ims 4.75 tank install

This was from a forum, posted in May, 2011.

I saw a box today at the front of the garage.. maybe the first 4.75 g. ims tank in common consumer hands! So i quickly took off my old 3.1 tank, & began putting it together.

The instructions are pretty slim, as they were on the 3.1 ims tank. I took off the mounting brackets & mounted them on the new tank.

Not much stuff came with it.. a vacuum hose, vent hose, o-ring, cap, directons, stickers.



I dry mounted the tank, & was not happy with the clearance of the flatlander radiator guard. It slightly touched the tank, which i felt could rub a hole in the tank with use. So i bent the edges of the rad guard & it has better clearance.



I mounted the fuel pump, after zip tying the lift pump hose to it. No zip ties came with the tank, but i have those around. this tube is inside the tank.



Now a 't' comes with the tank, which is supposed to be spliced into a vacuum tube coming out of the throttle body. Some of us have removed some stock doo dads, which left a port in the throttle body. I had it plugged, but forgot about it. I called up my old buddy Tom to ask what he did when he installed his Safari. He reminded my of the extra port & i plugged the longer tube (the vent tube) into it. The shorter tube won't reach.. it is meant to splice into the t. It's hard to see without pointers or arrows, but it is the 2 adjacent tubes going into the throttle body.



Next, bolt it down. I had to twist the 3.1 a bit to get the bolts to line up.. no different here. But people shouldn't get upset.. it is a flexible plastic tank. Just push it until the holes line up. Screw them in & forget it.

Now i've got about a 300 mile range.. nice!



I put my saddle bags over the tank.. it's wider but the bags fit better than on the 3.1. I think i'm going to like this tank.

10/24/2011
After putting several thousand miles on it, the tank performs well. I do not notice any fuel sloshing, but it is only 4.7 g. If it is full, the fuel does not slosh. If there are a couple of gallons left, that is only ~ 12# of fuel, & any sloshing would be hard to notice.

The only problem i have is the vacuum pump does not work at getting the last of the gas from the wings. Other people have this same problem. Evidently, it is the vacuum pump that is in the tank.. it uses the pulsing vacuum from the throttle body, but it sometimes sticks & does not draw the fuel up. I have heard of others who cleaned it up & got it working, which i will try someday. But i have run over 4g. of gas out of it, so that is nice. I ran it out to test the pump, & had to slosh it around to get enough gas to get to a station. It is more of a minor inconvenience, but it would be nice if it worked correctly. I'll address this issue someday.

shinko 244 tires.. more

I've got these tires with about 8k miles on them, now. I'll give a few reasons i like them.

1. good knobbies, good traction. They handled as well for me as my full knobby pirelli mt 21's.

2. great in the paved twisties. No trouble at all, much faster than the pirelli's. I got scared before the tires did.

3. cheap. These are definitely the best bang for the buck in a dual sport tire. I paid ~ $80 shipped for both tires, & have 8k miles & counting. These will be my next set also.

4. improved suspension. These bigger tires will improve the bike's suspension. It is part of the air pressure management, but if you vary the pressures, the tire will respond differently.

5. rides flat. Ok, i've never had a flat in these, yet. But i've run 3-4 # of pressure in them & they hold up & preform well.


Here's some tips i have for these tires.

1. drop the pressures under 10# for gnarly off road conditions. You'll think you had a suspension job. It is a major improvement in soaking up the bumps.

2. Crank it up to 30# for highway riding. Your gas mileage will improve. I run ~ 20# or so most of the time, & drop it when getting into tougher rocky offroad conditions. I increase the pressure for long pavement rides.

I was a bit worried when i went with the X that the bigger front tire would be a problem. But now i think it is an asset. When mountain bikes came on the scene, it was the 'fat tire' that made them work. This 'fat tire' is also a big help with rough off road conditions. It is also better in mud & sand.. if anything can be better.. Real sticky mud is a nightmare with any tire. But in wet sloppy mud the fat tire rolls through it fine.

3. Slide forward in the twisties. This is true for any bike. Get the weight forward & off the rear wheel. The pegs will drag but the tires will hold. Be careful with new tires in corners.. need to wear them a bit & warm them up, first.

