redfjniner

A little follow up on cost to repair and settlement with Insurance co.: I did a rough estimated that I could repair with $2682 for parts including Rt saddle bag. My dealer prepared an estimate for the insurance co. and came up with: $4716 parts, $1300 labor including estimate prep., $512 taxes, $15 shop expense: Total $6543. They had a few items not damaged in the deer strike, but were already there like the gas tank, front wheel around $1100. I told the insurance come to deduct those. The Insurance Co. saw it as a total loss, no questions asked and didn't even respond to my notice to them that the wheel and gas tank already had the paint chipped off. They gave the bike a total value of $6937 including taxes, and offered me this less the $250 comprehensive deductible. OR if I wanted to keep the bike $4509. In my discussion with them, I told them I had just replaced the engine and because the odometer showed 114K, she thru in another $250 for the engine making the cash settlement of $6793 or $4759. They gave the bike a salvage value of $2200. I took the $4759 and kept the bike. I have ordered replacement parts from Gresham Sports Plaza in Oregon. Total for replacement parts is $1746. The right side saddle bag is no longer available from Yamaha in the 2008 FJR1300 Dark Graphic color, this color was only used that year for the electric shift model. I will have to hunt and look on Ebay for ever to find one or get another color and paint it. I will end up with around $3000 to find the saddle bag($220-300), get custom color paint to paint them ($85), and do some over due maintenance like grease the swing arm bearing, shock lever arm bearings, head bearings, valve check, fork rebuild and shock rebuild. Bike was due for these services. Dealer cost would be around $2000. You may be wondering why I didn't just take the $7000 and go shopping for a low mileage FJ 09? First I have cruise control with the buttons in the left handle bar hub and it works fantastically, and second I have invested in Traxxion Dynamics front shocks and Ohlin rear shock, and all that would set me back another $3000 with a new used FJ09, only McCruise (AUS) doesn't provide for the FJ09 anymore, so I can't get CC for the FJ09. And my current recently replaced engine now only has 11K on it. That's hard to beat. Just thought you all might like to know how one of these deals goes. I'm doing stuff to the FJR for a number of rides I had already planned and will pretty much be removing the head bearings, forks and swing arm etc., myself in my spare time.

maximo: Use the Kurviger map to make a gpx file or modify the route with a new start stop points, then make a gpx file.

I have ridden from Vanc. Wa to Austin twice now for the MotoGP and have found this route thru Texas interesting and having fun roads too. https://kurv.gr/uKFyH

Most of the body work damage was from the deer strike. Headlight assembly and stay, front fender, left flasher and cowling on left side. Dump added up numbers with a gouged right fork inner tube and marring on outer tube, right flasher and saddlebag scrapes. This is why you need to carry comprehensive insurance, less deductible, and you get to fix it right vs living with scrapes and misaligned cowling. Here are some more pictures:

I believe that both Pikes Peak and Mt. Evans are run by the Forestry Department, not the National Parks. Only certain parks and locations require reservations. Check each out as some don't. Black Canyon was no issue. Co. Nat. Park wasn't either. I wouldn't leave anything out. My favorites are CO Hwy 141, 131, 103, 92, 133, 125, Berthoud Pass, Monarch Pass, Guanalla Pass, County Road 17 and don't want to leave out the road thru Co. Nat. Monument. Better take your trip soon, the traffic is getting bad and good roads are not being fun anymore, such as US 550. Did you look at the Kurviger Map?

