anything specific to check before I get in the wind?

[5speed]

Thanks guys.  Best compliment I ever received was when I put it in the Rockerbox show.@ the vintage bike weekend Road America.
A guy saw my bike and turned to his buddy and said "I just hate when a guy goes and buys a new bike and then brings it, and puts it in the show." Looking straight at me. Thought he was cutting me down. I just got..huge grin. Made my day.
They really were way ahead of their time.
Looks like you'll have it going soon. And  will get to understand the insanity.

one of the first things I'm doing with it (if it doesn't get cancelled) is putting it in a local vintage bike show. I'll let you know if anyone gives me flack for putting a new bike in the show.

[5speed]

well..the safety wire trick didn't work. Actually the wire didn't. It broke while I was attempting to put the fuel line on.
ever have one of those days where everything you touch turns to crap?
that's today.
I'm now waiting for the epoxy to dry on the elbow. If that doesn't work I'll get it welded in.

[FJmonkey]

I used a fuel safe epoxy and safety wire when I did mine. Not all epoxies are stable when exposed to fuel. I recommend adding some wire. It may be the difference between the joint leaking and the elbow falling out and emptying your tank onto a hot engine. 

[5speed]

 

I used a fuel safe epoxy and safety wire when I did mine. Not all epoxies are stable when exposed to fuel. I recommend adding some wire. It may be the difference between the joint leaking and the elbow falling out and emptying your tank onto a hot engine. 

great suggestion. I will have to find a more rugged wire. I used mechanics wire..what was I thinking?

[Pat Conlon]

Have you seen this? http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=3265.0

The angle of the fuel outlet shown in the pictures is the correct angle you should match.

You don't need fancy wire. I used common steel baling wire.

[red]

I used a fuel safe epoxy and safety wire when I did mine. Not all epoxies are stable when exposed to fuel.  I recommend adding some wire. It may be the difference between the joint leaking and the elbow falling out and emptying your tank onto a hot engine.

great suggestion. I will have to find a more rugged wire. I used mechanics wire..what was I thinking?

5speed,

Aircraft safety wire is stainless steel, and it is very rust-resistant.  .032 inch is the most common.  The skinny stuff is .020 inch, and the heavy stuff is .042 inch.  Aircraft supply houses, or Amazon (of course) will have what you want.

I safety-wire my oil drain plugs, which you can drill or buy drilled for safety wire.  Drilled oil drain plugs can also be magnetic, which is 'WAY good.  One guy saw the safety wire and asked if I thought my oil drain plug may come out . . . I just grinned and said Nope!   

[fj1289]

Some motorcycle shops sell safety wire too - as well as harbor freight

[5speed]

Aircraft safety wire is stainless steel, and it is very rust-resistant.  .032 inch is the most common.  The skinny stuff is .020 inch, and the heavy stuff is .042 inch.  Aircraft supply houses, or Amazon (of course) will have what you want.

I safety-wire my oil drain plugs, which you can drill or buy drilled for safety wire.  Drilled oil drain plugs can also be magnetic, which is 'WAY good.  One guy saw the safety wire and asked if I thought my oil drain plug may come out . . . I just grinned and said Nope!   

do the oil drain plugs come loose on these? 

[fj1289]

I've never heard of a case - but is common practice in most racing organizations.  Some people carry over the practice. 

[red]

Aircraft safety wire is stainless steel, and it is very rust-resistant.  .032 inch is the most common.  The skinny stuff is .020 inch, and the heavy stuff is .042 inch.  Aircraft supply houses, or Amazon (of course) will have what you want.
I safety-wire my oil drain plugs, which you can drill or buy drilled for safety wire.  Drilled oil drain plugs can also be magnetic, which is 'WAY good.  One guy saw the safety wire and asked if I thought my oil drain plug may come out . . . I just grinned and said Nope!   

do the oil drain plugs come loose on these? 

5speed,

Aside from all of the stories I have heard across decades of riding, Rbentnail on the Yamaha FJR forum just lost the oil drain plug lately.  Vibrations (gremlins) have a habit of doing that, on any bike.  The Hardleys are famous for leaving a trail of parts behind them.  Some might say I'm a fanatic about safety wire, but hey, to each his own.      

