'86 FJ1200, Just the Beginning

[iWant2RideMyBike]

You can do without the tool.  I use an insulated copper wire, some people use zipties.  You stick it in the spark plug hole and let the valve bite down on it, and it keeps the bucket down so you can pull the shim.

Wow, that's actually really clever. I'll have to keep that in mind for next time, but I actually already rented the tool and have performed the valve adjustment.  I'm going to post another update on all of the work I've done over the past 2 weeks with some pictures here in a little bit so stay tuned! 

[iWant2RideMyBike]

UPDATE 04/29/20
Hello, all! Since my last update, I have replaced all of the light bulbs located on the front side of the bike which includes my headlight, blinkers, and all 10 instrument bulbs (I had to go to three different stores to get them all, lol) which completely took care of my flickering gauges problem . I have also successfully replaced my blown valve cover gasket, and just finished up adjusting my valve clearances back to within specification with the help of the RPM Shim Kit that I rented out! I think it went pretty well for my first go at adjusting shim style valves. I'll get into some specifics below the lists of work completed/in progress.

Work Completed

• Fixed damaged wiring
• Replaced tail lights
• Installed Transpo (adjustable) Voltage Regulator Modification
• Replaced damaged o-rings on all float needle seats
• Fully cleaned and reassembled/installed carburetors
• Replaced blown valve cover gasket
• Valve clearances adjusted back to spec!
• ALL forward light bulbs replaced with new ones (gauges, blinkers, headlight) which stopped my flickering gauges!

Work in Progress

• Extract and replace snapped gas tank bolt from the frame
• Extract and replace snapped valve cover bolt from camshaft cap
• Check carburetor synchronization
• Investigate carburetor issues?

So, I did get all the valves set correctly and I checked many times to be sure. The good news is that I definitely notice a performance difference! She's idling more consistently for sure and sounds as if it's running better. Now, on to some not so good news....
1) I was trying to torque down the valve cover bolts to their torque spec and I accidentally torqued off the head of one of them. I'm hoping it will be somewhat easy to get out.
2) I sheared off the head of one of the gas tank bolts, and it needs to be replaced. I was tightening it down, but I wasn't ripping on it. It just sheared off like butter.
3) The bike suddenly won't run at all if the choke is turned off.


Addressing 1) I probably shouldn't have used such a large torque wrench on somethin with a torque spec of 7.2 ft-lbs. It looks like some of the bolt is exposed from the top of the camshaft bearing cap so hopefully the extraction won't be too difficult. I tried to find the bolt on RPM but couldn't locate it, other than the rubber grommet for it. I may have to use bikebandit, I suppose.

Addressing 2) This ease with which the bolt sheared off was surprising. I had a normal sized socket wrench and I was not putting a whole lot of force into it. I also looked on RPM for this bolt, but could only find the rubber tank damper. I'm expecting this to be pretty easy to extract.

Addressing 3) This has me confused a bit. Let me preface this by saying that I have not checked the carb sync since I finished adjusting the valves, but prior to the adjustment they were perfectly in sync so I'm worried. I pull the choke knob out, she starts and warms up. I push the choke about halfway, the idle slows down to a little over 1k. I push the choke all the way in, she slows to a crawl before stalling. I just spent weeks going through the entire set of carbs and had all parts soak in carb cleaner over night and cleaned the heck out of everything, so I find the notion of the Pilot Jets being clogged very perplexing. I'll check the new sync on the carbs today, and report back what the outcome is. My fear is surrounding the stage three jet kit that the bike has. I've never rejetted and this was done by the previous owner, but I don't know if the mixture screws need adjusting maybe or what. We'll see what the sync looks like and go from there.

That's all for now, friends. Thanks for reading my novel of a post! I'll post some pictures below of the latest work!

- Gabe

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Some pictures to go with the latest update! 

[Millietant]

When you push in the choke Gabe, if you keep just a little bit of throttle on, does the bike still run and does it respond to throttle input properly?

Don't take this wrong way and it may be a stupid solution.....but.......If so, and it just stumbles and stops on a low idle, maybe you just need to adjust the idle speed up a bit.

