Refreshing my ´85 ambulance

[Bezmozek]

Had some time to upgrade front forks.
Special thanks to balky1 who sent me custom made FJ1100 springs.



I was told that these are 15% harder than OEM. Hard to say, but feels at least 100% better now.



Bit longer than originals, spent some time to push those into forks, but not so hard job as i thought.



Only thing I had to change, were snap rings holding preload inner part in place. Left one felt apart because of rust, right one was missing at all.
Replaced those with rubber o-rings. After all I set preload to 1 and forks are still stiffer than OEM with preload on max.
Used 15W-50 oil, tightened triple trees and now I am enjoying speed bumps. 

[Bezmozek]

Now was time to repair cracked front fender.
Did some research and tried LEGO and toluene.
Fender was welded before, cracked again, glued with epoxy glue and cracked again.
For now looks good, stiffer than before

[Pat Conlon]

Yamaha had a brake hose bracket that fit under the fender tabs, between the tabs and the fork. One on each side. This oem bracket spaced out the fender tabs (preventing squeeze) when the fender bolts were (very lightly) torqued.

When folks upgrade to ss brake lines, they leave this hose bracket off, so to compensate for the deleted bracket, put some washers between the fender tabs and the fork mounts. About 3mm should do it.
(Thank you DavidR)

An RPM fork brace will stabilize the deflection of the spindly 41mm dia. stanchion tubes on our heavy motorcycles.

Your fender tabs will thank you, your fork seals and fork bushings will thank you.

[balky1]

Yamaha had a brake hose bracket that fit under the fender tabs, between the tabs and the fork. One on each side. This oem bracket spaced out the fender tabs (preventing squeeze) when the fender bolts were (very lightly) torqued.

When folks upgrade to ss brake lines, they leave this hose bracket off, so to compensate for the deleted bracket, put some washers between the fender tabs and the fork mounts. About 3mm should do it.
(Thank you DavidR)

An RPM fork brace will stabilize the deflection of the spindly 41mm dia. stanchion tubes on our heavy motorcycles.

Your fender tabs will thank you, your fork seals and fork bushings will thank you.

True for the fork brace, but be aware that it can hit the brake hose splitter (if you are still using it) leaving you without front brakes and brake fluid spilling all around your new nicely done fender.

[Pat Conlon]

True for the fork brace, but be aware that it can hit the brake hose splitter (if you are still using it) leaving you without front brakes and brake fluid spilling all around your new nicely done fender.

Yes, I heard about this...Did you have the soft oem fork springs in the forks when this happened?

[red]

An RPM fork brace will stabilize the deflection of the spindly 41mm dia. stanchion tubes on our heavy motorcycles.  Your fender tabs will thank you, your fork seals and fork bushings will thank you.

True for the fork brace, but be aware that it can hit the brake hose splitter (if you are still using it) leaving you without front brakes and brake fluid spilling all around your new nicely done fender.

A better plan would be to change the hydraulic hoses to Stainless Steel braided lines.  Use two such hoses from the brake calipers up to the front brake master cylinder, with a two-hose banjo bolt at the m/c, and eliminate the splitter entirely.  Then the fork brace can't hit or damage a splitter that is not there.    It's a good brake upgrade, too.
.

[balky1]

An RPM fork brace will stabilize the deflection of the spindly 41mm dia. stanchion tubes on our heavy motorcycles.  Your fender tabs will thank you, your fork seals and fork bushings will thank you.

True for the fork brace, but be aware that it can hit the brake hose splitter (if you are still using it) leaving you without front brakes and brake fluid spilling all around your new nicely done fender.

A better plan would be to change the hydraulic hoses to Stainless Steel braided lines.  Use two such hoses from the brake calipers up to the front brake master cylinder, with a two-hose banjo bolt at the m/c, and eliminate the splitter entirely.  Then the fork brace can't hit or damage a splitter that is not there.    It's a good brake upgrade, too.
.

Perfectly true, but when I changed to SS lines 2 years ago, splitter stayed in the game. I don't know why I kept it, but that's how it is.
In are the same springs like Bezmozek now has. But, set preload on 1, two up, very hard braking and a deep pothole. I was happy we stayed on the bike.

