[Nativeson]

With 34500 miles on the odometer and nearly 25000 miles on the spark plugs I decided to check the valve clearances and change the coolant for the first time. To prepare for the job I ordered the oem o rings, valve cover gasket, rotor cover gasket, and picked up a gallon of Prestone coolant and Permatex gasket something or other. Spark plugs and air filter too.

SIDE COWLINGS AND DASH PANEL
Since I was changing the coolant the first thing I did was to remove the dash panel and both side cowlings. To stay organized I put each component's fasteners into separate bags or boxes. On the left side I removed the cowling with the lock box still attached, and on the right side I left the bottom panel attached. Just remember where the fasteners go during reassembly.
https://flic.kr/p/23JVQKY
REMOVING THE FUEL TANK
A straight forward process that includes the T bar and heat shield held in place with a single screw rivet. For me the fuel line always leaks a little so a rag would be in order to avoid gas spills.

GETTING TO THE VALVE COVER
Remove spark plug wires.
Remove air inlet and hoses still attached.
https://flic.kr/p/258Ww7n
Now we are ready to remove the coolant pipe, but first we must drain the coolant. There was also a fair amount of grit and dirt in the recesses that I spent an hour or so cleaning with q tips and rubbing alcohol, my preferred cleaner.

To remove the coolant pipe the electrical lead must be disconnected and the hose removed completely. Putting the hose back on during reassembly is the hard part. I did it by putting the hose more or less in place and smearing a small amount of silicone grease on/in both ends of the hose to ease getting the pipe started. There are only two bolts that attach the pipe to the cover.
https://flic.kr/p/25pSMs3 Showing the coolant pipe, hose, electrical, and the white connector.

Pull plug caps and clean the area with a vacuum if possible.
Disconnect electrical leads and leave the sensor near the left front and the bolted in brace near the right rear alone. The wiring harness may then be pried from the brace and also pried from the base that also serves to support the throttle cables. By freeing the harness this way we will gain enough clearance to remove the cover itself.

REMOVING THE VALVE COVER
Now we remove the spark plugs and the eight bolts that hold the cover. In addition we remove the two screws that hold the throttle cables, we pull the cables from their support near the right fork and then turn the handlebars to the right.
https://flic.kr/p/23JW3WS With the wiring harness pried loose in two places and the throttle cables unbolted and pushed to the outside the cover is easy to take out and put back in.

CHECKING VALVE CLEARANCE
Using a couple of feeler gauges I rotated each cylinder to TDC by turning the nut clockwise that is found inside of the rotor cover and connected to the cam chain. I got the following readings:

EX (.18 -.25mm) .23 .23, .22 .23, .23 .23, .21 .22
IN (.15 -.22mm) .17.16,.13 .14, .14 .14, .16 .16

The exhaust valve clearances are somewhat loose while the intake clearances are somewhat tight or under spec. I initially thought I would try and shim them, but after consulting with the Mechanic at the Yahama dealer from where I purchased the bike I decided to follow his recommendation to leave them for now. He advised me to rotate the cams a bit 10 oclock and 2 oclock and check them again. When I did I gained .1mm on the number 2 and 3 cylinders (I did not check the others) and so I changed the .13 to .14 and the .14 to .15mm. The mechanic also stated that he does not bother adjusting the intakes unless they are .10mm or less. Not sure what he does with the exhaust numbers. Of course it could have gone the other way and I could have lost a .1mm or 2. The lesson is maybe we should always check other parts of the cam because the real clearance may not be what we get at the recommended place to check them.

REASSEMBLY
The only tricky part for me was keeping the valve cover gasket in place during the install. I used the original gasket saving the one I bought for next time maybe. So I smeared a very small amount of the permatex form a gasket sealant around the outside (but on the inside) edge of the cover to help hold it in place. It is pretty easy to determine if it will work or not simply by looking at it. Let us not forget that there are actually two pieces and that the inside ones may be checked by looking into the recesses where they sit. They did not require anything to hold them. Also if it does not seem to sit right it probably isn't. Finally make sure the tabs on the two ends lay flat against the head.

For the coolant pipe I used a small amount of lithium grease as specified in the manual. I used Prestone Concentrated and on the freeway the temp reads 160. On the streets it reads 170 or so. In traffic it climbs to 220 or so before dropping slowly until moving again.

