FJ1346 from ashes to... Well, we'll see...

[skymasteres]

Okay, I'm back. As usual, there's LOTS of stuff going on behind the scenes.  Sometimes I get so far
behind with what's going on that I don't know where to start with updating this thread.

Anyway, onto riding. I guess one of the advantages of the rear brake not being lockable is that you can
REALLY stop on the thing in a panic situation and you are always at your maximum effectiveness. (Well
not locking it at least)  So here's a plug for making sure that you wear your gear ALL the time. I was out
riding with FJMonkey, Frank, and San Dimas Mike when I got caught letting my mind wander and ended
up halfway into a hairpin before I even recognized it. Made a flash decision to just brake hard and stop
the bike on the side of the road.  Not really the kind of situation where you have time to second guess
yourself. But even so, I did waste precious brain bytes when I saw that the shoulder was dirt, and I had a
LOT less run out room than I thought.





The end result was, as I let the cold grip of panic start to get me, I REALLY grabbed the brakes HARD and
locked the front wheel up once it hit the dirt shoulder. The only good news was that I had dumped most
of the energy on the pavement. There was about a 15' streak of dirt where the wheel slid, and the bike slid
about two feet when it flopped over on me.  The good news was the gear did it's just and I was just dusty
with bruised pride.





This is where I get to plug the Rentec Engine Bars that Randy is selling. These things did EXACTLY what they
were designed to do and more. They protected the engine, as well as the footpeg, rear brake, and most
importantly my foot/ankle.  They're a GREAT product, and something that all these things should be equipped with.

So, with that ride completed I figured it was time to head back into the "little shop of wonders" and get back
to work. My HID kit had arrived from DDM and I figured it was time to install it. That and I was waiting to take
the fairing off so I could clean the contacts on all the wiring harness connectors, fix the fuel gauge needle in the
cluster, and create the cluster 2.0.

What a trooper, I would had chosen grit removal, grind the #$@& off!!!

Well, I tried that initially, but aluminum gets fantastically hot when you try to sand or grind that much material off...

It's funny how much hand work is involved when you are trying to match a odd shape and want a good fit.





It's an iterative process that involves a lot of trial and correction. It doesn't take too long to go from the rough
part to something pretty close.





But going from that to this, is another thing entirely. Lots of marking and grinding, then checking the fit over
and over again until it fits. 



 

But I have to say, I REALLY like the 30* (about) kickup that puts the gauges perpendicular to your sightline.
That and when you're looking down at them they don't even come close to covering anything. (Although I have
to say, George's unit is pretty slick looking)





Here's an important note for anyone that has dropped their bike. What I have found after several incidents is,
if you have dropped your bike, YOU HAVE CRACKED PLASTIC. You might not be able to see it. But it's there.
Whether it's broken tabs, cracks along support lines, or something else the plastic has cracked somewhere.
The fairing looked fine until I pulled the frame out of it and saw the cracks caused by flopping it over.  The
repair was straightforward and has already been covered in detail on how to do it so I won't bore you with it
all over again.

The DDM HID kit was also pretty straightforward to install. A couple key points though. There are no instructions.
The harness they send you attached to the relay is the two ballast auto harness. You only need one of the ballast
connectors. That and if you do cut off the one set just make sure to put some liquid electrical tape over it or
something.

Here is the wiring diagram for what they have inside the relay box. (The crappy diagram on top is mine showing
the original two relay system I had in there for the 130W bulb I was running) My dad was in town and spent some
time looking at it critically.





The cool thing here is that DDM has this thing designed so that it's idiot proof. It doesn't matter how you hook it
up, it'll still work because of the diode bridges. The other nifty feature is a capacitor that sits across the coil of the
relay. This serves to keep the ballast energized when you switch between low and high beam. (Probably put in
there to lower the cycling of the ballast, which is really a 55w DC to AC coverter. The little black box between the
converter and bulb is a step up transformer to achieve the voltage required to light the HID bulb) Oh, and if you're
having thoughts of keeping your old relays? Don't bother. Besides, the hi/lo actuator is powered by the hi-beam hot
of the original headlight plug. That, and that's where the relay gets its ground.


Here are all of the components tucked away.





The converter is on the left secured with Adel clamps. The relay is where the original relays went for the old system.
The HID bulb is actually identical in length to the stock bulb/plug combination so I didn't have any clearance issues
with the horn.

And with that I'll call it a night, Stay tuned....

[movenon]

Looks good Mike. I am still working on my replacement dash panel. Been a little slow the last few days, been experiencing a short live phenom here called sunshine.... Been doing sunny day chores.....

A note for anyone making there own dash panel that a 1 3/4 (44mm) hole saw makes a nice hole / radius around the ignition switch area.
Rentec's are on the shopping list before spring. 

