'86 FJ1200, Just the Beginning

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Gabe, with the valve cover gasket not installed, does the valve cover sit completely flat on any flat surface?

Or is that corner raised?

If raised and not flat, you need a new valve cover.

Randy - RPM

You were correct! This is definitely causing the issue with the oil leaking. I attached an image of the cover sitting flat on a table, and you can see right underneath it. I'm going to assume something like this happens over time due to prolonged exposure to high heat?

Gabe

[Pat Conlon]

Nope, not heat.... What happened was a bone head (like me) used Yamaha Bond *on both sides* of that valve cover gasket (the fucker did not leak) then...20 thousand miles later, you needed a pry bar to lift the cover off the glued gasket.
Using that pry bar tweaked the cover..... 

[FJ1200W]

Nope, not heat.... What happened was a bone head (like me) used Yamaha Bond *on both sides* of that valve cover gasket (the fucker did not leak) then...20 thousand miles later, you needed a pry bar to lift the cover off the glued gasket.
Using that pry bar tweaked the cover..... 

Sometimes that's the only way we learn 

I learned lessons many moons ago with "Indian Head" shellac - I still have a bottle of that stuff in a drawer somewhere -

Leaking....... 

[Pat Conlon]

You know Steve, we should start a section just dedicated to the stupid shit we have done....
We could have 2 subsections, 1) FJ related stupid shit and 2) all others....

We could call it, The Wall of Shame.

I'm going to write some stuff down....
1) gluing down the VC gasket.
2) using Permatex on the clutch cover gasket
3) starting the engine with the clutch slave off
4) mis counting the index marks on the rear tire alignment....wondered why she turned left so much easier than turning right.
5) smashing and mis aligning the nylon jet needle spacer.
6) Laying a Morgan Carb Tune on it's back then wondering why your bike runs worse than when you started.
7) Using the old style mercury carb balance stick, giving your engine a quick rev to clear her throat, then wondering where all your mercury went...

There's more.....

[FJmonkey]

forgetting your riding boots at your first FJ rally and having a periwinkle rear wheel on my ambulance colored 86.

[woodcreekpete]

Or cutting the banjos off my Galper (Galfer?) stainless lines because they didn't line up properly only to find that the banjos swivel to fit.
Or spraying some low expansion foam into a hole in my mirrors to stop the weight from moving around. My idea of low expansion obviously differs from theirs. Blew the glass right out of them.

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Nope, not heat.... What happened was a bone head (like me) used Yamaha Bond *on both sides* of that valve cover gasket (the fucker did not leak) then...20 thousand miles later, you needed a pry bar to lift the cover off the glued gasket.
Using that pry bar tweaked the cover..... 

That would make sense to me, lol. As far as your list of dumb mistakes, I've got one for ya. When I got my first bike nearly 5 years ago I went for a ride and then thought to myself, once I had returned home and shut the bike off, "I wonder if this pipe is hot?". The pipe I was referring to was the exhaust pipe where it exits the cylinder head... I then proceeded to place my hand on it to check. I don't think I've ever removed my hand from something so fast in my life, but damn did that still burn like hell. Dumbest thing I ever did, motorcycle related. I was lucky to not get any intense scarring or bubbling. It just turned very red where the pipe had been across my fingers and stayed that way for a few days. I ran it under cool water for a very long time, lol.

[JPaganel]

Hoo boy...

- Don't drop a rack of carbs with bowls off
- Watch where your thumb is if you use compressed air to push a piston out of a caliper
- Make sure floats, needles, and other small parts are off the carbs before using compressed air

And the eternal classic"

- Watch where the holes are when spraying carb cleaner so it doesn't hit you in the eye

[Pat Conlon]

Hoo boy...

And the eternal classic"

- Watch where the holes are when spraying carb cleaner so it doesn't hit you in the eye

Oh hell yea, take your carb spray and spray down that brass tube on the side of the float bowl, and it comes out a hole in the bottom....right into your eye!

Carb cleaner in your eye....so much fun!

Sorry for the thread drift Gabe....I'll separate out all these "stupid shit" posts into a new topic after everyone is done....

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Hoo boy...

And the eternal classic"

- Watch where the holes are when spraying carb cleaner so it doesn't hit you in the eye

Oh hell yea, take your carb spray and spray down that brass tube on the side of the float bowl, and it comes out a hole in the bottom....right into your eye!

Carb cleaner in your eye....so much fun!

Sorry for the thread drift Gabe....I'll separate out all these "stupid shit" posts into a new topic after everyone is done....

No problem at all, Pat, lol. I haven't pulled my carbs (again) yet or found/ordered a new valve cover so no progress to report on my project so far. Figured the thread would be vacant if not for your fun topic. Gotta say though, I definitely sprayed carb cleaner in my eye a few weeks ago by accident. I was so pissed, lol.

[JPaganel]

See, Pat? This here is important information.

[iWant2RideMyBike]

UPDATE 05/25/20

Work Completed

• Fixed damaged wiring
• 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 (CORRECTLY this time)
• Valve clearances adjusted back to spec!
• ALL light bulbs replaced
• Removed broken bolts from gas tank and valve cover
• Replaced warped valve cover (causing oil leaks) with "new" valve cover!
• Recleaned carbs quickly

Work In Progress

• More carburetor tuning?

Hello again, everyone! It's been a second since my last update. I found myself feeling discouraged to work on my FJ because more issue kept arising and I felt like I wasn't getting any give on the bikes end. Two days ago, I decided to just start easy by buying a screw extractor set to remove my snapped gas tank and valve cover bolt. The small win gave me some motivation and I kept going from there.

