Aussie 1100's new life

[Troyskie]

I've moved from 'Parts wanted' to hear as I've moved well past the parts wanted stage.
I impulse bought this old fav when I saw her sitting proudly on the side of the road with a huge price tag, $2800. Hmmm, must look after stopping car....here she is...good side & bad side. No rego & was last on the road in QLD.

[roverfj1200]

 

[Troyskie]

PO self haggled down to $1500, still high, but the impulse was strong. Took her for a test thrash & seemed ok. No 2nd gear probs, wouldn't idle and was rough as guts below 2500-3000 rpm, but over that fine. Bought her home & did the list:
Fix carby
Wire petcock thingy (thanks Pat)
Do shims
Oil & filter
New rubber front & back
Replace existing rubber brake lines with steel braided.
Tighten/fix top steering bearings
New front indicators
Replace shim cover seals, sump seals, plus one or two others
Repair front shocks & polish tubes & replace fork seals
Replace coke cable & guide
Replace 4:1 with an after market 4:2 plus replace butchered balance box
Replace bent clutch lever.
Repair/replace top cowl fairing.
Find replacement bottom cowl fairing (I've noted these are now called Unobtainum).
New windscreen.

I gave the whole job a budget of 5-7K as I would not be turning the spanners on this one so I can do the loving husband/father routine & justify the money (well, yes not really, but....).

A little desktop research turned up some of the previous life, plus what the PO had gleaned from the 2nd owner. Bike mfg May 1984, #586 (50K000687) off the line & imported by McCulloch into Oz & sold in sunny QLD. Original owner kept her on the road till 1993, then parked up. Not sure why, I assume an accident, ran out of maintenance, interest, dunno. Parked up till 2002 when bought by 2nd owner who noted that the original 4:2 was replaced by a 'butchered' collector box and 4:1, with some oil probs, but was very happy (this was off FJRegistry, just type your VIN/frame #). By 2003 was sold as a running wreck after 2nd owners son (this is story from PO) had a smash (damage looks like a high-side). Bike then parked up again till 2007 when bought by 3rd owner and stayed parked till I picked her up about a month ago.

I'll copy the rest of the posts from the other threads, & start putting up more pics..

[Troyskie]

I did go through the Yamaha VIN range list & have added up the total between ranges. It looks like there were possibly as many as 63687 production FJ1100's made, across all variants globally. I've been advised the first 50 were factory racers & the second 50 were promo bikes. Don't know how many were bought into Australia as McCulloch were the importers till 1986 when Yamaha set up a direct office & by then the 1100 was out of production.

[Troyskie]

This project has been handed over to Glenn or Glenn Henry Motorcycles in Nowra. He's rebuilt one big-bored & heavily modified FJ my brother built originally. If anyone on the South Coast NSW Oz needs some competent mechanicals done on an FJ I thoroughly recommend Glenn. Gary in his office has forgotten more about where to find parts than I'll ever know, especially for Yamaha.

First step on the restore was road test. Was good enough for me to take her for a test thrash before I bought it, but Glenn did the same. As mentioned before no 2nd gear issue.

Second step, compression test. All cylinders running 120 psi, prefer more, but as is equal we'll leave it for the moment. I'll add some performance via the cams and perhaps a big bore kit when the rings need replacing. Also, no smoke, so the rings are ok we think. The ODO shows 64K, so probably more like 164K.

Third step, pull the carbies as she won't idle below about 3000 rpm. Glenn believes it is the pilot jet as this feeds the fuel from idle to about 3k. Well, after pulling the carbies, break them down, check needles, seats, rubber, floats etc, need complete needle & seat set, but otherwise ok.

Forth step, shims, not too bad, #3 had to go up one, #1 was a tad tight & went down one (bit of a worry, I've not had one decrease before).

Variety of steps all in one now as carbie kit arrived minus one needle ( ) so on to the rest:
Wire petcock
Oil & filter
New tyres
Steel braided lines all-round
Clean and tighten steering bearings
Replace shim cover seals, plus the sump ring seal. All others are good.
Remove and wet/dry then polish the front forks, replace fork seals.
Replace the choke cable and guide.
Replace bent clutch lever.

A few gremlins have appeared. Firstly the carbies which we though were ok needed a lot more work and time ($$$$!!) the brakes where, as expected, pretty gummed up & needed quite a bit of cleaning. But the crazy one was the front brake master. The clear window was, we thought, painted over, but turned out to have some sealant over it. Whilst cleaning it completely disintegrated requiring a new plug to replace the window piece which Glenn made in house. Not optimal as I'm trying to do a resto, so I'll look for a replacement once we get it running.

The pipes were pretty buggered, and I ordered a header and collector box set from Delkevik, these arrived no problem & fitted well.

After some discussion about mufflers in the Parts Wanted forum I went against the collective wisdom and ordered some F1 mufflers. I STILL DON'T HAVE THEM AFTER ONE MONTH!!! Quite irritating, and a lesson learnt, other members have the knowledge, this is what the forum is for, and I'll not be so clever again!

Next will be some minor mechanics and the decoration....pics coming up.....

[Troyskie]

Here are the progress shots...Glenn fitting the braided lines to the front.

[Troyskie]

Next is post braided lines, whilst waiting for some carbie bits we've decided to remove the forks & wet dry the stone chips, give them a polish & new seals, plus a general tidy up..

[Troyskie]

Time to do the collector & headers while the front is off. Headers look like original. OD shows 64K, so could be original 64K or 164, hard to say...

[Troyskie]

the old headers were in pretty bad shape. Inner pipe on two of them had come loose, butchered collector had some holes...nice shiny new ones ready to go!

[Troyskie]

Incredibly the old headers came off & no studs broken. They had about a day with penetrating fluid on the studs & came out clean.

[Troyskie]

Righto, lets put the forks back on...

[Troyskie]

Assembly time...

[FJmonkey]

Righto, lets put the forks back on...

No!!! Not the AD units...Don't put them back on..... They work like screen doors on submarines....  

[Troyskie]

Yep, the original AD are on and yes they are crap, but I've not removed them as I haven't put anything else on to replace them. Should I disconnect the AD completely & leave the housings in-place?
Still waiting on the exhausts, windscreen, and although not in the shot, the fairing was taken off again and the two side scoops and top cowl were removed and sent for painting...hopefully only days to go...just by coincidence a new version machine was in for service same time...

[FJmonkey]

Yep, the original AD are on and yes they are crap, but I've not removed them as I haven't put anything else on to replace them. Should I disconnect the AD completely & leave the housings in-place?

The AD units can be bypassed to save on new brake lines. Loose the upper half, flip the lower half, and loose the brake AD lines, this allows the fork oil to flow properly.