McCruise Control Install Problem - Help!

[Mike Aldea]

After succeeding in disconnecting the throttle accelerator cable . . . not sure exactly how i finally accomplished that . . . I am having great difficulty installing the "carburettor" cable on my 2006 FJR1300. After closely examining a Ron Ayers, Yamaha, Parts Fiche illustration of the cable connection on the throttle body to the cable connection on my FJR's throttle body I am finding a major discrepancy between the two.

The parts fiche shows a left side view of the throttle body with the cable connections and the nipple hole has a slot for the cable to pass through on that side.

Throttle Bodies parts fiche marked showing close up area

Throttle Body fiche close up pointing out cable slot

But when viewing my FJR's throttle body from approximately the same angle, the nipple hole does NOT have a slot for the cable to pass through.

Throttle Body - throttle cable connection hole - view 1

I can't clearly see the other side because it is facing the throttle body but I think I can see what may be a slot on the throttle body side.

Throttle Body - throttle cable connection hole - view 2

But there does not appear to be enough room to use the tools provided to guide the nipple into the hole from that side.

As you can guess the photos are not the best due to the difficulty of even seeing the part. Btw, there are other details about the shape of the part as shown in the Parts Fiche that do not match the piece on my FJR.

My question is what I think I'm seeing on my FJR normal and should I be able to get the nipple in the hole with the provded tool despite the extremely tight confines? If so, do you have any suggestions in how I go about this?

Thanks!

 

[mcatrophy]

Caveats: I've not fitted a McCruise, nor do I have pictures of my 2006. The comments below are from fitting an Audiovox to my 2010, there could be differences due to the different cam profiles between the years.

The pics below show the slots are on opposite sides of the cable cam plate. Both pictures taken with the throttle fully open.

(Click on image for larger view)

Right side showing the "pull to open" cable plate hole and slot



Left side, you can just see the slot towards the bottom right of the pic of the "pull to close" hole.



These pictures were taken with the fuel rail removed. I don't know if you have yours removed. It would certainly make for easier access if you haven't, and isn't hard to do. Pictures I took around here might help.

Ps. While cropping and enhancing the first picture, I noticed the foreign body. I'm afraid I may have murdered a fly prior to this fitment. Curiously, I hadn't noticed it before today.

 

[Mike Aldea]

Thanks for the information and I admire the clarity of your photos. My camera's macro mode seems to leave something to be desired.

 

[mcatrophy]

Thanks for the information and I admire the clarity of your photos. My camera's macro mode seems to leave something to be desired.

These photos were cropped (and enhanced a bit) from these:(Click on image for larger view)



I can do reasonable macro pics, but these weren't. To see the original, click on the above thumbnail to get a larger view, click on that image to bring up the original. Be warned these are around 5 MB, my server internet connection is a bit sluggish, they will take a little while to upload.

 

[Mike Aldea]

I finally got the "carburettor" cable installed and I'm now on to the next problem doing this install. I don't know what it will be yet but I know from experience there always is one.

 

[yamafitter]

I had the return cable come dislodged when I was working on the throttle tube one time. I found that pulling the fuel rail helped with access and using the special tool that McCruise supplies I was able to get the cable end back in place.

 

[Mike Aldea]

I think I finally got the three cable attached correctly to the CIU (Cable Interface Unit). I adjusted all the free play of the "Carburettor" cable and found the throttle grip free play was a half twist of the grip!!! Considering how short I was of necessary length on the throttle cable when attaching it to the CIU that made no sense. Throttle cable adjuster by the grip does not even come close to having enough range to adjust out all the free play.

Just to make matters worse, while trying to figure out the cause of all the free play I realized the return cable had a lot of slack and the next thing I knew it popped off the throttle pulley!!!

At this point I'm starting to doubt that I'm going to get this McCruise installed before next Monday when I am supposed to leave on my trip, part of which is to attend EOM in WV.

 

[Auburn]

I think I finally got the three cable attached correctly to the CIU (Cable Interface Unit). I adjusted all the free play of the "Carburettor" cable and found the throttle grip free play was a half twist of the grip!!! Considering how short I was of necessary length on the throttle cable when attaching it to the CIU that made no sense. Throttle cable adjuster by the grip does not even come close to having enough range to adjust out all the free play.
Just to make matters worse, while trying to figure out the cause of all the free play I realized the return cable had a lot of slack and the next thing I knew it popped off the bell crank!!!

At this point I'm starting to doubt that I'm going to get this McCruise installed before next Monday when I am supposed to leave on my trip, part of which is to attend EOM in WV.

Sometimes, it is best to take a day off and go back at it fresh. You can do it. IIRC, it took me a day just to lay it all out and figure out where to put everything, then another day to install, and a few hours the third day to calibrate. I also had an issue with needing resistors put in series with the brake light lead. I also had two wires to reverse. McCruise support was awesome.

 

[Mike Aldea]

The sad part is I started this install on Saturday after doing the disassembly on Friday. Now I'm only working 4-5 hours per day due to the heat, but this is just dragging on with no end in sight. I wanted to get new tires installed this week. But I have yet to talk to the shop to make sure they will have them because I've no idea when I'll be able to get in.

McCruise responded to my first request for advice, but when I sent them a second email with some simple questions they did not respond. May be they figured out I'm installing a pre-owned unit and therefore are not interested in spending a lot of time helping me.

 

[Auburn]

The sad part is I started this install on Saturday after doing the disassembly on Friday. Now I'm only working 4-5 hours per day due to the heat, but this is just dragging on with no end in sight. I wanted to get new tires installed this week. But I have yet to talk to the shop to make sure they will have them because I've no idea when I'll be able to get in.
McCruise responded to my first request for advice, but when I sent them a second email with some simple questions they did not respond. May be they figured out I'm installing a pre-owned unit and therefore are not interested in spending a lot of time helping me.

