changed oil, checked resevoirs, puzzled over suspension, recharged $#@^ K&N pods

[sebwiers]

Like the title says, did my first non-inspection maintenance today.

Oil change went OK.  Not the easiest bike I've ever changed oil on, but not bad.  My bike came with a spin on filter adapter, which is nice except the filter & adapter both dribbled onto my pipes when removing it, even after 30 minutes drain time.  A wad of shop towels pressed against the adapter fixed that.  Pretty sure the bike gulped down WAY more than 3000ml of oil (no big, I bought a gallon jug, plain old Castrol 20/50).

The plastic view ports on my brake and clutch reservoirs are cloudy and crazed, but cracking 'em open showed they were as full as could be, and the fluid looked clear.

Found the rear suspension adjustment hidden behind my side panels once I puzzled those off (without braking any tabs, yahaa!).  Took a bit to figure out the preload adjust, bumped the rebound up to 4.  Not sure how to set the front - bike did not come with stock manual.  Just download the ones for my year (N and RL version, not sure which mine is, doubt it matters).  Lost one of the rubber top caps to the leg riding after I had pried it out, god-dammit.  Now I gotta figure out a replacement... maybe make something pretty in the metal shop, or with a 3d printer.

Suck side was the air filters.  PO claims the original owner installed pods.  After pulling the side covers, I see the middle two are just laying floppy on the trans case, totally not connected.  Washed em in plain old detergent and water (pretty filthy, with bugs and dandelion seeds embedded in them) let them dry over night, and charged em with genuine K&N spray, tried to get them back on ... no dice.  The pods are HUGE, very tight fit in the space, and the mouths really don't fit my carbs, seem about 1mm small.  They look like this style ("universal" my ass - they don't even list the opening size ) -



PO had them slipped partly on, stretching the outside, then clamped very weakly.  I shaved the insides with a knife and struggled to press em on and securely clamped.  First one was easy, second one a cast iron bitch, third one so so, fourth one also a nightmare.  To gain extra room (the seat sub frame cuts in on where they want to sit) and expose more filter to air, I ran the outside pair with the 'oval' ABOVE the carb opening, and the middle pair with the oval BELOW the carb opening.  Filter was still touching the subframe on one side.  But DAMN the intake sounds nice at idle now!  I think they may have fallen off pretty recently, because I'd noticed a change in how easily the bike started (is back to being a very brief spin up, from a 2 second crank) and in the engine sound.

While I was at all this, I took the oportunity to replace my stock horn with a relay powered Stebel Nautilus.  Fit was at least as snug as the pods, but it clears with about 1/8" to spare as the bars are turned.

[Arnie]

If you continue to have problems with the K&Ns fitting securely (aside from their lack of filtering), There is a DualPod UNI foam filter that many of us use.  You need 2 units and each of them fits onto 2 carb throats each.  They fit and filter much better than the K&N pods.
You can get them at rpmracingca.com
Oh yeah, they sound awesome :-)

[Pat Conlon]

Sebwiers, listen to Arnie 

Arnie and the FJ gods are trying to tell you something.

Those K&N pods don't filter too well when they end up laying on top of your engine case, then again, they don't filter too well when they manage to stay on the carbs.

[ct7088]

http://newrivercyclesalvage.com/sight-glass.html
Glass to replace the cracked and dirty sight window. The glass is thin and it leaves a deeper recess back to the glass. There is also no gap between the glass and the ledge that it is glued to, this lets the fluid show more than is actually in the reservoir. Works. I have used the Castrol but my bike shifts better with Mobil One and as someone else noted my RPM dropped noticeably when I changed to MobilOne.  My set of K&N's have been setting in a box for a long time, wouldn't stay in place. The unipods stay on and sound great.

Chris

[ribbert]

From the photo it appears that the horn doesn't allow for full suspension movement?

Noel

[Firehawk068]

From the photo it appears that the horn doesn't allow for full suspension movement?

Noel

Yes.
Be weary of the top of the front fender.
It goes quite far up into there with the big bumps and dips in the road.

[sebwiers]

Are the the uni-pods in question the ones in this thread?  The look a much nicer fit.  Interestingly, my bike had some (very sturdy) rubber flaps installed to keep crud off the filters (one to prevent wind-blown rain off engine, one on subframe to block wheel splash), was such a slick job I thought it was stock (though a very odd feature for a bike with an airbox and large side covers).

The horn is a tight fit travel wise, but it looks to clear the center bridge (which is lower then the slider tops) by the same amount as the slider tops clear the lower triple clamp.  The angle of the shot makes it look worse, it only comes down maybe 1.5"-2" below the triple clamp.  I may end up looking for a smaller horn though, its not ideal.

And yeah, the wear bar on the front tire is getting very close.

[Firehawk068]

Are the the uni-pods in question the ones in this thread?  The look a much nicer fit.  

Yes, those are the ones!



And you can always relocate your horn to the area in front of the battery box. 

[ribbert]

  .......My bike came with a spin on filter adapter, which is nice except the filter & adapter both dribbled onto my pipes when removing it, even after 30 minutes drain time.  A wad of shop towels pressed against the adapter fixed that. 

It doesn't matter how long you let the crankcase drain for, the filter will still be full of oil.

This fixes the problem of oil on the exhaust.



A bit of aluminium flashing (not tin foil)

Noel

[sebwiers]

Looks like a good excuse to drink a 16oz canned beverage before changing the oil!

Damn, bike slowly lost power and died on the way to work.  Didn't even make it to the highway (which is a good thing I guess).  Everything looks good, so I assume I used to much filter spray, and either its not getting enough air, or I fouled the plugs.   $#@^ K&N pods.

[sebwiers]

Turns out the petcock return hose was knocked loose when I lifted the tank to push on the pods.  Simple fix, no need to remove / re-clean pods or replace fouled plugs.