JimR

hi Michelle, I guess you have the manual for the bike with the pad sizing info in but bear in mind you have to get the cams out to change the shims .. I don't know how much tech knowledge you have but if you have not worked on Yamaha engines this may be a little difficult to do (on rebuild get the valve timing wrong and = loadsa cash). If you need the pdf let me know @ I'll send it Regards Jim

Hi Michelle, the valve clearences will tighten as the valve & seat wear the adjuster shim and cam do not wear at the same rate. I tend to set mine a loose as I can. BTW is your FZ an aircooled or watercooled one ? Regards Jim

I have a 28" inside leg & am less than 9 stone weight, perhaps you now understand why the 600z had to go, my brother had it dispatching (that trashed it !), so needless to say I'm ok with the Divi (low seat & high weight that does the suspension compression for me) Regards Jim

well I have the shop to do & a bin round ! but I can walk away from both .... council sort out the bins & Tim sorts out the M/c shop... I guess we need some more input ! Regards Jim

hmmm I guess easter hols would suit you I'm ok how about everyone else ? Regards Jim

Regards Jim

Hi Mark, The Divi 900 is cheap goes well enuff and has good reliability, so if you want a Yam tourer on a budget have a look at one ! On mine I have the insurance down to £100 FC (this includes my FS1 as well) and to date (only 8k on the clock) I've not laid a spanner on the mill but other Divi 900 owners have done silly miles with very little maintanence. But if you dont like the look of it perhaps an FJ11/12/13 would do .... I didnt go that way as I wanted a shaft 'uck them damm chains ! I agree that the GS is perhaps not up to the job so get a tourer and off we go !!! a Darby & Joan holiday/tour Regards Jim

Hi, not so good if you are vertically challenged !!! I had an 83 Xt600z (in 83) as I couldnt touch the floor it became a problem at traffic lights/junctions when laden (not to bad with no kit on as I could balance it for ages) so it had to go ! but the 30k miles done on it were trouble free. I'm up for a run down to Gib next year, my old Divi has only done about 8k (it's about 11 years old, had it from new) so it's about time it earned its keep ! Regards Jim

Hi James, would the Fazer keep up ? we will go with you on the old Divi, but I guess you may get a bit 'worn out' riding a Fazer on long distance ... when I was younger I did europe on the XS650S (good old SAB795V), in 2 weeks and by the time I got back to the UK I was well worn out (some down to partying but your only young once hmmm twice now I'm a grand dad no kids to look after !!) but yeah I'm up for a tour Regards Jim

Hi Just noticed you have a YX600 ... Radion fooled me for a bit !!! (thought it was a soap powder ) You could have a starter motor problem, like some bad brushes or dirty segments to the armature, but I'm sure you will get some better advice from other users. With regard to jumping the bike from a car battery, thats OK if the battery is flat but in your case I dont think it is and the jump will apply more power to the system than it's designed for and the starter will spin the motor and start it then back to it's own battery it's back to square one, discounted starter motor because a few more amps were supplied. All tests should be conducted within the bike's standard spec, rather than adding a bigger capacity battery to mask the fault Regards Jim

Hi How cold is cold ? -7 or just 0 ? I assume your bike is an air cooled FZ if not you may have a coolant problem, if the coolant is straight water or has had time to degrade the engine could freeze up in the correct conditions. If air cooled, this is only UK spec problems, you could have some short starter motor brushes, bad battery, out of spec starter relay or addly enough some out of spec genny brushes. I'm not saying any of these are correct as I'm sure there are people here who could answer your questions more correctly. Regards Jim

Hi Did you commission the battery with an acid pack or was it filled and commissioned via a shop ? There is a possibility that the acid was not at the correct SG (I would guess a shop's acid would have the correct SG) and therefore the battery couldl die/decline in the manner you mention, but you have some good answers to your question and I guess mine will be incorrect. Regards Jim

Hi' I'm not sure if the UK & US agreement with regard to entitlement to drive, renting a bike in the UK may have problems they may need a UK credit check .. as a person from else where you may fail. The Purchase may not be so bad £'s count ! but you will need to have insurance in order to licence the bike, If you have the ability to do that go for it and do the UK tour then sell the bike on to a man in the pub !!! If you manage it come down to Worcs and we will have a beer ! Regards Jim

Red/whites were better !! what was wrong with the stock bike (bar those silly rubbers between the front pipe & silencer !) & then putting a monoshock on why not use the rather firm RD350B shocks (much better than putting a 4L0/4L1 back end in. Ok Carbon wheels to reduce the unsprung weight, but does it need it ? from memory the RD400 you mention yellow/black one was an RD400E and RD400DX was like a marine blue (like green .. the 250 was like royal blue). I get off the point Garage YL1 just to hack off bigger bikes RD200DX Portuguese Orange went well but way a handfull to steer .... who has UUY1R !!!! and I guess the old Divi coz at 10 years on it still does what it said on the tin Regards Jim

Hi, not the bit needed underside of that is a rubber gromet with a metal clip in it the brass tube that the knob you showed fits to has some groves for the metal clip that I describe to hold the choke in the position (as required)on/off or 2 position. I can supply pics of the on/off FS1 set up but not a 2 position SR peice but the only difference will be an extra groove for the clip to ajoin to. I still cannot remember if SR125 was sold as a unit (putting my bet on that) or if you could get each part then the spring clip will be the only peice required. Regards Jim