I was able to replace my warped valve cover with a "new" one sent to me from RPM along with a new bolt to replace the one I snapped so a HUGE thank you to them! This completely fixed my top end oil leaking problem, so that was a relief. I used the opportunity to clean the oil out of the top of the cylinder head's cooling fins. I was moderately successful but I need much smaller brushes to get in between the fins than the toothbrush that I had. Either way, it's much better than it was. 

I also, on a frustrated whim, decided to spend around 2.5 hours doing a speed clean of the carbs. I removed all of the jets except for the emulsion tube after the first one because everything was spotless from the months I spent cleaning the carbs during the winter. I was just throwing stuff at the wall hoping something would stick essentially, but I'll be damned it helped! Once I got everything back together and installed, she fired right up and after only a few minutes of warming up I pushed the choke in and she didn't die out! She idled very consistently I was able to take her out for a 30 mile spin! I was very happy. 

However, I noticed something else. I noticed on the way there that at around the 25 to 40 mph range, unless I was giving her throttle to accelerate, she'd kind of make more of a sputtering sound like it was trying to backfire as I held my speed. Giving her more fuel would smooth it out completely, but when I let off the gas she would begin to backfire on the way down. The bike did this even when I first bought it but this felt more pronounced than before still. I also turned the bike off at one point to stop by a family members house for 15 mins, and she didn't really want to start at first. No biggie, got her going and rode home with no issues shy of the backfire on deceleration. However, once I got home, she died on me in the driveway as I was rolling up.. 

I'm going to see if she starts this morning. I'm imagining that she's a bit low on oil from the leaking top end so I'm thinkin of pullin the Vance & Hines off and changing that, although I know this won't solve any issues that I was experiencing yesterday. Does anyone have any suggestions that could possibly help? It's a major step in the right direction, but I've clearly still got work to do.

Best,
Gabe

[iWant2RideMyBike]

UPDATE 05/27/20

Work Completed

• Fixed damaged wiring
• 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 (CORRECTLY this time)
• Valve clearances adjusted back to spec!
• ALL light bulbs replaced
• Removed broken bolts from gas tank and valve cover
• Replaced warped valve cover (causing oil leaks) with "new" valve cover!
• Recleaned carbs quickly
• Changed engine oil
• Replaced oil filter
• Cleaned up front side of the engine a bit

Work In Progress

• Carb tuning?
• Idle adjustment
• Figuring out fuel starvation issue?

Hello everyone,
Did a little more work on my FJ. I managed to change the engine oil and the oil filter. I was warned that this was going to be a pain in the ass because of the Vance & Hines 4 into 1 exhaust system, but DAMN that sucked ass. It was so frustrating as hell, took me waaay too long to get the pipes off and even fricken longer to put the pipes back on. I had to use a hammer eventually to get these bent ass exhaust holder things back on the cylinder head exhaust ports. It was nightmare and for 2 days I had fiberglass all over me from the stupid exhaust wrap. It was painful. 

Moving on, I also found way more metallic in the oil than I was hoping for. There was some stuck to the drain plug magnet too, but not too much on that. Mostly in the oil itself.

I ended up using 10W-40 Valvoline motorcycle oil after reading about the great debate on the subject. After changing the oil, she seems to run a bit smoother and a bit quiter, but of course this is not the end of my issues.

The bike is definitely running better, that's for sure, but there's more work here to be done. I tried adjusting the idle up a bit since it will sometimes idle for minutes with the choke off, a little below 1k rpm, but eventually the motor stumbles and dies. During my attempt, I noticed that it didn't seem to be doing much of anything. It was then that I realized, the idle adjusting screw was all but fully turned in and it was barely touching the throttle! I searched, but I'm not really sure how to fix this because it sure seems like the throttle cables are fully relaxed when I backed the idle screw out until there was visible space between the throttle and the screw. Is this typical with FJ's or is something effed up/out of adjustment here?

Also, I keep having this phantom issue... I take the carbs out and clean them, put them back in and then when I try to start the bike it pukes fuel from carb #1. Some dripping from the drain screw and what looked like some draining from the area between carb #1 and carb #2. So, I clean up the fuel then leave it over night. The next day, I go to try and diagnose the problem and the damn thing won't leak anything. Not a drop. Not sure what is going on here either.

However, after pulling the tank to try and play with the throttle, I did notice that once again there was some minor dropping from the fuel line where it connects to the petcock and the right side fuel line into the carbs (#3 and #4) was slightly bent. I routed the line like the manual says, but I'm thinking the fuel line is just a little too long. It can't help but bend because it's got too much slack in too short an area, so I think I'm going to snip off half an inch to an inch and see if that helps that problem.

Lastly, I started the bike without the tank on because I wanted to play with the idle adjustment screw for a moment with visibility, and the bike began to back fire consistently with large lurches in pressure, indicated by the vacuum line which goes to the petcock surging with a hiss. This is what happened last time when I was trying to sync the carbs, but when I had the tank on earlier today and the bike was running it didn't backfire even once. It only was backfiring on deceleration during lower medium to high speed deceleration.


If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know because these particular issues are very confusing. Sorry for the novel again. I'll post some images of what I talked about here below.

[iWant2RideMyBike]

Here's the images. One of the bike when I was changing the oil, one of the front of the motor before I cleaned it up a bit, one after cleanin it up a bit, one of the metallic slivers I found in the oil, one of the minor visible fuel leak, then one of the line route where you can see it begins to pinch up.

[andyoutandabout]

When I bought my 86 back in 2005, first oil change had sizable chunks of metal in the out going murkiness. Oh well, I thought, this wasn't a good buy, looks like I've been had. Might as well just ride it until it self destructs.
That was 15 years and over 100,000 miles ago.
These are amazing bikes.