Clicking coming from front wheel area?!

B

Blacklightning1000

Member
Visit site
Hey everyone, I have a 2009 FZ1 with 7000 miles on it. I dont ride it real hard and I have recently started hearing a slight click when moving forward. This happens at slow speeds and is easily heard when engine is off and pushing bike forward in neutral. I have seen other posts of gixxers having the same problem and they found it was the front brake pads not totally disengaging. Does that sound right? Otherwise I fear it could be a front wheel bearing. Let me know what you think. Thanks!
 
Hey! Welcome to the site!

I would start by loosening everything one at a time from the axle up to the bar ends and reapplying proper torque to all of the front.

If the brake pads are suspect, you can test this by putting the bike on the center stand and having someone push on the rear to raise the front. Spin the front wheel and see if it is clicking at that point but if the pads are really not disengaging then the wheel will barely spin one or two revolutions. Could be a loose caliper. start low and work your way up through the whole front... don't stop with what was making the noise, keep torquing so you personally know everything is tight.

Keep us posted!!
 
Also as said with all the instructions above, if the pads 'are' sticking? you should be able to see black spots on the rotors, roundish shaped spots from the size of a penny on up, where it's glazed the rotor and if glazed, likely caused some little bit of warpage. Lets hope not, the only other thing would be a wheel bearing that is going bad or lacks grease, but there, it's a sealed bearing and you likely couldnt see anything obvious other than the binding/clicking sound you describe, or possably the bearing seal might be melted from heat allowing you to determine the bearing was at fault.

I'm more inclined to go with the above post, and I'd be looking for tale-tale signs of warpage or a bad disc pad, mabe even some bit of sand or stick or 'debree' between the pad and rotor.
 
Thanks guys, I will try that I need to go grab a torque wrench and check all the nuts and bolts up front to make sure they are all tight to specs. I will also check my front rotor and pads closely. Any idea where I could find ft/lb specs? Or is it ok to just torque it to what feels right to me?
 
From the service manual...

attachment.php
 
Forks....have they recently been serviced by either yourself or a local shop?

My experience with this upgrade does not stop here. After removing the clicking sound on the right fork and reassembling the bike, the clicking sound came back just by exercising the front suspension by pushing and tugging on the bars in the garage. Apparently, I did not sufficiently compress the fork during the banging and testing. My dad, who was helping me with the assembly, suggested that we loosen the lower and upper triple clamps on that right fork and rotate the shiny tube part of the fork with respect to the lower part of the fork which is held in place by the front axle. Since this was easy to do I thought why not? We gave it a shot and rotated the tube one quarter turn clockwise. After retorquing the pinch bolts, sure enough the clicking was gone. I don't know why this worked but it did and that's good enough for me. Thanks dad!
 
I had the same sound. It came from my left front shock.
Took it off the bike turned it upside down a few times and the sound was gone!
Turns out there's a small hole on the shaft on the inside. The oil needs to go in there to lube the seal. Don't know why it didn't but turning it upside down a few times did the trick.
Or you could try to wheelie the bike a few times so that the forks get horizontal:tup:
 
Ball bearings? I had a similar noise- noticeable at very slow speed. Yamaha technician told me some GenIIs have wheel bearings, which don't seat perfectly well making a clicking noise on the next ball bearing. He then told me it was not a mechanical problem, just an annoyance, and Yamaha wouldn't fix it under warranty. I've kinda forgot about it.
 
Hey everyone, thanks for all your help. I kinda forgot to write what I had found. It was the front brakes, I just adjusted all nuts and bolts up front and found it was the brake calipers. All is well now and had the shop confirm it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top