I have posted here and there hinting at this project, which deserves its own thread. The project is a 2006 FJR, 148k kms (90k miles), and essentially was delivered to me in a basket. I will post another thread of Forensic Analysis to explain what went wrong. Here is a few pics of the bike as it was disassembled at the dealer, then a pic of the complete bike as it was loaded (laying down) in my trailer.












Yes, it is all there, except the tires (new set the owner kept) and the battery. This sat in my trailer all summer and it's time to get it back together. The revised goal I have is to have it for sale next spring, so we have some time.....


First, have to get organized, get some tires on, install the wheels and some brake levers. So I got most of the boxes into the shop and got me a rolling chassis. This is how it looks now.





Engine parts boxes... there's more, but..... yikes!



To be continued, as you can imagine.........

Ray, Have you Figured out what happened to it to cause the dealer to take it apart yet ?

The next order of business is to see what's in all the boxes and know what we've got. Organize a bit and put stuff into a dedicated storage rack for this project. So, I laid out the engine mostly....








Here is the box containing the oil pan and parts from splitting the cases... I wanna throw up, but looks to be all there. I just sprayed some fogging spray on it, closed up the box. Ugh... later.





I removed some rad hoses and misc. stuff from the clutch box... looks OK, close it up for later......




Soooo, just how did we get here.... the backstory. This is a friend's bike I had done maintenance on over the last several years. He had a problem starting it when hot, but this year I was so busy with projects and travelling, I could not look at this. He knew the owner of the local Yamaha dealer, so took it in. It so happens, they had a Yamaha Factory Certified Award-Winning mechanic who had won 3 Canadian and 1 world title for being the best Yamaha mechanic. Impressive indeed, one would think.. He did a compression test and found a couple of cylinders low, and proceeded to remove the engine and completely disassemble it, measure stuff up.... then presented the repair estimate that simply is way more than the bike is worth. I'm sure most of us would have figured that out LONG BEFORE the disassembly took place, but NO... Idjit made a fatal mistake, essentially because he's not a real mechanic, he's a textbook FSM reader who can pass any test Yamaha puts out at these contests..... His fatal mistake was in not doing the STOP, let's see what we have, and did not perform a leak-down test to narrow down the compression problem. Anyway, don't get me started, I'm pissed enough at this whole scenario. There is a further lesson here to benefit many of you, and I'll post up my forensic analysis separately (didn't take much, to be honest). Anyway, stay tuned for that.

What would it take to get this engine back together, besides time. I would not do anything less than new main and con rod bearings, new rings, gaskets, clean up the cylinder head/valves/seats as necessary. Note the cylinders are Niksil coated aluminum, and I do believe the "mechanic" included new engine cases in the estimate (the only way to get new cylinders). Yeah you could have the cylinders re-coated, I checked... might as well get new cases. The estimate for parts was C$3,000, labour extra. The bike has 148k kms (90k miles), it won't fetch C$5,000 when all back together. All said and done however, since I'm such a nice guy, this thing was essentially given to me. I'm going to keep track of my hours..... LOL.

So, in the interests of science and learning, who wants to come help put this engine back together? I have a beer fridge....... meanwhile, I'll get started...... shall I just post up a tech day date? I'll bet it will only take a weekend......

you're a better man than I

Ebay has a couple compression tested used engines for about $500. I'd put one of those in before buying new cases,

So my question would be... Why should a hot starting problem require taking apart the bike and engine. The mechanic should be fired and the dealer should be responsible for putting the mess back together at no cost, since their mechanic was incompetent.

I hope your friend was compensated by the dealer.

I would do it with you Ray but its a bit far to go to yours and back in a day - excuses ea!

Geezalou, that's a lot of pieces

Polar, you are even farther away than I am. I also would like to come by and help - particularly with the engine. I could use the experience and it would be nice to learn on someone else's engine.


Ray, a very minor point. Did you reverse the centerstand mounting bolts?