jrdxx

I would suggest investigating whether the part number for the FI bird is different than the part number for the carbed version. I thought alternators were similar to AC motors in that they had no permanent magnets (as compared to DC motors), and the AC output from the alternator is regulated by a DC voltage supplied from the regulator side of the regulator/rectifier. An increased input signal voltage from the regulator/rectifier would correlate to an increased output from the alternator.

I recommend you go to the Held USA website and check out their offerings. I got a pair of the Held "Steve" gloves a few years back, and still haven't worn them out. I was at the Daytona BMW shop a week or so ago, and found that Held was offering textile jackets and pants for prices that I actually considered reasonable. I bought the Touring Star jacket (waterproof with removable insulating liner) and Gavia pants, and have been quite satisfied so far.

Have you completely ruled out the stator?

Check your local auto parts store (AutoZone, or whatever). The one local to me actually has a pretty comprehensive set of Helicoils, including metric sizes.

Yeah. Scary thought, huh?

Maxima, Honda, Amsoil Heavy Duty Spray all work great. I think it's the method of application. Put the lube on at the end of a ride when the chain is warm, and the lube has time to penetrate and the carrier/propellant has time to evaporate. Don't lube the chain just before or during the ride unless it's absolutely necessary. If you do, expect to be cleaning up the lube that gets thrown off.

Front tire wear, balance and inflation pressure, front wheel bearing wear and runout, and steering head bearing wear and adjustment, for starters. Loose fasteners maybe? Torque checks. Weight and balance issues? Do you run with panniers or a tailpiece? Let your conscience be your guide.

I believe I remember the Pilot Roads making a kind of growling sound particularly when braking, but I attributed it to the tread pattern, and didn't find it objectionable. Otherwise I liked the tires and will probably replace the Pilot Sports I'm currently using with another set of Roads once these are used up.

1. Start trouble shooting with a known good battery charge, in a known good battery. After the battery is charged, do a quick load test by turning the ignition switch on (to turn on the headlight), without starting the bike. Leave the switch on for about thirty seconds or so, then turn the switch off, all this time monitoring the battery voltage with a meter. After the switch is turned off the battery voltage should gradually recover to around 12 volts. If the voltage goes low and lingers or never recovers to 12 volts, then you may have a weak or dead cell in the battery, and it should be replaced. 2. Check the stator windings (the three yellow wires connecting to the R/R). Disconnect the connector from the R/R and measure the resistance between each yellow wire to each other. This should be a low but measureable resistance (around 1 ohm or so). A dead short or an open means the stator winding has shorted out or opened up, and the stator must be replaced. Then measure between each yellow wire and ground. Each measurement should be open (that is, an infinitely high resistance). Any resistance measurement or a short means the stator winding has shorted to the case, and the stator must be replaced. 3. From your description my guess is that you have a bad stator.

I would recommend going into the Useful Threads and downloading the shop manual, if you haven't already done so. Go through the PGM-FI troubleshooting steps in section 5 and see if a fault code is stored. If you want to do a quick and dirty check, disconnect and reconnect the connector at the TPI on the right hand side of the bike under the airbox (I think it's a 3-pin connector). I would suspect a dirty or poor connection before a failure of the TPI itself.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Very nice. Can you powder coat a matte or flat finish, instead of the gloss?

Could be a couple of reasons. At the top of this section is a link to the shop manual; download it and go to section 22 (Troublesooting), and work your way down the list in the order given. Sorry to be so little help, but it can be difficult to troubleshoot in this way, at least until the problem is narrowed down some more. My gut feeling is the problem is related to the washing but I can't say exactly where. When you turn the key switch on, do you hear the fuel pump run momentarily?

Still waaaaay too little information...sit down and approach the problem logically. Eliminate one problem source at a time. Start with the battery. Don't just think that the battery is still good, prove it by putting a good full charge on it, and trying to start the bike again. Work your way from there. Don't bother with the plugs at this point.

