How to remove a starter motor from a Yamaha R1

Here are pictures that I took when I removed the starter from my Yamaha R1. Removing the starter wasn't so easy. Even with the service manual. You know why? Because they left out a little piece of information and I'll give it to you: how to get that damn throttle body out, to be more specific, how to get to the screws on each of the 4 throttle body rubber hose clamps that fit on the intake manifold. The manual just shows an image of removing the 4 clamps... yeah.....how? I'll show you.

Even when the throttlebody was out, it was still not THAT easy to get the starter out. Wow! How am I going to get this starter out? I'll show you. If you have the tools, you can easily do this within an hour. I took much longer since I had to figure out how to get the clamps out. Anyway, here are the pictures of removing the Yamaha R1 starter motor:

The first thing to do is to remove the seat by using a 5mm Allen Wrench

Next is removing the R1's gas tank with a 5mm Allen wrench

Continuing for the tank removal, remove the side panel of tank with a Philips screw driver on each side of the tank

Still for the tank, remove the 5mm allen bolt on each side of tank in front side.

Lastly for the tank, the 5mm allen bolt at the tanks pivoting base under the seat, for now, just make it a little loose, so you can pivot the tank up and can remove the hoses and cable easily.

Now with the tank turned up, start by removing all hoses, this pic show the underside of the tank, I already removed the high pressure fuel line. Keep removing the other fuel lines and 2 cable connectors, when done, remove that 5mm allen pivoting bolt to remove the tank and put it aside.

Next to remove is the R1's air filter housing (air filter box). There are screws all along the side, and one hidden under the rubber that my finger points at. Just pull it out with pliers. There is one screw hidden there.

Remove that connector.

Now with the cover off of the air filter, and air filter removed. Remove the  allen bolts holding the velocity stacks and remove them.

Once velocity stacks are out, you can just take out the bottom of the air filter housing. This is where the real work starts!

But before you can remove the bottom of the air filter box, there are 2 hoses attached, one in the back and one in the front.

Next, remove the 2 hoses as shown here.

Remove this connector

Next, remove the throttle cable, there are 2. Just pull it back by hand, use a thin long angled plier to remove the cable.

Okay, all done and well. How do I get the throttle body out? Here's how:  a wrench with a 12" extension with a 5mm allen key at the end, removing the side panels (not mentioned in the service manual) Okay, I didn't take picture on how to remove the side fairings, but I guess you know that, it's easy. I just remove the top screws.

At first, following the service manual, I thought, man, how can I get these clamps out with a regular allen wrench?? Answer: impossible!!!

Here is one clamp shown with the allen bolt loosened, this is the easy one, from cylinder 3. Throttles from cylinder 1,2 and 3 can be done from the left side by entering your long extended wrench from where the fairings where. The one from the cylinder 4, the clamp is pointed to the right side, so you have to enter your long wrench from the right fairing side that you removed, and fiddle it under the radiator hose.

Once all the throttle body hose clamps are removed, you can pull it off, but carefull, as shown here, there are some more hoses to remove.

When all loosened, it will look like this. I didn't remove all the hoses and cables, a bit of a pain, this being in the way, but I didn't want to dissassemble the entire bike! I'm in enough shit already! :-) Now let's get to removing the starter, shall we?

Once you remove the rubber heat shield, you can see the starter and it's two bolts to remove. Once the two bolts are out, it is tricky to get the starter out, at first you gonna curse, it's like "how did they get that starter in here?" Answer: duh, it was already mounted on the engine when they mounted the engine to the frame, duh. Okay, so how do I get the starter out? That rubber heat shield, try your best to get it out of your way to the right, and there is one to the left as well. Then, once you removed the starter cable, hold that connector with pliers and wiggle the starter back and forth so it can disengage from the transmission. Then when the starter is loose, pull it to the right side as far as you possibly can until you see the spline from the starter. i was then able to pull the spline side up and get the starter out. Same way to get the starter back in, with back first.

The 2007 starter will fit the 2004/2005/2006 Yamaha R1.

Hope you liked my procedure with pictures to remove the Yamaha R1 Starter.

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The difference of an old Yamaha R1 Starter and a newer Starter

I had to remove the Yamaha R1 Starter from my bike, and when the starter was out, I compared the running of the starter motor with the newer starter I bought on Ebay for $124. this Starter came out of a 2007 Yamaha R1.

Yamaha YZF R1 won't start after resting it overnight on rear wheel stand

So, I was working on my R1 last night, and left the sportbike overnight on the rear wheel stand. This morning the bike wouldn't start. More to the point: the starter did not have the power to crank the engine. I feel that there is so much compression in the R1 engine that scarcity of oil in the usual places make the crankshaft unturnable. I think  from being on the rear wheel stand, somehow the oil got distributed front wise and somewhat leaner to the rear of the engine, since the noise is now pointed down. I tried putting the R1 on 6th gear and push it to start, but I don't know about you, each time I tried that, it proved futile, the rear wheel would always lock after releasing the throttle. After pushing the R1 back in my house, suddenly the engine turned over again and started. Wow!
Maybe it's also time to change the battery. Maybe you are not allowed to just have one wheel stand.

