Various '87 Issues

[Cat Cracker]

Greetings,
I am a newbie to the forum. I just purchased a 1985 FJ 1100 with 13k miles on it here in NJ.
I am a Retired Mechanical Engineer by trade( 30 years in Oil Refining )  grew up in Ireland & was fortunate enough to ride the Tourist Trophy circuit in my college days at the Isle Of Man.
If I may comment on the crack issue having used the "drill stop " technique only in critical leak conditions. Typically the recommendation is to drill >75% of the metal thickness to be successful in stopping the crack spread. The guaranteed way to then repair the crack would be to remove the component,degrease it and investigate the metallurgy & procedure for welding/repair. Surface grinding / preparation ,preheating the component to a specific temperature & weld repair. The piece can then be stress released/relieved by controlled heating & cooling slowly. Achieving these specific temperatures & rates of heating/cooling are critical for success. A good machine shop/welder would know exactly what to do & have the gear to do it successfully.

Delighted to have found this group with the incredible history of knowledge & experience that the members have. I have already been able to find parts I needed & ordered from RPM for my project.
I do hope as a newbie adding my 2c is acceptable. Just like to help! 

[Pat Conlon]

Welcome Barry, when you get a chance, please post over in the Introduction Section, that way your intro won't get buried into this topic.
We appreciate your expertise and you will become a valuable resource for your fellow FJ folks.
That's how it works, individually we have our weak points but collectively we are much smarter.
The guys on this forum are the best of the bunch. Quite amazing the depth and breadth of knowledge here.

Cheers

Pat

[ribbert]

Good to hear everything appears to be lined up and not under stress.

As our new member Cat Cracker and I agree, the success of such a weld depends on expert welding. I've been welding for 50 years, have 3 welders and was formally taught to weld in trade school but it's not my trade and if this was my bike, I'd be taking it to a proper welder! I'm good enough to know I'm not that good.

If using JB, I'd grind the crack out a bit and drill a couple of holes to give the adhesive a "key". If just covering the crack on the surface, I would worry about the hot oil compromising the bond from underneath. The other thing that greatly affects the success of such a job is getting the surfaces oil free and clean, not easy with that sort of crack, hence the suggested grinding and drilling.
JB is too thick to penetrate the crack, unlike CA glues, and there are two schools of thought on the wisdom of thinning it, hence the suggestion to grind it out a bit.

Having said all that, if it was my own bike, I'd skip the JB step entirely and take it straight to the welder. I'm unaware of the past jobs Robert was referring to but I would expect a successful outcome from such a repair.

As for getting the motor back in, I find a bit of 2 x 4 under the centre stand to raise the bike a little and the engine on a floor jack makes it pretty easy to raise, turn and tilt. A folded towel between the jack saddle and the bottom of the engine makes tilting and angling a little easier. A standard size floor jack, which has a saddle diameter of about 6" is almost a must, both for stability and ease of operation.

Good luck.

Noel

[T Legg]

I think welding would be best but I have repaired more than one hole with JB weld. I repaired a two inch wide hole in the case of a cb750 caused by a broken chain by JB welding a section of an aluminum coke can over the hole. That repair was leak free for the four years I rode it after the repair. Another repair was on an old Chevy truck that popped a freeze plug behind the engine mount. I couldn't reach it to clean and prep it so I spread jb weld over the plug then I saturated a paper towel with jb weld and pressed it over the freeze plug. The fibers held the jb weld in place very well and the repair out lasted the rest of the motor. Probably a fine mesh would work as well and be a little more cosmetic .

[ribbert]

... I repaired a two inch wide hole in the case of a cb750 caused by a broken chain by JB welding a section of an aluminum coke can over the hole... an old Chevy truck that popped a freeze plug behind the engine mount..... so I spread jb weld over the plug then I saturated a paper towel with jb weld and pressed it over the freeze plug. The fibers held the jb weld in place very well and the repair out lasted the rest of the motor....

Amazing. Can you imagine the JB stories that must be out there, especially the emergency, limp home type repairs such as yours that were then left for the remaining life of the vehicle. Having been in the trade, I've seen many vehicles pass through with pre-existing JB (or similar) repairs of unknown age or origin, their stories lost in time and the repairs destined to live on forever.

I recall an occasion where a bike had a ridiculously sized chunk of the crankcase that seemed to be held together with epoxy glue and I asked the owner what happened, his answer was " I don't know, I bought it like that"

I've found self fusing silicone-rubber tape to be the new wonder product for emergency repairs. I wrapped a burst heater hose with it in my last car while on a trip. At first I was amazed it held tight until I got home, it then held tight for the next 5 years until I was selling it, at which point I only replaced the hose because it was a bad look. Amazingly, it undid with the same elasticity and re-usability it had when I put it on.