Another Epic Colorado Ride: 2022 This ride was kind of a reverse of a 2015 ride I did, only different. Here is a quick summary of daily rides. Day 1: Doug, my friend, road to French Glen, OR and stayed in the Hotel there and reported a fantastic ride and great place to stay and eat. I had rode to Incline Village, NV a few days prior. Day 2: Doug continued on to Ely, NV and reported a good ride. I met him in Ely as I was coming from Incline Village, NV. I rode across Hwy 50, the loneliest highway in the US, from Carson City to Ely. Hwy 50 is sometimes boring, and sometimes great fun as you pass over many mountain ranges and across flat valleys. The wind from the South at 20mph made for an interesting day. Day 3: We left Ely and rode to Green River UT on this day, across more of NV and UT, which had similar mountain and valley topography. Winds of 25mph steady and 50 mph gust. Many areas of blowing dust, which we passed through two such dust clouds that cut visibility to as little as 30 feet, which made it so Doug lost site of me when we were down to 20mph, while we both were praying that the fog line didn’t also vanish. It was great to ride through the Capitol Reef Nat. Park and admire God’s ever lasting beauty, amassing varying rock formations, colors and magnificent vistas. We stopped in Hanksville for an early dinner and posed with John Wayne for a picture. Day 4: We left Green River headed for Colorado Nat. Monument. The road up to, through and down from the upper mesa is awesome. The scenery is Awesome. This would have been enough for any day ride on a motorcycle, but we continued on to CO Hwy. 141/145, taking us from Grand Jct to Cortez Co. 141 is less traveled because it has US 550 just to the east, although a magnificent scenic road, it has too much traffic, while 141 has almost no traffic, which make for a great motorcycle road. Not only no traffic, fantastic canyon walls, lovely small farms and ranches, a river, remains of a flume, oh, did I say Awesome beauty? It started to rain 30 miles out of Cortez, stopped 20 miles out and we were pretty much dry when reaching Cortez. Day 5: We had been watching the weather for days and knew that this day may have some scattered thunder showers. Little did we know that they would all occur while we were on the Million Dollar Highway through one of the most beautiful mountain ranges of the Rocky Mts. And not only rain but we couldn't even see the mountains just a few miles/or was it meters away as we rode it through clouds, thick clouds. It cleared up just North of Ouray. We stopped to shed our rain gear in Ridgeway under sunshine. That event was only 60 miles but took a couple hours, as it was very technical riding in extreme conditions. Afterwards, we kind of liked it because we felt we had climbed a mountain and concurred it. We continued on to the Black Canyon Nat. Park, which was OK but not as grand as the Grand Canyon. While there, we talked to a couple that recommended we ride down to the bottom and visit the Dam. We did, and o-boy, was that fun. No traffic to speak of and never a straight-a-way, turn after turn. If you weren't starting a turn, you were ending one and at least a 10-12 percent grade. It was also 20 degrees warmer down there. A much different feeling look up at the walls of the canyon then looking down into them. We had more fun roads that ended in Lake City. Our reservation somehow got cancelled and the lady at the lodge found us a cabin at the other end of town. It was better and saved us about $40. More beer to drink. Happy Face. Day 6: So far we have visited six of Colorado’s best parks and highways, how could it get better? We altered the route by omitting going East and decided to backtrack over hwy 149 to Gunnison for breakfast and then head back west on Hwy 50 to Blue Mesa Dam. Hwy 92 is one of my all time favorite roads in the US. It is unbelievable that we broke it down into three sections to admire the view points, Pioneer Overlook, Morrow Pt. Overlook and the remaining twisties; only 30 miles total but all awesome. We did the North Bank View Pt. Of the Black Canyon and liked it better. It required you travel over 12 mile total of gravel, in and out. It was hard packed and easy. We got gas in Hotchkiss and headed north on hwy 133: Doug loved this road, as it was high speed sweepers. Doug lead this sections and I tried to keep up. WHAT FUN. Great food that evening at a little old fashion hamburger joint, where you sit outside. Just like in the old days. Day 7: Yesterday was 3 great road, each different and fun in a different way, and the scenery changed for each of those sections. What can we do to improve this? I might as well go home, I’m totally satisfied with what we have already done. We alter the route some and head out on I-70 going East for 42 miles and exit on Hwy 131 North, then 134 to Kremmling. I don’t know what I’m going to do with Doug, these high speed sweepers have swept him off his feet. We have to pass on the Rocky Mtn. Nat. Park, because we don’t have reservations. We looked at the map and found another road, hwy 125, which goes to the Continental Divide. Another Dream road, high speed sweepers. Doug’s Gold Wing is purring. We get bank on US 40 and make our way south and end going over Berthoud Pass. This pass has two lanes going up hill and one down. It was grate as you could pass at speed. Dinner was serenaded by Clear Creek in Georgetown. Day 8: We like Berthoud Pass so much we decided to do it again this morning. Up and down, turn around and up and down again. I could have gone back to the motel and felt like I hit pay dirt already, but no we had a plan. We had scheduled Guanalla Pass, which is directly South out of Georgetown. If you can find the road out of town. Luckily we