[Bezmozek]

... put some washers between the fender tabs and the fork mounts. About 3mm should do it. ...

Yup, did that, thanks for advice.

No posts does not mean no progress.

Mounted back main stand. If you look closer, maybe you will  notice, that it is bit longer - 10mm - approx 1/2", works just fine with Honda rear shock.

I have bad news too: exhaust collector is delkevic - perfect piece of SS steel, but thinner than OEM, so hotter on surface.
Some paint damage occured even with heat shield on inner side of belly pan:


I was lucky enough to source some spacers on ebay, that will keep belly pan bit far from collector. 


Can´t wait to have those on my bike. Made from fiber glass and some of fibers still go across bolt holes.
Do not know how old are those, but never mounted on bike 

[Bezmozek]

Will kill next one who will touch my bike. 


So this is my start of this season 

[Bezmozek]

And this is the end of my season:









Uff, just in time.

9k km total mileage, main bearings are just on limit, last layer thin enough to see through copper layer under.
Connecting rod bearings seems to be OK, but will change those anyway probably.
Was surprised how clean can be so old engine inside, no metal particles in oil pan, overally good condition, bore in cylinders seems to be OK too.

Just have now two minor problems.
1100cc piston rings (74mm) bore seems to be made from unobtainium, will keep searching, do not really want to swap to 1200cc cylinders which seems to fit, but 1100cc is more than enough for me.
And second, for 1100cc head gasket yamaha dealer here asks twice more, than for 1200cc.
Are those interchangeable?

thx

[Pat Conlon]

I remember Randy having a heck of a time finding STD 1100 piston rings.

He found them: http://rpmracingca.com/proddetail.asp?prod=Engine%3A36Y-11610-01

[Bezmozek]

Pat, you are always first one here with helping hand, thank you.

After contacting official and biggest Yamaha dealer in Czech Republic, soon was clear, that I will spent few nights online.
Staff at spare parts dpt. was surprised with year and my VIN which is 000730. Probably too lazy finding so old parts.
But communication was quite simple:

Head gasket? - No, maybe in Japan, price unavailable
And for FJ 1200 - 100 USD
Piston rings? - No
Rubber grommets for valve cover? - No
Oil pump? - No
What about for XJR? - OK, it is in Japan, one month delivery and 250 USD
And what about main bearings? - We need color codes
I can give you numbers on case and crank - I need color codes.
You should have chart for this. - Maybe on service dpt.
OK, can somebody figure out which colors will fit? - No, we are authorized Yamaha dealer and paying for these information.
Thx, bye 

Will have to go there in person, because via phone was clear that they do not want to bother with me.
Hopefully I will get price for bearings, if not... probably eBay again.

Excellent customer care, I hope I will never need even a drop of oil from them.

Anyway it seems that I was lucky and sourced most of the parts on eBay.
Head gasket from Germany, grommets from Norway, piston rings from Japan, oil pump from Canada,.....

Previously I bought stand spring from France and Spanish fairing from Italy, just thinking about buying penguin for rear seat to make it really global. 

More later.

[racerrad8]

I have everything you need on the shelf and ready to ship.

As far as the 1100 head gasket they have been out of production for years. We use the 1200 Cylinder Head Gasket on all 1100 builds.

Yamaha FJ1100 STD Piston Ring Set that Pat already mentioned.
FJ Valve Cover Bolt Grommet
Yamaha Oil Pump
Yamaha Crankshaft Main Bearing: Yes, the crank and case number are required to determine the proper bearing. Or, just use the colors on the old bearings.

RPM has everything you need for your engine in one place; gasket kits, valve stem seals, timing & starter chains, copper head washers, o-rings & seals...All of the engine parts still available for this base engine are available through RPM.

There is no need to search eBay and purchase from all points of the world, RPM has everything you need in one stop shopping.

If you have any question, feel free to reach out and we can get you all sorted.

Randy - RPM

[Bezmozek]

Randy I know and I really appreciate your offer, but shipping from US + 20% or more import tax makes you last stand.
But I will definitely order whatever small that fits envelope, cause RPM sticker is must have on my fairing.
Information you and Robert gave me are worth of gold. 

[RPM - Robert]

The money you save on the oil pump alone will cover the shipping, VAT., and leave you with extra cash in your pocket.