Noel

[rlucas]

...individually we have our weak points but collectively we are much smarter.

Boy, *THAT'S* debatable...


rossi

[Old Rider]

... I repaired a two inch wide hole in the case of a cb750 caused by a broken chain by JB welding a section of an aluminum coke can over the hole... an old Chevy truck that popped a freeze plug behind the engine mount..... so I spread jb weld over the plug then I saturated a paper towel with jb weld and pressed it over the freeze plug. The fibers held the jb weld in place very well and the repair out lasted the rest of the motor....

Amazing. Can you imagine the JB stories that must be out there, especially the emergency, limp home type repairs such as yours that were then left for the remaining life of the vehicle. Having been in the trade, I've seen many vehicles pass through with pre-existing JB (or similar) repairs of unknown age or origin, their stories lost in time and the repairs destined to live on forever.

I recall an occasion where a bike had a ridiculously sized chunk of the crankcase that seemed to be held together with epoxy glue and I asked the owner what happened, his answer was " I don't know, I bought it like that"

I've found self fusing silicone-rubber tape to be the new wonder product for emergency repairs. I wrapped a burst heater hose with it in my last car while on a trip. At first I was amazed it held tight until I got home, it then held tight for the next 5 years until I was selling it, at which point I only replaced the hose because it was a bad look. Amazingly, it undid with the same elasticity and re-usability it had when I put it on.

Noel

I newer tested JB weld but once i was on a long trip into Sweden i then had a fj1100 my  bike fell over on the right side after a stop
the brakepedal made a hole in the clutch cover and oil flow out this was long from any city or store.My friend drove me to a gasstation
and i got some super epoxy glue and some plaster for fixing dents on cars. drove back to my bike and used some sandingpaper  then cleaned around the hole with some gasoline .Then used a Swedish coin glued it over the hole and epoxy plaster on top of that.
I worked fine.Then i later just painted over the space and forgot about the repair.i think it was 3 years later and i had sold the bike
the buyer called me after some days not so happy as he found the chunk of plaster with a coin inside on his garagefloor and oil had flowed out  .I was embarrassed and told him i had forgot about the emergency repair i did and told him i would drive straight to yamaha dealer and buy him a new clutchcover and gasket.

[ribbert]

.....Then used a Swedish coin glued it over the hole and epoxy plaster on top of that.
I worked fine.Then i later just painted over the space and forgot about the repair.i think it was 3 years later and i had sold the bike
the buyer called me after some days not so happy as he found the chunk of plaster with a coin inside on his garagefloor and oil had flowed out  .I was embarrassed and told him i had forgot about the emergency repair i did and told him i would drive straight to yamaha dealer and buy him a new clutchcover and gasket.

Great story, love it, there must be thousands of them.

Noel

[Motofun]

I wonder if he asked for his money back?   

[ajacstern]

I am not sure if I got exactly 75% of the way through as I am not sure how thick the metal is, I was very conservative with the grind. I could see JB weld flowing into the grind like a keyway as I was applying it though so that is good. It has lasted carb tuning on the center stand but that isn't much stress. Haven't gotten to test ride yet. You wouldn't happen to have raced the TT on an FJ, Cat? haha. If this doesn't hold I have also though of using yamabond 4 or a similar rubberlike gasket maker as it would have the flex to not crack and continue holding the oil in. Obviously the cases would still continue to crack so that is not a long term solution but if I go the way of new cases and rebuilding the transmission then that is a possibility for the short term. I got the motor back in through lifting and will definitely have to find an easier way to do that next time. I found one post that said 275lb for the motor and I don't think it was that heavy but it was certainly enough for me to not want to do it again.

The old fuel line ripped when I took the tank off before dropping the motor so I ordered fuel line with the same specifications from Mcmaster Carr naively thinking it would be that simple. Tried to install the fuel line and it kinked every way I tried to put it. Don't have a spring to put around it plus it wouldn't fit with the proper routing with a spring around it. Any of you guys had to replace fuel line yet? Suggestions on what to use/how to keep it from kinking?

I am also a little closer to figuring out what is wrong with the carbs. If I let it idle and then blip the throttle the revs shoot up to like 4k and then drop below idle. If I repeatedly blip the throttle it only goes up 2/3k and the revs don't drop below idle. It must be loading up at idle, which would be consistent with the carbs being a little wet if I take them off after idling. But, the sparkplugs are fairly white and changing the mixture screws eitherway does nothing. It runs well at idle and stays consistent but the loading up is odd. Maybe related to the midrange flatspot maybe not.