had GPS and followed it, something you may never want to do, especially if it looks like someone’s driveway and this one did. We started up this unmarked road, no center line or fog lines, and admired the beauty and simplicity of the road, but had to stop at a natural rest area to water the plants. Ready to go and to our surprise a car came by and o-my- gosh, it was a Honda S2000, and we know a little bit about that car. So we chased the S2000 to the top of the Pass. The driver pulled over and we stopped by his side. He asked “is there a problem?” After explaining our enthusiasm with his car and how we felt at home chasing him up the hill, as one of us does the same with a red S2000. He became very talkative and friendly. Going down the other side of the pass, the ten miles of gravel has now been beautifully paved and Awesome, need I say more? Doug found another road off of Butler’s Map, that indicated rough surface, but due to Doug’s enthusiasm and belief that it has been improved, we take this county road 77 down to US24. It turned out to be a gem, the speed limit is 40mph, which keeps cars from using it, as you can take the main roads and get to your destination in less time. Co. road 77 is a winner and can be done in way less time than the main roads. We go on down to Cripple Creek, which is turning into a gambling town, with massive large gambling casinos. The road was great to and from and we had fun. On to Pikes Peak. We aren't going to do Pikes Peak again. But the road from there to Colorado Springs is a fun 4 laner. Day 9: Can we beat any of the previous days? Maybe, maybe not. We head out of Colorado Springs on that same fun 4 laner, back to Woodland Park where we pick up hwy 67 to Deckers, Awesone. Then 126 to Silver Springs, beautiful, and US 285 to Conifer, busy, then 78 to Evergreen, to many homes and you really need to ride slower, then 74 to 103. 103 is the high point of the day, no traffic absolutely beautiful, both technical, twisty, sweepers and just plain out of this world, like we have at home in Oregon. Trees, mountains, lakes, something new around every bend. We arrive at the entrance to Mt. Evans, highest paved hwy in the US. But decide not to enter because they too want you to have a reservation, instead we jump on I-70 and head home, ending in Vernal UT for the night. We left I-70 at hwy 9 and headed to Kremmling, then US 40 to Steamboat Springs, Craig, Dinosaur and then Naples UT for the ride out of Colorado. It wasn’t all awesome, just the morning ride. I would ride to Colorado to just do 103 again and I have done it 3 time now. The Sure Stay by Best Western in Naples has rooms with small kitchens, nice if you need to warm something up or use a full size refrigerator. Day 10-11-12: Doug took off early 5:30-6:00 am on day 10 and rode home, reducing the 3 days to 1. He did it in one day, traveling 930 miles. He did this by crossing over UT into WY, back into UT then through ID and OR on I-84. I chose to grab a few GT chkpts at Arco, Ironside, Mitchell and Rhododendron. You can image the route I took which also included Mountain Home, Vale, John Day, Fossil, Maupin, Sandy and Home. Doug weaved his way through freeway traffic and had a good time doing it. Ya for Doug. Now if that were Mick Klinman, he would have ridden around the block until he got 1000 miles. My ride was more exciting, not that I would want you all to have this kind of excitement. First Garmin suggested a shortcut in Garden City UT. The traffic was thick and it was hot, and the road was paved, so I bit, only to find the it turned to hard packed gravel. No problem, I continued, then it turned to 2-track. It’s not much further, so I gave it a go. Don’t do this, it is a bad idea. Needless to say I was laughing at that stupid decision after I fell over. Jim Geddes says: “Stand up on the pegs and gas it”, Meylan says, “You need adventure tires like mine and you could have blasted up that!”, Bill says, “A nice off road landing, the bike actually looks like it has been softly laid down on it side intentionally.” Wayne Horner says, “maybe Garmin wants you to be an adventure rider”. These are my friends responding to a Facebook post. That happened on Day 10 going to Blackfoot ID. A Side by Side came upon me and a strong individual named Kenny, offered to help and proceeded to pick the bike up and turned it around so I could ride out. That made my day and I ended up following Google Maps the rest of the day. Day 11: Blackfoot ID to John Day, OR. Felt good to be back in my country. Mainly US 26 all the way. Picked up Arco and Ironside. Day 12: John Day to Home. Not to be out done by only having one Crash, I happened upon a fellow animal on Bakeoven Rd. Only this animal was a deer, and she jumped out in front of me allowing me to hit it’s hind quarter as I was finishing a corner. That was number 4 deer for me. This one managed to live and move on, although the motorcycle drew blood. While getting gas in Maupin, the store guy offered wire ties to gather the dangling pieces of plastic together so I could go home with a tight package. Worked great. Got home around 2:30 pm. The deer event added 2 hours to my ride. All in all, this ride was exceptional, with great roads, great experiences, great friend to share it with and arriving home in one piece, uninjured. No broken legs. Lesson to be learned here: “It is all good”. The bike can be repaired and you make your adventure what it is, so make it a good one and you will be happy no matter what happens. If anyone is interested, I can send you maps or gpx files. (Note the gpx files may not be exactly as what we did as we changed it up a little, but if you read here what we changed, you can make the changes too). Here is a Kurviger Map: https://kurv.gr/mfWs3

