Remember back six months ago, when we told you the new Yamaha R1 was undergoing a transmission recall? Here’s a time-lapse video below that shows what’s involved.
When news originally broke about the recall on Yamaha’s flagship superbike, it sounded like a lot of work. According to Transport Canada’s blurbage, “On certain motorcycles, the second gear wheel and the pinion gears in the transmission may be of inadequate strength. In high stress cases, this could cause internal components in the transmission to deform or break.” Their fix was to get dealers to “replace the transmission assembly with one that includes gears of a different design.”
That’s definitely past the skill level of most shade tree mechanics, as you can see in the video above (as discovered by Asphalt & Rubber). In fact, it looks as if it would be well worth your time to make sure a skilled technician was doing the work on your bike, if you were an affected customer, as this procedure is definitely something you want to be done right the first time.
At the time, Yamaha figured each transmission job was about 16 hours of labour, which means this recall was very expensive for the manufacturer (figure 16 hrs of shop labour times 240 motorcycles in Canada and you’re looking at a six-figure hit in this country alone). It’s good to see them making it right despite the cost.
You’re touching on a real problem here. Not all dealers employ the skilled technicians you need to perform tasks more complex than changing tires, brake pads or cables…
Hell, even an oil change can be difficult it seems. After I brought my FZ1 to the dealer for its first maintenance after 1000K break in the oil pressure light went on because they did not fill it enough! Never went back to that place after that.
How to be sure you are being served well? At least make sure you enquire about the skill level and experience of the people who are going to do the work.
wow – and only 2 screws left over after he did all that! 😉