Check that airbox!

I picked up a used '08 Tuesday, decided to change the oil and check basic maintenance items while I waited on my Yamalink to arrive. I nearly died of fright when I opened the airbox door:





Thank goodness the family of mice had already moved out.

Sarah

I agree 1000%.
Rodents can move on in even if the bike is sitting in a spot where you don't think that's likely.

The poor ol' air filter is often a neglected maintenace item.
It's extremely important, at least as important as your engine oil and oil filter.
Without a properly functioning air filter, your engine will be toast. :)

WOW! Do you have any idea how long it had been sitting?

When you say "picked it up" did you ride the bike with all that in the airbox??????

Better to find that sooner rather than later.

WOW!!!!

The bike has 1700 miles on it, I have no idea how long it had been sitting. I hadn't ridden it, brought it home in the back of our pickup. I was relieved to see the air filter looks brand new since I gave it a good going over with the shop vac.

Sarah

Interesting. Good find. Kinda not my style to buy a motorcycle that I had never ridden around a parking lot at least.

Best of luck. You'll love the WR.

Is it an X or R?

It's an R. You don't find many for sale with a Yamalink installed, so it's tough to test ride.

Sarah

[smartass] hmmmm.....I don;t have a Yamalink and my bike runs fine. [/smartass]

That's OK, at least you are a long-legged ass.

Sarah

greer wrote:

That's OK, at least you are a long-legged ass.

Sarah

All 5 Feet 7 inches of me.

Thanks though....don't think I've ever been referred to as long legged. Not ever.

My hat's off to you for managing that bike as is. I'm still on tiptoes with the link installed. Having a blast, though.

Sarah

Glad you decided to pick one up! You'll get used to the height soon enough... one thing to note, I sat on HF's bike when I stopped by his house for some maintenance and his was a lower than mine, and mine was loaded. Neither of us have the yamalink I think, but he does have all of the preload taken off of the rear shock. Might be worth looking into while you're digging around.

Also make sure the air filter is still in one piece with the mice living in there...

Sarah, I'd:

*Remove the air filter from the airbox
*Remove the foam filter from it's metal guide or "cage" as it's often called
*Clean the foam air filter with some foam air filter cleaner, rinse it with water, and dry it with paper towels
*Pour on some foam filter oil (I love Maxima FFT)
*Work the filter oil through the entire filter, squeeze out the excess, and then wrap the filter in some paper towels and give it one more squeeze to make sure the excess oil is out.
*Put the air filter back into the bike in the reverse order that you took it out

You'll be left with a clean filter with a thin coating of sticky oil all over it.
This is how the filter stops the dirt that would otherwise wreck your engine parts.
Do this often.
I do mine once a week, with a mix of street and dirt riding.

The rear shock absorber has what's called a ride height adjuster, which means the length of the shock absorber can be reduced by threading in the bottom shock mount.

as yours. Still dirty thou.

Thanks everybody! The air filter had very little dirt on it, just dried grass that the shop vac removed entirely. The inside of the airbox is clean as a pin too, once I took the vac to it. I think it's OK, but I'll check again.
We lowered the bike with the shock, but I left some preload; I'll take the rest of that out and give it a whirl. I'll be glad to have a little more foot down. Thanks again for the help, everybody.

Sarah

Sarah, you might also consider raising the forks up a bit to help lower the bike. You'd be surprised what a few mm of adjustment will make to the ride height.

Yes, I should have mentioned that, we raised them 5/8". Thanks again.

Sarah

i cannot believe that..those air filters never have it lookin' like that AT ALL!!!!
some people
as for the sod... do some landscapping i guess
WOW!

ja