Good news. I was able to take the bike out yesterday for a 25 mile ride. This replacement engine has a slipper clutch. I can up shift with ease and no clutch, and easily down shift with a blip of the throttle. It will take a little getting used to, but Hey, I'm only 75 and learnable. 😊

I looked, but couldn't find your post. Give me a link. How to install APE CCT.

No, I did not check valve lash (clearance). It was shown that the engine only had 4,000 miles on it. I am assuming that was correct and will do a valve check at 15K, since these engines have shown that the exhaust valves get tight soon, as you have shown us with your more frequent checking. HOT as in the babe (hunk) walking down the street not as in McD's coffee. Anyway, I need to observe someone doing a valve check before I attempt it. I know, if I can remove and install an engine, make special tools, etc., I should be able to follow the manual and do a valve check. (and maybe a valve adjust too).

Success. Came back from my 204 mile ride this afternoon and given time to think about what I had to do to get the clamps on the rubber boot to throttle bodies tightened. Time cures all. It was easy: I just removed the gas, unbolted the tank, raised it up and disconnected the drain tubes, swung the tank around and placed it on the rear subframe. Made up a tool to tighten the bands, and tightened them. Put the tank back together on the frame. Put gas back in the tank. Added new T6 Rottella oil. Ready to try starting the engine. Turned the key and it took a bit to get the fuel to the cylinders, but it started right up. I warmed it up for a bit to fill the filter and distribute oil though out the engine. Stop it and checked the oil again, added some more, then took it out for a little spin around the block. Never got above 2nd gear. WOW, this thing is HOT and fast. Who would have known? No funny noises, no dripping fluids, no funny vibrations, as far as I can tell, It was a good purchase and I got a good engine. I hope you all like this thread and that I may have pointed out some helpful ideas or technics that may help you in the future. Picture of bike in garage after taking it out for a spin.

The replacement engine came with a Ape CCT already installed. I already had a new one that I was going to install.

I notice in the one photo you have caps on the breather tube outlets and then in another photo you have those removed and have covers on the cast tube outlets? What are you doing?

