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

[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

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

That would be great Harvy. However I don't have bars to fit them to and I don't think the 93's would fit my 89

[movenon]

"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."

Mike, I latched on to a set of Blue Dots and installed them using the FJ master cylinder for the time being (lots of financial irons in the fire).  One thing that I noticed is they are a lot lighter the the FJ units.  Taking that weight off the front wheel is a plus.  Now if I could get some weight off the seat...........
Not a perfect world, throw them Gold Dots on  .
George

[skymasteres]

Wow, it's amazing how when you're doing little things piecemeal that you just don't think to write about it.
Then before you know it, you're months behind on project updates. (They just seem to add up...)

And to answer the question about the highway pegs, YES they do drag just before you hit the footpeg feelers.
(Interestingly they don't when riding two up) The good news is that I put them on in such a way that if they
do rotate, they won't take out the engine case.

So the list of things that have been done since I last posted:
Changed the oil
Redid the clutch
Replaced the chain
Changed the sprockets (18/42) Was supposed to be (18/38, but Boats.net sent the wrong sprocket)
Fixed the speedo cable retainer
Replaced the shock linkage bearings
Installed my F4i shock

The clutch was simple this time because it's not my first, or second time around for that matter.  
Got a couple extra of the full size plates and replaced the small plates with these. (A die grinder
with a carbide cutter makes short work of opening up the one plate to fit the pressure plate)  



I thought about doubling up on the clutch springs but decided since I was replacing all of them,
AND adding bigger plates to replace the little ones, that I would be fine with the stock spring.
My hunch was correct. I have not had any issues with clutch slippage.



I have to say though, it's really bad when you finally get it put together and fire it up with the clutch
slave off, due to changing the rear sprocket. (Pumps a lot of oil fast...)

When you're changing out the sprocket, make sure you really secure it before putting a wrench on it.
Because it's really crappy when you put a wrench on the nut and your clamp slips, busting out a piece of
the engine case...



Fortionately, you can get away without that tab. (I saved the pieces anyway though) The new sprocket
sure looks bigger even though it's only one tooth up in size.



Burning the midnight oil. The garage has a nice little glow when it's just the spot lamps on...



Made me think of elves working through the night on the bike...

Although come morning... No elves. What a shock. (It was December...)

So, I went out and bought a replacement rubber piece for the speedo cable retainer. About two
hours after I put it on, it came out of the fender, then the speedo cable came loose and I lost it.  
That wasn't going to do. After I got the second replacement part I was looking for a better way
to secure it to the fender. As it turns out, a door panel push pin for a Ford is a perfect fit in the
back side and really locks the sucker in place.



The shock linkages were in desperate need of attention. With over 120K on the bike there was a
lot of play in the rear swingarm. There was also a lot of play in the spherical bearing in the shock
linkage. (And part of the bronze was actually coming out)


It's also pretty terrible when you see pitting and what not on your needle bearing races.
(Those needle bearing marks are actually deep enough to feel with your nail) 



Getting the dogbone bearings out of the swingarm is a snap when you use the dissimilar expansion
rates of steel and aluminum. (Note, you can't drive them through from the outside. There is a ridge
inside the bearing bore that prevents this)



Another pointless, I may as well because I can item. Adding zerk fittings to the shock linkage. I figure
it couldn't hurt to be able to periodically make sure the thing was full of grease. (Positively displace
anything you don't want in there...)




Sometimes a little research goes a long way. (With a little help from the search feature I found a post
made by George a long time ago) To further underscore Honda's being cheaper than Yamaha's, the
dogbone bearings we need are the same as the 2013 NC700X. And only at only $7 each, a real bargain.
A lot of digging can yield great results. But now you don't have to do it yourself.


