Service

SERVICE

Paul Dean

...and keeps on ticking

I have a `92 Yamaha FZR1000 with 28,750 miles on it, and it is making a ticking sound in the transmission area. The bike is mildly modified and I ride it fairly hard, but there is no power loss anywhere in the powerband. I recently inspected the clutch and found no problems in there. Any suggestions would be a big help. Brad Slice San Diego, California

That ticking noise could be caused by one of several possible problems. Your self-described hard riding (which, I assume, means lots of quick, hard, high-rpm shifts) may have caused a small piece of metal to break off one of the gear-engage ment dogs; if that piece then got caught between two mating gears, one of the gear teeth could have got ten chipped. That would cause the ticking you hear. Or, one of the teeth could have chipped on its own, the result of hard use combined with normal wear. Either way, replacing the damaged gear is an expensive repair requiring removal of the en gine and splitting of the crankcases.

Yet another possibility is that one of the bearings on the ends of the transmission shafts is in the process of failing. A damaged race, a nicked ball or even a broken ball-retainer all could cause the kind of noise you de

scribe. Though the cost of the bearing itself is only a few dollars, replacing it is an expensive proposition that, like the broken gear tooth, requires the engine to be yanked out of the frame and the cases split.

Of intakes and exhausts

I have two questions. First, I will be shipping my `98 Suzuki TL1000R from Germany to the States very soon, and for this, I am required to drain both oil and fuel. Considering that my TL is fuel-injected, will this cause any problems? I've always been led to believe that a fuel-injected en gine should never be run out of fuel. Second, the stupid question: Every roadrace track I've ever run on or vis ited circulates in a clockwise direc tion, guaranteeing that right turns will outnumber left turns. So, why do four-cylinder sportbikes have their pipes exiting on the right side, seem ingly in harm's way? Is there some thing obvious I'm overlooking? Alex Kulcsar Speicher, Germany

Absolutely no problems whatsoever will arise from emptying your TL's fuel tank. Think about it. In the liti gious Nineties, no liability-sensitive manufacturer would dare sell a mo torcycle that might suffer from me chanical problems f it simply ran out of gas. As is the case with all modern fuel injected motorcycles, the TLJ000R

(and S-model, as well) locates its fuel pump inside the fuel tank; this means that the pump pushes fuel, which is a much more positive method of delivery than pulling it. It also means the pump is self-priming. So, even if the tank is drained completely dry, the pump v~'ill begin delivering fuel to the injectors as soon as the tank is replenished. In response to your second ques tion, not all roadrace tracks run clock wise: Daytona, Laguna Seca, Phoenix and Loudon are several counterclock wise circuits that come immediately to mind, and there no doubt are numer ous others. As far as right-side ex hausts are concerned, remember that no matter how they might be used after their purchase, sportbikes are street motorcycles that have to turn equally in both directions, not pre dominantly to the right.

Furthermore, cornering-clearance problems brought about by having an exhaust pipe and a sidestand on the left side can be even more daunting than having only the pipe on the right. And because the Japanese manufac turers prefer engine designs that place the final-drive chain on the left (for reasons no factory representatives seem able to explain), the right side

allows more room for an exiting ex haust than does the left. Besides, the cornering clearance on modern sport bikes is not necessarily limited by ex haust-pipe location, regardless of which side the pipe might be on.

Old black-box magic

I've been working on an old 1980 Yamaha XS650, and when checking for spark, I found that the plugs fire constantly with the key switch on but the engine not turning over. Is this normal? Ducati9693 Posted on America Online

Absolutely not. If the bike in question had breaker-point ignition, I'd sus pect that a condensor had gone hay wire and that what you were seeing was the continuous discharging of the condensor every time it became fully charged. But 1980 was the year in which Yamaha switched the XS650 from breaker-point ignition to a solidstate, capacitive-discharge (pointless) style. And the symptoms indicate that the problem lies in the main micro processor, which is the sealed "black box" that controls the ignition spark. I suspect that something has failed in the microprocessor, probably in the circuitry that allows the spark to be triggered once the capacitor becomes fully charged.

The procedure for troubleshooting the ignition system is too complicated to explain here, so you have two options. If you’re comfortable with the principles of electricity and have access to a good volt-amp-ohm meter, buy a shop manual for your bike and diagnose the problem yourself; if not, take the bike to a good Yamaha shop and have it diagnosed with the factory service tester that was designed to troubleshoot ignition problems.

Liar, liar, cut the wire

I have a 1998 Yamaha YZF-R1 that I bought used with only 710 miles on it. It must have scared the hell out of the previous owner, because he rarely rode it, then sold it to me at a ridiculously low price. It looks and runs just like new, except for one small problem: The low-oil-level warning light sometimes comes on when the engine is not low on oil. It usually comes on shortly after I start the engine for the first time in the morning, and it stays on for a little while before going out. My dealer says that nothing is wrong, and he accused me of doing wheelies or accelerating really hard when this happens, but that’s not so. I know I’m picking nits, but it’s really annoying to have the light come on when it shouldn’t. I also don’t want to get into the habit of ignoring the light, just in case the engine actually does run low on oil. Do you have any idea what is wrong?

Eric Sindelar St. Louis, Missouri

Although Yamaha’s tech department claims never to have seen or heard of such a problem, our long-term R1 test bike does the very same thing. Within a mile or so after a cold-engine start, the low-oil light often illuminates and stays on for a few minutes, then goes off and doesn’t come on again until after another cold start. This glitch usually doesn’t occur until the oil gets at least halfway between the “full” and “add” levels as viewed through the sight glass on the right side of the crankcase

The Rl’s oil-level warning system is based on the position of a float that rides atop the oil in the crankcase, very much like the float that rides atop the fuel in a fuel tank. And, like most fuel gauges, oil-level warning systems vary in accuracy from one to another; some

read a little high, some read a little low, and some are spot-on. Combine this variation with the slower flow rate of cold oil, and you have a likely explanation for the problem. When the engine and its oil are cold, the oil returns from the cylinder head to the crankcase sump more slowly than when warmslowly enough that the level of oil in the sump is slightly lower than when the oil is warm. If the warning system on your Rl-and ours, as well-tends to prematurely signal a low oil level, the light will come on.

Since Yamaha claims not to be aware of this problem, I can offer no remedy. If I become aware of one, I’ll pass it along. Meanwhile, if having the light occasionally come on really bothers you, disconnect it; most motorcycles don’t have a low-oil warning system anyway. And you still can check the oil through the sight glass.

Safely in the clutches

After many years of riding, I recently tried clutchless upshifting for the first time. I only did it between 3500 and 5000 rpm, but I was amazed at how smoothly and seamlessly my VFR 800 Interceptor shifted when I did this. But does clutchless upshifting make things break or shorten the life of the transmission, chain, sprockets or whatever, or is it actually better for motorcycle longevity? Is it safe to do up near redline rpm? Dario Iglesias

San Diego, California

If executed to perfection, clutchless shifting (either up or down) does not cause driveline components to break or wear prematurely. Trouble is, if not done perfectly, the technique dramatically increases the chance of driveline damage. When the clutch is disengaged, the considerable inertia of the spinning crankshaft and all the reciprocating engine parts (pistons, rods, etc.) is separated from the enormous inertia of the rest of the motorcycle (including your body mass) as it rolls down the road; but if the clutch is still engaged, those two forces are not isolated from one another. Under those conditions, even one botched or mismatched shift can take a tremendous toll on the driveline; and over a surprisingly short period of time, that damage can surface in countless ways, all of which spell a decreased lifespan for the driveline components.

I suggest you use the clutch. That why it there.