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

[RichBaker]

VintageConnections.com had that connector body when I replaced several on my '90......

[skymasteres]

Yup. Mostly see 91 in Austin at the top. Of course, my question is: is this bike going to be a daily rider? If not, is it really that much of a hassle to run an octane booster? And with the cost you've spent on the motor at this point, I can't imagine the cost would be unbearable for you (again, unless it's your daily rider).

Hard choice, but I feel like if I were this far in I'd just want to go all the way.

I feel like most people are generally misguided about octane numbers... In this case, I understand, but what towing vehicle were you running that had a high enough compression ratio and wasn't fuel injected that required 91 octane?

I run the cheapest octane (83? 87?) on my stock FJ engine. Compression ratio isn't enough to cause pinging. When I hear people here saying they put premium in their stock engines, it just sounds like money wasted to me.

As hard as it may be to believe this is intended to be used as a daily rider.  It has been from the beginning
of this project. I commute most days on a motorcycle. (Unfortunately a couple weeks ago my V45 died)
This bike was intended to be a replacement for it.

I am suffering from a string of heinous errors and mistakes. This was supposed to come together but at every
turn I and faced with further delays.

Getting back to the clutch. I ordered two wide clutch disks and followed the very detailed write up that
Randy provided. http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=1808.msg14307#msg14307
Once I got the clutch basket off, and got that little wire out, I was able to extract the last friction disk and
steel. Interestingly though the steel had a fairly deep groove in it from the damper spring.



Here is a shot showing just how much possible friction area is lost due to the narrow clutch disk with
respect to the pressure plate.



According to the write up, if you "machine" a wide clutch disk a little, you can fit it on the pressure
plate. So I figured, why not? I don't have a lathe big enough to mess with that, but I do have enough
patience to mark how much material needs to be removed and attach the plate with a carbide bur
on a die grinder.



After about fifteen minutes of grinding, checking, regrinding, and checking again I was able to achieve this.



All in all you need to remove about 3/32" of material off of the inner diameter to make the disk fit.
It's actually kind of comforting to know that you have the absolute maximum friction surface available
in the clutch and that nothing has been left behind. (Of course if it does slip it'll be kinda maddening.)

Then there's the little knick knacks like not forgetting this little guy here....



Especially when the cat goes "Ohhhh, shiny" and bats it off the table into 1" shag carpeting...
And I now see what Randy was talking about with respect to "bottoming out" the spring keepers
on the pressure plate. Without that ring that the stock ring for the plate spring the spring buckets
are free to bypass the washers that retain the springs.





With that all buttoned up the next order of business is the clutch slave. This wasn't really leaking
that I know about but I figured some new seals couldn't hurt. Once I took it apart though I spent
about twenty minutes with a scotch bright pad working on the inner bore to get all the corrosion
off of it.



There there's the process of getting the new seals on it and putting it all together. Really it went easily,
but I did use a clamp to keep the tension off of the seals while it awaited final assembly.

Attention! Attention all. THE TINY FRIGGING BALL HAS BEEN FOUND! Huzzah! All kidding aside this part of
the process kind of reminds me of muzzle loading.



Just put the sucker in there and drive it home with the pushrod. Of course then there was the freaking
out over thinking that the pushrod was two inched too long. I scratched my head over that one for a
while before I pulled the pushrod out and tried to put the clutch slave against the engine case. It was
at this point that I realized that I was missing the sprocket cover. D'oh.

Moving on, it's time to get the coating reapplied to the pistons so that they can be assembled.




While they were curing in the oven I took the time to put the cylinder studs into the upper case and
put the base gaskets on. The important thing is that the long studs go to the outside corners and the
short one with a shoulder goes to the hole to the right of the chain galley to the back of the bike.