Dogbone bearings (Yamaha PN93317-41761-00) (#20 on diagram)  
PN: 91052-MGS-D31 (17x24x30mm needle bearings) NC700X
The relay arm to frame bearings (Yamaha PN 93315-21813-00) (#10 on diagram) can be replaced with
HK1816 (18x24x16 bearing) OR HK1812 (18x24x12 bearings)
Shock bearing (Number 26 on the diagram) Is a 20x27x35mm bearing that could be replaced a GE12PW
spherical bearing or BKM2035JUU needle bearing. (Yamaha PN 93399-99919-00)



Here is my setup using high tech sockets as supports to press in the new needle bearings...
It just required some delicate work with a 3lb mini-sledge.



And last but not least. The crown jewel of this upgrade, my re-sprung and re-valved Honda F4i shock.
Jamie Daugherty of Daugherty Motorsports revalved the shock for the FJ and set it up for my weight.
All I can say is the difference is tremendous. I'm sure it's not nearly as good as Randy's inertia sensing
shock, but for my current skills it's an amazing upgrade. Or put another way, it perfectly matches the
cartridge valve emulators up front. It's just really impressive how soft the ride is now, without sacrificing
stability. (I had the preload cranked on the old shock because it was all over the place otherwise)



The cool thing here is, the sock gets to sit right side up, and I don't have to modify the clevis on the
end. I asked for a 290mm eye to eye length. I ended up getting 295mm, but that was due to there not
being enough room to machine the shock body.

As always with something that isn't stock there's some final fitting required, like having to bore the clevis
for the right bolt size. (But better too small a hole than too big)



And of course the aluminum needed to be relieved to clear the relay arm gussets.


Getting excited on reassembly isn't suck a good thing. Pretty as it may be, you can't put the swingarm in
with the shock mounted this way....



There we go. Much better.




And as a final note, there is the space where the disaster happened...



And of course. It's working great!






Now for the PITA part...
I have been trying to lick this issue but have had no luck so far. I am having some weird electrical
issues and I don't know where they are coming from.

The fuel gauge will dance wildly. This is not the dry gauge bounce. (My gauge may be dry, perhaps
because of how wildly it can move, but it only swings like crazy when the tach jitters) There are long
periods of time where I am on rough roads and the fuel needle doesn't move. There are also times
where I'm on glass smooth roads and it's swinging though its full range of motion like crazy. (It never
hits the bottom stop and doesn't go past vertical)

The tachometer jitters off and on. Usually when I notice the fuel gauge freaking out I can see that the
tach is bouncing a little as well. (Very mild, only jitters a hundred or so RPM)

The new symptom is that my dash mounted volt meter occasionally drops to zero for an instant here or
there. (I have verified that it has good connections, but I have not verified that it's not an internal issue
due to the intense vibration it experiences)

First off, I removed my ignition coil relay power taps. (I'm not running the big bore anymore so)
I have been looking over the wiring diagram and only see one possible place that the tachometer and fuel
gauge wires cross. That's at the #40 relay. It's not a direct connection as it's housing the low fuel light
(which goes back to the sender) and the positive power for the coils. (I'm thinking it's a shared positive)
I'm wondering if my issue could be caused by noise generated from the coils causing the tach and fuel gauge
needles to dance. (Or perhaps something in that loop grounding where it shouldn't)

Here is an annotated wiring diagram.



Any ideas on why this is happening? I have a feeling it's something inside the relay that handles the ignition
and the low fuel light. Only thing I can figure is that there is some voltage that is being dumped into the
fuel sender circuit that is causing the needle to dance.

[Klavdy]

It's probably your battery.
Seriously.
Even if it's new,swap it out for a known good one.

[movenon]

Nice follow up Mike. Thanks for the info on the swing arm bearings.  I have a swing arm that I am trying to polish and when done I will change out the bearings. Wasn't aware you couldn't just tap out the bearings..  Guess I better look into that today.... At least pull them out. 

As a follow up for any one changing a front sprocket it helps if you grind down the face of a socket to get rid of the bevel (about the first 1/8 inch). I just pushed the face into a sander and dressed it down. The nut is shallow and the modified socket will get more bite.


Adding information to thread. Here is a picture of a 1990 relay arm end that attaches to the frame. The bottom bearing is a stock bearing and the top is what I replaced it with. Easy to do. And the bearings were 2 for 11.35 when I did mine.