Re the gas tank bolts, just pop to your nearest engineering supply shop/hardware store and just pick up a couple of M6 x 25mm (or 30mm) long, stainless cap head Allen bolts, to replace your standard tank bolts. They'll cost you literally pennies - no need to go to a bike parts specialist for those.

[iWant2RideMyBike]

When you push in the choke Gabe, if you keep just a little bit of throttle on, does the bike still run and does it respond to throttle input properly?

Don't take this wrong way and it may be a stupid solution.....but.......If so, and it just stumbles and stops on a low idle, maybe you just need to adjust the idle speed up a bit.

Re the gas tank bolts, just pop to your nearest engineering supply shop/hardware store and just pick up a couple of M6 x 25mm (or 30mm) long, stainless cap head Allen bolts, to replace your standard tank bolts. They'll cost you literally pennies - no need to go to a bike parts specialist for those.

You know, that's a good question. I'll give that a try here soon right before I hook up the synchronizer tool. As for the bolt, thank you very much for info! I'll definitely go that route to save money and time.

Is there any tips/tricks to easily adjust the idle adjuster underneath the carbs? Even with my K&N filters off I can hardly get 2 fingers underneath there, let alone move it. I tried using some pliers to better reach, but that didn't help a whole lot either.

- Gabe

[RPM - Robert]

Stick your hand through the right center into the center of the bike underneath the frame. Goes straight to it and wide open. (FWIW wear a glove if it is hot or be prepared to have a slight burning sensation on your hand)

[FJmonkey]

Just don't do it with armored gloves while sitting at a traffic light. 

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Stick your hand through the right center into the center of the bike underneath the frame. Goes straight to it and wide open. (FWIW wear a glove if it is hot or be prepared to have a slight burning sensation on your hand)

Thanks for the tip, that made it much easier. FJmonkey, thank you as well, lol.

When you push in the choke Gabe, if you keep just a little bit of throttle on, does the bike still run and does it respond to throttle input properly?

Don't take this wrong way and it may be a stupid solution.....but.......If so, and it just stumbles and stops on a low idle, maybe you just need to adjust the idle speed up a bit....

Millietant, this did allow the bike to stay running longer but I wouldn't say there was normal throttle response. The carbs start to make this kind of aggressive "sucking" sound, like the diaphragms are having a hard time rising and can only maintain the idle. Even after adjusting the throttle comically far upwards.

I put the bike on the synchronizer after trying that, and the gauges were all in sync. Maybe even a little more so than they were before the valve adjustment. However, the motor is now backfiring very frequently and the carbs backfire some every so often too. Not the same carbs each time though. 3 and 4 seem to do it the most, but I saw carb 1 do it as well. The damn thing makes that "FPHTP" sound as it inhales sharply. (I hate that sound)

To top this off, probably around a 4 or 5 table spoons of oil started coming through the gasket at the top left hand side of the valve cover. This is annoying considering that not only is this a new gasket, but this is exactly where the worse part of the oil leak was on the original gasket as well. I'm not sure if it's worth noting but when I took the valve cover off originally, that top left portion where it leaks was warped upwards a bit. So the valve cover as a whole did not just sit flush against the surface of the cylinder head until after I bolted it down a little at a time to try and ensure a smooth press against the gasket.

I'm not really sure where to begin here shy of pulling the carbs again and hoping that cleaning out the jets and passages, yet again, and hoping that helps some how. Anybody got any ideas?

- Gabe

[Old Rider]

Sounds like it runs too lean. Lean symptoms :will not run without choke ,lots of backfiring vague sluggish throttle response. bougs down when throttle applied .Try to adjust the mixture screws half a turn
out at a time .Check sparkplugs if white or very clean it runs too lean,but you have to drive a little first.

The valve covergasket take it off and look for big scratch or damage on the cylhead surface if it is the use a tiny bit of rtv silicone there .i always also use a
very very thin line of rtv where the  the half moons  is.

UPPDATE: When i look at the pick of your cylhead i can see the valvcover gasket is defect at the left side of engine in front a piece is broken off ,dont think it can be fixed with rtv but mayby as temporary fix

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Sounds like it runs too lean. Lean symptoms :will not run without choke ,lots of backfiring vague sluggish throttle response. bougs down when throttle applied .Try to adjust the mixture screws half a turn
out at a time .Check sparkplugs if white or very clean it runs too lean,but you have to drive a little first.