[5speed]

Aside from all of the stories I have heard across decades of riding, Rbentnail on the Yamaha FJR forum just lost the oil drain plug lately.  Vibrations (gremlins) have a habit of doing that, on any bike.  The Hardleys are famous for leaving a trail of parts behind them.  Some might say I'm a fanatic about safety wire, but hey, to each his own.      

I've been spinning wrenches on my own vehicles for over 3 decades. Haven't lost a drain plug yet, and I don't torque them to 2000 foot pounds like some "mechanics" do when you get an oil change.

[5speed]

elbow epoxied and safety wired, tank back on the bike and it's off the lift and back in the garage so I can put the gold wing on the lift to put all this back.
The picture does not do it justice at all.

[ribbert]

Aside from all of the stories I have heard across decades of riding, Rbentnail on the Yamaha FJR forum just lost the oil drain plug lately.  Vibrations (gremlins) have a habit of doing that, on any bike.  The Hardleys are famous for leaving a trail of parts behind them.  Some might say I'm a fanatic about safety wire, but hey, to each his own.      

I've been spinning wrenches on my own vehicles for over 3 decades. Haven't lost a drain plug yet, and I don't torque them to 2000 foot pounds like some "mechanics" do when you get an oil change.

Doesn't it strike you as a little odd that the only thing to vibrate loose on that guy's FJR was the one bolt he regularly removes and replaces himself?

I have literally seen tens of thousands of vehicles pass through my work places over the years and I've done thousands myself, I can't ever recall a sump plug falling out. I've encountered stripped, cross threaded and finger tight plugs by the dozens but never heard of one falling out.

For a long time it was common for sump plugs to be large diameter, shallow, fine threaded and always hastily refitted between drips, anyone who works with threads will know this is a disaster waiting to happen, and it frequently was. GM, Ford, Chrysler and others all offered No's 1,2 & 3 oversize plugs as genuine spares for just this reason.

Red, your many posts over the years suggest you are knowledgeable, resourceful and a thinker with mechanical nous, I'm surprised you have so little faith in threads. Where do you draw the line, castellated nuts on the rods, wired big ends, cam caps....? If you're going to second guess the engineers, how do you decide what needs wiring and what doesn't?

I have seen countless examples of automotive engineers getting it wrong over my working life but specifying thread pitch, diameter, depth and torque is rarely one of them. Also, there is not one skerrick of verifiable evidence to suggest these plugs come loose anyway.

As I've said to you previously, if you want to wire them, great, do it, just so long as the readers understand you're not doing it to address a known problem.

The only thread related issue I can remember over the last 50+ years was a batch of VW Beetles on which the heads came loose, the factory fix kit was simply a new set of studs with a different thread, problem solved, I fitted heaps of those.

Noel

[5speed]

Doesn't it strike you as a little odd that the only thing to vibrate loose on that guy's FJR was the one bolt he regularly removes and replaces himself?

I have literally seen tens of thousands of vehicles pass through my work places over the years and I've done thousands myself, I can't ever recall a sump plug falling out. I've encountered stripped, cross threaded and finger tight plugs by the dozens but never heard of one falling out.

For a long time it was common for sump plugs to be large diameter, shallow, fine threaded and always hastily refitted between drips, anyone who works with threads will know this is a disaster waiting to happen, and it frequently was. GM, Ford, Chrysler and others all offered No's 1,2 & 3 oversize plugs as genuine spares for just this reason.

Red, your many posts over the years suggest you are knowledgeable, resourceful and a thinker with mechanical nous, I'm surprised you have so little faith in threads. Where do you draw the line, castellated nuts on the rods, wired big ends, cam caps....? If you're going to second guess the engineers, how do you decide what needs wiring and what doesn't?

I have seen countless examples of automotive engineers getting it wrong over my working life but specifying thread pitch, diameter, depth and torque is rarely one of them. Also, there is not one skerrick of verifiable evidence to suggest these plugs come loose anyway.

