaces well.
used a good torque wrench - the two squeak rule is OK for VW's, but not MY bike.
used assembly grease
Fixed one of the pickup coil wires.
Cancelled my starter relay order at Zanotti's
Cleaned some of the dirt off of most of the engine parts
showed extraordinary patience with my brother in law.
What I did not do:
Shine and polish everything I took off the engine - good opportunity, but I wanted to RIDE...
Touch the valves in any way, except to remove the lifters while the head was off.
Touch the carbs.
Check the HY-Vo for stretch (forgot)
Kill my brother in law
Replace the cam chain gasket in the head gasket (not sure I was supposed to)
Compression test (yet)
Fix the other coil pickup wire (yet)
Replace the fork seals (yet)
Replace my fork springs with my new Progressive fork springs (yet) Yeah, I know, but I am RIDING....
My Thanks to:
Gary "66" and Dave "Highlander" for their encouragement
Brent from 'Hot-lanta' for bringing a piece of coil pickup wire for everyone at XS East 2003
Jurek - very good tip, but....
Mike Hart for the 'won't crank" tip
Mitch for telling me to just do it (oil pump)
All y'all for this forum, and anyone in particular who I missed
My son in law
Yamaha, for the on-line parts fiche
My wife, for getting all the brains in her family.
Figured I would do this twice, and wanted to be prepared. Didn't need the second gasket though. SWMBO brother offered to help, he had so many nice tools I could not say no. Besides he is a
maintenance mechanic / pipe fitter / tinsmith, 30 years of practice...
July 26
When I took the cam cover off and turned the engine by hand, the chain would snap as it crossed over the bridge. I didn't measure the old chain, but laid it out next to the new one and it was much longer, maybe 2 or 3 links longer IIRC.
I started with Jurek's tip. The original cam chain had no master link, so I made one by grinding one of the link pins flat, punched it out and hooked the new chain to the old. Put a string on the ends and I hand turned the engine, keeping the chain on the sprockets, and warned my brother in law to HANG ON to the end coming out. Suddenly I could not turn the engine, it was jammed. I asked him where the end of the chain was? Yup, he dropped the old chain and string back into the crank case. Under the Hy-Vo, balled up under the crank....
After several hours of fishing for the chain, we removed the oil filter housing, oil pan, AND oil pump trying to fish the chain out the bottom, I finally gave up and removed the cams and head. Got the old chain (still attached to the new chain) out FINALLY. Thinking I needed parts quickly, I phone ordered a head gasket ($81), oil pan gasket ($9), cam tensioner gasket ($2) from a local Yamaha dealer - Race's, Bradford - full retail, durn it. Took all the lower parts to the parts cleaner tub, then wrapped them in oil
damp rags, wrapped the engine in two garbage bags, went on vacation for a week. Had to wait for a week the gaskets anyway.
Came back, spent hours after work carefully scraping old gasket material off the oil pan, valve cover, head and block. I used a light application of crocus cloth to clean the head gasket area. There was some pitting near the exhaust side, but not in any critical areas. I spent hours carefully scraping carbon off the piston crowns, there was LOTS, till I could read the numbers. I placed the head upside down and packed the combustion chamber
with rags, then dribbled some grocery store ammonia onto the rags, enough to wet them, then I covered the rags with a block of wood to keep the fumes to a minimum. Two days later I wiped most of the carbon out with a rag. Ammonia turns rock-hard carbon deposits into black mud. (DO NOT do this to the pistons, unless you are doing a full rebuild, with cylinder hone.) The
recesses in the combustion chamber held on to a little carbon, so I
carefully scraped that out. I left the valves in the head, but had taken the lifters off when I originally took the head out.
Then my brother in law was back on day shift, so he came by after work to help assemble. I wanted HIM under the bike getting dripped on when he put the oil pump and oil pan back in. I also needed him to help with placing the head on the studs. I followed the Clymers manual exactly. First I routed the new chain around the crank and in the chain guide. THEN I TIED IT TO THE
FRAME. Priming the oil pump was easy. I poured oil in, my brother in law turned the gear till oil came out the other end. Then just bolted in. Oil pan was easy also. Placed the head gasket and head. I torqued the head bolts carefully, positioned and torqued the cams carefully. I used assembly oil on all the contact areas. It only took two tries to get the cams timed
precisely. Master link for the cam chain was easy. I held a block of steel, brother in law punched the link pins then peened them over. Yeah, I checked. Put the cam cover on, verified "T" was when #1 piston was at TDC. Tensioner in. Put the carbs back on, positioned the gas tank, and let some gas in the carbs. Used
the kick starter a couple of times to circulate oil. Hooked up the battery, cranked it once and it started! I CAN"T BELIEVE IT. Got oil pressure and everything. Left the muffler off knowing I was going to blow lots of carbon dust out, and I didn't want it to clog the baffles. Ran fine! Nice sound by the way, 4-1 MAC with no muffler. Shut it down after a moment, it WAS loud.
