FJ1200 “restomod”

Something I lusted over in highschool was a 1984 FJ1100. I had lots of bikes during those years, but the FJ was always out of reach price wise. The years went by and more bikes passed in and out of my life, but the FJ always eluded me.

Then a couple years ago, I ran across a ratty, beat up, neglected 89 FJ1200 on it’s last legs before being torn apart for a legends car.

It was beat up pretty badly, but it was complete and despite sitting in a shed by the water for a year, it cranked up for me on what the owner was sure was a dead battery. I think the old girl knew I was going to take care of her and I was it’s last chance at a resurrection.

800 bucks and it was mine.







For the first year, after I dealt with a few safety and maintenace items, i just took it for the occasional blast. Felt great! But it obviously was not in great shape.

Last year I laid it up for winter and didn’t put insurance back on it. I’d been collecting parts and started installing them about a month ago.

To be continued...

Looks like she’s in decent shape, what all was wrong with it?

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Looks like she’s in decent shape, what all was wrong with it?

the pics make it look better than it is. Old, tired, neglected. Tires, paint, rust, etc. All needs to be redone.

100k+ on the clocks as well....

Like you said, pictures can be deceiving, but it does look to be well taken care of even though you say it was neglected.

Well, the mechanical stuff is mostly done so tume to pull it apart to the frame and start making it “purdy”:




Not planning anything radical, just factory white and silver like any other stock 1989 FJ1200….

Tear down almost finished:

TourMax wrote:

Tear down almost finished:

Looking good, you sure you don't want to drop the bike and swap that motor into a tractor or a dune buggy? 
I guess it's a teenage dream fulfilled, what are you going to do about it...

TechnoChicken wrote:

TourMax wrote:

Tear down almost finished:

Looking good, you sure you don't want to drop the bike and swap that motor into a tractor or a dune buggy? 
I guess it's a teenage dream fulfilled, what are you going to do about it...

Yeah, ummmm….thats a big ol’ no.

I saved this bike from being chopped up for a legends car. Would pretty stupid if I turned around and chopped it up myself…

That is a nice bike and looks like you found yourself a great example to freshen up! I have to say, in my opinion it looks better in plain white than most of factory appearance packages especially with the smoked windshield.

TourMax wrote:

TechnoChicken wrote:

TourMax wrote:

Tear down almost finished:

Looking good, you sure you don't want to drop the bike and swap that motor into a tractor or a dune buggy? 
I guess it's a teenage dream fulfilled, what are you going to do about it...

Yeah, ummmm….thats a big ol’ no.

I saved this bike from being chopped up for a legends car. Would pretty stupid if I turned around and chopped it up myself…

Fair enough, I'm just not a huge bike guy, always feel like I'm going to die just thinking about bikes...
But good on you for saving a decent machine from being cannibalized...

Brianator wrote:

That is a nice bike and looks like you found yourself a great example to freshen up! I have to say, in my opinion it looks better in plain white than most of factory appearance packages especially with the smoked windshield.

I’m taking it back to the factory white and silver for a 1989:







The bike is actually pretty ratty. Theres literally not one piece on it that isn’t rusted, corroded, broken, cracked bent or just plain worn out. Odo has gone around at least once, and might be pushing twice.

But compression is good and it pulls like a freight train. The rest is all just remove, restore, replace or “customize”….

How high does the odo go up? we have had a few cars with 500k+ on them but thats the most I've ever seen with my eyes, our current truck has 540k I think?

That factory package is pretty nice and one of the few I liked (the black and gold was also beauty) but there were a few I saw that were pretty awful! Lol. I look forward to seeing it restored to its former glory!

TechnoChicken wrote:

How high does the odo go up? we have had a few cars with 500k+ on them but thats the most I've ever seen with my eyes, our current truck has 540k I think?

Most motorcycles odo’s roll at 100,000. This bike is in kilometers, so it’s somewhere just over 100,000 miles. For a motorcycle, thats a heck of a lot of mileage. Motorcycles don’t rack up the miles like automobiles, so they’re not built the same way (ie: for high miles) and getting over 100k means you’re likely on borrowed time for rotating parts to just plain wear out.

Spent most of the day building some adapters to mount the engine to a standard engine stand:




Had to build a couple brackets and machine a couple shafts to fit the engine mounting points. Mount points are very large to accept rubber inserts, so I had to make a couple shafts the same size as the rubber inserts to bolt the engine stand brackets to.

