RIVA said:
Up to this point in time as far as I am aware, Yamaha have not yet recommended an ECU reflash or a handlebar replacement or any fiddling with air screws so we assume that there are no issues with these components. On the other hand we have seen the failure of a number of seals in the final drive assembly. Maybe, just maybe this issue could be put down to swarf from the inside out and not grit or normal wear from the outside in. Maybe, just maybe Riderfast99 knows a little bit more than some of the doubting riders on the forum. By all means have your doubts and your opinions but be open to others. You may not always be right.
In other, less litigious markets Yamaha does offer ECU re-flashes, and even continues warranty coverage if done by an approved vendor. Diapason in Italy is one example, and they do not only Super Tenere re-flashes but ones for other Yamaha models as well. You need look no further than Yamaha's *OWN* accessory pages to see they offer things like Power Commanders, DynoJet Autotune kits, EXUP eliminators, Akrapovic, Graves, Harris, etc. aftermarket exhaust systems and the like for all sorts of Yamaha models - street ones included (look at accessories for an R6 for example). If you look a bit more through Yamaha's *OWN* parts catalogs you will see they offer optional bend handlebars for a few models, too. And if any of these accessories are installed by an authorized Yamaha dealer they don't affect your warranty one femto-bit.
And yes, there are factory approved protocols for altering air screw positioning... For instance, if the throttle body were replaced the new one would *NOT* come with painted screws, and the dealer (or tech) would set the air screws according to those protocols. Further, quite often dealers are advised by factory service reps to alter air screw settings to correct operational running... How do I know? Because I was first a line motorcycle mechanic for Brit bikes, then both Honda and Yamaha, and then a Honda dealer, and I've been there when we were told by the factory to alter air screw settings on carbs, and yes, even alter tuning parameters on fuel injection bikes (Honda CX500 and CX650 Turbos immediately come to mind for me, for instance, not to mention the mid-80's Honda Gold Wing LTD's and SE's). This happens a lot I understand for bikes operated at high altitudes as well.
Point is that these kinds of things *ARE* regularly recommended by the manufacturers themselves, like Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, Ducati, KTM, Triumph, etc., and are all considered relatively *NORMAL* procedures, components, and protocols.
OTOH, absolutely none of these manufacturers to my knowledge recommend flushing out a literally brand new final drive assembly with kerosene, then refilling with the proper lube. Please, if you can find me one that does, or even a single, solitary documented example of where a manufacturer actually *DID* recommend such a thing with what amounts to a new, proper functioning ring-and-pinion final drive assembly and I will gladly stand corrected.
Over the years I've been a dealer for Honda, ATK, KTM, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, AMC, Jeep, Chrysler, Subaru, and General Motors products, among others... And not once that I can recall did any one of them recommend flushing an all but new, properly functioning final drive assembly with kerosene, or anything other than the actual fluid that should be used in normal use.
But what is more important than any of this is the potential risk the original poster is taking, and the risk he is recommending that others take as well... If he flushes out his nearly new final drive with kerosene, and then suffers a bearing or seal failure, and a Yamaha factory service rep somehow finds out such a "kerosene flush" took place... Then I guarantee you that any warranty claim would be flatly and summarily denied. No way Yamaha would pay the tab for new seals or bearings if they got wind of such a "kerosene flush". That much is self-evident, and no way he could fall back on the Magnuson-Moss Act as any sort of defense.
As for the seal failures you refer to... Suggesting that metallic particles from the initial break-in of a new final drive assembly are the cause doesn't hold water. Yamaha recommends that the final drive fluid of a new final drive be drained and replaced at 600 miles. Doing so would remove these same particles that the original poster cleaned out with his "kerosene flush". Given the fact that Yamaha has used almost identical shaft final drives on numerous other models (FJR's, V-Max's, Royal Star's, etc.) for quite some time - decades in point of fact - and that most of these other models produce both more HP and TQ than the Super Tenere, and hence more loading, it's hard to imagine that the seal failures you refer to have anything whatsoever to do with the metallic "swarf" you refer to that the Ridefast99 claims he got out with his "kerosene flush".
Look, the "kerosene flush" is nothing new. You need no more than do a tiny bit of Googling to see that it has been done on every kind of oil-bathed component imaginable - from engines to gearboxes to final drives to whatever you can think of - and just a modicum of reading will illustrate to you that it has more often been linked to an eventual failure than anything else.
If you and Ridefast99 want to do "kerosene flushes" to everything you own that's fine by me, but don't go and promote it as the *right thing to do* unless you can provide some concrete, irrefutable evidence that it actually *cures* a problem, or have at least some sort of documented evidence that it actually does improve longevity. If not those then at least where some manufacturer somewhere recommends it for new final drives.
I can't wait... ::017::
Dallara
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