Reliability of WR 400 ?
JPDemarke
I'm looking to buy a WR400 from 1998
I hear different opinion about the reliability of the Yamaha WR400. Some
good and some bad.
I'm looking for opinion of owners about the reliablility of this motorcycle.
Thanks a lot
Jim McGarvie
off-road riding. I think it's great!
-- Jim
'98 WR400F
Rowdy
>
> Hello
>
> I'm looking to buy a WR400 from 1998
My WR is a '98.
> I hear different opinion about the reliability of the Yamaha WR400.
> Some good and some bad.
>
> I'm looking for opinion of owners about the reliablility of this
> motorcycle.
ENGINE:
It has a zero maintenance engine, similar to my old, air cooled XT600.
Especially the '98 WRs are very tame. They feature an even thinker
base gasket than the '98 YZF. Rumor has it the later models got the
thinner gasket.
I've checked the valves' clearances 7 times since first firing her up
in May '98 and the values stayed the same. Not even the initial 100
miles made the valve's seats settle or something happen, that would
have required to adjust clearance. Buddies of mine had to adjust
clearance one times at maximum, at around 1000 miles, but only to make
sure clearance is precisely in the middle of the margin numbers again.
The engine never needed opening, at 15000 miles i'm still running the
initial clutch plates, oil pumps, piston, rings(!), con rod...
BEARINGS:
The front wheel bearings went dead very early at app. 1500 miles.
Since replacing them with generic 6904 RS2 types, everything is fine.
The steering head and swing arm linkage bearings were rumored to be
lubed rather minimalistically. I checked both after app. 7000 miles.
The steering head bearings, both upper and lower one, were perfect,
the linkage bearings were shot, the swing arm bearings were still well
lubed.
I blame the linkage bearing failure on an unnoticed crack in one of
the ends of the U shaped linkage arm. This caused the bolt through the
L shaped linkage arm to be stressed extremely asymetrically, killing
the bearings in the L shaped arm.
KICK START LEVER (rumored to break easily):
Currently, the kick start lever begs to be replaced due to excessive
play, but aside from appearing worn, i never had any problems with it.
Neither i nor any of my friends did break a lever as of yet. But then
again, we're all long time four stroke owners, knowing how to kick.
ENGINE BREATHER:
You have to do something about the YZ400F style engine breather hose
routing on U.S. WR400Fs, it's a truly inferior design for anyone that
might get into contact with water or mud pools.
Kicking her to life submerged WILL draw in water and dirt. This is no
joke. Among my Hungarian buddies, one has run up a 1000 $ parts bill
for sucking in dirt via the breather, and the other, who immediately
quit the race, got away with a 100% tear down and "wash everything
with gas job", extracting a tea spoon of sand.
Either install some T junction, routing the other end high up near the
oil filler neck, or route the breather hose to the port designed for
it (needs to be cut open) in the air box boot between filter and carb,
like Yamaha does with all European WRs.
The latter system has the advantage of keeping dirt and dust out 100%,
at the price of feeding oil fumes into the intake (no problem with
that over here).
SWING ARM CHAIN BUFFER:
The WR eats through a swing arm chain buffer every 3000 miles.
SHIFT AND BRAKE LEVER:
Check and retighten the shift and foot brake lever screws frequently
TAIL LIGHT:
Put a 6.8 Ohm resistor (5 watt type) parallel to the brake light
switch when your tail light filament dies next time and you've fixed
the problem once and for all. (you can leave the half shot bulb in
place, the brake filament will do the tail light's work from now on;
my current bulb is over a year old now!)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Reliable to famous japanese standards after dealing with:
- front wheel bearings
- initial valve clearance check
- engine breather hose
enjoy
Rowdy
WRZ400F'98
WR400 Pilot
grease in my swingarm and linkage and all was ok from the
factory (a first in my experience).
I've replaced tires, brake pads, handlebars, chains and
sprockets. The only exception to these normal wear parts is the
countershaft seal behind the countershaft sprocket. I replaced
it after 1 year (approximately 2500 miles) due to leakage. It
took all of 15 minutes and $18 including changing the oil.
I'm currently around 3500 miles and I'm suspicious of the clutch
and will replace it before my next race just to be sure I finish.
Very low maintenance bike and I ride it pretty hard IMHO.
Scot
Scot
WR400 Pilot
TSCEC #428
Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
Up to 100 minutes free!
http://www.keen.com
Dave Dude
WR400 Pilot <fdsa...@techie.com> wrote:
snip
> Very low maintenance bike and I ride it pretty hard IMHO.
>
> Scot
It also puts the perfect head on a can of Bud light too:)
--
Dave Dude
96yz250
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
satcom
leg!!
JPDemarke <JPDe...@swing.be> wrote in message
news:8j3e3o$687$1...@news0.skynet.be...
> Hello
>
> I'm looking to buy a WR400 from 1998
>
> I hear different opinion about the reliability of the Yamaha WR400. Some
> good and some bad.
>
> I'm looking for opinion of owners about the reliablility of this
motorcycle.
>
> Thanks a lot
>
>
>
>
WR400 Pilot
>In article <1f38f92c...@usw-ex0103-018.remarq.com>,
> WR400 Pilot <fdsa...@techie.com> wrote:
>
>snip
>
>> Very low maintenance bike and I ride it pretty hard IMHO.
>>
>> Scot
>
>It also puts the perfect head on a can of Bud light too:)
Going to be at RR this weekend? I'll have a fresh 30 pack under
ice. <g> And 2 in my Camelback ;-)
Scot
>--
>Dave Dude
>96yz250
>
>
>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
>Before you buy.
>
>
Louis Tweed
Reliability isn't an issue!! Time to ride is an issue. Save your money
for rear tires. :)
Louis
98 WR
RBurtonRMX
valves are checked about evry 1000 miles for the first 4000 and never did a
thing.
quite possibly the best off road bike ever built imho