Overheating |
| My 85 FZ has a tendency to run hot while doing a lot of stop and go city riding. Making matters worse is the fact that my fan doesn't come on until the gauge is in the red zone. My fix to this was to trace down the wires to the fan and run one to a toggle switch that I mounted inside the fairing and the other to the battery so I can flip on the fan before things get to heated. Make sure that the toggle is out of sight or that it blends in well so that nobody gets a wise idea to turn it on and run down the battery. |
| (Rosel) |
| Failing L/H Controls |
| Electrical controls on left hand grip failed quite regularly. This can be due to the electrical connector is in full blast of the weather on my 1989 model. The small fairing hand shields that a bolted to the nose piece fairing divert rain in and pass it right through a hole in the fairing and straight onto the electrical connector for L/H handgrip. Itfs worth checking first if the Headlight high/low, flasher or the horn stops working. Remove the choke knob and then remove the inner fairing panel, it might be a good idea to remove the petrol tank first to avoid scratching it. The connector in question is right below the panel. Clean the connector up with Aerosol cleaner (WD40 or similar) and tape up the hole. |
| (Kevin Foote) |
Cold Legs |
| On fully faired models you can remove the air shields on the inside of the fairing panels to keep you knees warm. They are held on with 3 self-tapping screws. Not hugely warmer but better than nothing. |
| (Kevin Foote) |
Failing Ignition |
| Ifve seen reports in press that the Ignition coils being mounted on the outside of the frame down tubes inside the fairing are to the weather were they can short out. Ifve had no problem with mine but careful application of silicon sealant (buy it from a DIY shop not a Bike shop) to the HT lead connectors is supposed to cure it. |
| (Kevin Foote) |
Chain Maintenance |
| It's worth staying right on top of your chain maintenance. I strongly recommend that you invest in a paddock stand if you have no center stand. A failing chain if it breaks under power, apart from being dangerous will almost certainly cause severe damage to the engine. The FZ750 The hydraulic clutch slave piston and pushrod pass right though the crankcase right behind the front chain sprocket. If the chain snaps then it will hit the pushrod bending it and destroying the crankcase where the pushrod passes through it. This will mean you engine will have welded up or replaced. I had a faulty chain from a mail order supplier and ended up with a smashed engine. |
| (Kevin Foote) |
Vibrations in the Handle Bars |
| Take off your handle bars. Remove the bar ends. If you melt and pour lead into the bar tube, make sure you leave enough room for the bar ends to screw back in. If you do this it will cut down on vibrations in the handle bars. Trust me, it works. I tried it. |
| (Mike Amsden) |
A Dynojet Kit |
| Don't know if this will help anyone, but I installed a Dynojet kit to try to help with a dead spot just on 2400-3000 rpm. The bike would not pull through it if wound on at 2400 rpm and the kit made it worse. It would just stutter (too rich) and you would have to back off and ease it through. After consultation with Dynojet I tracked the problem to my pipe (4-2-1) having large diameter headers (good for top end hp) not supplying a strong enough signal back to the carbs at low rpm. The fix was to put a venturi just after the collector. I just chose some dimensions to suit my pipe collector diameter (I think 80mm long (30-20-30mm) with a center reduction in diameter of 10-15mm) and it made a real difference. Apparently V&H sell one to suit their pipe in the USA as it can have the same effect on some FZ's. The Dynojet kit is a good performance addition as well. Makes the bike perform as it should and increases the mid and top end with no losses, although if you have the dead spot it will make it worse as it enrichens this area. |
| (John Watson) |
Feul Pump Stops Working |
| Pull it out and take the cover off the end examination should reveal
that it is a push-pull type of pump sometimes road vibrations will cause
the flexible wire to snap at the crimp point causing intermittent failure
because the wire is still in semi contact. Open the crimp with a screw
driver and reinsert the wire. (I soldered the end of mine to give it a
bit more diameter in the crimp) no problems since. |
| (Rene Ramjet) |
Bike Stalls When Hot |
| Many causes possible for this but in my case some numb-nuts had re-wired the pickup coils with an earth left off one of them. It earthed on the engine block and operated fine when the bike was cold but as the metal expanded it separated from contact and the bike would stop. (took a while to find that one) |
| (Rene Ramjet) |
Nut Strips on Countershaft |
| They are meant to do this. The nut is made of a softer metal and it takes the damage rather than your countershaft. The nuts cost about one dollar, owners... please never weld the nut onto the countershaft... it angers people. |
| (Rene Ramjet) |
To Stop Nuts and Bolts Rusting Together |
| I have found a product called "loctite antiseize". It is a commercial product here in Australia. You apply it to nuts and bolts and it stops them rusting together. Most alloy engines which have steel bolts in them tend to develop a white powdery substance (Aluminium oxide?) which eventually seizes the bolts and causes stripping out of threads in the alloy. This product prevents that. Any bolts which remain in the bike for some time without being undone regularly should be treated in some way to prevent them seizing. It is possible that this is more of a problem in my countrys climate than elsewhere. |
| (Rene Ramjet) |
Are my brakes going to lock up and kill me? |
| THE PROBLEM: There is an adjuster screw
on the stock brake master cylinder of the
older models which is presumably used to
adjust the space between the grip & the
brake lever. For those who have large
hands, fingers, or winter gloves, the tendancy
is to adjust the lever far away from the
clipon. Doing this (by screwing in
the adjuster screw, and thus pushing the
master cylinder's piston too far) causes
the piston to go past the tiny fluid-return
hole in the reservoir. As the brakes
heat up, the brake fluid in the lines expands,
yet cannot bleed off pressure back into the
reservoir BECAUSE the return hole is blocked
BECAUSE the piston is pushed in too far BECAUSE
the lever has been adjusted too far out.
Confused? Sumimasen... THE SOLUTION: Get a more modern master cylinder, preferably adjustable. I've noticed that many riders have upgraded to newer GSXR or CBR master cylinders, but no-one seems to feel the need to explain why. Until a rider gets a replacement, he should be warned to visually check to make sure that there is about 1mm SPACE between the ADJUSTER SCREW and the point of contact on the PISTON. A feeler gauge or business card should easily slide between the two. |
| (Dave Anderson) |
If the pump looks ok but it still refuses to work |
| If the pump looks ok but it still refuses to work, look at the reserve ballast resistor (a long ceramic retangular item with 2 wires out the bottom of it, located under the left sidepanel). What happens is the wires are soldered on and the vibration and weather eventually degrades the joint causing a poor connection. Remove the wire from each side, strip a clean end on each side and crimp on a red female connector to each wire. Then clean the solder off the male spades on the resistor, reconnect and reassemble. You may wonder why its best not to resolder the joins, crimps allow a little bit of movement to soak up the vibration so making the wires less likely to break, solder makes wire too rigid and brittle. |
| (Will) |
I'm waiting for your tips. Please e-mail me.