Tire Balance

[kaitsdad]

The first tire change I did on my 06 was not balanced. I watched them. Subsequent to that hosing I now have my own tire changing rig. My ROI was 3 tires.

Consider it.

 

[art miller]

Jer, The Ride-On material may be too dense to get thru the 90 degree stems. You can do the same with this as FJRay suggested for the beads in the front tire.

 

[Shane]

If you let the community know that you have a tire machine/balancer you will become "TIRE GRUNT TO THE MASSES". Every low life s.o.b. on planet earth is going to show up at your garage door. The temptation is to boast about your new machine. Don't do it.

I just started charging more...

 

[Jer]

I finally got around to removing the front wheel and having the balance checked. It was off and the nice people at "Bill's Motorcycles Plus" rebalanced it for me at no charge. Took the bike out on the freeway and it is smooth at 80. I am happy again and looking forward to my trip to Boise, Idaho for my 55th High School Reunion.

I used Warchild's excellent FJRTECH writeup for my first try at removal of the front wheel and have the following comments.

!. i am assuming that Warchild was referring to a Gen 1 that has two spacers and an axle that screws into the left fork. My Gen 3 and I assume the Gen 2's have a spacer only on the right and a front wheel sensor housing on the left. Also the axle has a 22mm front wheel axle bolt on the left side of the axle. The axle bolt has to be removed and the recessed 19mm Hex head on the right side of the axle only serves to keep the axle from turning. The axle bolt is torqued at 91Nm [66 ft-lbs].

2. The calipers came off fairly easy, but were a bitch to get back on. I think the FJR needs a larger wheel to allow more room to remove and reinstall the calipers. Maybe practice makes this job easier.

3. The Gen 2 and 3's also have 4 pinch bolts.

Can't wait to get on the road heading for Boise.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Sweet. Glad that worked out for you. Now, go take a dump on that other dealer's front step!!

 

[Shane]

2. The calipers came off fairly easy, but were a bitch to get back on. I think the FJR needs a larger wheel to allow more room to remove and reinstall the calipers. Maybe practice makes this job easier.

I have found that spreading the brake pads apart before attempting to reinstall makes this a lot easier. There's not a lot of room to get the calipers over the rotors and inside the rims, due to the massive diameter of the brake rotors.

I use a big flat screwdriver, and just twist it betwen the pads a little to gain some wiggle room.

Make sure to pump the brake lever until firm once the calipers are reinstalled, and before riding. The act of spreading the pads means a no-brake situation until pumped a few times.

All the best,

Shane

 

[mcatrophy]

....Make sure to pump the brake lever until firm once the calipers are reinstalled, and before riding. The act of spreading the pads means a no-brake situation until pumped a few times.

...

Shane

Don't forget to pump the rear brake pedal to settle the linked pads.

 

[Jer]

....Make sure to pump the brake lever until firm once the calipers are reinstalled, and before riding. The act of spreading the pads means a no-brake situation until pumped a few times.

...

Shane

Don't forget to pump the rear brake pedal to settle the linked pads.

2. The calipers came off fairly easy, but were a bitch to get back on. I think the FJR needs a larger wheel to allow more room to remove and reinstall the calipers. Maybe practice makes this job easier.

I have found that spreading the brake pads apart before attempting to reinstall makes this a lot easier. There's not a lot of room to get the calipers over the rotors and inside the rims, due to the massive diameter of the brake rotors.

I use a big flat screwdriver, and just twist it betwen the pads a little to gain some wiggle room.

Make sure to pump the brake lever until firm once the calipers are reinstalled, and before riding. The act of spreading the pads means a no-brake situation until pumped a few times.

All the best,

Shane

Thanks Shane. I did that but maybe I didn't get them spread quite enough. especially on the left side.

I found out on my first stop that the rear brake should also be pumped.

 

[Dale2010]

2. The calipers came off fairly easy, but were a bitch to get back on. I think the FJR needs a larger wheel to allow more room to remove and reinstall the calipers. Maybe practice makes this job easier.

I too have a 2013 model and removing and especially replacing the front wheel is much more difficult that it was on my 2010 FJR. In fact, I found that I actually scarred my rim while removing the wheel (i.e. the calipers from between the rotor and the rim). It was even more upsetting putting the wheel back on, especially with all those pads to deal with.

Do you or anyone following this thread know how to do this without scratching the paint off the rim?

I know that some will respond with "be more careful" but regardless how careful, once the calipers touch the rim, which they will during removal and replacement, there will be paint chips unless someone knows how to do this without calipers touching the rim (about 1 mm clearance once the calipers are in exactly the right position to be moved out from between the rim and calipers).

Thanks to anyone for additional ideas.

 

[escapefjrtist]

No doubt, it's a tight fit between the calipers and wheel as you're removing them.

To minimize wheel scarring, I use this method:

- Remove front fender.

- Loosen and remove caliper bolts, ABS sensor and brake line stay / bracket.

- Rock calipers sideways on disc to push pads / pistons in just a bit.

- Carefully remove from disc and secure.

To reinstall...

- Use flat blade screw-driver to push pads / pistons in a little more.

- Carefully slip calipers onto disc.

- Reinstall caliper bolts, ABS sensor, brake line stay and fender.

Done!

--G

BTW -- Keep a black paint pen available for touch up work!

 

[Just Krusen]

Use blue painters tape on the rim.

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Or a piece of cloth as cotton cloth or a microfiber cloth between..

Worked for me!