Thought I’d share a few pics of the bike before it fell in hard times:





That actually is my bike when in possession of a a PO who lived in Quebec along the St Lawrence seaway. I’ve confirmed it by a few unique things of the bike and confirmed the vin with the PO, who I was lucky enough to find on line. After he sold it, it went through a couple neglectful owners until it hit one guy who actually traded it for a playstation box. The guy I bought it from took it on trade for a car chassis he had and it sat in his shed in PEI for a couple years (he wasn’t a rider), about 30 feet from the north Atlantic ocean. That was the final straw that caused most of the heavy corrosion on it. Then I bought it off him and the rest of the story you know…

Compression test revealed that cyl # 1 is odd man out. 2-4 is running 140-145 psi. # 1 only pumps up to 105 psi.

A quick check of valve clearances reveals that while # 1 cyl isn't being held open, the clearances were tight, very tight. Cold the clearances should be around 10 thou for intake and 15-18 thou exhaust. Feeler check showed both are a very tight 5 thou.

This could be the problem as the intake would be held open longer than it should and the exhaust opens earlier than it should. Could explain why it takes longer to pump # 1 cyl to it's max value while 2-4 only takes a few revolutions to make max psi. I thought I had ordered the special valve shim removal tool a few years ago, but it appears not. So I'm now waiting for the tool to arrive so I can fix the valve clearances and check the compression again.

I really hope that's the issue as I'm not really enthusiastic about removing the head and ruining the head gasket with cyl's 2-4 making such good cold compression. It's possible only the # 1 cyl bore has a problem, but it's not likely with the others being so good.

Also ordered up 4 carb kits and a revised starter chain oil nozzle. My emulsion tubes are quite ovaled out, which does crazy things with the fueling. The nozzle is more preventative. the original nozzle is a long stamped sheet metal ojb, the new one (genuine Yamaha, designed for the XJR1300, which is the same as the FJ engine) is a machined piece. the problem with the original is that it is so long it reaches out and over the starter chain. The starter chain develops slack over time (no tensioner on it) and can flop around enough that it strikes the nozzle and makes a horrible "can or bolts" noise when running.  

Also ordered an Ignitek tcip-4 programmable ignition. I run one on my VMax and it's fantastic. So the Fj is going to get one too. Only problem is the seller doesn't have an ignition map for the fj1200, so I'll have to map out my own advance curve.  You would think the service manual would have all I need, but they only give you a very 2d map:



Problem with that is there is also a map sensor in the system, which provides load data to the ignition unit so it can advance/retard the curve based on engine load. that's going to take some doing to flesh that out on my own wit no starting point. Not beyond my abilities. it's just a lot of painful, detailed, experimental work....

found an ign map from a DDK7-1:




The DDK7-1 is an aftermarket "performance" ignition for the FJ1200. Pretty much jives with teh OEM ign advance map, except for the optional "performance" curves.....

Well crap. My shim removal tool showed up today and I adjusted the valve clearance on # 1 cylinder.

No joy. Still only pumps up to 90-100 psi.

Dropped a teaspoon of 10w oil down the spark plug hole and cranked it over. Couple turns and it pumped right up to 150 psi. that means it's not a burned valve or similar. So it's piston ring problems or cylinder bore damage.

even if I'm "lucky" and it's a stuck compression ring, I'm at least going to have to yank the head off. If I have to yank the cylinder block I'm looking at (as a minimum) a hone and new rings in all 4 bores.

Not to mention, as soon as you open up an engine with some miles on it, you almost always find more things that need to be addressed or replaced. Money, money, money......

I'm just gutted. Especially since 3-4 cylinders are 140-150 psi as they are.

Can't even look at it right now. Time to let it sit for a couple days or a week. I'm so wound up, I can't even think straight about the next step. I just need some time away from it to get my head back in the game.....

Could you not let some penetrating oil soak in for awhile, then bump it over and hope compression gets into the ring gap(s) and frees it up? Could be worth a shot

Brianator wrote:

Could you not let some penetrating oil soak in for awhile, then bump it over and hope compression gets into the ring gap(s) and frees it up? Could be worth a shot

Yep, been soaking for days in seafoam top end cleaner. I soak the bore and give it a turn, wait a couple hours and go out to give it another turn. Every other day I refill with seafoam and start the process all over again.

I've got nothing to loose at this point so we'll see where it goes....

This is true, good luck man I'm rooting for you!