Now that the pistons have been cured and polished it's time to get the suckers attached to the
connecting rods. I'll admit there was a bit of a learning curve with respect to the spring clips that
came with the pistons. They are quite a bit heavier than any I have ever used before on a motorcycle.
(On a V-8 sure, but not on a bike)  So much so that I accidentally dropped one down into the engine
case... Heard it ping and bounce all around down there. Figured I would cut my losses and get the rest
in before tossing the engine all around trying to get it out. Fortunately it was the only one that I
dropped. Unfortunately, I dropped it two more times before I finally got it into place. (Good thing that
once I pulled the oil pan off that I left it off) Of course since it was piston number one, it didn't drop
straight into the pan, it took quite of bit of rotating and tilting the engine to get it out. I am really glad
I was able to find it three times though.



Then there was the tricky process of getting the jugs to slide down over the pistons. (Of yeah, I forgot
about gapping the rings. I'm glad I checked it because 7 out of the 8 were slightly off.)



Seems that the rule is to seat one ring at a time and move the jugs down millimeter by millimeter
till you gently GENTLY tease all of the rings into the cylinders. (I'm really glad I remembered the
seals and dowel pings. That would have been quite the pain to have to do that again...)





The cams were the next thing on the list. Pulling those plugs was not quite as simple as drilling them,
putting a screw in them, and pulling them out with a pair of pliers. I ended up having to break out the
heavy artillery and hit them with a slide hammer.



With the cam bores exposed it was a simple matter to take a 12ga cleaning bush and give them a
good scrubbing. (They were actually quite clean with just the wax leftover from the coating process
at the end caps. But it's good to know there isn't any grit inside them)

Although, fun fact. Don't, repeat, DO NOT bake anything with masking take on it that you want
to take off later. It is a royal PITA to get off....





Hey! This thing is starting to look like a real engine.  Ignorance is a powerful work creating agent.
When you don't have shortcuts in mind due to lack of experience you end up taking the long way
around. Case in point is the valve clearancing.




Had I stopped here I could have checked everything, changed out my shims, and been done with it
but no. I pressed on.

But noooooooooo (George Belushi) I waited till I got to this point to start checking things and swapping shims...




That and the fact that my own desire for precision left me with the need to get the tollerances as tight
as possible.... (I know, gasp. New engine dummy...) So it was round after round of this.




And of course you'll notice the position of the cam lobe and the bucket holder tool. (I spent a couple
hours raging to myself about this because I never found page two of the instructions with the shim
kit until after I was done.)  But then again, I wasn't done. Since I talked with Randy I was clued into
the whole new engine, run the clearances wide because everything tightens up after it wears in bit.
Makes perfect sense, just wasn't in my cross check.

So after another couple hours of screwing around, checking, adjusting, rechecking, swapping and so
on I was able to put the valve cover back on and got to this.



Behold. The engine is finally complete! (More or less, mostly more)

[fintip]

 

Can't wait to hear how it rides!

[skymasteres]

VintageConnections.com had that connector body when I replaced several on my '90......

Well thanks for the link. I'll have to get myself a connector from them. (Of course that site opens up all sorts
of possibilities for getting connectors sorted out...)

Here is the rest of the frame awakened from its slumber. (I'll tell you it was dirtier than I expected it to be
under the cycle shell. 



Since I have the engine all coated and what not I wanted to be very careful with how it was treated so I
didn't completely mess everything up when I put it in the frame. Hence I moved it to a location where sliding
the engine all around wouldn't be a problem...



The engine is complete and ready to go into the frame. Really it wasn't as bad a process as I had feared.
I mean, yes the thing is really heavy but, if you work slowly and carefully while taking deliberate care to avoid
the temptation of trying to just manhandle the thing into place. Just a hint, if you're thinking about trying to
put the rear bolts in a swing the engine into position. This didn't work as the two fixed frame members coming
down to meet the engine cradle frame pieces got into the way. 

I ended up stacking a couple phone books, setting the engine on top of them, and using two ratchet straps to
gradually work the engine up into position. Once I had reached the limit of the straps, I used a floor jack to
hold the engine while I reset the straps. It took a little patience, but really it worked splendidly.