The engine didn’t want to move upward, when I wiggled it, I could hear something striking something solid. I looked but couldn’t see anything. I moved my straps from the side of the engine to the front. The hooks went through two eyes, which the right one us used by the coolant reservoir. Pulled the floor jack out and tried to lift from these two eyes. Engine came right up. I aligned the hole and temporarily installed all the bolts, leaving them on the loose side. I tightened the upper middle bolt hopping to pull the engine to the left side. I then tightened all the engine mounting bolts on the right side. I then installed the exhaust pipe. I had trouble at first and wasted about an hour and half trying to get the header lined up to the exhaust ports. After studying muffler fighting the drain plug, I concluded that the muffler needed to be in the position that it would end up at, so I raised the muffler up into the position that it needed to be, by wrapping a strap around the bike. It wasn’t held tight, tight, and you could wiggle it by pulling on the strap. After doing this the header move into position effortlessly, but I had to wiggle the pipe as I move the header to the exhaust ports. After finger tightening the header bolts, the mounts above the muffler were lined up almost perfect. If I do this again, I will put the strap around the bike to also remove the header-muffler, cause I had trouble getting the header pipes past the bolts. It is really easy to remove and install the header this way. Installed the center stand. At which time I torqued down the engine bolts. Connected almost all the electrical wires, less the gas tank and radiator’s. Installed sprocket and the chain. And called it quits for Thursday the 10th. I went over the Manual’s directions for installing the engine, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything or do something in the wrong order. My tightening of the engine bolts wasn’t exact, but close enough I didn’t feel I needed to loosen it up and re due it. When looking at the sprocket and chain install, I noticed that the nut washer had one side specifically noted as to be “OUT”. Now that could be a problem. Friday morning I went out and looked at the sprocket and washer. Couldn’t see any part of “OUT”. So I undid the install and found out that I had installed the washer backwards. The washer has a slight bevel on the side that goes against the sprocket. I’m sure that is for a good reason. At least I didn’t have to undo the chain too. Installed the radiator and hoses. Installed the spark plugs and connected them up. Installed the breather hoses from the valve cover to the air box and the air box to the throttle bodies. (as I type this, I realized that I didn’t tighten the rubber boots between the air box and the throttle bodies. AWE SHIT). Installed the Air box. F*$K. I installed the gas tank and all the gas line, electrical and breather tubes. I also found that I was missing the two front bolts that secure the tank to the frame. Must have gotten left at the dealer who had taken a look at the bike and came up with this valve problem. I wasn’t going to go that route at $3,000 plus, so I brought the bike home in a number of boxes. I bagged all the nuts and bolts and pretty much found a home for all of them. Will have remove the tank and redo all that work now. I put 2 gallons in the tank. Shit. Harder to handle. But I am thankful that by writing this, I realize that it is better to fix it now before I try to start the bike. I still have to put oil in it. I added coolant and gas only. I was going out to put oil in, I may still do that, and to start the bike, but now I will have wait until Sunday, Going for a ride tomorrow, as the weather here is fabulous. I was hoping to use the FJ, but will have to settle on the FJR.

First, thanks for the info. I just found it as I was going to post this: Finished job below: I was out working on the engine transfer, cleaning up hose connections and wire brushing off some corrosion/road stuff from the compression clamps, and saw the damaged wire to the heat sensor. I thought I should take a look at it because all the motorcycle shops are closed and even if I ordered a new wire with the connector plugs, it would put me at least a week away and that would not be good. Surgery-hospital stay plus recovery weeks. So I brought it in the house, with the Manual, and some tools to see if I could take it apart. I first tried to remove the rubber inserts. They came out in one piece. With them out the metal connectors were easy to get to fall out by depressing a little plastic clip in the end side. I could see that the wires were clamped into the end of the metal connector. No way to release them. And I see that the re was another clamp that held the rubber seals in pace. It looked like it would be an easy job of soldering the wires to the metal connector and clamping the rubber seals too. I trimmed the wires leaving about a ¼” exposed with my Commercial Elec. Wire cutting/trimming pliers had a 22/24 gauge hole that worked perfect to trim the insulation. After tinning the wires I went ahead and soldered them to the connector. I verified the wires colors at the connection to the wire harness and they matched (after a second try, but only required to reverse the two wires). After soldering the wires, I let them cool, then tugged on them to make sure the soldering wasn’t faulty enough to let go easily. I then pushed them into the plastic plug housing and they clicked into position perfectly. I forgot to put the shrink wrap on so I will have to tape the plastic shroud together. Should be fine as this area gets little rain. It's plugged in and ready to finish raising the engine into place. I can now complete the install this week, between multiple visits to the Hospital for ekg and pre op meetings, etc. 2-3: I am schedule for a stricture resection from my colon, that moved from the 4th to the 16th. They will remove approx. 10" of the sigmoid. Don't want to have a blockage as that would be worse.