On my lay over I didn't see any skid marks just a long foot peg gouge in the asphalt, but I did get on the brakes... No choice at the time, well the choice was very limited. I also know my mind wasn't where it should have been.  As a side note I didn't notice or see any rocks but you can't believe how many rocks I dug out from under the fairing, cooling fins, and even in the battery area. A small coffee can full of rocks... 
On the gear, all I can say is jeans are a pain.... Jean burns really are painful..... I haven't had time to dig into what the options are. Probably a good topic in another thread.
George

[skymasteres]

Okay, still catching up. With the final parts arriving Tuesday I guess it's high time I get an update in.

First off let me say this. If you lay your bike down, drop it, have it tip over in a parking lot. YOU HAVE
CRACKED PLASTIC. 

I thought everything looked fine, but upon tearing it all apart I discovered that I had many places where
mounting tabs and gussets had cracks. And on a side note, tough as they are, those air scoops will crack
when the entire weight on the bike comes down on them.


But, you've all seen enough plastic welding so I'll move on to the next mod the beast got while it's down.


I did finally get the cluster opened up and fixed that little plastic cove on the fuel gauge. It's amazing how
paranoid you get about getting the thing dirt inside, or messing it up because you know what a pain in the
rear it is to get at it again. I also replaced the LED bulb that I had in the high beam indicator with a
standard bulb. (The LED was just too dang bright) And the LED I had in the low fuel indicator was swapped
out for a standard bulb as well. Hopefully this will restore the function of the low fuel indicator.


 


New modds are actually happening. Yippie!
Such as braided stainless front brake lines! Finally got around to replacing the original rubber lines.
I can't wait to see what kind of difference they make in the braking characteristics.




Of course here's a pic of my vacuum bleeder setup I've been asked about a few times.  It's a repurposed
mini fridge compressor.  Cheap, easy to come by, and completely sucks ALL the air out of the system in
seconds. (Well, and all the brake fluid too if you're not watching)

[/URL]


The other little bit of it is the sulsa jar that I soldered a couple tubes to the lid to use for catching the fluid.
You can see how dirty the brake fluid that was in the system was though. It's always a good idea to flush the
system at least annually.





Another really cool development is my shifter bearing stack is almost ready for prime time. Here's a picture
of it. It's a couple of hardened washers, some shims, and some bearings.





And here it is bolted in place and functioning.

[simi_ed]

Mike, you need some blue dots!  I had SS lines on mine for years, and brakes were OK.  I dropped on  pair of Blue dots and the brakes moved forward 25 years in about 45 minutes!  Firm lever, solid feel, just a world of better.  I picked up a set of Gold dots from flea bay a few years ago for about $75. 

[movenon]

I have most of the parts now to build an electric vacuum bleeder. Another one of those projects.... I am using a small modified 12V air compressor for mine. No rationale for it other than I had an old pump laying around doing nothing. My thought is to use a remote starter switch with about 6 feet of cable so I can control the 12 volt power enabling me to stand and feed the fluid. The 12 volts can be obtained from the bike itself via clips. I haven't bought a vacuum chamber yet. Probably use an old Mason jar. At present my clutch system and front brake system is completely empty of fluid. So I have a use for it when done.

Annual flushing the brake fluid system is a good thing to do. I like your SS lines... Good thing you had Rentec's on Mike otherwise you would have been fixing more than tabs. To bad Yamaha didn't put a more solid "drop protection" where those "black guards" are on the scoops. Did you get the rotor installed and fired up yet ?
George

[Pat Conlon]

Hey Mike, I bet you don't have to run that vacuum pump long before you run out of fluid in the m/c huh?
Electric vacuum pumps are the cat's meeow when bleeding SUVs or other vehicles with long brake lines.
My hand pump MityVac is all I need for the short lines on my bikes.

BTW, how are those Mikuni RS flat slides working out for you?  Did you get your fueling dialed in?
What jets are you running?

Cheers and say hello to Lilly. I do hope she has changed her mind about a pink motorcycle.  Pat

[fintip]

"engine blast by ca. 240 km/h - god likes good with me....."

Saw this in the facebook group today, thought of your last engine. I'm sure yours was a unique case, mind you.

[FJ_Hooligan]

Wow!  That's seriously disturbing.  I really hate seeing things like this. 
I'm sure it wouldn't be too much trouble to fix the rust on that frame member and replace those stripped ignition cover screws.
Some people....

[fintip]

 

[skymasteres]

Mike, you need some blue dots!  I had SS lines on mine for years, and brakes were OK.  I dropped on  pair of Blue dots and the brakes moved forward 25 years in about 45 minutes!  Firm lever, solid feel, just a world of better.  I picked up a set of Gold dots from flea bay a few years ago for about $75. 