Most probably solved the Yamaha R1 overheating problem

Here you can see the thermostat opening where it should, at 160F (70C)

For the past two weeks my Yamaha R1 was overheating. I was getting frustrated because I didn't know what it could be, and what makes it extra annoying is that the Yamaha R1 is my daily ride and parts are readily available, everything needs to be ordered.
I was pondering and was convinced the culprit was the radiator cap. Luckily for me, I also have a Kawasaki laying around and the cap is the same size and also 1.1 bar (16 psi). I thought that solved my problem (it looked good cause I refilled my radiator) but that didn't last long. My temperature kept rising up to about 210F, then I have to make traffic stops where it goes to 220 then 230, getting scary, but when I drove again, ok it backed off a bit to 210, but still is way to high.
I thought it had something to do with the fresh oil I did earlier on. I could not see a leak anywhere but somehow my radiator always gets empty. I thought I had an issue with the thermostat, you can easily see I was getting frustrated.
Tonight I decided to check the thermostat. First I checked the Yamaha R1 service manual to find where the thermostat is located, funnily enough, it's under the gas tank. I took out the thermostat and tested it in the kitchen with a thermometer in a small pot of water, stirring while it gets warmer. It supposed to open at 70c (158F) which it actually did, slowly. And slightly more at 170F.
The thing is, you see it opening, but you have no idea how much open is good enough. Anyway, I decided not to install the thermostat back in, since I ride in a hot climate with daily temps of 90F. But after doing all this, putting everything nicely together. I found was the overheating issue was....... Can you guess? On the road I filled with tap water, this time home, I put coolant in the expansion tank, and there immediately I could see there was a crack in the reservoir where the green coolant came out. Hard to see with regular water I guess. Earlier I looked at the tank, put thought I was scratches, but no, these where through and through cracks!!!
Okay, it's 12:45 am, how am I gonna solve this? After some cursing trying to get the reservoir out (I didn't want to take the exhaust split pipe out just to get that out) I had the reservoir somehow slanted to access the crack better. I found some JB Weld laying around. I roughned the surface around the cracks of the reservoir, cleaned with paint thinner, mixed the JB Weld, and smeared it all around that surface covering the crack. Now I'm going to sleep, and when I wake up, hopefully the JB Weld did its job, so I can mount everything back, fill the radiator and hopefully this time it solved my problem!!!!
So, it's not the radiator cap, not the thermostat, not the radiator, not the waterpump, but a tiny haircrack in the expansion tank!!!

update: you know..... later on, I also found that my radiator hose on the left front of the bike (near the oil filter had a small leak), this happened from the time I replaced my oil filter and had a hard time with it. I just cut the hose shorter, and now everything is super!

Oil filter change trouble on the Yamaha YZF R1

I needed to change the oil bad on my 2005 Yamaha R1 and I had this same trouble before: last time changing the oil, I replaced the oil filter as well however, I ended up putting the old original Yamaha oil filter back in instead. See, I don't have a Yamaha dealer around that stocks this stuff, so I went to Napa Autoparts and got a Napa Gold oil filter part #1365. The problem is tightening the filter. You can tighten all that you want, and the filter will still leak oil through the rubber seal.

The difference in seal with the original Yamaha oil filter and the Napa Gold one is the one from Yamaha is a round o-ring, while the seal from Napa is a wide rubber flat ring, meaning that there is more surface and the rubber seal is so hard that it almost doesn't squeeze, so you can tighten all you want (up till the oil filter wrench started sliding), and still the engine oil drips along the seal.

So, now you know: don't buy this Napa filter for your R1. I gonna have to end up buying this on ebay and wait a week. In the mean time it looks like it's leaking about 200ml a day.... So I have to keep refilling, and my bike smokes from the oil dripping on the exhaust manifold.

YZF-R1 Gas tank filler cap issue - water entering

I've told you about the issue I had with water entering my gas tank through the filler cap. Here are pictures of how it looks like. I took the filler cap apart, sanded and sprayed it, put it all back, greased it, but after a couple months the same issue comes back, the inside of the filler cap rusts, water comes in after heavy rain....

My Yamaha YZF-R1 gas tank filler cap is rusted. See the water on the right, inside?

Yamaha R1 Rider Nicholas Leighton dies in motorcycle crash

Sad to hear that a fellow rider with the bike we all love so much, the Yamaha r1 had a fatal accident recently.