McCruise sometimes takes a day or two, they are in Australia

 

[lnewlf]

free play should be adjusted at the end of the "accelerator" cable down by the throttle pulley. adjustment is actually done on the cable housing, not the throttle cables themselves which are a fixed length. screwing the nut down toward the end of the cable housing decreases free play. [in both the cables at the same time]. slack can be fine tuned by turning the adjuster up by the throttle...again, screwing the adjuster "out' decreases slack.

 

[Mike Aldea]

The CIU (Cable Interface Unit) of the McCruise is screwed on to throttle accelerator cable before attaching the other two cables and there is no way to make any adjustments to the throttle cable once the other cables are attached. I'm afraid I'm going to have to remove the CIU and start over. There goes another day.

 

[Mike Aldea]

Just to make matters worse, while trying to figure out the cause of all the free play I realized the return cable had a lot of slack and the next thing I knew it popped off the throttle pulley!!!

I got a gearhead neighbor to help me with the throttle return cable. He insisted that we needed to pull the air box to get a clear enough view to get the cable attached to the throttle pulley. I really did not want to do that because then I would have another potential problem re-installing the airbox. But he kept on insisting so we pulled it.

Throttle Bodies with Airbox Removed

Well that certainly gave us a lot more room to work and a better view of the throttle pulley.

Throttle Pulley withThrottle Open

Throttle Pulley Close-up

Throttle Pulley Close-up with cable holes labeled

The above views shows the slot for the return cable. The up arrow in the last image is below the slot.

It still wasn't that easy, but we finally got the throttle return cable attached to the throttle pulley. Unfortunately my neighbor had to leave at that point and now I'm having problems getting the airbox attached to the throttle bodies. I've got a 0.25 inch gap between the throttle bodies and the airbox and I'm having problems figuring out what is prevent me from closing that gap.

The good news is all the cables are attached and the twist grip seems to be working perfectly. So all I have to do is get everything reinstalled and I could ride my FJR without having to finish the cruise install. That would at least allow me to take it to the shop and get new tires mounted before Sunday.

 

[Mike Aldea]

My neighbor came to my rescue again. He was able to get the airbox snorkels on the throttle bodies in 5 minutes. May be it is time for me to stop trying to do my own work. I stayed up all night completing the install and thought things were looking good till I started the diagnostic tests on the McCruise.

The Actuator test in the diagnostics you are suppose to hear a click from the Actuator each time you press the SET button. I get a click the first time I push the button but subsequent times no click. You are also suppose to get a click each time you press the RES button and that is working fine.

The big problem I'm having now may not be related to the McCruise. When I try the throttle with the engine off it is very smooth and snaps closed when released. But with the engine running throttle will not snap closed when released. I have to twist the throttle closed and hold it closed to get revs to drop down close to normal idle. When I release the twist grip idle revs rise to about 2-2500. Twist grip has 3 mm of free play for acceleration but none when I have to manually close the throttle.

According to Tony Guyer at McCruise this is not a problem with the cruise.

"Oh dear, it sounds like you might have one of those bikes which have throttle sticking problems. This is nothing to do with the cruise control and you can check it by turning the throttle grip with the engine off and seeing it snaps shut when you release it. Then do the same thing with the engine running – apply a small amount of throttle and see if it snaps shut when you release it.

A very small number of those bikes had a problem where the air pressure on the butterflies jams the throttle open. The only way we know of to fix it is to ‘soak’ the throttle spindle components and where the spindle enters the throttle bodies with silicon spray – which doesn’t attract dust.

You don’t notice this issue so much when you are riding because you physically turn the throttle off when you close the throttle – using the closing cable. But the cruise only applies less than 1/16” of throttle at 60mph, so cruise performance is badly affected by sticking throttles."

Although I had not experienced a throttle problem like this before installing the McCruise, I had noticed previously when riding that there was some extra resistance when I tried to initially open the throttle after it being fully closed that wasn't there with the engine off. It was like there was extra vaccuum holding the butterflies closed that I had to over come. This made the smooth application of throttle coming out of a corner more difficult than it should be. But previously it always snapped shut if I released the grip without a problem. That makes me think the cables are not adjusted correctly. I'm just not sure how I'm going to identify which cable is the problem and make a correction in the adjustment if I can't duplicate the problem with the engine off.

 

[Mike Aldea]

Tony from McCruise called me on Saturday. He was wondering how come he could not find me in his customer list. I explained the McCruise I'm installing was a pre-owned that was previously installed on a 2010 FJR.

He said the Ethanol supplement fuel we have in this country plays havoc with the Actuator on motors that are not ridden for months at a time over the Winter. Fumes will travel through the vacuum line and gum up the solenoid in the Actuator. He said the fix is to open up the Actuator and clean the solenoid. I've been resisting the temptation to just shoot some PJ1 Super Cleaner in the Actuator vacuum nozzle in hope of a quick fix. But he stressed the solenoid cleaning should not be done with strong solvents.

I readjusted the throttle close cable, the "carburettor" cable and sprayed the throttle body's linkage heavily with silicone spray as he advised. My throttle is now working, the same as before the install with the engine running, so I can at least ride my motor again. Any further work on the operational setup & trouble shooting of the cruise or the cleaning of the Actuator solenoid is going to have to wait because I am leaving on a road trip today and won't be home until after the EOM. All the time & effort I put into this cruise control and now I won't get to use it on my trip. Bummer!