 

[sector7g]

Thanks for posting. I'll be doing mine soon and have been researching on what's involved. Great pictures and description.

 

[RaYzerman]

Lessons for next time.....
You might be able to get away with a low clearance, but I'd personally take the advice of Yamaha and not your mechanic. Just me. 0.02mm below is nothing but it is below spec. You'll be OK till next time, but if me, while I had gone to all that work, I'd have taken that cam out and see if I could at least swap a shim or two if I didn't have spares available, or perhaps even sanded a thick one down in that case. Proper procedure to follow of course.......

Check the clearances where the FSM says, lobes pointing outward. If you rotate until the lobes are up, you may get a larger reading.... I'd go by the book personally.

Not sure what you mean by exhaust clearances loose, they look fine to me. As a general guideline, I like 70% or so of max. They never get bigger, only smaller.

If you mean you smeared gasket maker on the inside surface of the gasket/valve cover, it is good practice to remove the gasket where you need to, put the RTV in the groove and let is squeeze out and remove any excess on the inside. Do this a couple of hours ahead of reinstalling the valve cover and all should stay in place. We don't want stuff getting into our oil, but, IF any breaks off, it should make it's way to the oil pan, and be caught by the screen on the oil pickup.

Prestone concentrated.... I hope you diluted it to 50/50. If you didn't, re-do it, you'll get lower protection if used concentrate only. Shoulda been a chart on the jug perhaps.

 

[Pterodactyl]

I agree that your mechanic's advice was off the mark. You did all the hard work and actually replacing the shims is not that much more work. You could have adjusted all the valves so they were at the loose end of the specification range and been confident that the valves were okay for 50,000 miles.

 

[Nativeson]

Yes it was a time consuming job, but I have no qualms about my work and the decisions I made. Except for the fact I did not dilute the coolant and I must now remove the left side cowling again. But other than that...

I did the TBS for the second time and moved the number two and three about an eighth of an inch. I changed the air filter with 15,000 miles. I put 20,000 on the first one. It seems it gets dirty faster now. The plugs looked pretty good. Maybe the gap opened a little.

 

[N4HHE]

Read the coolant bottle, many come predilluted these days.

I agree valves should be adjusted to the wide end of spec. Exactly where depends mostly on what shims allow.

Conversely I find screw adjust valves usually increase gap between checks. My 2003 KTM 450 RFS has over 400 hours and due for valve job. Intakes go from the loose end of spec to tight out of spec in 15 hours. Exhausts behave as they always have, tight side of spec to loose side in 50 hours.

OTOH my 2009 Husaberg has shim valves (and much improved valve seats) and the valve lash hasn’t changed in 300 hours from new. Still 0.006” intake and 0.007” exhaust.

 

[RaYzerman]

You don't have to remove the left fairing, just the side under the adjustable panel and the glove box panel. You can pull the fairing out enough to get a funnel in for the refill.

 

[rbentnail]

You don't have to remove the left fairing, just the side under the adjustable panel and the glove box panel. You can pull the fairing out enough to get a funnel in for the refill.

True but I found if you don't actually WASH the overflow bottle out with detergent & a brush once in a while it will over time get cloudy and nearly impossible to see coolant level through it.

Also, to the OP, I found it helps to remove the wind shield. I got really tired really fast of bumping into it, especially when I caught the edge just right on my eyebrow bone and it cut me.

 

[Nativeson]

Ran my FJR 2600 miles over eight days. The last year or so the bike has been a little hard to start taking two to three seconds instead of the instant start I usually get. Changing the plugs and a TBS did not address the issue, however the road trip seems to have fixed it. Guess I wasn't riding her enough.

Paid a visit to the Dragon last weekend
2015580

 

[TourguyDon]

See it on YouTube

I'd like to note a YouTube video I really liked which was done about a year ago:

"How to Check FJR1300 Valve Clearance Gen III" by Two Wheeled Obsession

 

[Bill Lumberg]

When he initially posted this, his procedure was incorrect. When a couple of folks pointed it out, he banned them from his site and then corrected his error in the video afterward, rather than thanking them.

