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Ignition coil advice, fork condition advice, and a hello from a new member

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schizamm

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Hello folks!

In a classic move from me, I picked up a clapped out 07 FZ1 for way too much money and am getting it sorted before riding. I have a tendency to not do a proper inspection and buy based off emotion not logic, and usually the first bike (or car) I go see. Sigh...

Because of that, I was hoping to get a couple of questions answered while I am busy knocking out deferred maintenance items and repairs:

While I've been using mainly OEM parts through Rocky Mountain ATV/MC (local to me so I can just pick up my parts same day), I ordered a set of ignition coils on Amazon. The $130+ ea for OEM was too big a hit on the wallet. Testing the resistance, each one is higher than the service manual range (1.19–1.61 Ω) averaging around 1.8 on the primary. The secondary (8.5–11.5 kΩ) are average of 11.8. I even put them in the fridge to bring them down to the specified 68 F for testing. Would I experience a noticeable negative difference with them being that close but still outside of spec? The current ones on the bike allow it to run but the idle bounces a bit between 12-1500 too randomly and quickly for my liking. The biggest problem with the currents one though is they don't seal anymore and there is rust forming in the spark plug tubes. I'm hesitant to throw them in and just try because I'd rather return them for a set within the range if anyone has ones they have success with.

Secondly, and I'll work on attaching a photo, one of the forks has a gnarly seal leak and some scuffing to the chrome. I bought some Tusk fork seals just to try them as they were cheap and to see if it'll seal with the scuffing, but can anyone weigh in on if I need to have it reconditioned or gamble on the cheap replacements I've found on eBay?

Cheers and thanks for reading,
Schizamm
 
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I can't feel anything with a fingernail but the other side isn't leaking (or has not oil left at this point) and this side has leaked so bad it'll leave a puddle on the ground every night
 

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I had access to a world class machine shop when I still worked and they would take the disassembled tube and put it in the lathe and spin in at low speed then lightly touch the area with fine emory paper with machine oil. The idea wasn’t to get the scratches to be invisible but to reduce the sharp edges that cut the fork seals

No longer have access to free services so the last time I did it by hand.

Don’t have any advice on coils. I would think your jumpy idle could be a lot of things besides coils.
 
That would be the dream, I might just hit it with some 2000 or 3000 grit if this first round of seals leak. I figured the idle could be a lot of things as well so starting with coils that aren't sealing seemed a decent place to start. At least a couple of them barely stay in the wells as it is so them potentially vibrating and not giving the spark plugs consistent power was my thinking
 
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Yes, that's the way it looks from what I can tell. As an update to the ignition coils, I ended up just putting a liberal amount of dielectric grease on the seals and they seated pretty firmly onto the new plugs installed, so I went with the OEM ones I already had. My untrained ear thinks it needs a minimum a throttle body synch, but that will have to come later when decide to splurge on a synch tool or can find one to borrow
 
Are you planning to disassemble that fork leg? Bits of chrome floating around in there isn’t a good thing.

I’ve never seen one peel like that. Is the fork bent or has seen some sort of trauma?
 
Got my easy side done and have the scuffed side apart. A fingernail does ever so slightly catch on the edges where the chrome is being worn through so I'm thinking about trying to repair it rather than have to do seals more often.

I've seen online people doing stuff like jail polish or two part epoxy and sanding then cut and buffing it. Anyone have experience with that?
 
Sanded the scratched area with 1000 grit and just put down a very excessive amount of gorilla clear epoxy. Going to be a bitch to sand it all but hoping it'll fill in the low area nicely. I'll report back in 24 ish hours once it's finished curing
 
i bought 4 used oem coils from ebay they came off a low mileage r1 for a great price. the chinese stuff is hit or miss mostly miss. i had one bad coil but i couldnt ever get it narrowed down so i replaced them all and 20,000 miles later they still are working. now if my rotor hadnt failed it would all be good
 
schizamm said:
Sanded the scratched area with 1000 grit and just put down a very excessive amount of gorilla clear epoxy. Going to be a bitch to sand it all but hoping it'll fill in the low area nicely. I'll report back in 24 ish hours once it's finished curing
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Will be interesting to see how this turns out. Did you find what caused the chrome to be worn off?
 
CobaltFZ1 said:
Will be interesting to see how this turns out. Did you find what caused the chrome to be worn off?
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I never did find anything obvious that seemed like it would have caused it. I'm new to the bike and did a terrible job asking questions when inspecting it. My only guess it is got scratched at some point and never was addressed
 
Update on the epoxy: it didn't adhere well enough for me to want to leave it. I spent 30 or so min sanding only to try scratching at an excess spot and was able to just scratch it off with a fingernail. I'll out it down to my own prep work, I only sanded with 1000 grit and probably should have hit the key areas with like 600 or 800 before trying to epoxy.

For now, I decided to just scrape the rest up with a razor blade, then sanded with 1k and 2k to knock down anything sharp and just am going to run the fork as is. If it starts leaking quickly I'll probably try out the eBay replacement chromies and see how that turns out
 
schizamm said:
Update on the epoxy: it didn't adhere well enough for me to want to leave it. I spent 30 or so min sanding only to try scratching at an excess spot and was able to just scratch it off with a fingernail. I'll out it down to my own prep work, I only sanded with 1000 grit and probably should have hit the key areas with like 600 or 800 before trying to epoxy.

For now, I decided to just scrape the rest up with a razor blade, then sanded with 1k and 2k to knock down anything sharp and just am going to run the fork as is. If it starts leaking quickly I'll probably try out the eBay replacement chromies and see how that turns out
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Let us know how this turns out. I'm guessing the seal won't last very long without the chrome coating, but I could be wrong. It happens. LOL!
 
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