I am always curious how sport bike accidents happen. The story from a British newspaper reveal that he had 66 milligrams alcohol in his blood. The legal acceptable is 80mg. And yet, he did not drink that day but the night before. Reports of sportbike accidents always talk about the speed the bikers have been driving. In this case, a towed caravan was turning into a street and did not see the bike coming or taking over. Police said that if he was driving between 40mph and 60mph he could have avoided the accident. There were no tire marks. The coroner announced Nicholas Leighton was an experienced motorcycle driver.

Josh Hayes (Yamaha YZF R1) wins at 2011 AMA Pro Road America provisonal

Wow. Anytime my bike does win I am elated. Graves Yamaha Team rider Josh Hayes won the provisional qualifying - and get this - even after running off the track in the dirt, falling on his shoulder and not feeling to well in his stomach during the session AND facing a headwind!! WoW! his time was 2:12.869

Yamaha R1 Rules!

Importance of correct tire inflation pressure on sportbikes

For about a month or so, my Yamaha R1 sportbike felt like driving soft, and I didn't think much of it, knowing it had to do with the tires not being adequately inflated, I thought to myself, heck, the roads here are pretty bad, I don't want to be shaken up by hard tires, so I left it like that.

The consequences of having the wrong tire inflation pressure:

- I noticed that I had to tank more often
- I had to watch out taking curves, felt like I was touching the rims on the ground, having to correct by countersteering (dangerous)
- bike has tendency to swerve

This morning by the gas station, I decided to fill up some air in the tires, 35psi pressure on the front, 45 psi pressure on the rear tire. MAN! When I drove off the gas station lot, I was like having the feeling of being a 5 year old child not knowing how to ride a bicycle. The bike was superstraight and hard, but my brain had a hard time registering the difference of change. I drove like 10 miles to the gas station, subconsciously driving so to speak, and after the tire inflation, my subconscious driving processor (for lack of words) couldn't handle the ride and I was like scared and driving very slowly, my subconscious has to re-learn the bike, it is such a BIG difference. Amazing.

So, guys, always keep your tire pressure in check.

Have to buy a new chain and sprocket set for the R1

There were some rainy days, and I always neglected my chain. Results are after rain, the chain gets rusty and of course, as you use the bike, it abrades and before you know it, your chain gets longer and longer...

I adjusted my rear wheel already to the maximum end, and still, my chain is now sliding over the rear wheel swing arm (ouch!) High time to buy that chain. I don't have to buy a chain/sprocket kit, but I might just as well do this when the old chain is off and while I undertake this job.

Changing the chain will give me the possibility to choose a lighter chain, and play with the gear ratios buy maybe choosing a teeth less on the front and 2 more on the back sprocket. I am riding on a Caribbean island, hitting the max speed here is not possible. I need max torque. I want to beat the juiced gixxers and hayabusas :-)

The slipping clutch is kinda interesting

You know, the clutch is slipping with full open throttle at around 6-7000 rpms, and in a way I kinda like it. It is like I am purposely clutching by hand to rev the engine higher up, but I'm not. So now, when I'm taking over cars, full throttle, slight release (to get some clutch traction) I am hitting that max torque range.

I'm just afraid that I will burn the clutch friction plates. Didn't have time yet to check the oil level.

R1 Clutch slipping again

My Yamaha R1's clutch is slipping again. I had this before, and even after adjusting the hand levers or the lever by the gearbox, I couldn't get the clutch from slipping, I then decided to replace the clutch with a Barnes Racing Clutch for the R1.

That solved it for a while, but you know, not necessarily because of the new clutch, more so because of the new oil. I'm saying this because when I had all the clutch plates in my hand, there was visually plenty of friction material left.

About 6 months later the clutch is slipping again. I didn't take a good look at the oil again, but its weird since I changed the oil like only 3 months ago.

The clutch slips at hard acceleration around 6,500rpm. I have to let go of the throttle for a second and back full throttle.

I'll keep you posted if I figure anything out.

Fuel pump whirr

Since this week, I am getting another unusual event with the R1. Normally as soon as you turn the ignition key, you hear two distinctive 'whee - whee' sounds, which should be the high pressure fuel pump (and maybe also the low pressure fuel if there is one) because the whee sound has two different pitches. Well, I hear the first whee sound, but the second is a 'CLUNK' noise. It does not affect the operation of the bike though. Just don't know what it is.

water in gas tank of Yamaha R1

I am at this again, yesterday my Yamaha YZF-R1 started but it sounded like it ran on 3 cylinders. I've had this before. Again, I'm sure there is a manufacturing default on the gas tank cap. When it rains, rainwater sips in on the side, then stays around the gas tank lip, when that overflows, it goes into the gas tank itself. Some time ago, I met another R1 rider, and guess what he had the same issue. I asked him to open his gas tank cap, and yes, he also had a corroded gas tank cap.
Previously and unmounted the cap, cleaned it, sanded etc, but it doesn't help.

I threw in a red bottle of STP gas treatment, and after 2 days, the phenomena of running on 3 cylinders is gone.

Grrrrr. Not happy.