Repair Time! - Rear subframe turn-signal / Givi mounts

[Zwartie]

It's time to do some repair work on the rear subframe. The 16,000 km round-trip journey to Alaska may not have been the Long Way Round but it did take its toll on the rear turn-signal, or should I say Givi luggage mounts. I guess Yamaha never considered that someone may try to support 100 lbs of luggage on those two mounting brackets while bouncing along some of the roughest roads in North America. Somewhere along the way I realized the top case mount was resting on the tail section of the bike and had considered getting it repaired en route and then upon further inspection I realized the damage was already done to the tail section and the luggage rack wasn't about to go anywhere so I just left it as is...until now.

Top Case Mount


It made a really nice groove in the tail section


Right-side mount


Left-side mount


FJ sans seat and tail section


So, now I need to get the two luggage mounts welded back on. I'm thinking this isn't the first time those mounts have broken on an FJ. I appreciate any feedback/advice from anyone who's gone through this before. What's been done to make it more robust?

It's my intention not to remove the entire sub-frame from the bike but to weld the brackets on in place. I will disconnect and remove the battery for sure. Is there anything else (electrical / electronic) that should be removed or disconnected prior to welding? I don't want to unnecessarily let the smoke out of any components.

Thanks,

Zwartie

[Zwartie]

Stripped her down (the FJ, that is) in preparation for a little out-patient surgery. Only a local anesthetic was required...


A buddy of my brother in-law welded the mounting brackets back in place.


I took Randy's advice and made sure the battery was disconnected (removed, actually) as well as the CDI. I couldn't get at the CDI connectors under the fairing so I just opted to remove the fairing last night. Wow, lots of Alaska dirt and dust so I'll clean things up before putting it back together. Also time to do a valve adjustment...

Thanks Randy!

Zwartie

[Capn Ron]

Hey Zwartie!

Yeah, this is the same repair I had to do to mine...In my case it was just on the starboard side, but after a 17,000 mile trip. with 120 lbs in the Givi cases, over all sorts of terrain, I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did!  The welding was pretty easy...I just left the Givi setup on, but stripped all the pretty bits off the rear end of the bike.  A little work with the Dremel to expose fresh metal and the other mount points basically held that turn signal bracket perfectly in place for a weld.  Masked off the area and shot it with some gloss black and it's better than new!   

On the clearance issue in the rear, I worked on this a bit too.  On the first pass, I set it up as far rear-ward as possible for the most gap between metal and plastic and put rubber bumpers between the two.  That seemed to work out okay, but at some point, the rubber was lost...I'd imagine somewhere in Canada...  When I got home, I took the top plate to the grinder and basically took off some material in an arc shape to minimize the problem:



Might be hard to see in that picture, but that now gives plenty of clearance so rubbing will never be an issue.  I also couldn't see how that would negatively impact the structural integrity of the top plate.

Cap'n Ron. . .