Cheers y'all.

[Pat Conlon]

All FJ spark plugs are supposed to be white. (unless you disconnect the vacuum advance)

[ajacstern]

It is disconnected due to it being dysfunctional and messing up the idle.

[fj1289]

I am not sure if I got exactly 75% of the way through as I am not sure how thick the metal is, I was very conservative with the grind. I could see JB weld flowing into the grind like a keyway as I was applying it though so that is good. It has lasted carb tuning on the center stand but that isn't much stress. Haven't gotten to test ride yet. You wouldn't happen to have raced the TT on an FJ, Cat? haha. If this doesn't hold I have also though of using yamabond 4 or a similar rubberlike gasket maker as it would have the flex to not crack and continue holding the oil in. Obviously the cases would still continue to crack so that is not a long term solution but if I go the way of new cases and rebuilding the transmission then that is a possibility for the short term. I got the motor back in through lifting and will definitely have to find an easier way to do that next time. I found one post that said 275lb for the motor and I don't think it was that heavy but it was certainly enough for me to not want to do it again.

The old fuel line ripped when I took the tank off before dropping the motor so I ordered fuel line with the same specifications from Mcmaster Carr naively thinking it would be that simple. Tried to install the fuel line and it kinked every way I tried to put it. Don't have a spring to put around it plus it wouldn't fit with the proper routing with a spring around it. Any of you guys had to replace fuel line yet? Suggestions on what to use/how to keep it from kinking?

I am also a little closer to figuring out what is wrong with the carbs. If I let it idle and then blip the throttle the revs shoot up to like 4k and then drop below idle. If I repeatedly blip the throttle it only goes up 2/3k and the revs don't drop below idle. It must be loading up at idle, which would be consistent with the carbs being a little wet if I take them off after idling. But, the sparkplugs are fairly white and changing the mixture screws eitherway does nothing. It runs well at idle and stays consistent but the loading up is odd. Maybe related to the midrange flatspot maybe not.

Cheers y'all.

RPMs dropping below idle after the blip indicates running rich.  Sounds like it gets worse as it warms up more - also indicates rich at idle.   Make sure the "chokes" (actually enrichment circuit) are fully closed.  If so, them try closing the idle screws maybe a 1/4 turn and see if it improves. 

[ajacstern]

Haven't had a puddle of oil besides the FJ everyday for the first time, the JB weld seems to be holding well. Only been a week though so we will see. Had some fun when I went to test it out. I was 60 miles into the middle of nowhere when it felt like I ran out of fuel. Pulled over and saw that the fuel line had ripped apart for no apparent reason, fantastic. Was sitting at the side of the road for a few hours, but luckily there was good scenery. I have some thin-walled Viton line from McMaster Carr on there right now with line protectors over it to keep it from kinking too bad. I don't seem to be having fuel line issues even with the slight kink. I have a wrench and some spare line duct-taped to the back though. Ordered thick-walled fuel injector line and will see if that will do the carb bend without kinking. It is only rated for a max temp of 275f though, I can't imagine the carbs get that hot because gas boils at 185 but I would still rather it have a higher rating.

Got some sintered pads and installed them on the front today, night and day difference. It actually slows down when you hit the brakes! No way I am putting these on the rear, I don't need to break the rear free just coming to a stoplight. Super responsive and you can lock the front up with just two fingers. Thanks for the suggestion.

Can't get the carbs right though. I went all the way down to 1 turn out and the third clip on the needle and it still dropped below idle when blipping the throttle and stalled out when you pull the clutch in. Smelled very lean and had awful pull. Sitting at 3 turns out and 4.5 clip. Pulls pretty good, but definitely smells rich; stinks the whole garage up when I park it. Really struggles right at 4k, can't get acceleration in the higher gears. Above 5k feels perfect and the low end feels pretty decent too. Stalls out if I pull the clutch in while braking or when coming up to stoplights so I look like a noob in full leathers on the starter motor at stoplights. Idles fine though. Wonder if it might be the air bleed. The choke cable has no tension but I can see a sliver of the choke open in the slides area, I assume that is normal. The floats are all less than 0.5mm off from spec measured per the forum post detailing this.

[ajacstern]

Also, I forgot to include that I had perfect timing on installing the brakes today. The first ride I went out to test them on I was on the main road and a white pickup on a side road intersecting mine stared me down and then proceeded to pull out right in front of me. Was looking through me I guess. Definitely a good test of the brakes and they did pass, had 10ft to spare.