I’m back. Surgery was moved to the 16th. Wife and I got back from a week in Phoenix. All is well. I have been ready to drop the old engine our of the bike for a couple weeks, maybe three. Called my neighbor across the street and asked if wanted to play. He had a FJ09, liked mine so much he bought one, then turned around and bought a Super Ten, then sold the FJ. He regrets that. He came right over and we assessed the work to be done and proceeded to lower the engine. I wasn’t quite ready. We used two methods, 1 a floor jack and 2 two straps from a block and tackle from the ceiling, wrapped around left and right engine covers plus other solid bits. Removed bolts holding the engine in place and released the pressure on the engine of the engine adjusting bolts. I had to make another tool to access the two rear bolt locations. Here’s a picture of these two custom made 2teeth sockets. The floor jack was soon found to restrict the engine to high and so we removed it and used the straps to lower the engine to the floor. But before we got it to the floor we found two wires that hadn’t been removed. One of the problems with doing a little here and a little latter is that you often miss things and or forget. At one time I knew of them, but forgot. One of these wires actually held the engine, so we put the floor jack under it and raised it a little to release the tension and uncoupled the connector. It was the shift sensor wires. The other wire was the heat sensor wire located under the throttle bodies. It broke at the male plug at the sensor, wires pulled out of the plug. The replacement engine didn’t come with this wire and plugs. Picture of wire and plugs. We dropped the engine onto the floor and moved it out of the way. Removed the throttle bodies and installed them on the replacement engine. I had placed the replacement engine on a furniture dolly, so it was easy to move over to the bike. We rotated the engine to be laying flat with the exhaust ports down, strapped it to the hoist, then rotated it more upright and aligning the lower rear bolt hole with the frame holes. We put round punches in the holes to hold it there. Picture below is how it sits at this time. At this point I kind of stopped and noted it was a good time to thread all the wires, ground wire from starter, hot wire from starter, charging wire that runs to the voltage rectifier regulator, shift sensor wire, and a couple others, to their matching female plugs or battery terminal locations. I also noted that if I moved the engine into it’s fixed location that I wouldn’t be able to connect the heat sensor wire. So we stopped. This little $10 wire is going to hold me up a week or so, which will have me in surgery and then that will add a few more weeks. So it may be over a month until I can put it all back together. Edit: It is fixed. Anyone know how to repair the pulled apart plug? I tried to get the connectors inside the plug to release and come out but failed. There must be a little known trick???????? Some other notes: The shift sensor on the old engine had stopped working around 70K and I opened it up and cleaned it up, including sanding the contacts. It worked after that for about a month and then hit or miss for 5 months and then stopped all together. Well, based on RPM and speed, I could tell, most of the time, what gear I was in, but just went back to the old method and counted. It worked for 30K miles. Amazing what you can live without. The replacement engine should solve this. The ground wire off the starter motor on the FJ had an additional plug on the harness so I removed it from the old FJ and used it instead of the one that came with the replacement engine. So far that is the only difference I have found. Nothing to do with the engine. The eye bolts in the ceiling are reinforced by: solid blocking between the 2x10 ceiling joists with a 4 foot 4x4 backer spanning over the top of the joist. The bolt hangs from the bottom of a 2x10 hanger that is attached to the blocking or joist. The block and tackle is rated for 800 lbs, but is hard to work when load is over 600 lbs. It is used often when working on front shocks and for unusual liftings. Ten years ago, I would have had this job done in 1-3 weeks. If anyone is in need of these special sockets I made, let me know. After I am done and the engine works, I won't need them again ( I hope). It doesn't take long to make them. Buy a cheap 1/4" socket set (Harbor Freight for $6, and less in those misc. tool bins at the local hardware store) and cut away with a Dremel tool with cut off disk. Finish with a file. You will need the extensions to reach the adjusting bolts in the frame. The extensions I used were from my dads Craftmans tool chest he bought in the late 1940's. Still work perfectly. Buy a good quality set of 1/4 + 3/8 extensions, they will last a life time and don't take up much space in a tool box.