Those damnable vibrations

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You're fighting a losing battle on engine generated vibration. One of my cars is a Honda 4 cylinder. It has balancing shafts and everything Honda could likely do to smooth it. It also has vibration absorbing engine mounts between the engine and the frame/body. It's a 2.4 liter versus the FJR's 1.3 liter.
Yet it's still not as smooth as a V-6 or V-8, and certainly not as smooth as an in-line 6. I'm a big fan of the BMW in-line 6 and the old Nissan Z car in-line 6.

When the engine is bolted directly to the frame vibes will be experienced.
No, I'm not. As of now, Franks vibes are pretty much non-existent below 5500 rpm, and miniscule above that mark. My goal was to try to eliminate the fatigue induced by vibration at steady state speeds in the 70-80 mph range, an average highway speed. In this, I've succeeded, by quite a bit, as the vibe range is now greatly diminished throughout the rpm range.

 
OK I'll try the first post. I have to tell you though, I just rode my Harley 13 hours straight back from Mexico, stretched out, no widshield, 40 degrees and all the wrong clothes, 40 MPH cross winds through Palm Springs, 40 foot semi's everywhere in the dark sitting on a seat called a "butt crack seat". My sensitivitiy is pretty high and in fact my wife thinks I'm a masochist. I am riding to Alaska in June and is the primary reason I ditched the Harley. In my 40 years of riding I know this vibration is going to be an issue when you do 750 miles and 12 to 14 hours a day. I want to fix the problem and concentrate on the ride. Alaska is no cakewalk. My sorry old ass needs to concentrate on keeping the shiney side up. Don't get me wrong, I love the bike so I've got to make this right before June 15th. Anyone up for some fun riding. Meet us in June. I'm meeting my buddies from Chicago in SF and on to Alaska.
I know nothing about the "haul road" but I bet the vibrations from that will make the engine vibrations seem small.

BTW, no grip puppies, cruise control, throttle lock, PCIII, etc and 32K miles and still loving this bike as much as I rode it brand new from the dealer. In fact more so as I have found new riding buddies and "experts" to help me through this Forum...

 
Is it possible to purchase a matched set rather then have a set reworked?
Until they build an inventory, no. But check with them, they may have more on hand now. Like I said, I know they have at least 4. Outright purchase (no cores traded) is gonna be mega spendy though.

 
I would gladly spend the $$ to cure the vib's I have done every mod so far except a tuner and spent hours adjusting the carbs till they were perfect and it still kills my hands. They are very sensitive..30+ years in construction and the damage that ya get along with genetics ...This is one mod that needs some more takers to see if it the real deal.

cary

 
I sure hope this " cure " is the real thing. I'll spend whatever it takes to rid this machine of the only real fault it has.....at least as I see it. I must have been cursed and got one of the vibration monsters. I sure appreciate the fact that you, Radman, sit around and think of ways to deal with this issue.

 
Is it possible to purchase a matched set rather then have a set reworked?
Until they build an inventory, no. But check with them, they may have more on hand now. Like I said, I know they have at least 4. Outright purchase (no cores traded) is gonna be mega spendy though.

Radman, is there any identifying marks on the injectors, make, part number something more then what Yamaha supplies in their parts manual?

 
Here's where I'm a little confused....

I'm sure *matched* injectors are a huge advantage, no doubt about that. *matched* just sounds like a good thing.

It makes sense to me that the CO adjustments are a way to get them to be more *matched*.

What bothers me, a little bit, is that the stock settings:

Original Co

1) -2

2) +14

3) +24

4) +18

For the most part seem to be the same across big batches of bikes. Does this mean that Yamaha feels those settings *generally* make the injectors more matched? Do those settings compensate for something else as well like distance between them or from the source of something (gas, air, or what not?).

The barbarian mod, was simply to add +7 to each, and *Most* users reported one set of numbers or another, but it's not like everyone was reporting a completely different set of numbers. (Maybe I'm not saying this right).

Since I've done the Barb mod and the G2 throttle came, my bike is smoother, but the barb mod definitely had an impact on fuel mileage. So I'm thinking about backing off the +7 a bit.

