Prospect purchase

[fintip]

I sure wish I could edit even after a bit of time. I often go back and correct details normally... Like adjusting the route slightly so that it now skips some of the most southern portion of California and goes from the coast in a more direct route to Death Valley.

[Tiger]

  Great news buddy 

Now go ride her like you stole her and bring her home for lots of T L C...

Keep us posted...

John.

[Steve_in_Florida]

This is a ballsy endeavor on your part!

I wish you much good luck and safe travels.

This is the start of an epic "FJ" love affair.

Take (and post) pictures!!!

Steve

[Arnie]

Good luck to you. 
Hope you have no further problems with the bike once you get it running.
That's one hell of a trip to take on a bike you have no history with.

Some suggestions of things to see along your route;

You mentioned the Grand Canyon.  Take the time to walk into the canyon and really experience it.
Depending on your fitness and the weather you should be able to walk down to the Colorado River and back to the Rim in a (long) day.  If you're not quite that fit, even getting 1/2 way down and back is well worth the time.

Just East of Flagstaff is the turn-off to Walnut Creek National Monument.
  This is a fantastic enlightening experience of cave dwellings.  Plan on 1/2 day

South of Albuquerque on US25 is Truth or Consequences.  Best steak house I've ever been to.
Also very near there is Elephant Butte State park

North of Albuquerque is SantaFe capital of NM.  Wonderful small city which has been been in existence since 1500s IIRC.  If I were to live in US, this would be my location of choice.

Albuquerque itself has lots of interesting places including some great restaurants and the Sandias overlooking.

Remember the Sierra Club motto, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints"  (and tire tracks :-)

Cheers,
Arnie

[SlowOldGuy]

THE BATTERY IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Send your friend to Walmart for the cheapest battery they have that fits.  Take it to the bike and see if the lights turn on.  They should have come on when the battery charger was hooked up.

I have good batteries and if they sit for a week without use, the charger will not go directly to float.  Maybe the owner left something disconnected while troubleshooting.

DavidR.

[fintip]

I'll certainly take pictures, but my big 'thing' is video. I edit video as a pasttime, and have a pretty decent camera for doing so (720p). Should make for some great stuff!

Arnie, thanks a lot for those suggestions. I'll definitely take those to heart. I'll definitely hike a good deal of it, on your advice. (My fitness level is quite good, so I'll make sure to enjoy it properly. I'm sure I'll be ready to walk around after all that sitting--even though I'll be riding in a corbin saddle! ).

As far as Truth or Consequences being the best steak house you've ever been to--I'll give it a try, but I have a hard time believing they can beat the steak houses in Texas. (Plug for my home state, come on.)

I'll make sure to add Santa Fe to the route.

As far as the Sierra club motto, well spoken; I'm well familiar with it, as they are very present with and active in the climbing community, and are responsible for a lot of places being open to climbing in the US that otherwise would not be.

As far as it being ballsy--Ah, what the hell, I've got you guys if I run into something, bike come with a Clymer, and I always bring a pretty full set of road tools with me (that tank bag looks pretty wimpy compared to what I keep, and mine is virtually only filled with tools and parts and electrical equipment and fuses, etc.). I'll make it one way or another. "Where there's a will, there's a way. Where there's not a way, there's a hell of a good story."

As far as the battery being dead, I have high hopes! But I really imagine the mechanic he had it with should have picked up on that, unless he was a complete ass hole. And I really hope the owner replaced it anyways. As far as sending a friend over, I won't be attempting a single repair of any kind until the title is in my hand, and the title doesn't change hands until I've paid in full--but you can bet I'll be bringing one over with me when I arrive!

However, keep in mind that the owner probably didn't turn the key while the battery was hooked up to the float charger, so I don't know about that. But it definitely sounds like a pretty simple fix, gotta be an open circuit between the battery and the fusebox, or we'd at least be hearing some clicking. I spent all night thinking about it, and I'm just convinced it can't be that complicated.

I found this excellent video on using wiring diagrams, which I've always shied away from.

But the way I figure it, worst case scenario, should I just be able to run wires straight from the battery to the fusebox and bypass a lot of stuff? What is the absolute minimalist wiring setup I might need, if I 'replace' (overlay a new) 'harness'? Power to coils and a new battery, and should I be able to push-start it? Another wire connecting the 'lights' fuse to the battery, so I don't get pulled over for no tail light... Anything else that MUST get power for the thing to run? I am no electric expert, but I know it's simple, I know I know enough, and I know I can learn what I don't know if I need to. (Worst case scenario, just what does it take to start it up and drive it home from the guy's house, I mean.)

It's not circuit boards, though, yeah?

(And please, if I'm completely wrong and saying something stupid here, tell me.)

[SlowOldGuy]

Definitely get a schematic diagram and take it with you!

Start at the battery then go to the ignition switch.  Red/white striped wire is switched, I think Brown has power all the time (but it's been a long time snce I've studied the schematic).

Good luck.

DavidR.

[fj11.5]

and if its dead at the start switch, you should be able to start it or at least turn it over , , blue/ white wire at start solenoid ?  take apart at connecter and touch the Female side to earth with a length of wire, piece of melal ect

[aviationfred]

Looks like you have most of your bases covered for trouble shooting once you get to Seattle. My 2 cents is.... With a battery that has a good charge and no idiot lights and headlight when you turn the ignition switch on. Check the ignition switch circuit for a broken wire, or the switch itself may be bad. Also take a look at the main fuse, should be like 30 Amp. I have had one blow on a different model and trouble shot the wiring for 2 days before I found it.