Spray the nut with some kind of penetrating oil, and let it soak. Tap around and on the nut with a soft face mallet (wood, plastic, etc. type head), and spray it some more, and let it soak some more. Just because a fastener is torqued to a certain level doesn't mean the breakaway torque will be at or close to the same level. With corrosion or thread galling, it could be considerably higher.

I check chain adjustment with the bike on the side stand, just like the manual says. When I adjust the chain, I put the bike on the center stand so I can spin the wheel and look for variations in slack attributable to chain stretch or sprocket variations, and make the adjustment from what appears to be the tightest spot. I tend to run the adjustment on the loose side, and I can just make the chain touch the bottom of the swingarm with the bike on the sidestand.

If the noise is as pronounced as you say, I would definitely recommend that you not ride the bike anymore. If you do take it to a dealer, truck or trailer it. You should be able to remove the front wheel; if you do that much, I think the source of the noise and vibration should be obvious. I'm wondering if it could possibly be a broken axle (hey, stranger things have happened) with each axle piece held in approximate position by the pinch bolts. Or it could be a loose rotor or caliper. Before tearing into anything, it might be worthwhile to do a thorough torque check of all the bolts in the area.

Another point to keep in mind is that in order to keep from acquiring a collection of spacers that are too short, start with a spring spacer dimension that is clearly too long, and gradually reduce the spacer length until you reach your desired static sag setting. Like you said, adding 15mm is probably too much to achieve your target sag, but it probably wouldn't be a bad place to start, either.

I think the noise you hear is the new chain meshing with the old sprocket, and what you are about to experience is the new chain wearing in (read "stretching") rapidly to accomodate the old sprocket, and soon you will be right back where you started. While you are replacing the clip link with a rivet link, go ahead and replace the front sprocket.

All I know for sure is that I still remember the days of breaker points/coil ignition systems, leaded gasoline, and all the PITA changing/cleaning of plugs every 2000 miles or so, and resetting the timing and points gaps, and I don't miss a bit of it. With modern electronic ignitions, plug gap is certainly less critical, and if the plug gap is close, I wouldn't mess with it.

Platinum and Iridium are both catalytic elements. Catalysts accelerate chemical reactions (combustion is a chemical reaction), so the electrode tips of the plugs resist the contamination from deposits and combustion by-products.

From your last post, I would suspect the battery. I've had the same experience where the charger would say that the battery has a full charge, but the battery can't supply enough current to start the bike. I think a cell in the battery is weak or dead.

You state that the previous owner had an alarm installed, that you don't use. You might try disconnecting the alarm from the battery circuit. If the alarm can be controlled using a remote, there must be a "hot" wire directly connected from the battery to the alarm, and there might be sufficient drain on the battery to require more freqent riding or the regular use of a battery tender to keep the battery topped off. Like Joe said, start troubleshooting with a fully charged battery, and do the voltage check first to eliminate the charging system as culprit. You could insert a multimeter in series with the battery and measure the current drain (milliamperes). Pull fuses one at a time until the drain disappears. This should tell you what circuit is pulling the battery down, and I suspect it might be the alarm.

I'd be suspicious of the gunk in the vicinity of the oil cooler pipes. I think it's just a coupling that's loose or a bad o-ring.

My opinion is that with all flood vehicles, there's no good news, and that's just the beginning...things go downhill from there. An irreplaceable WWII F4U Corsair had to make a water ditch landing just offshore from Ponce Inlet a few years back. It is now once again an award winning warbird, but at extraordinary cost. It had to be recovered immediately, and was taken to a hangar and COMPLETELY stripped-down to the very last bolt and rivet-thoroughly flushed and cleaned, and reassembled. Pennsacola is on the gulf coast, so there's a high likelyhood of salt water or brackish water intrusion. I personally wouldn't bother with trying to restore that particular bike, and would look for a better deal.