Don't be afraid to vary the air with these tires depending on conditions. They are stiff & need lower pressures to perform off road. I think people who have complained about them in gravel have had them aired up too much. Unless you have over 300# on the bike, 10# or less will be optimal. Try it. Let almost all the air out & push on the tire. It is still plenty stiff & will hold you up. Ride it around. It is like the old teraflex tires (which i also thought were great!). Too much air ruins them. Ride around on a parking lot & try to roll the tires with very little air in them.. 4# or so. If you put 28# in them, they will be fine on the street, but they will beat you up off road. Mine have had less than 10# in them for most of their life. I check them today, & they had 3# front, & 5# in the rear for the entire Grand Canyon ride we did a couple weeks back. I aired them up to 30# for an errand i had to run on pavement. They roll better, but make the suspension feel like it is frozen. These tires have been the best suspension 'upgrade' i've done with this bike.

Well, i better order me another set.. although i can probably get another 5k on the front, but the back is probably done. I'll ride it for another 1k or so, then change them out.

Helmet cam & mount.

Here's the helmet cam mount i've been using for the last year or so. It seems to work, so i've stayed with it.

Here's the velcro strap on the mount. I zip tied a piece of silicone handlebar grip to it to hold it out the right distance.



It straps right next to the inside chin foam. The shield will still close, but not tightly.



Then the camera mounts on it. It took a lot of trial & error to get it aimed the right way.



My cat was trying to figure out what was so neat about this thing.. it didn't smell like you could eat it, so what's so interesting about it?

It's not very elegant, but it works. I had it bolted to the top at first, but didn't care for the angle of the shots, & the top mount. I think this is at eye level more, & seems to go with my sight line better. I'm sure there are better engineered ways to do it, but i've been too lazy to work on it. Besides, this is working ok, & if it ain't broke, i'm not fixing it.

New sprockets, fork seals, oil

We're getting ready to do a day ride in a couple of days, & i've been meaning to change my sprockets & chain. I got new ones several months ago, but haven't gotten around to putting them on. Then i had a leak in my front fork seals, & needed to fix that, too. So i was whining about all the work i had to do on this bike, & my riding buddy Tom invited me over to work on it. It's about 50 miles & over the Jerome mountain pass to Prescott, & we just got a big snow load dumped over the weekend. But it was warming up, so i decided to head over.

It was nearly 2pm by the time i left, & it was quite chilly going over the mountains.. snow all over. Then i made a couple of wrong turns filled up with gas, & by the time i got to Tom's it was nearly 4.

He's got a nice hydrolic moto jack, so we raised it up & i started on the back wheel, & Tom on the forks. Everything removed uneventfully, & Tom even had a nice chain breaker to pop off the old chain. I've just drilled out a pin in the past, but the chain break was easy & worked well.

Do you think i was due for a front sprocket? ..about 9k miles on this.. lots of mud, sand, rocky off road, & plenty of slab, too. 4 broken teeth! Tom was surprised i made it this far. I noticed a couple of broken teeth after my last ride at sheeps bridge, & figured it was time for a new one.



Next the new back one. I wanted to go 14/44, & got a 110 chain which fit perfectly. I could only find an alloy renthal at rocky mtn, & it was a little more than i wanted to pay, but it works. I had an alloy back sprocket on my drz with over 18k miles on it, so i figured this should be fine on the 250. A new master link & everything is set.





I knew i had some chain wear on the swingarm, but was shocked to see how much. Nearly 1/4" had worn down. I was pretty careful to keep my chain tight, but a time or 2 it got loose & the damage was done. We both complained about Yamaha.. a poor engineering job, imo, to have the chain hit the swingarm this much just because the chain is a little loose. I should have replaced the slider while i had it off, but i didn't. I'm not happy about the swingarm, but will probably just live with it.. It will probably be ok. If i have any problems, i'll get a new swingarm or have this welded up. Next time i take off the rear wheel i might get a new slider.




In the meantime, Tom was taking off the forks. He drained the oil out, cleaned all around the seals, put in fresh oil & put the forks back in.



Even with the visiting & goofing off, it only took a little over an hour for us to knock this out. I put my windscreen back on for the ride home, & Tom did the final detail cleaning.. wiping my wild looking beast off for the long, cold ride home.



Paula generously made us sandwiches, & we checked out some things on his computer. It was nearly 7 by the time i hit the road. Temps had fallen below 40, but i stayed on the highway & was home by 8. ..ready for the ride on thursday.