Good luck on getting it up and running. Can't wait to hear the story of how your trip went.

Fred

[ribbert]

Great to hear you finally landed one!

Your proposed trip on a bike you're yet to see and that doesn't run yet is ill advised, fraught with risk, optimistic in the extreme, likely to give you grief along the way and one that no sensible person would take on.

It is also EXACTLY what I would have done 30 years ago!

Good luck and keep us posted on your adventure.

Noel

[fintip]

Does anyone have a good schematic online somewhere I can look at and start studying in advance? I'm sure the clymers has one in it, but I won't have that until I get there, and it'd be nice to have my theories mapped out in advance. In the files section, I see one for the 1100 (how similar? Also, I think it's only black and white, unfortunately), and I see the Factory Service "manual" for the 84/86 (but no wiring diagram inside, oddly enough--just a list of electrical components with pictures, without wiring information; this is actually the book titled "Service information", a supplement to the actual manual).

I haven't gone through it in depth, but I had to do a lot of digging to find it, and it looks very promising. Any feedback on this?

http://web.archive.org/web/20050226024019/http://www.megageek.com/mcelectric/mcflow1_raster.gif
http://web.archive.org/web/20050226024019/http://www.megageek.com/mcelectric/mcflow2_raster.gif
http://web.archive.org/web/20050226024019/http://www.megageek.com/mcelectric/mcflow3_raster.gif

Thanks for the encouragement, Ribbert. Trying to make some memories to hold onto in my saner years, whenever they come.

Will definitely be checking the fuses right off--Only problem I had on my current trip was a complete electrical failure that I couldn't solve on the side of the road, so in the space of an hour I improvised a way to bypass the key switch by tying some wires in the fusebox together (not recommended, but in a fix, exactly what the doctor called for--not good to be stuck on the side of the road in Mexico at 1am in the rain...), which seemed to be the problem, and effectively hotwired it. Road it home, and after a lot of troubleshooting, realized that even though the fuse looked good, voltage wasn't getting to its output side.

Replaced it, bam. Everything was golden. Lesson learned, don't trust visual confirmation of fuses.

When I get to the bike, if I can't solve it on my own, you can bet I'll be starting a proper thread to search out some help troubleshooting. As it is, I think I won't make it out to the bike for about 3 weeks.

[movenon]

Sounds like an adventure. Dress warm for up here in the NW and prepair for some rain. Wish I was in the Seattle area to help. I live in Meridian, Idaho if you are in the area.
Check the files section for an online copy for an 1984 service manual. It's around 79mb of data. If gmail would let that large of a file to go though I would send it to you.
Hopefully it is something simple. Pull the seat and fuel tank off. I would start with a new fresh battery. Check all the simple stuff first. ALL fuses. connectors and wiring. RUN/STOP switch to run, kick stand up, in neutral, etc.. Simple stuff first.
A little deeper. Starter, Starter relay, kick stand interlock, run/stop switch, the switch on the clutch lever. Have a voltmeter on hand, a couple of chunks of 12 gauge stranded wire with alligator clips might be useful in jumping or bypassing for trouble shooting purposes.
Hard to cover everything in the dark. Study the service manual. The operators manuals are also on line. It will answer stupid questions like how to remove the seat etc..
Allawys lots of help here on the fourm.

[fintip]

As a search note, I did find the manual for the '86/87 online on a FORMERLY awesome website: scribd.com.

Yamaha FJ1100,1200 84-93 Clymer Service Manual ENG

Unfortunately, since last time I was there, they have started CHARGING for downloads--$9/month. Frustrating. They were free for years.

Anyways, it's viewable online, so I took some screen captures and cobbled complete versions of the wiring diagram together for easy viewing. I guess I should add these to the "Files" section?

http://imageshack.us/a/img513/474/8687wiringdiagram.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img14/4015/8687wiringdiagrambig.png <---That one is bigger, the one above is easier to see all on one screen, but a little small.

The method for making this, in case someone wants to add ones for their own bikes, was to look at part of the page, press 'prnt scrn' button, open paint, paste. Clean up so that only page content is there. Zoom out and enlarge the canvass. Go back to webpage. Scroll down. Prnt scrn. Repeat ad nauseum.

That manual linked above has wiring diagrams at the end for every FJ made, US and UK versions.

Sure wish these were in color though. Coloring these would be a lot of work to do by hand.

[I make oil]

With a trip like that planned you should consider ordering a set vibranators from RPM.  They will make a huge difference in your comfort.  Good luck.  I'm looking forward to hearing how this works out.

[93fj1200]

Great to hear you finally landed one!
Your proposed trip on a bike you're yet to see and that doesn't run yet is ill advised, fraught with risk, optimistic in the extreme, likely to give you grief along the way and one that no sensible person would take on.
It is also EXACTLY what I would have done 30 years ago!
Good luck and keep us posted on your adventure.
Noel

I did that last November, bought my latest FJ in Canada without a test drive, left from Kitchener, Ontario and drove to Mexico City in 3.5 days via Nashville, Waco and Nuevo Laredo, than drove more around both Mexico to Veracruz to Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan (not on the ferry), Guadalajara and back to Mexico City before heading two weeks later to Panama through Central America. More than 20 thousand kilometers in less than 2 months and only had problems with a front wheel bearings($30 in Mazatlan), leaking clutch slave cylinder($40 in Mexico City) and a few used tire changes($160 Ensenada, Mexico City).  FJs are incredible bikes.  If there is a better bike, I don´t know how it could be.
Greg