SilverTwin
New Member
I've been searching like mad on the forum for the past several weeks to pretty much go over the bike from end to end. I recently purchased it, and it was a well maintained bike for its age but I wanted to make sure everything was sound from end to end.
First order of business was to figure out a problem with the cooling system. The prior owner told me that he had just had several maintenance items taken care of including have the coolant flushed/changed to Engine Ice. After purchase, all seemed well until the temps hit just over 200 one evening while pulling it into the garage. When I shut the bike off, it purged everything out of the overflow reservoir onto the ground. Not ready to panic yet, thinking it is just an air pocket. Pull the cap and sure enough, coolant is low. Top it off and go for a ride, purposely bringing the temps up before shutting it off, same results. Now I'm starting to panic thinking that I just purchased a head gasket issue. Once it cooled down, I decided to run it for a few minutes with the radiator cap off to see if I could see any air pockets working their way out, Oddly, the overflow hose on the filler neck was pressurized and running a steady stream into the radiator. A quick search and referencing the service manual, I quickly discover that two of the hoses are crossed on the radiator. Crisis averted and major sigh of relief.
Next up was to address the chain. The bike had a new chain put on it about 100 miles before I purchased it; nice piece of mind but it looked/felt overly tight to me and this was even commented on by 2007Fizzer in my intro post. Didn't take long to figure out why, both adjusters were seized, likely from where the swingarm was chromed and the threads were not cleaned and anti seized prior to reassembly. Tried using penetrating oil for a few days in hopes that they would break loose, no luck and the left side snapped as soon as I started putting pressure on it.About 20 minutes of drilling and tapping and all was well again. Nice side perk was that once the chain was loosened to spec, the majority of the vibrations/buzz that I've been chasing was gone!
Also noticed a seeping fork seal the day after purchase, starting researching fork seals since I haven't done a set in several years. During my searches, I continued to find references to the SealMate tool used to clean debris from the seals. Seemed too easy but given the limited cost, I decided to give it a try. To my delight; worked like a champ. I've now put about 800 miles on it since cleaning the seals and they are still dry.
Have also rewired all of the indicator lights and added the proper flasher unit for the led's so I get a proper flash now. I just picked up a BD43 headlight mod cable from Nemo128 and will be installing that sometime in the next couple of evenings as time permits.
Through my search for eliminating the buzz/vibrations, I also discovered that the subframe bolts were extremely loose, along with other bolts, including the motor mounts where the frame sliders were added. Spent a bit with the service manual and a torque wrench going over nearly every bolt on the bike. Also changed out the plugs for oem's since it was one of the only things that I did not have a maintenance history on. They looked older and the gap was opened up to ~.032".
After going over several little things to give myself confidence in the bike, I absolutely love it. I haven't owned anything smaller than a liter bike for ~25 years but I have to say that I really enjoy the balance of the FZ.
So far, my best mpg's has been 51.8 in mixed riding. Lowest was 47 on some spirited back road riding.
I'm thankful for the forum and the history that I have been able to search through to answer nearly any questions that I have as I continue to get acclimated to the bike.
Enough babbling, here are a few pics I snapped today while taking a couple hours of ride time.
First order of business was to figure out a problem with the cooling system. The prior owner told me that he had just had several maintenance items taken care of including have the coolant flushed/changed to Engine Ice. After purchase, all seemed well until the temps hit just over 200 one evening while pulling it into the garage. When I shut the bike off, it purged everything out of the overflow reservoir onto the ground. Not ready to panic yet, thinking it is just an air pocket. Pull the cap and sure enough, coolant is low. Top it off and go for a ride, purposely bringing the temps up before shutting it off, same results. Now I'm starting to panic thinking that I just purchased a head gasket issue. Once it cooled down, I decided to run it for a few minutes with the radiator cap off to see if I could see any air pockets working their way out, Oddly, the overflow hose on the filler neck was pressurized and running a steady stream into the radiator. A quick search and referencing the service manual, I quickly discover that two of the hoses are crossed on the radiator. Crisis averted and major sigh of relief.
Next up was to address the chain. The bike had a new chain put on it about 100 miles before I purchased it; nice piece of mind but it looked/felt overly tight to me and this was even commented on by 2007Fizzer in my intro post. Didn't take long to figure out why, both adjusters were seized, likely from where the swingarm was chromed and the threads were not cleaned and anti seized prior to reassembly. Tried using penetrating oil for a few days in hopes that they would break loose, no luck and the left side snapped as soon as I started putting pressure on it.About 20 minutes of drilling and tapping and all was well again. Nice side perk was that once the chain was loosened to spec, the majority of the vibrations/buzz that I've been chasing was gone!
Also noticed a seeping fork seal the day after purchase, starting researching fork seals since I haven't done a set in several years. During my searches, I continued to find references to the SealMate tool used to clean debris from the seals. Seemed too easy but given the limited cost, I decided to give it a try. To my delight; worked like a champ. I've now put about 800 miles on it since cleaning the seals and they are still dry.
Have also rewired all of the indicator lights and added the proper flasher unit for the led's so I get a proper flash now. I just picked up a BD43 headlight mod cable from Nemo128 and will be installing that sometime in the next couple of evenings as time permits.
Through my search for eliminating the buzz/vibrations, I also discovered that the subframe bolts were extremely loose, along with other bolts, including the motor mounts where the frame sliders were added. Spent a bit with the service manual and a torque wrench going over nearly every bolt on the bike. Also changed out the plugs for oem's since it was one of the only things that I did not have a maintenance history on. They looked older and the gap was opened up to ~.032".
After going over several little things to give myself confidence in the bike, I absolutely love it. I haven't owned anything smaller than a liter bike for ~25 years but I have to say that I really enjoy the balance of the FZ.
So far, my best mpg's has been 51.8 in mixed riding. Lowest was 47 on some spirited back road riding.
I'm thankful for the forum and the history that I have been able to search through to answer nearly any questions that I have as I continue to get acclimated to the bike.
Enough babbling, here are a few pics I snapped today while taking a couple hours of ride time.