Nice work on the shock. Can I ask what spring rate you ended up with.  Doing some experimenting here.  I have a 950 lb spring on my current shock (2013 R6 shock) and it is in spec but I am at full preload.  225 lbs, full fuel, tank bag, 16 lb simulated load on the rear rack. Thinking about a 1050lb  spring, around 10% increase.

Have you painted your scoops yet ?
George

[skymasteres]

It's probably your battery.
Seriously.
Even if it's new,swap it out for a known good one.

Klavdy,

I appreciate that. And that's what I did when it first started acting up. No change. I may have an issue with my voltage regulator as it drifts all the way up to 14.4v sometimes.

[ribbert]

Getting the dogbone bearings out of the swingarm is a snap when you use the dissimilar expansion
rates of steel and aluminum. (Note, you can't drive them through from the outside. There is a ridge
inside the bearing bore that prevents this)



Another pointless, I may as well because I can item. Adding zerk fittings to the shock linkage. I figure
it couldn't hurt to be able to periodically make sure the thing was full of grease. (Positively displace
anything you don't want in there...)





Here is my setup using high tech sockets as supports to press in the new needle bearings...
It just required some delicate work with a 3lb mini-sledge.

Lots of good work there Mike. I don't find the adding of grease nipples at all pointless, it is an excellent idea.

I'd be reluctant to recommend hitting the needle rollers home to anyone reading this post. Much and all as a hammer in the right hands is a finely tuned instrument, this is not an ideal application for one. Those needle roller cages are thin and easy to mess up. You would be better drawing it in. A length of threaded rod, two nuts and selection of washers will do the trick.
It is also easy to partially collapse the old bearing (because the cage is not strong) with a hammer and punch, a steel shaft screw driver is even better, and it will just fall out.

Noel

[skymasteres]

Lots of good work there Mike. I don't find the adding of grease nipples at all pointless, it is an excellent idea.

I'd be reluctant to recommend hitting the needle rollers home to anyone reading this post. Much and all as a hammer in the right hands is a finely tuned instrument, this is not an ideal application for one. Those needle roller cages are thin and easy to mess up. You would be better drawing it in. A length of threaded rod, two nuts and selection of washers will do the trick.
It is also easy to partially collapse the old bearing (because the cage is not strong) with a hammer and punch, a steel shaft screw driver is even better, and it will just fall out.

Noel

You're absolutely right Noel. Using that chisel to remove the old bearings really messed them up. Since I was throwing them away anyway I considered the damage acceptable. As for putting them in, I suppose my tongue in cheek comment about the mini-sledge could be taken literally. That's a really smart way to put the bearings in. As for my method, I think the only reason I managed to get them put in without damaging them with the hammer was I used light taps. Basically just using weight of the 3# falling on the socket to tap them in. Since I didn't put enough force into the shells to exceed the ductile limit, I didn't mess them up.

[movenon]

Heated and tapped out my swingarm bearings with a drift today.  Came out pretty easy.  Back to sanding............ I like the grease zerts. Got to find my tap now....  
George

[Dan Filetti]

I seem to recall one member solved his odd acting gauges and sundry electrical issues by cleaning up all of his ground connections.  Have you checked these?

Just a thought.

Dan

[Flynt]

I seem to recall one member solved his odd acting gauges and sundry electrical issues by cleaning up all of his ground connections. 

That's my experience.  My tach was acting strange, kind of floating around and indicating between 1 and 2X the actual RPM.  Cleaning the grounds at the coils themselves solved the problem.  The connections really didn't look bad, but I made them as good as I could and it worked.  Once I rebuilt Wiz the frame powder coat would have caused the same issue (didn't mask the sides of the through bolt sleeve), but Randy's attention to detail came through for me and he fixed the issue while installing the engine.

I had another "bad ground" experience with the Duc last week...  the symptoms and the CEL Code made it look like the CAN bus had an open loop somewhere between the ECU and the dash.  I had spent several hours working through all connections cleaning and checking continuity, but still no joy.  Finally checked some random grounds near the tail (turned out to be a speed sensor ground) that looked a bit sketchy.  Cleaned them and problem solved.