It ended up being much easier than I thought to get the engine positioned. Once it was in place it was a simple
matter to get the bolts aligned and inserted.

[skymasteres]

You'll have to forgive the pace at which I am updating this thread. Over the four day weekend before the rally
I basically did two months worth of work at my normal pace and now I am struggling to get the info up for you
guys in my usual manner. As it stands now, the beast lives. I have exactly ONE mile on her under her own power.

That is until she sputtered and quit on me. Kind of acted like the engine sucked the fuel bowls dry. Like there
wasn't adequate supply to keep them filled. Wasn't leaking when I started, but while I was pushing the bike back
it was dumping fuel. I think it's a leak in the carburetor bowl plugs, but by the time I got back to the house I
couldn't find the leak and it started right up. (Of course it was dark out. I'll poke around when I get home to figure
it out.)

On a side note, I think you guys sometimes don't appreciate how good you have it with these bikes. They are
CONSIDERABLY easier to push than the V-45 or V-65 Magnas. The center of gravity is so low I can walk the bike
along next to me with just one hand on the brake master cylinder reservoir.

But I digress...

Here is the engine finally bolted into the frame. There was a lot of twisting and tugging to get the rear allen bolt
through, and the front frame rails went on easily enough. I was definitely sweating looking for the rubber bushings
since I hadn't seen them since I had the frame powder coated...





With the engine in place it's amazing how quickly the little things start to overwhelm you. I mean, there are a lot
of wire and connectors to figure out where they go. Plus, when you have removed the Republik of Kalifornia
emission equipment, there are a few connectors that don't go anywhere...



This will give you an idea of just how long some of this stuff has been sitting in the garage...
(Shameful I know)




And with the carbs I'm using, Mikuni TMR flat slides. I needed to have the throttle cables shortened. Ended up
having to get 1.5 and 1 inches removed from both. (It's nice when you have a buddy to help you out with some stuff)



There was an epic struggle with trying to get the stock airbox back on with the fuel line arrangement and the
carbs. This T-fitting kept getting in the way so I started trying to figure out how to reroute it.




The problem was I needed to get the old tubing off of the carburetor T-fitting. One of them came off easily,
the other one...




You know that feeling when your down to 24 hours before a self-imposed deadline passes and you've just
broken a one of a kind part... Yeah, that was the feeling.

Iimmediately went out into the garage and started searching for a solution. With all of the other stuff I had
I came up with this solution. Cut two barbs off the T and drill them out to 1/4". Then sweat in some 1/4"copper
tube and presto. You have a new fitting.



I ended up jamming it into the broken T (After notching the tube that went in there) and JB welding it into place.
Then I did the same for the other side and used some rubber tubing to seal it all up. (Turns out the rubber bit
didn't actually seal, but it looked cool...)





With that taken care of I went about getting the fairing mounted at buttoning it up.




There was quite a bit of trial and error involved in getting the fairing on and having everything routed properly.
I ended up having to remove it a couple of times to get the side scoops to go in right. (Ended up the guys at
the rally were the ones to eventually get that sorted out. Thanks guys) But getting ready to go in the trailer,
it looked like this...

[skymasteres]

One last thing that was done before the bike was loaded was to refill the clutch master and slave
cylinders. One thing I can say is, with a completely dry system, the quickest way to have it filled
and bled is by using a vacuum to suck all of the air out. This draws the fluid in completely filling
the system and completing the bleed process in under a minute.



It's an old mini-fridge compressor with a salsa jar being used to catch the excess fluid. (I build the
thing for bleeding ABS brake systems in cars where you need to bleed two at a time) The lid of the
jar has two brass tubes brazed to it making the fittings.  Probably impractical if you're just using it
for the motorcycle, but it's a real time savings if you have several systems that you flush annually.

