Does anyone have a method for accessing their brand's technical service bulletins?

Yamaha uses two levels.... I assume this is similar for all brands.

    The more critical are public knowledge.  The definition of 'critical' is somewhat open to interpretation.... but once the corporation decides it is in fact critical, and warrants a Recall, it becomes public record.

    I can find data on those mandatory recall issues. Part of the information contained in the offical records of these recalls is a copy of the letter mailed to the registered owner of the motorcycle involved. I have not recieved any such letter, and since I cannot find any Recalls that affect my particular VIN#, that sort of stands to reason.

   Such a program does work; I have recieved such notification on my Echo, for a child seat restraint issue. Toyota seems to keep track of where my car is without too much ado.

This arbitrary Recall/not a recall deal is where I am stymied.

  I have in my hand a copy of a Tech service bulletin for my FZ6, which affects my VIN.

   It concerns an issue involving the retention of the front sprocket. Seems the lock washer can be improperly installed, causing the front sprocket to come loose on the transmission output shaft. Should the nut fall off, the sprocket can come off.  Should the nut come off, it can get wedged into the engine cases, and the final drive chain can snap.

   I have heard from at least 4 different individuals who have lost their front sprockets.  One has suffered holes punched into the cases of their engine. Others are facing removing and replacing the transmission output shaft-- that's a complete engine teardown, estimates are in the thousands of dollars.

  Some folk have resorted to spot welding a sprocket onto the out put shaft.

   The Technical Service Bulletin from Yamaha (M2006-003) clearly states that any bike in the VIN range, no matter what the warranty state shall have the sprocket retaining nut, and the lock washer replaced at no charge to the customer. 

  My concern is that this is a serious issue...... yet I have no mail from Yamaha.  The bike has very rarely been in a shop for service; so I can't say for a fact that this should have been resolved as a normal business activity.

    I am somwhat amazed that potentially having a final drive catastrophic failure is not a mandatory recall.....

RJ: I would check with the dealer where you bought the bike. This kind of attitude isn't just a Yamaha problem. The Japanese have a history of not being willing to admit these kinds of engineering flaws.

I suspect some bean counter decided that most of the machines affected were probably on their second or third owner by now and it was no longer their problem. It's like the stator issue with Suzuki's; they know but they just don't care. At least you caught it in time.

dave

So many people with the 600's change the final gearing to increase RPM, the number of bikes that have the OEM gearing at 23K miles is pretty small.

I know of at least 4 incidents of outputshafts being stripped of their threads, and one of the chain being bound up on the nut after it got tangeled up with the sprocket..... that one punched a hole in the cases.

I'd really like to know what year that model was... and what the VIN was.

RJ: Maybe a good bottle to a friendly service guy might be in order:) If it were me I probably would do the update just to be on the safe side.

dave

Is the fz output shaft torQed by the sprocket nut?

If so, kaw ,suz ect also uses this, and the reason the nut comes loose on those bikes in because they lose the internal torqe from bushing wear. when that happens the nut loses its torque, but they normally have a folding lock washer to keep from falling off.   The problem is you have a loose nut and not know it, tso the internal bushing continues to wear. once worn severly enough, and you retighten the sproket nut. Now the tranny is in a bind, cause the bushing is worn and it welds itself to the shaft and the tranny at that point locks up solid.

If the torq for the nut is like 80 lb, it probably is that type

The hondas I've had all used no torqure load on the output shaft at all, so its a simple bolt at a low torque value like 30 lbft. Very nice in comparison