Frank

[movenon]

Getting the dogbone bearings out of the swingarm is a snap when you use the dissimilar expansion
rates of steel and aluminum. (Note, you can't drive them through from the outside. There is a ridge
inside the bearing bore that prevents this)



Another pointless, I may as well because I can item. Adding zerk fittings to the shock linkage. I figure
it couldn't hurt to be able to periodically make sure the thing was full of grease. (Positively displace
anything you don't want in there...)




Sometimes a little research goes a long way. (With a little help from the search feature I found a post
made by George a long time ago) To further underscore Honda's being cheaper than Yamaha's, the
dogbone bearings we need are the same as the 2013 NC700X. And only at only $7 each, a real bargain.
A lot of digging can yield great results. But now you don't have to do it yourself.


Dogbone bearings (Yamaha PN93317-41761-00) (#20 on diagram)  
PN: 91052-MGS-D31 (17x24x30mm needle bearings) NC700X
The relay arm to frame bearings (Yamaha PN 93315-21813-00) (#10 on diagram) can be replaced with
HK1816 (18x24x16 bearing) OR HK1812 (18x24x12 bearings)
Shock bearing (Number 26 on the diagram) Is a 20x27x35mm bearing that could be replaced a GE12PW
spherical bearing or BKM2035JUU needle bearing. (Yamaha PN 93399-99919-00)

Thanks for the Honda bearing part number on the swingarm where the dog bones attach.  It is a little less expensive than the Yamaha replacements.  Just for added information the swingarm main shaft bearings are 2530Z (25x33x30). That is part no. 3 in the diagram.
George

[skymasteres]

Falling behind once again. I'm telling you, the better I get this old girl sorted out, the more I want to just ride off into the mountains and tackle new, more challenging terrain. Sometimes that search takes you to places you weren't really meant to be, but more on that later.

I have really been enjoying the F4i rear shock. I think that changing the stock 795#/in spring to a 1000#/in spring has probably had the biggest impact of on the bike's handling. At first I thought the stiffer spring was too soft, but after riding it I realized that the original shock was so shot that I had the preload cranked unbelievably high to control the rear wheel. Now the bike rides so much smoother, and doesn't rock forward and back when going over washboard road surfaces.
Of course, nothing shakes a new shock down like a 400+ mile ride heading up north towards Yosemite and checking out the winding mountain roads up that way. Met up with Capn Ron and FJMonkey and away we went. Little slow start, Capn Ron coming under threat of being "Fired", but the twisties did show up.



After quite a bit of fun there we found a "Road Closed" sign. With a little dithering back and forth the decision was made to "Sally forth". I mean, what's the worst that could happen?



I'll tell you what though, it's deeply satisfying when you hit that really tight hairpin just right and can roll on full throttle in 1st gear. Really blasts you through the curve and you can feel the cornering forces. It wasn't all fun and games though. As we continued on, wondering why the road was "closed", we started to encounter ice. Not just a little ice. But, stretching all the way across the road for a good stretch ice.





After the decision was made that the road was impassible, we turned back. The rest of the ride was uneventful, though there were frequent stops to check the map to make sure we were on course.



The scenery was like something off of a post card...



The last 100 mile stretch of slab getting home that night certainly finished off the tires.



With all this riding and expanding my riding envelope, I finally managed to fry the Dulop Sportmax
D204's. Time for some new rubber, or baby needs a new pair of shoes if you will. After agenizing over what tires to get, even putting together a spreadsheet comparing cost, cost per mile, and projected tire life; I settled on a set of Continental Motions. (Got them for $166.91 from www.americanmototire.com) Though I was disappointed I had already bought them when I saw Iron Pony's (www.ironpony.com) closeout on the Bridgestone Battlax BT-023's. In my pricing matrix they were beat out by the motions. But at a clearance price of $191.98 (vs. $244.48) for the GT version....($178.98 for the regular ones if you don't ride two up much) Maybe I'll just get a set and put them aside... Of course the other strong contender was the Pilot Road 4 tires that just came out. But at a price of $321.98 for a set, I figured their mileage advantage was eaten up by the fact that I could almost buy two sets of the Motion's for every one of the Pilots.