As I've said to you previously, if you want to wire them, great, do it, just so long as the readers understand you're not doing it to address a known problem.

The only thread related issue I can remember over the last 50+ years was a batch of VW Beetles on which the heads came loose, the factory fix kit was simply a new set of studs with a different thread, problem solved, I fitted heaps of those.

Noel

Oh I hear you..an isolated case of anything falling off a vehicle and I automatically think operator error. I don't plan on wiring any oil drain plugs on anything.

[Millietant]

Way back in 1992, on our honeymoon (touring Europe two up with Liz) we were riding the FJ up a hill in the Black Forest with many lovely hairpins and beautiful cambered bends when all of a sudden it felt like the back wheel was on ice and the oil light came on.

I managed to pull over and saw the oil all over the back of the bike and the tyre. I traced the source to a weird looking bolt (looked like a cotton bobbin with a threaded stalk on one end) on the side of the sump that was loose and the oil was spewing out around the threads. At the time I fortunately had a spare bottle of oil on the bike and enough tools in the kit to refill the oil and tighten up the bolt, just enough to get us to a nearby dealer to get a proper repair.

It turns out that the dealer who gave the bike a "major service" in preparation for the honeymoon trip, had not bothered removing the exhaust to get the drain bolt out, so they had removed the "gallery plug" to drain the oil....and then lost it.....basically they bodged it and said nothing (I also think they turned the engine over with the plugs out to get the oil out through the gallery bolt hole, but might be wrong in that). Not only did they not drain the oil properly, but they put the "bolt" back in with a fibre washer.......and surprise surprise, it came loose. Their bodge and laziness, could very easily have cost both Liz and myself our lives.

When I got home and tackled the dealer, they apologised and offered to give me another free service......like I'd trust them again with my bike !!!

That was the last time I used an official Yamaha dealer for any mechanical/servicing work. For the last 29 years I've done it all myself, or had it done by the FJOC a couple of times. In my experience, drain plugs don't fail or leak unless you a) abuse them, or b) don't fit them properly !

Aside from all of the stories I have heard across decades of riding, Rbentnail on the Yamaha FJR forum just lost the oil drain plug lately.  Vibrations (gremlins) have a habit of doing that, on any bike.  The Hardleys are famous for leaving a trail of parts behind them.  Some might say I'm a fanatic about safety wire, but hey, to each his own.      

I've been spinning wrenches on my own vehicles for over 3 decades. Haven't lost a drain plug yet, and I don't torque them to 2000 foot pounds like some "mechanics" do when you get an oil change.

Doesn't it strike you as a little odd that the only thing to vibrate loose on that guy's FJR was the one bolt he regularly removes and replaces himself?

I have literally seen tens of thousands of vehicles pass through my work places over the years and I've done thousands myself, I can't ever recall a sump plug falling out. I've encountered stripped, cross threaded and finger tight plugs by the dozens but never heard of one falling out.

For a long time it was common for sump plugs to be large diameter, shallow, fine threaded and always hastily refitted between drips, anyone who works with threads will know this is a disaster waiting to happen, and it frequently was. GM, Ford, Chrysler and others all offered No's 1,2 & 3 oversize plugs as genuine spares for just this reason.

Red, your many posts over the years suggest you are knowledgeable, resourceful and a thinker with mechanical nous, I'm surprised you have so little faith in threads. Where do you draw the line, castellated nuts on the rods, wired big ends, cam caps....? If you're going to second guess the engineers, how do you decide what needs wiring and what doesn't?

I have seen countless examples of automotive engineers getting it wrong over my working life but specifying thread pitch, diameter, depth and torque is rarely one of them. Also, there is not one skerrick of verifiable evidence to suggest these plugs come loose anyway.

As I've said to you previously, if you want to wire them, great, do it, just so long as the readers understand you're not doing it to address a known problem.

The only thread related issue I can remember over the last 50+ years was a batch of VW Beetles on which the heads came loose, the factory fix kit was simply a new set of studs with a different thread, problem solved, I fitted heaps of those.

Noel