Rainy weekend maintenance

[SilverHound]

Decided to take advantage of the rainy weekend to do some past-due scheduled maintenance on my '08. Bike only has 14,000 miles on it of which about half are from a X-country trip. I know...I need to ride more. Anyhow, installed new plugs which was far easier than I had expected. Old plugs looked perfect and I probably could have gone longer but what the heck, had already bought the new ones. Wanted to do a throttle body sync but found that the magic blue liquid in my Motion-Pro tuner meter thing had mostly evaporated. Will fix that and save it for a future day.

Bled the brakes and clutch, changed the crankcase and final drive oil, cleaned and recharged the K&N air filter. All in all it was a drama free and uneventful session. I don't think I swore even once.

Anything else I should be checking at this point? I figure I'm coming up on needing a new battery but have been checking it and it's still holding strong. What about a radiator flush? When do you typically do that? Coolant is not ugly and still within the marks on the tank.

 

[builderwill]

I'm sure you'll get different responses on coolant replacement but I do mine every two years. I pull the drain plug and empty the resevoir and refill. Burp and refill a few times and good to go. I don't do the whole blowing out and flushing routine mentioned on the forum. Seems like overkill. As long as I change it every couple years the residual coolant won't be that old.

 

[Donal]

If the coolant has been in there since 2008 I would definitely change it. I have never seen the need for a flush but then I change mine every year!

Have you ever checked the rear suspension relay arm bearings? This has caused major problems for many in the UK (probably because of all the chemical junk they put on the roads). At 6 years old yours is due for a good look...................

 

[ahchiu]

Clean and lube the pivot points on your clutch, brake levers and your rear brake foot lever.

 

[Eric L]

did you *change* the brake and clutch fluid or just bleed?

 

[SilverHound]

Clean and lube the pivot points on your clutch, brake levers and your rear brake foot lever.

Did it. Kick stand and center stand too.

did you *change* the brake and clutch fluid or just bleed?

Changed. Bled all lines until the new stuff came through and then some...

Will do the coolant refill asap. Going out to buy some coolant today.

 

[Harald]

The new coolant states it's good for 5 years or 100k miles. I change mine at my valve check interval of 30k because you need to drain at least some of it anyway or else end up with coolant ontop of your engine when you pull the tubes that run through the valve cover. In my case 30k comes out to a little over 2 years.

+1 on lubing the rear shock linkage. There wasn't enough grease in those bearings when I did mine a few years ago and I ride in a lot of rain. And like Donal mentioned, I've heard of catastrophic failures of those bearings (although it's not a common thing).

 

[art miller]

Appears you have done most of the needed maint.. and agree to some suggestions. Not mentioned is to go over all the fasteners to ensure no parts falloff during the up coming riding season.

 

[SilverHound]

Took some personal time off work this afternoon. Coolant has now been replaced with fresh stuff. Ran it up to temp and am now letting it settle and cool to check radiator level. Now that it's drained perhaps in retrospect the old stuff did look a little "murky". It has definitely gone through some serious temp ranges over 100 degree down to 19 degree days. Hope the new stuff holds up as well as the old did. Thanks for the advice and tips.

 

[900gc]

At the next rear tire change, be sure to lube the drive shaft spline(s) with good moly lube (Honda stuff popular). Many, including mine, have had very little lube on them from the factory with even some rust evident.

 

[RaYzerman19]

Good decison on the coolant..... the corrosion inhibitors are good for 5 years but I never go that long.... change it at valve checks. As for the rest of your preventative maintenance, atta boy.

 

[verranth]

For the coolant, you can use any ole' (automotive) coolant, right? (I hope this isnt a NEPRT question).

 

[SilverHound]

For the coolant, you can use any ole' (automotive) coolant, right? (I hope this isnt a NEPRT question).

Is this a trick question for April fool's day? No, not any ole' coolant. Must be aluminum friendly and silicate free. I used Peak 50/50 long life but I am sure there are plenty of other options and opinions. This just happened to comply with the FJR specs and was on sale at Advance Auto for $10.99 and had an additional $3 rebate.

 

[SilverHound]

At the next rear tire change, be sure to lube the drive shaft spline(s) with good moly lube (Honda stuff popular). Many, including mine, have had very little lube on them from the factory with even some rust evident.

Funny you should say that. Used the Honda Moly on my last tire change on the FJR. Have had some in my shop since my Honda VTX and Valkyrie days. I figure at the current rate, the tube I bought will last another 10-20 years.

 

[RaYzerman19]

Another source, Wallymart, Prestone 50/50 silicate free, etc..... about the same money.