Well the rally went great. Other than a little downing of my neighbor's bike. (I'll fix it good as new.
Already have some of the parts on order)  I have to thank Pat, Mike,  Wash, Garth, and all the other
guys that tinkered with getting my fairing put on properly with the wires routed. Now that I am putting
all the parts together again I don't have any issues with interference.  (And thanks to everyone that
I didn't mention by name. Didn't get all of them memorized)
So, while it's unfortunate that I didn't manage to get  the bike started at the rally, it was really a
good thing it didn't start. There were multiple little things that had been forgotten or missed during
my rushed reassembly of the engine.

There were three main issues with trying to get it started.  There was oil leaking from the right hand
oil galley plug, the motor was cranking really slowly, and the voltage while cranking was 9v. Turns out
the oil galley plugs were leaking because they weren't tightened properly. The engine was so darn
tight that it was just drawing all kinds of current from the battery and dragging the voltage down.
The battery is new, but I think the voltage dropped due to all the cranking.

So, I talked to Randy and during the course of the conversation I realized that I had failed to plug
the external oiler ports on the cylinder head. There should have been oil coming out of those ports
but there wasn't. When I pulled the valve cover it turned out that there wasn't any engine oil up
there at all. With all of that cranking the oil pump should have been primed and there should have
been oil up there.  According to Randy some of the legends guys plug the internal galleys. When I
pulled the head off, sure enough, I found that there were plugs.




But they weren't threaded in. They were made out of epoxy. Using the same trick from the damaged
bolt I took a piece of brass tube and put it up to the plugs inside the hole so I didn't damage the
head with the drill bit. The epoxy came out easily enough.  It was kind of a relief to find the plugs
actually. I was really worried about what else it could be if they weren't there and I REALLY didn't
want to crack the engine again.

Of course there was also the opportunity to correct past sins. Like putting RTV on the carb boots
because the original O-rings were shot and I couldn't get replacements on short notice. Randy was
kind enough to bring a set with him to the rally, so after I got them cleaned up the new O-rings went in.




Getting the cylinder head on the second time went much more quickly than the first time around.
The cam setup was not as bad the second time around as I feared. Seeing as it just about fell
together the first time.




And now with the plugs out oil finally flows up to the cam journals.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/29iR15m_Tq8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I've not fully reassembled the bike and I'll get the startup video up tomorrow.

Here's a question for you guys. How hot should this motor be getting on break in?

[FJmonkey]

Thanks for the update, it is good to see you making progress and getting closer to your Kookalooo... Can't wait to hear that its running.

[skymasteres]

Well, I don't know what happened to the links in the other post. Maybe you can copy it from the picture
that didn't load to see them. Not that they're really all that informative.

Anyway here is the link to the long awaited startup video.
http://youtu.be/ppOGQOCBswM

I know that I shouldn't have revved it, but it does idle pretty nicely.

I need to richen up the fuel delivery slightly. Currently I am sitting terrible rich at itdle, (like 45 to one)
and slightly lean at 6k RPM (11.5 to 1)  I'm taking it easy on her for the break in and the head
temperatures are starting to drop when I come back. 

[fj11.5]

 She,s alive again well done mate

[skymasteres]

Thanks. I now have 25 miles on the new motor and have already had several surprises with how these
things handle differently.

I also had quite the start when after coming back on mile 14, after it started making a strange noise,
I found oil ALL over the engine.





After a little looking I found that the bolts holding the cam chain tensioner in place had backed out
leaving the whole assemble sitting one inch out of the cylinder head.



This prompted me to pull the valve and timing cover off to make sure it hadn't jumped timing. (It didn't)
It was also a good time to check valve clearances and retouque the cylinder head. I was surprised it
needed almost a full turn on all of the nuts after 14 miles. I figured it wouldn't be so pronounced.
(Maybe this will help with the fact that this thing seems to just ooze oil from every seam.)




Here's a gratuitous "the more things change the more they stay the same shot"...