I am old or something (don't answer that one) there is no need to do 167.55555 mph (mine does 167.5555 mph in second etc etc .... thats what some people get off on) whats wrong with good old 70 (80 at a push) you tend to last a bit longer at those speeds (rather than 167.55555) and dont wear out Tyres & brakes so quick. I rode an R1 didn't like it at all (OK it was an early example back when it was new) riding position wrong & a bad flat spot in the mid range (just the area I would run the bike). but back to the point I would guess any 600cc bike would suit you all the way across (performance etc) bigger stuff may become a bit of a handful, my XJ being old has no credit to speed or performance (reliability yes it has a good for one thing). My other half is also vertically chalenged 5 2 with high heels on, she bought a ZZR250 and had real problems with it so gave up riding bikes .... to date she gets on the 900 by scaling the footrest but jumps on the Fizzy no probs Regards Jim

Too right if it suits you and can do the speed limits why do you need more ? Ok I know I have a 900 but it has very rarley gone over the speed limits but it can pull 15mph in top gear and accelerate away from cars in that state ... the old cars are droping gears to keep up ! The MT is not as good as that but will do everything you need it to do, you may have to drop a gear or 2 to keep the cars away or not depends on your riding style. If the CBR doesn't float your boat why buy one ? If your happy with it go for it ! regards Jim

Hi Greg the screws could end up being 4 turns out and for sure they wont be the same setting I have now one set at 1 turn & the other at 4 ! if you have not checked the balance in that time how about valve clearence and cam chains ? as they should be checked b4 carb balance and mixture strength checks. With the non start issue test for a spark then go from there. Regards Jim

if the STARTER SET .as yamaha call it. or if the black choke knob has a split pin thro it you may be able to replace the little spring clip that is at fault. Regards Jim

Thats pretty much it in a nutshell so that may fix the problem !! do we need to goto stage 2 !!! Regards Jim

Hi there, just did one with the same fault last week (uk bike but it should be the same). Balance the carbs (with vaccum guages and adjust the 2 mixture screws located on the r/h side of the bike, they look like a tube just below the carb to covers. Method :- warm the motor and use the idle screw to get the bike to sort of idle at 1k ... it will be well doggy check the balance and adjust via the screw on the l/h side between the carbs, as adjustments are made the idle may need to be adjusted to get it back to 1k, once you have the v gauges reading the same open the throttle and let the bike return to idle & recheck the gauges (the bike may still be uneven & cutting out on the front cyl) ... now go to the mix screws (down those tubes) screw the screw anticlockwise until the revs rise (then do the same for the back cylinder) the idle may now be very high adjust it back to the 1k setting, allow the bike to idle & see if the cylinder cuts out. continue adjusting the mix screws in the above manner until you get a smooth idle, the only problem I had with my repair bike was the front mix screw was seized solid, took ages and lots of WD & gentle persuasion. let me know what goes on Regards Jim

Hi Mark, Soleniod= starter switch (black box with a wire from the battery to the sm and via the start button)? if so yes they do wear out ! there is a contact in the box that could die ... if you are up for it jump the wire to the stater switch from the battery to the wire to the starter motor (the 2 big connections on the solenoid/switch). If the starter spins 'like a good un' replace the soliniod/switch, if not the SM (but you have a good one) or the starter clutch & chain maybe suspect. Most of the probs you describe point to a bad earth but as you have done that, so I'd put the money on the soleniod/switch regards Jim

well you have 3 checks to do. From your reply the slip rings & brushes are ok, but I would think a bike of this age would be correct. If the 8 socket connector 3 whites, red,black, brown & green oh missed one perhaps its not used do the red to all whites & reverse (with an ohm meter) then again with the black instead of the red. Regards Mr Jim R

Hi, A good old air cooled FZ I guess ! did you clean the slip rings on the genny ? if not take it off again & clean them. (Slip ring = the track that the brush runs on). First off charge the battery fully Then do the battery voltage test 14.5~14.8 @ 4k, if you dont get this do the following :- check all connections to the rectifier/reg i.e 3 whites, red and black, these should be well clean .. no green anywhere and the copper connectors need to look copper colour rather than black/copper. If that's ok go to stage 2 The 3 whites from the genny will output 50ish volts AC (across each white to white so there are a few combinations). if no voltage check the 3 whites from the genny for burns (brown patches) and breaks. do that for now if its not fixed I'll add stage 3 Regards Jim

OK its water cooled I guess unless its a 89/90 that was registered in 91, Genesis was the water cooled motor FZR600 (without Genesis) was air cooled. Water cooled has a temp guage to the right of the rev counter. Charge the battery, start the bike up and connect the volt meter to the battery, you will need to remove both front & rear saddles to gain access to the battery, start the bike & rev the motor to 4k and see if 14.5 ~ 14.8 volts is obtained. If do not you have a charging problem, if you do get that voltage you have a battery discharge problem, if so do the following :- Check the battery voltage with the bike turned off this should read 12v ~ 14v Dependant on the sate of charge of the battery, if the voltage drops after half hour of monitoring it, remove the battery leads and do the same with the battery out of circuit. If the voltage drops across the battery at this point suspect the battery. If it does not you stand a chance of a short circuit/bad earth. If you dont get 14.5v + when the bike is running @ 4k you have a charging problem ! without knowing which bike you have it would be difficult to advise where to go next we need to know which bike you have to go further ! Regards Jim