Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I finally got a chance to test ride a new Tiger. It was a nice blue '07 with less than 5,000 miles on it. It's the best faired bike I've been on. No horrific windblast rattling my helmet around!

The seating position was very relaxed. The footpegs are forward compared to my "standard" 599. The seat is wide and long. When my GF sat on the back in the showroom it felt a lot better to her than the Hornet (which is a big plus!). I can see eating up many hundreds of miles a day on that bike.

Speaking of the seat, it's an inch or two higher than the Hornet. I could just barely flat foot the bike.

The motor is the most interesting one I've ridden. At low RPMs, almost lugging it, you can tell it's a three cylinder bike. I'm not sure if it's fuel injection related or just the three banger instead of my four banger but it's notably rough at lower RPMs. Once you wind it up it acts like a four cylinder literbike and until it's there, it pulls stronger than any inline four I've been on.

If it wasn't for the big price and upcoming trips, I'd be riding one home right now.

Told ya it was the bike for you .

Too cold and snowy to ride, but ok to wrench on cars!

I finally got my schedule to match up with my friend's father's. On Saturday we zipped up to Spokane, WA to snag a car for my GF. 1989 Toyota Camry, seen a lot of use and had 238,000 miles on it. The price was very low, a perfect fit for my GF's budget.

We begin the trek north with great weather for picking up a car with known issues:



We arrive at my buddy's parents' place and do the paperwork. We head back south and make it 65 problem-free miles with a completely worn front strut.

It's 75 miles between Spokane and home.

I'm driving the Camry in front, which had no fan so very, very little heat. I come up a grade and the engine has no power and the transmission won't shift. I curse automatic transmissions and wonder what to do. I drop it into 2nd to let it get a bit more power but that just causes a good amount of compression braking.

There's a turnoff at the top of the hill and I coast over. I open the hood and poke and prod at things. Not a single thing happens when the key is turned. No clicking from a dead battery not operating the starter solenoid. Lights seem to work ok and the automatic shoulder belts keep moving. Since we didn't bring any tools we applied the only item we had, jumper cables. We moved the vehicles close together and my buddy's Ranger has a tremendous load on the electrical system.



We let it sit for a minute, fire the Camry up and away we go. Until the car dies putting it into Drive. The Ranger gets moved back up, hoods get propped open and out come the jumper cables again. Next time I end up two-footing it and keeping a good amount of throttle open. I plop back onto the highway with all lights, radios, etc... turned off. Still no heat and our vehicles were ice-beasts. That made some cool designs, though:



The car dies again about a mile outside of town and we do the ol' jumping sequence with more two-footing to get the car moving. I ended up shifting into neutral at red lights and neutral-dropping into Drive to get home, but it makes it. I park the car and call it a night, buying my buddy dinner for helping me.

I hit a Toyota forum with an active second generation Camry subforum and find lots of good information. All my research pointed to a dead alternator and the local Schuck's has one in stock and is open on Sunday. Score!

This morning I started work in the snow and wind at 8 AM. Now, I am no mechanic (I just play one on the Internet), but I have a good idea what's wrong with this alternator wiring:



The wires were insanely corroded. Stiff, discolored and brittle. I went to work fixing it:





I installed the new wiring and almost all the issues went away. The fans worked, battery kept a charge, defroster works, brake lights work. Takes care of a lot of the big ticket items!

The Camry handled a very snowy test drive superbly. I still need to get used to the automatic transmission, especially in the snow. I've never owned a car with an auto before, so it's interesting.

Next up: getting new plates ($75), oil and filter change ($10), brake fluid flush and bleed ($6), coolant flush ($20) and more replacement light bulbs ($10).

Total spent on the car is under $60. A hundred or more so dollars in maintenance and it should be a great beater for the GF.

Oh, and the worn struts in the front? There's new-in-box replacements in the trunk, free with the car.

Gotta have the right equipment for this kind of work, so I finally bought a tool chest after saving up for a while.





Gotta clean up the garage now and put all my tools in it.

Man that is one nice tool box system you have there.

Patrick

Thanks!

Latest haul:


Replacement struts:


LET'S DO THIS.


"bloody"' compressor won't fit on both sides like the manual says so I got it as close as I could. Also, the damned white bump stop didn't fit right so I had to assemble without it.


And done!

Throttle body has be reinstalled with a new gasket and coolant has been topped off. Struts have been installed. Front and rear motor mounts have been replaced.

Tomorrow: go to the Toyota dealer and pick up my sway bar bushings, throw the front tires on and take a test drive. Woohoo!

Congrats on the new toolchest buddy. She looks sweet.

Sev wrote:Congrats on the new toolchest buddy. She looks sweet.

Thanks! She's sporting some greasy paw prints on it already. The oil leak on the passenger side rear of the motor appears to be a stream aimed directly at the rear motor mount. Blech, absolutely covered in thousands of miles of road gunk and motor oil.

Got the tires on and the jackstands out. Results of the test drive around town:

No more clunking! My normal route is filled with two or three potholes that test the suspension very well, but they were filled in between 7 AM this morning and 5:30 PM today. Front end feels very planted now.

No more dying coming to a stop in gear with the engine warm. Haven't tested this a hell of a lot but it looks promising.

No more engine rattling all bodypanels off and your fillings out. New motor mounts keep the engine in one spot. Still has a good clunk going into gear but I think it may be normal for automatics. It's a bigger clunk than what I recall from the autos I drove.

The hose from the valve cover to throttle body spews a crapton of oil through it. There was a small slice on the valve cover fitting side that was allowing a bunch of oil to escape. This may have been the cause of oil soaking the back of the engine as well as the burning oil smell. Replaced hose and picked up some hose clamps ($4).

I have to keep an eye on a possible problem. Either the transmission was hunting for gears or there was a gentle but rhythmic surging at 40 MPH going downhill.

The valves also sound very angry so I'll be checking those sometime later. Maybe spring, I was frozen, laying on snow and ice on my back, convincing the rear motor mount in and out.