I’ve found some of his videos to be very helpful. But I wouldn’t follow his advice on anything as complex as a valve adj unless I already knew how to do one and just wanted to see the video for visual familiarization.

 

[RaYzerman]

I did watch that one... it was ok for the most part... he only did a check, he didn't do an adjust. That takes extra skills and knowledge.

 

[dcumpian]

I did watch that one... it was ok for the most part... he only did a check, he didn't do an adjust. That takes extra skills and knowledge.

I've done all of my own service so far. I think I could do the check just fine, but I'd really hate to do it, then discover that I actually *need* to adjust. I'm not confident enough in my skills to start lifting cams, lol.

Dan

 

[N4HHE]

I've done all of my own service so far. I think I could do the check just fine, but I'd really hate to do it, then discover that I actually *need* to adjust. I'm not confident enough in my skills to start lifting cams, lol.

No precise data but perhaps less than 1 in 3 who check the FJR valves find one that requires reshimming. The point is that if it needs then it really needs else serious damage is pending.

Valves wear to tighter until so tight the valve doesn't fully close. When hot gasses blow through partially closed valve the valve can not make contact with head to cool. The valve burns. The valve seat gets damaged as well.

Honestly, if you can handle draining coolant and removing emission plumbing to reach camshaft cover then removing the camshafts isn't worse than anything you have already done. But having done that on other engines, for FJR I put the bike in an independent shop during a week out of town for work. And then spent several more weeks recovering from sinus infection.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

No adjustments were necessary at either of the checks on my 2014. I had one done around 40,000 on the 2018. No adjustments required. Would suck to ignore it and be one of the rare few that needs adjustment, though.

 

[RaYzerman]

I've done all of my own service so far. I think I could do the check just fine, but I'd really hate to do it, then discover that I actually *need* to adjust. I'm not confident enough in my skills to start lifting cams, lol.

Dan

AW Jeez, piece of cake, LOL... can walk you through it, not that bad once things are opened up... where are you located.... maybe near a tech gathering one day?

Despite what Yammy says, you can delay your first check out to whatever, say 40k, but it is nice to have that first one done so you know where you're at. Just me, but I'd re-shim them all then to 70th percentile and really not worry about another one until 100k.

 

[chucksklrst]

I have 42k miles on my 2014 FJR. At the 25k mile mark I check the valves for the first time. All the exhaust valves were at .007 or .008 in. tight end of spec. Intakes were right in the middle of the spec. Going to check them again at 50k miles and I figure I will have to re-shim some of the exhaust valves. Was planning on trading the bike last year, but just could not let it go, so now I m going to have check the vales again.

 

[DesertBike]

This may be an older thread, but it sure is helpful to me.

Creeping up on 30k miles on my 2015 -ES model and I'm thinking it's time for a valve clearance check.

Is it entirely necessary to remove the fairings? That's going to be extra work for me because I have crash bars.

I was thinking of taking the FJR into our Yama dealer for this check, but it doesn't sound too bad. If one or more valves needs adjustment, that might give me pause.

I did a ton of stuff a couple bikes ago, to include rebuilding the coolant pump and multiple stator replacements (don't ask!). So I'm mostly comfortable cracking open the engine.

This might be as good a time as any to have a look at the spark plugs.

I'm running out of excuses to do this job at home, because I have another bike I can ride while the FJR is in pieces, lol.

Any up or down vote on ordering an OEM gasket vs. re-using? I don't mind the cost, as it's not like I have to do this check every year or even every other year.

 

[RaYzerman]

I don't remove the plastics, just remove the adjustable side panels and remove the major fasteners. Remove the panel over the glove box. I pry the panel out and slip a 2x4 block in to force the panel out..... to get at the rad cap.
On the right side, I put a block to hold the fairing out at the bottom. I can access the timing cover screws.
I have never had to replace a gasket, even on the timing cover. Valve cover gasket will last a lifetime, save yer money.
You will need o-rings for the coolant tube.

Ask the dealer what the charge is to just do a check..... likely they'll quote 3-4 hours shop time. May charge for gaskets.

 

[DesertBike]

Which O-rings exactly should I plan to replace? Are they the #26 part (93210-18417-00) on this diagram:

Yamaha Motorcycle 2015 OEM Parts Diagram for WATER PUMP | Partzilla.com

?