The valve covergasket take it off and look for big scratch or damage on the cylhead surface if it is the use a tiny bit of rtv silicone there .i always also use a
very very thin line of rtv where the  the half moons is.

UPPDATE: When i look at the pick of your cylhead i can see the valvcover gasket is defect at the left side of engine in front a piece is broken off ,dont think it can be fixed with rtv but mayby as temporary fix

Thanks for the reply! I'll give the mixture screws half a turn today and see what that does. Fingers crossed it helps smooth it out. As for the valve cover gasket, I see what you're looking at in the picture. I'm not sure why it has that weird reflection that makes it look like a small piece is missing from the top but the whole gasket is there. I've attached a closeup that I took of that portion of the gasket and it seems to all be there, semi-unfortunately. Maybe I should try to degrease the gasket somehow and then put it back on completely dry? Oil definitely got all over it while I was messing around with the valves, but would that even effect it's ability to seal properly or would it not make a difference?

Also, does anybody have a clever way of effectively cleaning out the top cooling fins? The previous bad gasket leaked oil down into them and I'm sure this is not helping the notoriously hot FJ engine run any cooler. I was thinking of just taping off sensitives with a plastic bag and masking tape, taking off the lower fairing and blasting "Gunk" Engine Greaser, attempting to agitiate the oil with a tooth brush or somethin, then just running water over it until its cleaned out. All of this being done with the engine 100% cold, of course.

[ribbert]

Stick your hand through the right center into the center of the bike underneath the frame. Goes straight to it and wide open. (FWIW wear a glove if it is hot or be prepared to have a slight burning sensation on your hand)

A good tip for this, or any procedure where you can't see and do at the same time is to eyeball it first, with a mirror if necessary (such as on the headlight globe clip) If you can see in your minds eye what your fingers should be feeling it makes it a lot easier.
Also, with the idle speed adjustment, if you crack the throttle slightly while adjusting it, it will lift the adjusting screw up, taking the load off it and making it much easier to turn.

Noel

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Stick your hand through the right center into the center of the bike underneath the frame. Goes straight to it and wide open. (FWIW wear a glove if it is hot or be prepared to have a slight burning sensation on your hand)

A good tip for this, or any procedure where you can't see and do at the same time is to eyeball it first, with a mirror if necessary (such as on the headlight globe clip) If you can see in your minds eye what your fingers should be feeling it makes it a lot easier.
Also, with the idle speed adjustment, if you crack the throttle slightly while adjusting it, it will lift the adjusting screw up, taking the load off it and making it much easier to turn.

Noel

That's great advice, especially about cracking the throttle slightly to take the load off. Thanks!

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Well, I warmed up the bike and I tried to move the mixture screws.

I tried turning the mixture screw...

• 1/2 turn to the right
  • Result: The bike seemed to run a tad longer when I turned off the choke, but nothing substantial at all. This could be wishful thinking on my part, as well.
• 1/2 turn to the left
  • Result: The bike still ran with the choke on, but seemed to die faster than when it was set 1/2 turn to the right.
• 3/4 turn to the right
  • Result: The bike ran similarly to how it did at 1/2 a turn to the right, with no real change that I was able to observe.

When I turned the screw 3/4 of the way to the right I had some resistance, as if it was already near it's limit on how far it could be screwed outwards but I thought that they can be fully removed?... When I removed and cleaned the carbs, I inspected everything and there was nothing that I saw which obviously needed replacing other than the needle seat o-rings (which I did in fact replace). But I guess at this point I'm not sure what else to do other than pull the carbs again, go through cleaning/inspecting them again, pull the valve cover and check the clearances one more time before I send back the RPM shim kit rental, and then hope for the best. 

- Gabe

[Old Rider]

The screws has to be turned anti clockwise (out)  to get it to run more rich. i think the best thing is to first screw all srews clockwise  ( in ) util they seat ,but be very careful so you dont break anything. then screw them 2 and a half turn out that should get you in the ballpark.

here is a link to a good video of how to tune mixturescews. :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLldmBzqR_s

[FJ_Hooligan]

Are you letting it warm up enough to run without choke?

Do you have the vacuum port caps on all intakes?