[fj11.5]

Hope the rest of your oil stays inside from now on,, looks like the back tyre could of taken an  oil bath :shok:could of been interesting

[skymasteres]

Hope the rest of your oil stays inside from now on,, looks like the back tyre could of taken an  oil bath :shok:could of been interesting

Yeah, seeing oil all over the rear tire is always a chilling sight. I had an oil leak develop on the V-45 after a
spirited ride on the Angeles crest highway and it sprayed oil all over the tire. It wasn't an issue until I was
almost home and decided to take a turn at a stoplight at about 15mph, leaned over real hard, and the bike
almost flipped over on the inside of the turn. The rear came out so violently that it slammed me into the
pavement. Really scared me off of cornering hard for a long time. No, that's not quite right. That happened
6 months ago, and I'm still a little skittish about dragging pegs. But I'm getting there. Things like this don't fill
me with confidence though.





I bought the old girl with 123,311.6 miles on the clock before I started the tear down. That's about 198,451
kilometers before she got a proper rebuild. Now with everything that's been tweaked and replaced it's like a
new machine.




As it stands I have 28 miles on the motor, and have soooo much feedback on these things it's ridiculous. And
an equal number of questions to boot. I didn't realize how different the sound of a freshly rebuilt AIR cooled
motor would be compared to that of a liquid cooled one.  That stock rear brake pedal has a MONSTER amount
of authority compared to the Honda Magna's.   I mean, it's REALLY easy to lock up the rear brake. There's not
nearly the actual stopping power back there that the Magnas have, of course there's a LOT more braking
available on the fronts for the FJ. Also, it's really nice that when you do lock the rear up on the FJ it only does
this little wiggle. It's easy to manage and you don't feel like you're afraid to let it go because it's right under
you anyway. The Magnas have a nasty tendency to REALLY dance when you lock their rears up, especially if
you're already on the fronts hard.

Anyway, I know I have to get the skinny rear tire off of the bike before I really try to corner with it. But I am
glad I'm taking the straight line approach for break in because of things like the tensioner backing out. It isn't
cool to have the sound of the engine change then find something like this...




(I know I'm going overboard with this, but having this thing come un-mounted seems like a really big deal to me)
I have so many questions about what is "Normal" with these things. How hot should it be getting? What sounds
are normal? Right now I have been just lightly to moderately loading the engine on acceleration sweeping from
3-6000 RPM in the first three gears and using engine braking to slow down. Things start to happen REALLY
quickly in third when approaching 6K...

I think I'm doing alright so far with fueling because this is what my plugs look like.



After my runs are done and I've shut down the cylinder head is between 260F and 320F with the cylinders being
between 220F and 260F, and the oil cooler being between 180F and 210F. Is this normal?  I've been trying to keep
the cylinder head under 300F, and the last ten miles it has been but barely.

[skymasteres]

Oh, and on a side note, in spite of how good a lot of things are on the FJ the mirros COMPLETELY SUCK!
I mean, between hardly being able to see behind you and the relection from the turn signal/running lights
at night they are almost useless.

And just an FYI, if you are tring to flash an Innovate LM-2 meter, don't use your laptop to do it.
It'll brick the thing and Innovate will want to charge you $45 to reflash it for you.

[fintip]

Mirrors sucking is definitely a known issue! There are threads here on the appropriate replacements, but I'm fairly sure CBR1000RR mirrors go on pretty nicely, and knock offs are available on ebay for around $25ish. They look good too.



Exciting to read this all! And that cam chain tensioner backing out... Sounds like you just didn't put it on good enough, don't know what to say. That shouldn't happen. :\

A 150 still isn't a skinny rear tire! You can do some serious cornering with a stock setup as long as you've got Radials on there, though I'm sure modding it only makes it that much better.

So excited she's running again!

[movenon]

Just pretend you taxiing a tail dragger.... Do a bunch of funky "S" turns...... It's a pain in the .....  One nice thing about wrecking my bike is the damn mirrors are gone now .   There is a bright side to things...
George