Starting sitting 2003 FZ1

daxanderman

daxanderman

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Hello there community,
I had to take a unfortunate vacation very suddenly about 14 months ago....And my 2003 yamaha fz1 has been sitting the entire time, with gas and oil in it. I didn't do anything special to it when I had left.
Please guide me through the steps and materials
I'll need to start the bike successfully and not cause any extra problems as it's my only transportation now.
I'm certainly not a mechanic, but I'm good at following directions.
Thanks so much I can't wait to get back in the saddle again.
 
First off, I'd drain that tank first and foremost if there wasn't any additive put in before leaving. It's almost impossible to drain the float bowls while the carbs are on the bike so if you know how to do it, I'd remove the carbs to open the float bowls and clean up what probably is a mess of gunk right now. This is what I would do in this situation. I'm not saying that you have to do it this way. Just saying that if the gas has gunked up and you try and start it, you may send all that up into the jets.

On the other side of the coin is that I know a couple of people over the years that were plain lucky and just jumped the battery, cranked it over and rode off with no issues. Certainly not the norm if you hadn't put additive in the gas beforehand.
 
Certainly can't hurt to just try and start the bike! If you're lucky, it'll fire up and you can just go ride it. Whatever gunk that may have accumulated will eventually work its way through when you run some fresh gas through. You could throw a bit of Seafoam into the tank at the same time.

0001881200001_300X300.jpg


Worst case you'll have to drain and clean the tank, clean the carbs and replace the battery.

Don't forget the oil change! Good luck!
 
Sooo far I've just attached the battery to a trickle charger, the lights turn on. I haven't tried to fire it up yet because I am worried about the gunk/gas/carbs problem. I've gotta wait for a family member to come with me to go buy the oil/oil pan/filter I can't carry the stuff with me on my bicycle. I added seafoam to the list of stuff to get. But do I actually have to get a new battery? Is there anyone who can link me a good video on how to pull and clean the carbs? And when taking the old gas out of the tank should I like siphon it, or take the whole tank off somehow? I've never done that before

Thanks for the advice so far
 
daxanderman said:
Sooo far I've just attached the battery to a trickle charger, the lights turn on. I haven't tried to fire it up yet because I am worried about the gunk/gas/carbs problem. I've gotta wait for a family member to come with me to go buy the oil/oil pan/filter I can't carry the stuff with me on my bicycle. I added seafoam to the list of stuff to get. But do I actually have to get a new battery? Is there anyone who can link me a good video on how to pull and clean the carbs? And when taking the old gas out of the tank should I like siphon it, or take the whole tank off somehow? I've never done that before

Thanks for the advice so far
Click to expand...


At this point, I would use a syphon to remove the gas from the tank. Try and get as much as you can out of it. Then take the seafoam and pour in about two ounces or so. This way, it's the first thing the carbs will see if they aren't already gunked up. Then try and start her up and just let her idle normally with some initial choke. If she dies when you turn the choke off you"ll probably need to remove the carbs and clean them. If she idles fine without the choke, turn it off and fill her up with fresh gas. You may get lucky. As for the battery, it depends on how old it is. Some will come back to life after charging, some won't. Let us know how it goes. As for removing the carbs, let's see if she runs first......baby steps.
 
Hi there, here's an update....
I Siphoned the old gas, I put a few ounces of seafoam in and put in new gas.
It took a moment to start up but it did, although it seemed strange to me because when the choke was all the way up it never rose about 2k rpm which I remember it going nearly up to 3 in the past with the choke up. I let it warm up for about 5-7 minutes I put the choke all the way down and the rpms were much lower than I remember at idle somewhere around 800-900. But the Moto never died while at idle which was encouraging.
There seemed to be quite a bit of exhaust as well but I really enjoyed hearing the engine again regardless.
After I warmed it up I shut it off again and undid the drain plug. The oil was very black and took quite sometime to come out. And it's probably still dripping right now.


SOOOOo now the problem seems to be the oil filter, I cannot get the sucker off for the life of me. Tried taking it off with, my left hand, big and small cable oil filter wrench things, vice-grip, and really big pliers. I really cant get the sucker off to put the new one in and get the yama 4 in...

Any advice please I'm gonna start scannin youtube vids to see if I'm doing it wrong or decide if I just need more room to yank on the thing. I was thinking about taking off the radiator hose that's sorta in the way but I didn't know if something would come out of it or whatever so I didn't wanna break anything lol. Thanks a ton for the advice though I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel
 
I have some really nice Oil Filter Wrench with Teeth, similar to this minus the locking jaws:

Oil Filter Wrench with Locking Jaws

It digs into the old one really good and the things come right out. Does not matter that you basically destroy the old filter. thing is trash anyway.

Also I would not let it ride on the choke that long, You should be able to take it off choke within a few seconds, a min at most.... If you cannot do that I would run a full bottle of this in a fresh tank:

Fuel Treatment


In my past experience I have found it works better than Seafoam.
 
To add to what Klurejr said, the oil filter should be just hand tightened about 1/4 turn past where it initially stops. You should also prime it with clean oil first by pouring in a few ounces into it and rotate it around in your hand to spread it around. Then I take some clean oil on my finger and apply a coat on the rubber seal ring. This way it will be easier to remove the next time. If all else fails you could always do the "screwdriver trick". Just hammer a Philips head screwdriver through the end of the filter and crank her off.
 
Pick up an oil filter socket and you should get it off in a jiffy. I have a couple different sizes to cover pretty much every motorcycle filter. These are designed to fit the filter perfectly and you can undo them easily

41Sq0IGInDL._SX300_.jpg
 
When there is room, and on the FZ1 there is, I would simply break out a long punch and carefully place it at the base of the filter catching the lip and give it hearty taps in the same direction to loosen it until the gasket seal is broken.
 
