1997 Yamaha yzf1000 Thunderace

[Oldman99]

Found a forum from Europe (I think). They where saying this is yamahas weird way to say the exhaust valve has an issue.
I looked that up and found mine was VERY out of adjustment. Added heat resistant lube, cleaned all the rust and crud, and adjusted the cables. Now the issue is that its too late at night to test.
I'll up-date in the morning.
R1diagram.jpg

[Oldman99]

Sooo. That was scary. I guess the valve being out of adjustment was why it was so hard to start. Hardly needed any choke now. Took her for a test ride down the road and back. Did not get out of second. The added back pressure from the muffler and the ex-up valve working gave it sooo much more power. Waiting for the new headlight to come in before I can get an inspection and a tag.

[RichDesmond]

Sooo. That was scary. I guess the valve being out of adjustment was why it was so hard to start. Hardly needed any choke now. Took her for a test ride down the road and back. Did not get out of second. The added back pressure from the muffler and the ex-up valve working gave it sooo much more power. Waiting for the new headlight to come in before I can get an inspection and a tag.

Awesome,glad it's coming together for you!
Always liked those bikes, it's a shame Yamaha didn't see fit to sell it along with the R1 here like they did in other places.

[Killer Canary]

Is this a 20 valve head like the R1?

[GS1150Pilot]

Is this a 20 valve head like the R1?

Yep. Thunderaces are way more pleasant to put miles on, too. NICE score!

[Oldman99]

Is this a 20 valve head like the R1?

Yes, but the frame connects to the head with no down tube. Looks weird and is going to be a PITA to build an engine cage for.

Yep. Thunderaces are way more pleasant to put miles on, too. NICE score!

Thanks, I've only did the ride home and the test ride so far. 130+hp is something I could really get used to.

Found what the tach tester thing was trying to tell me. I still think this is a weird system. It uses a "TRANSISTOR CONTROLLED IGNITION", which I'm told is like comparing a regular camera to a digital one. It's only about $60 for a new-ish one.
The tach was telling me 2 faults. The ex-up valve and the fuel system both had issues. Fixed the valve and replaced the light bulb for the low fuel light.

tach p398.jpg

[Oldman99]

Took apart the rearend tonight. Wanted to check the bearings and chain. Found that the axel and adjusters where not put together corectly. The chain has no master link, just crushed pins. It is an o-ring chain, but I'm still going to replace it. Bike has a fully hydraulic clutch. The salve cylinder needs new seals. Leaks fluid and needs the air blead out every so often.

20161127_203136.jpg

[RichDesmond]

...The chain has no master link, just crushed pins. It is an o-ring chain, but I'm still going to replace it...

Sounds like a riveted master link rather than the clip style. The riveted type is much more reliable.

[Oldman99]

Sounds like a riveted master link rather than the clip style. The riveted type is much more reliable.

Riveted was the word I was looking for. Thank you.
After some more cleaning, I found that its a D.I.D.
I'm just worried about the damage a chain that heavy can do to all of that aluminum that's around the front sprocket if it lets go.

[RichDesmond]

Riveted was the word I was looking for. Thank you.
After some more cleaning, I found that its a D.I.D.
I'm just worried about the damage a chain that heavy can do to all of that aluminum that's around the front sprocket if it lets go.

Riveted is much less likely to fail than a clip style M/L, if the chain's in good shape I'd leave it be.

[Oldman99]

Got some paint on it.

[Oldman99]

Some of the parts that I needed to get the bike legal came in today. Headlight bulbs, clip ons with a rise, clutch slave rebuild kit, and new seat cover cloth.

[Oldman99]

Drove to the next town over today and got my inspection done.
Some observations.
I'm glad that I did not spend too much on the new clip-ons. I'm thinking I'll be swapping to handlebars. Something a little more sport touring.
This bike will never see a track day or go over 85mph. New front and rear sprockets are needed. I'll haft to play with the sprocket calculator to see what will work best, but still fit.
I like the muffler. It's so quite at low rpm's, but I can still hear it at highway speeds.

[Oldman99]

Still dealing with the gauge cluster error code even tho it's fixed.
The ex-up valve in the header is run by an electric motor that drives cables to open and close it. The motor has a potentiometer that the cdi compares to the throttle position sensor on the cabs. Too much variation between the 2 will generate the code.
I have the basic understanding of how this all works in theory, but I've never done much otherwise.
Found what it will take to fool the cdi, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. (this works on most R1 bikes)
I've already bought the retro kit to get rid of most of this mess and convert the valve to a simple spring loaded one.
That said, the gauge will still jump back and forth the whole time I'm riding.
In the drawing, it shows 2 power wires, this is to open and close the valve.

[Oldman99]

Heres my first attempt at making a fiberglass part. It's about 1/2 inch higher on the right than on the left and the front is not as smooth as I would like, but it will do what I need it to do. I'll make another one when the weather improves. I had to pre-heat the resin to even get it out of the can.