Put the fairing on, put the tank on, hooked the lines up. Put the seat on, sides on, filters on, pushed the button, nothing!!!. Got lights, signal, horn. Not cranking. So off comes the fairing, off comes the seat, off comes the tank, off come the filters. Got my new (used) multimeter and traced everything I could identify. Found NOTHING wrong. Tried the starter button and it started! OK, put it all back together, watching in case I was hitting a wire or something, and yup, NO STARTER!!! Lights, horn, signals,
no crank.
Found how the starter button works. Read Mike Hart's article about a bike that won't crank. Tested the connector back by the starter relay that was supposed to close the circuit when the starter button was pressed. Nothing. I still had a Tkat starter button in the desk drawer, and since the old one was held in by tape, and it was not working (arced up pretty good), figured
I might as well replace it. MY STOOPID brother in law wanted to replace the button. (I have GOT to cut his hands off) Still nothing!! The starter relay would not kick. I could spin the starter by crossing the terminals. But the relay itself would not work when the button was pushed. Upon close inspection again with my new multimeter, my BRAIN DEAD brother in law had forced the button in, the switch came apart, and he put the back plate (yeah, the one that CONTACTS the starter button) in backwards. After THAT was fixed, I had continuity to everything, that starter relay would NOT work. Ordered one from Zanotti's, ($74.02 / $51.80 my price, not in stock, 6 days delivery).
August 17
I still had this nagging doubt that the starter relay was not the problem. Yesterday, at my request (pleading) my wonderful son in law, who is an electrical and building contractor, came over and started retesting to either prove me correct or disprove me that the starter relay was at fault. He did all his testing and verified the relay was not working. Then he looked closely at it, and saw parts of a washer corroded on the one terminal. He cleaned it, assembled the terminals and HOLY COW IT WORKS!!!! I started it several times, it STILL works!!! Put all those removable parts back on AGAIN. Pushed the button, it WORKED! It's alive!! AND, it is running horribly! Missfire, backfire, stalling, hard re-starting, won't idle...
BUT
I knew exactly what the problem was. As the sun was setting on yet another XS-less day, I pulled on one of the pickup coil wires, got the hourglass shape. AHA! My wonderful son in law tested continuity on all the wires, and that one wire was bad. He spliced / soldered, connecting to a part of the old wire that does not flex. I hit the starter, it started immediately, backfired once, settled into a good idle. I blipped the throttle a few times, no problems. One weird thing, the right handle bar vibrates a little
at idle, touching with a finger stops it. Went to fill-up, ran
TERRIFICALLY! New power, got a marvelous surge at about 3750RPM and another at 5800RPM, just like a turbo kicking in. No oil leaks, nice sounding exhaust. It is POWERFUL, it is sm-o-o-ooth, it is fast, it is like a new bike all over again. Got 100 miles on it already and I worked all day yesterday. I love that bike. That FZ1 is just going to have to wait. This is too much fun! IT'S ALIVE!!!
Life is good again.
What I did do:
Followed the Clymers manual.
Cleaned LOTS of carbon from the combustion chamber and pistons
measured the cams - still in original spec.
Intakes #2-#3 1.449", #1-#4 1.448"
Exh - #2-#3 1.429", #1-#4 1.428"
measured the lifter gaps - intakes .006-.007", exh .008-.009"
cleaned all gasket surfaces well.
used a good torque wrench - the two squeak rule is OK for VW's, but not MY bike.
used assembly grease
Fixed one of the pickup coil wires.
Cancelled my starter relay order at Zanotti's
Cleaned some of the dirt off of most of the engine parts
showed extraordinary patience with my brother in law.
What I did not do:
Shine and polish everything I took off the engine - good opportunity, but I wanted to RIDE...
Touch the valves in any way, except to remove the lifters while the head was off.
Touch the carbs.
Check the HY-Vo for stretch (forgot)
Kill my brother in law
Replace the cam chain gasket in the head gasket (not sure I was supposed to)
Compression test (yet)
Fix the other coil pickup wire (yet)
Replace the fork seals (yet)
Replace my fork springs with my new Progressive fork springs (yet) Yeah, I know, but I am RIDING....
My Thanks to:
Gary "66" and Dave "Highlander" for their encouragement
Brent from 'Hot-lanta' for bringing a piece of coil pickup wire for everyone at XS East 2003
Jurek - very good tip, but....
Mike Hart for the 'won't crank" tip
Mitch for telling me to just do it (oil pump)
All y'all for this forum, and anyone in particular who I missed
My son in law
Yamaha, for the on-line parts fiche
My wife, for getting all the brains in her family.
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