FJRiders.com

Six years on a battery is very good. Do I hear 7?

On my 09 FJR I replaced it after 6 or 7 years. The Clearwater Voltage Sentry was showing voltage variation. The variation went away with a new battery.

12.3 is usually fresh off the NOCO. Even when the NOCO is connected. Should be 13 to 13.3 as I see with other maintainers. But things are working no matter it doesn’t look nice. NOCO starts with a red light then works to green. However I’ve seen it go back to red a few days later. In AGM mode, AGM battery, not lithium.

Had some coolant escaping from the thermostat housing. It was coming from where the plastic and aluminum halves join together. After disassembly, when I put the plastic half on flat surface (piece of plate glass) I could get a .003 feeler gauge to slip under it between each of the three bolt holes. Also, the rubber seal around the thermostat itself was pretty crusty with mineral deposits. I used some fine sand paper and an infinity pattern to sand the surface of the plastic housing back to flat and cleaned up the thermostat gasket and aluminum housing really well. A thin coat of Permatex water pump sealant upon reassembly and 24 hours to cure has fixed the leak, at least for now. We’ll see how it does with some heat cycles on it.

Hint: connect the volt meter directly to the battery (put a switch on it). Anywhere downstream from it will find yourself with inaccurate readings.

My wife went off riding with her Motor Maid friends. Left me unsupervised at the house. I was supposed to start repairing my wood fence.
Instead I did this:


Nice little ride around the Lake and surrounding areas. It's a big lake! So a couple hundred miles on Saturday.

Sunday the event my wife went to was over. It was a couple of hours from the house so I decide to run down so we could ride together.

Went to Everglades City. Basically about as far south as you can go by road in SW Florida. Kind of an end of the road fishing village.






Another couple hundred miles on Sunday.

Oh, and it was 87F on the way home yesterday.

bungie4 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 9:32 am Hint: connect the volt meter directly to the battery (put a switch on it). Anywhere downstream from it will find yourself with inaccurate readings.

The accuracy of voltage depends on whether current is flowing in the wire. The more current the smaller the wire the greater the voltage drop. You can run a wire 100' with nothing but a voltmeter on the end and have very accurate measurement.

Of course I understand that. I just use it for reference and assurance that the stator is doing its thing.

Haven't ridden it in quite a while. Haven't ridden much in a while. Been dealing with snowmageddon here in the Dallas area this week and I was bored between rolling power outages yesterday so decided to go move tender cables around between bikes in the garage and fire some bikes up and let them warm up. FJR and GSX-S1000 both fired up like they were ready to go. Going to be back up to 70 next week but I bet the roads will be still covered with all the sand crap they put down for the ice we have now. We'll see. Need to get some inspections done so I can pay the man for registration.

Put the new Angel GT on Renee this morning. Nice to have a round tire on the front. Cycle gear charged $34 to swap out and balance. Took about 20 min. total. That Coats tire machine is slick. You can have one for about $4k. Think I'll keep paying as I go. Easy job to R&R front wheel on the FJR. Wish I had that new tire when wheaton and I rode Monday.

Toter wrote: ↑Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:06 pm Put the new Angel GT on Renee this morning. Nice to have a round tire on the front. Cycle gear charged $34 to swap out and balance. Took about 20 min. total. That Coats tire machine is slick. You can have one for about $4k. Think I'll keep paying as I go. Easy job to R&R front wheel on the FJR. Wish I had that new tire when wheaton and I rode Monday.

Yeah, that front had a definite step from flat to sides...I bet it was very unnerving.

I can tell when someone is retired, when they can’t remember which day of the week it was that we rode.

Doh!!

Leaned my snow shovel against it. It is going to warm up here next week and I am hoping to get out for a ride with temps the low 40's.

Got fresh engine coolant, fresh engine oil, new air filter and new tires on the '17. She is ready to go. Most of the new stuff was courtesy of Yamaha's tranny recall.

I went for a1.5 hour ride today, the first of the season, except to and from the dealership for recall work.

The landscape had islands of snow while the pothole lakes, created by the Ice Age Floods 15,000 years ago, were frozen by recent cold weather. Temperature was 41-42° today. Heated gear came in handy.

It was nice to get back on the FJR.

Developed a renewed appreciation for my FJR by volunteering to teach a woman rider how to install front brake pads on her GL1800 trike.

14 screws and a nut just to reach the calipers. 6 of 7 on each side were different but at least 12 of the 14 used same 5mm hex key.

I am not sure if I should love Timmy or hate him after today. Let me explain


I got a dash shelf and new GPS from a forum member! That means removing the old gps, unhooking the heated gear to mount it it better. Normally I would not have the courage to task this. I had wires everywhere from the PC-8. I rerouted almost everything and cleaned up some of my previous hacks. There is a lot of electrical hooked up; 2 sets of LEDS, 2 sets heated gear, GPS, Heated seat, SAE connector, PC-8, and a back off tail light.



The hate would come in because it was a crap ton of work, my hands are pretty scratched up from all the wire chasing.

The love would come from him showing me the basics and always telling me if I mess it up, it can be fixed. That gave me courage to give it a try. Just wrapping it up now. Hopefully it all works.


Oh yeah, when is that tech day in at Bust’s house? Tim, you better being some wiring supplies! Lol. Thanks man, I would have never tried without your help from before.

Chuck, I like the upgrades. Still need to do a little fine tuning, but I am pleased with the initial setup.


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Cav, That looks oddly familiar.....Glad it's working out for you. I haven't touched my bike in over a month. More snow here that we've had in years and i tweaked my left knee and it's swollen up to the size of a nice cantaloupe so looks like it might be a little longer before I do get to ride.

It was in the mid 40s yesterday and there were lot of motorcycles out so it motor-vated me to go check the battery in my FJR. 4.8 volts So yesterday afternoon I hooked my Optimate charger to the battery and crossed my fingers. I just checked the voltage with the charger ON and I now have 13.3 volts and the charger is still charging. Optimate claims my charger can raise the dead, we will see

Sometimes epsom salt in the electrolyte works. But if your resorting to that, it's time to buy a new battery

I went out for a three hour ride today. Whoo Hooo!

Some photos.

Ice covered pothole lake. It was 51° today so the ice will not last long.



Entering a Coulee.



FJR in a wheat field.



It was a nice day to be on the FJR.