Is there a way/a gauge, or some tool that would help us properly set this up? Or is it simply prohibitively expensive to do it right, thus the guesstimate at what those numbers should be.

If a bulk of bikes are: (Stock)

C:01 5

C:02 18

C:03 18

C:04 21

(Which is what mine were and it seems to me that a large number also had the same numbers)

Would it them make sense for a bunch of us with those numbers to get together and swap them around so that some could all have (5's) some all (18)'s, and some all 21's? etc.

:questionmark:

 
Radman, is there any identifying marks on the injectors, make, part number something more then what Yamaha supplies in their parts manual?
Yes-but the injectors are unique to the FJR, so if you want the numbers to try and exchange with another make/model, won't work.

 
Is there a way/a gauge, or some tool that would help us properly set this up? Or is it simply prohibitively expensive to do it right, thus the guesstimate at what those numbers should be.
Drill the headers, install bungs (riv-nuts) then attach a 4 channel EGA (exhaust gas analyzer) to the bungs. No more secrets. To gild the lily, do this on a chassis dyno so you can map the individual cylinders under load. If it happens to be a Dynojet unit, the operator can produce a custom PCIII map at the same time.

 
Here's where I'm a little confused....
I'm sure *matched* injectors are a huge advantage, no doubt about that. *matched* just sounds like a good thing.

It makes sense to me that the CO adjustments are a way to get them to be more *matched*.

What bothers me, a little bit, is that the stock settings:

Original Co

1) -2

2) +14

3) +24

4) +18

For the most part seem to be the same across big batches of bikes. Does this mean that Yamaha feels those settings *generally* make the injectors more matched? Do those settings compensate for something else as well like distance between them or from the source of something (gas, air, or what not?).

The barbarian mod, was simply to add +7 to each, and *Most* users reported one set of numbers or another, but it's not like everyone was reporting a completely different set of numbers. (Maybe I'm not saying this right).

Since I've done the Barb mod and the G2 throttle came, my bike is smoother, but the barb mod definitely had an impact on fuel mileage. So I'm thinking about backing off the +7 a bit.

Is there a way/a gauge, or some tool that would help us properly set this up? Or is it simply prohibitively expensive to do it right, thus the guesstimate at what those numbers should be.

If a bulk of bikes are: (Stock)

C:01 5

C:02 18

C:03 18

C:04 21

(Which is what mine were and it seems to me that a large number also had the same numbers)

Would it them make sense for a bunch of us with those numbers to get together and swap them around so that some could all have (5's) some all (18)'s, and some all 21's? etc.

:questionmark:
There is a way to set each injector perfectly-it involves drilling holes in the header pipes above the balance tubes, installing Riv-Nuts, using a 4 or 5 gas analyzer at each opening to read CO, and then adjusting CO settings via the ECM on each injector. This is how the Wally Map for the PCIII was made-on a dyno though, and throughout the rpm/throttle opening range. As to the number of bikes sharing settings-can't say I've seen that, but then I haven't seen all that many factory numbers published. Nor do I know how Yam arrives at a figure to be used. The fuel map in the ECM is universal, while the CO adjustments aren't. Since Yam must pass EPA requirements, no doubt this is the priority when CO adjustments are made-and rideability, as we all know, takes a back seat. All 4 cylinders get the same air, the fuel supply isn't why there are different numbers for each cylinder-were that the case, #1, being the farthest down the rail, wouldn't be the leanest on Frank. #4 isn't the richest, nor the leanest. The CO adjustment, then, adds to or reduces the dwell time on the injector pulsing, revolving around a standard mapping Yam builds into the ECM programming. The PCIII adds to or reduces the initial signal from the ECM to increase or reduce injector output, based on yet another mapping program loaded into the PCIII. One would assume that these maps were made on a perfectly mapped bike to begin with, but who knows? This being the case, any discrepancy in the test bike would be passed on to every bike to load the map. It's really kind of a mess, one that wouldn't exist if Yam had a replaceable PROM based map chip in the ECM, or at least made the ECM flashable, so one could modify the database. As it is, there are three distinct paths for fuel mapping in the FJR, which makes for a complex task to get it just right.

 
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