And to avoid this issue in the future use a K&N filter that has a handy 17mm hex head welded on the top so all you need to change your filter and oil is a 17mm box end wrench, so you can throw away all the filter wrenches you have probably ended up accumulating over the years.. I use the K&N's on every bike I've had and have never had a problem getting the filter off. I think it is a KN-303 for your bike, it's a few bucks more then some of the cheapies that some people use, but you won't have the headache of a stuck filter ever again.

KN-303 - K&N Oil Filters, Oil Filter
 
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Evitzee said:
And to avoid this issue in the future use a K&N filter that has a handy 17mm hex head welded on the top so all you need to change your filter and oil is a 17mm box end wrench, so you can throw away all the filter wrenches you have probably ended up accumulating over the years.. I use the K&N's on every bike I've had and have never had a problem getting the filter off. I think it is a KN-303 for your bike, it's a few bucks more then some of the cheapies that some people use, but you won't have the headache of a stuck filter ever again.

KN-303 - K&N Oil Filters, Oil Filter
Click to expand...

That is brilliant!
 
Well the oil filter did take me a while to get off but I finally did. I put the new one on the way ya'll told me primed it and tightened it the correct way. I plugged the drain plug and I began to put the yamalube in. I put in the 3.7 quarts in just about and I'm having a hard time seeing the distinct level like in the looking glass or whatever. But the bike fired up right away sounds much better then the first start up. But the only problem for me is that the red oil light is on now and idk what the hell is wrong. I thought everything was good to go but I can't figure it out. I've only seen it on once before when I was very low on oil a long time ago I put some in and it worked just fine and light is off but now the light is on. Does this happen when you drain all the oil out and do a oil change? Is something stuck someplace? Thanks for all the help I couldn't have done it without all the advice.

That John Galt quote is awesome btw, Atlas Shrugged is a great book.
 
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daxanderman said:
Well the oil filter did take me a while to get off but I finally did. I put the new one on the way ya'll told me primed it and tightened it the correct way. I plugged the drain plug and I began to put the yamalube in. I put in the 3.7 quarts in just about and I'm having a hard time seeing the distinct level like in the looking glass or whatever. But the bike fired up right away sounds much better then the first start up. But the only problem for me is that the red oil light is on now and idk what the hell is wrong. I thought everything was good to go but I can't figure it out. I've only seen it on once before when I was very low on oil a long time ago I put some in and it worked just fine and light is off but now the light is on. Does this happen when you drain all the oil out and do a oil change? Is something stuck someplace? Thanks for all the help I couldn't have done it without all the advice.

That John Galt quote is awesome btw, Atlas Shrugged is a great book.
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The oil light is only showing you oil level, Not low oil pressure, so don't worry. Put in another ounce of oil and try it again. It will probably go out. If not, add another half ounce at a time until it does. Happens many times. Sometimes a cap full makes the difference. Glad she's running better for you and that you were able to get that filter off.
 
So, the red light is still on. Also it seems like while the bike is idling there is quite a bit of exhaust coming out of the exhaust, as well as at the base of the exhaust underneath the engine. There's no leaks and I cleaned off the 4 pipes very well. But it seems to be coming out of the big pipe that leads to the exhaust on the right hand side. My dad thinks the bike is over heating. When I was working on the oil filter I undid the radiator hose on the left side to get the filter better. The coolant or whatever spilt everywhere I cleaned it up and after the oil change I filled up the coolant. The bike is still smoking quite a bit after idling for sometime and a few times the fan has turned on which I never ever remember hearing ever in the few years I have ridden the bike prior. Could that have anything to do with the light at all? Thanks for the all the advice I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to having my wheels back where they belong
 
daxanderman said:
So, the red light is still on. Also it seems like while the bike is idling there is quite a bit of exhaust coming out of the exhaust, as well as at the base of the exhaust underneath the engine. There's no leaks and I cleaned off the 4 pipes very well. But it seems to be coming out of the big pipe that leads to the exhaust on the right hand side. My dad thinks the bike is over heating. When I was working on the oil filter I undid the radiator hose on the left side to get the filter better. The coolant or whatever spilt everywhere I cleaned it up and after the oil change I filled up the coolant. The bike is still smoking quite a bit after idling for sometime and a few times the fan has turned on which I never ever remember hearing ever in the few years I have ridden the bike prior. Could that have anything to do with the light at all? Thanks for the all the advice I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to having my wheels back where they belong
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The red oil light has nothing to do with the coolant so no need to worry about that. Just add a bit of oil to have the light go out 99% of the time. The coolant however, you need to idle the bike with the radiator cap off to bleed off any air that may be in the system as you would in a car or any other closed system. As for the fans, once the temp reaches 215 or so, the fans turn on. I think that's the temp but I'm not entirely positive. It's been quite a while since having a GenI. Just leave the cap off until you see the coolant flowing through the radiator. It won't happen until the bike is up to temp and the thermostat opens.
 
daxanderman said:
That John Galt quote is awesome btw, Atlas Shrugged is a great book.
Click to expand...

Thanks!


When you filled the Bike the first time with oil, did you fill until the oil level was at the top dot ont eh sight glass? I always fill to that top dot. The Oil level light should not come on unless your oil level is below the bottom dot when cold.

Do you store it overnight on the Center Stand? If not, store it that way and take a look at the sight glass in the morning before you start it up.

I have a full Yoshimura System and I get some smoke when it starts up, and after it idles for a few min the fans will always come on, that is quite normal.

My old 2002 FZ1 had a tendency to burn oil for some reason, I never really looked into it, but I found it lost less oil when I moved it over to Mobil 1 4MT. My current 2003 never loses a drop. That reminds me, i need to change the oil soon on my bike.
 
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