Throttle Body Sync Report
(Special Note to anyone who cares: Shouldn’t there be a place in the Forum:Yamaha FZ-09 Garage for Throttle Body Sync? I can’t find one, so I’m putting this here, but don’t think it really belongs here.)
I realize that a lot of what I have here has been covered in other posts.
Yesterday, I finally did the Throttle Body Sync on my FZ-09 at 1428 miles. If you’d like to read about it, read on. If not – don’t.
It took almost as long to write this as it took to actually do it. I wrote this as a public service to my fellow FZ-09 owners. Maybe it will help you avoid some of my hinderances.
I usually enjoy successfully working on stuff, but his procedure was not what I consider fun.
A friend helped and I’m very glad he did.
As it turned out (but I didn’t know it at the time), my sync was well within the allowable spec range of 10 mm Hg before I did a thing, but not quite spot on.
My right throttle body had the white paint on the bypass air screw, so that was the ‘Do Not Adjust’ ‘Standard’. The middle throttle body read slightly less vacuum than the ‘Standard’ (about maybe 4 mm less, but within the 10 mm tolerance) – hard to tell exactly with manometer readings bouncing up and down at different times.
To raise the reading of the middle throttle body, I turned the adjustment screw clockwise, but hardly at all until it ‘bottomed out’. The reading ended up about 2 mm lower than the ‘Standard’ throttle body’s reading. It was well within specs so (against my usual nature) I figured it was close enough.
I debated messing slightly with the ‘Do Not Adjust’ screw to get all three readings the same, but decided against it.
The left throttle body was also well within specs and barely needed any adjustment to even it up with the right throttle body reading.
If you want comments, suggestions and verbose wordiness (see what I mean?) from me about this, here it is (my take anyway):
If you’re not already pretty experienced with a wrench, I wouldn’t begin to attempt this job. And even if you are, at least for the first time I’d have someone dexterous and patient around who you can holler at to come give you a third hand both removing and replacing the cap on the left throttle body vacuum port. I had trouble even finding it, let alone accessing it and not losing the cap altogether. I count myself lucky that I didn’t lose it. (Have a flashlight handy) In my book, it’s unacceptably inaccessible. (How’s that for a double negative?) Even with a helper, it was terrible. It’s harder to put back on than to take off. If you know the magic tool or trick to this, please let me know it.
If I ever do this again, I’ll attach a vacuum line to each of the 3 throttle body vacuum ports and label and run the other ends of the lines to some accessible (with the tank still on) point, perhaps under the seat, insert a short length of rigid tubing into each line (I’d planned on a piece of brake line) and cap them off there, perhaps with the caps from the throttle bodies. That way, I can easily check the sync, if not adjust it, just by removing the seat. The left cylinder vacuum port cap is such a female dog, I would simply plan on adding vacuum lines as the primary part of the job. Not sure about the best routing though. There’s not much room for anything down there. Please let me know if you come up with a good solution.
I would have done that this time, but I had already taken up too much time from my helper, but still wanted his help to get the thing back together. In retrospect, I could have managed getting it back together if I’d added the vacuum lines, but the way I chose to go, simply replacing the caps, I might still be pulling my hair out trying to get that cap back on the left throttle body vacuum port by myself, if I hadn’t lost or destroyed it in the process by now.
The shop manual says to check the sync with the airbox reinstalled (Page 3-8, step 5) Then on page 3-9, it seem to contradict itself about the airbox by saying to install the box (again) (page 3-9, step 4) without ever having said to remove it for syncing in the interim.
I don’t know what magic the ‘Carburetor angle driver 2 (90890-03173)’, page 3-9) is capable of, but I doubt the middle throttle body bypass air screw can be adjusted with the airbox installed no matter how cool that special tool is. Could be wrong here though. I can’t imagine syncing with the airbox on.
With remote vacuum lines, though, the sync could be checked with the airbox (and gas tank) on. Don’t know what difference that would make, what with unequal air intakes in the airbox (and perhaps the air filter and even the airbox itself causing differences between cylinders), but it would be easy enough to compare readings with and without the airbox removed to find out and perhaps record those differences so compensation could be made while syncing so that after replacing the airbox, the sync would be dot on.
I would like to have had a bit more adjustment on the middle throttle body bypass air screw to get the adjustment to perfect, and also to know that in the future I’ll have some adjustment room that direction if need be. I’d also like to be a billionaire. At least I think I would.
My most recent bike ‘til now was a 1984 Honda V65 Sabre. The FZ-09 had a bunch of strange (to me) fasteners that had me baffled at first, both to remove and to reinstall.
My gas gauge showed two segments when I did this. That seems about right. Tank felt pretty light (no problem at all lifting it), yet enough gas to reach the fuel pump with the rear of the tank elevated using a 4” long piece of 2 X 4 propped between the fuel tank bracket (which I left attached to the tank) and it’s normal attachment point (thus pivoting the tank on the two front tank attaching screws) all to allow access to the bypass air screws for syncing.
I used a longer piece of 2 X 4 to prop up the rear of the tank to protect the fuel pump stuff when I set it aside (WAY far from the work area in a SAFE location, along with the ECU)
I glanced over the removing the tank and airbox stuff when I ‘prepared’ for this procedure. I thought that stuff would be quicker and easier than it turned out to be. It should be quicker next time. The strange fasteners and some other stuff slowed me down. My bad habit of setting tools down in random places didn’t help much either.
One spot I didn’t like was removing and reinstalling the fuel line from the fuel pump. The procedure is explained thoroughly on pages 7-3 and 7-4 in the shop manual. Pressing the two (green if I remember correctly) buttons on opposite sides of the fitting proved easier said than done. My finger and thumb tips simply are not stiff enough or strong enough to do it well and I was concerned about causing a problem. Some tool that worked like pliers with small extensions on the tips to push the buttons into a recessed position would probably help (or conceivably wreck something if over plied). Perhaps a pair of shirt snap installing pliers. ( Just thought of) small nuts or thickish hard rubber pads glued to my thumb tip and index finger tip might do the trick without as much likelihood of overdoing it as with pliers.
When the manual keeps you page turning from section to section (which it does a lot), it’s pretty annoying and slows progress. Especially because it will tell you (for example on page 3-8), to turn to pages 4-1 and 7-1, when really the pages you want are 4-7 and 7-3. When you’re already embarrassed that you’re stealing too much time from your helper, that sort of thing doesn’t enhance your opinion of what seems to be simple laziness on the part of Yamaha’s manual writer.
Especially f you’re going to have a helper there, I suggest having all the actual pages you’ll need to turn to written in the manual and index marked with post-its and all the pertinent information (sparingly) highlighted to expedite.
And know how to deal with those annoying fasteners before you start.
I ‘d love to be able to buy a Haynes Manual on this bike, but got this response from Haynes customer service today:
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we do not have a Haynes Manual to cover the vehicle you referenced. However, you can check back with us from time to time to check and see if we have added coverage for the 2014 Yamaha FZ-09.
Thank you,
Lacey Gill
Haynes Manuals
Customer Service
For what it’s worth.