You know, I have a set of Gold Dots just waiting to be installed. I have just been upgrading bits
and pieces incrementally so that I can feel the difference and objectively evaluate the impact of
the change.

I have most of the parts now to build an electric vacuum bleeder. Another one of those projects.... I am using a small modified 12V air compressor for mine. No rationale for it other than I had an old pump laying around doing nothing. My thought is to use a remote starter switch with about 6 feet of cable so I can control the 12 volt power enabling me to stand and feed the fluid. The 12 volts can be obtained from the bike itself via clips. I haven't bought a vacuum chamber yet. Probably use an old Mason jar. At present my clutch system and front brake system is completely empty of fluid. So I have a use for it when done.

Annual flushing the brake fluid system is a good thing to do. I like your SS lines... Good thing you had Rentec's on Mike otherwise you would have been fixing more than tabs. To bad Yamaha didn't put a more solid "drop protection" where those "black guards" are on the scoops. Did you get the rotor installed and fired up yet ?
George

Yeah, the electric bleeder works quite well. I'm not sure which rotor you are referring to, but the
bike is up and running.

As for the front fender tabs, I'm even more convinced that it was the independent motion of the front
forks that broke them. I talked to Jamie Daugherty of Daugherty Motorsports and his opinion was that
it was wind forces from high speeds that broke the fender tabs. I disagree. I got the bike with over 120k
miles on it and the tabs were intact. It was only after aggressive cornering that they broke clean through.
Additionally, when I went out riding in San Diego with Mark "FJ Monkey" and Steve on December 2 I had
a Gen 1 Superbrace. It did make a difference in the handling, but it manifested itself in a reduced tendency
for the bike to "stand up" while braking in corners. Overall the front felt more stable when I was leaned
over and traversing wrinkled pavement. It wasn't a dramatic difference, but it was significant.

Hey Mike, I bet you don't have to run that vacuum pump long before you run out of fluid in the m/c huh?
Electric vacuum pumps are the cat's meeow when bleeding SUVs or other vehicles with long brake lines.
My hand pump MityVac is all I need for the short lines on my bikes.

You know, I think one of the best features of the system is the ability to completely suck all the old fluid
out of the system and replace it with new. And yes, if I leave it hooked up it well drain the system in no time. 

Something to consider for those unconvinced about the need to flush the system. This is the after shot of
the clutch master cylinder reservoir. I didn't realize that there was so much crap sitting in the reservoir, so
I ended up cleaning it out with a paper towel. The fresh fluid looks amazingly clear compared to the old.

BTW, how are those Mikuni RS flat slides working out for you?  Did you get your fueling dialed in?
What jets are you running?
Cheers and say hello to Lilly. I do hope she has changed her mind about a pink motorcycle.  Pat

Pat, I don't have the jets dialed in. As it stands now, she's running fine. But I need to do that. I did
put the carbs into the ultrasonic cleaner and give them a good cleaning out, so I don't think I have
any cylinders running lean.

As for Lilly goes, I don't think she has changed her plans on pink. But it'll be a Looooong time before
she'd be able to act on that dream anyway.

Fintip, I wasn't going nearly that fast when mine failed. Just motoring along at about 6000RPM. It was
a heck of a failure though.

Have the bike fall down on the last ride definitely underscored the "If you've laid down your bike, you
have cracked plastic" mentality. You just can't get around it. They're too heavy.

Here is the right hand scoop plastic welded and sanded smooth. It required quite a bit more heat than
I am used to because of the thickness of the plastic that the scoop is made out of
.


Gotta love the engine bars. With a little TLC they look good as new.



Of course the other nice thing about them is that they give you a really convenient place to mount
some highway pegs. It's just nice to have an alternate place to rest your feet here and there.



There's just so much to do and so much to see. I'll be back again, this time with a replacement for the
ancient rear shock that was on the old girl. ;-)

[TexasDave]

Amen to the engine bars for highway pegs. Thats half the reason I had them put on my bike. Dave

[oz.fj]

I'm with Dave. I like the idea of the highway pegs.
Have you tried them out yet? They look like they might scrape.
Darran

[TexasDave]

Randy mounted mine a bit higher. Dave

[movenon]

Looks good Mike.  Hope to have bars by spring. One thing about pulling apart your bike, you always find stuff to do......
George

[Harvy]

I'm with Dave. I like the idea of the highway pegs.
Have you tried them out yet? They look like they might scrape.
Darran

Darran, there is a pair of highway pegs on the '93 I bought as a parts bike last month....they are yours if you want to give them a tryout.

Harvy