But I digress, my Conties showed up a whopping 18 hours after I ordered them, talk about fast with free shipping. Unfortunately I had to wait till the weekend to head down to FJMonkey's place to put them on. But, since this is a late post, I'm free to mess with time.

Bring me 'Changing tires at Mark's tape.

http://youtu.be/qzO4BSTnkgg

And a gratuitous shot of the tires strapped to the back of the bike.



Funny thing was, the weather was beautiful in the desert when I left that afternoon. (Side rant: I REALLY hate it when you get an email from USPS saying your package has been delivered hours ago but, when you check your box, it's EMPTY.) When I got down to FJMonkey's place, it was a miserable rainy mess. But, I was able to offer an east coast trick for making dry'ish workspace where none exists. (Heck when you grow up in a place where it rains 165 days a year you learn these things) A couple ladders, a tarp, some clamps, and a rope and presto. We had an extension of the garage.



Of course getting the rear wheel off was easy and with this well-defined step by step process, we were sure to have these new hides put on in a jiffy.



What guy doesn't like tools? Having the right tool for the job is a huge time saver. In this case, an electric blade that made short work of the tire sidewall.



The husk of the tire came off easily. But wait, what's this? The sidewalls are still FIRMLY attached to the rim. Uh oh, let me tell you, this is not a happy predicament.



But after much sweating, grunting, swearing, and otherwise expending all sorts of effort we managed to pry the sidewalls off the rim. (As Mark said, "A guy would have a permanent, unquestionable man card if he could pull on of those off by hand")

The rest of the process went smoothly. Got the new tire zip tied, lubed, put on the rim, and inflated. The beads only took a couple minutes to pop. So smoothly that we went and got the tire installed and boy did it look good.



Until I realized that there was a nice UNUSED wheel balancing stand sitting behind Mark...



You'll also notice that it is conspicuously dark here. That is because, while we did secede in not
repeating the bead mistake on the front wheel. We failed to learn the lesson of balancing the wheel before re-installing it on the front.

To help combat this I have created the tire changing boldface to make sure these important steps are not missed.



Of course we did get the old girl back together and Mark was nice enough to put me up for the night since the weather was still awful out. A huge thanks to him for going through that with me and putting up will all the griping.



I'll tell you what though, GOOGLE MAPS LIES! My goodness, when you're hunting for twisty roads it lists dirt trails... Somehow when I thought I was going to be testing the traction of these new skins, this isn't what I had in mind.



You know you've gone too far when you pass an ATV stuck in the mud. (Kept looking at the map and it looked for all the world like the road was going to turn into a proper paved bit) Not the case. I came to this giant hill and called the game on account of insanity.



Worked my way back to the paved roads but I'm telling you, what a mess.



The next weekend I decided it was time to do the Snake. Headed out to Mulholland and road it up to the Rock Store. Okay roads, but not a tight as I thought they would be.



There was a really nice section of road just north of the Rock Store though. Of course there were also fire trucks and an ambulance. (That sign was knocked over, but I picked it up for this picture because it had bullet holes in it) This was also where I had my epiphany about FJ riders vs. sportbike riders. You hear all kinds of stuff about Mulholland. But really everyone is talking about a stretch of road under a mile long. The sportbike rider will run this same section of road over and over, progressively getting faster though it then call it a day. The FJ rider will run that section as well as every other road he can find in a day. Then head home one the bike....



I have to say though. I was really impressed with the Conti Motions. They held firmly on every road surface that I threw them through. Including a wonderfully gnarly, but thoroughly worn out Rt-23.





All in all a good day. Now the next thing is getting the Thunderace swingarm on the bike...

[Klavdy]

That was a really good story, mate.
Please write more.

[1tinindian]

Just tell me, what engine is powering your FJ at this point?
Sounds as if its running pretty good!
Nice story!

Leon