New to me 5th Gen - Questions

On my recently acquired 5th Gen(2000) with 91.8K miles, have few questions:

1- Clutch seems very soft and sensitive in terms of response, is that normal or can be adjusted?

2-When I use turn signal switch, signals do come on, but no indication on the cluster, i-e no light. What can be wrong there?

3-Rear brake is very firm and tight, have to apply a lot of downward force, can I make it bit more soft with some movement?

4-Valves have never been adjusted, should I worry at this point or leave them as-is?

5-Need to look at records for spark plugs, I believe they were replaced around 60K mark, should I change them? I believe they are iridium(long life) ones.

Will be going over the whole bike in bits and pieces, including all fluids and cleaning of air filter(k&n).

Would appreciate any help and guidance

 

1- Clutch cannot be adjusted, lever can be, but a clean is recommended.
2- Could be bad bulbs, but 2 is a bit rare, might be wiring or bad earth. Do the other dash lights work?
3- Might need some serious cleaning or rebuilding. At least inspection.
4- I would get onto this, at least check.
5- They might be fine, might not be, but its not hard to inspect.

 

Thanks OZ VFR for your help. I am going to strip it down and clean all of it.

Yes, all others like N, High beam and oil light, everything else works and come on

When you say cleaning, is it like changing brake fluid or removing the whole assembly and cleaning it

I am going inspect them, is it possible that I get into a situation of a bent valve? Do I need any special tool or feeler gauges can work?

Will do a search, because on 4th Gen it was a pain for the forward ones, close to radiator. Have not checked for 5th Gen, if it's fairly simple to do it.

 

Rear brake calipers needs to be removed and cleaned.
No need to undo brake line, jus pull it out, inspect pistons and pads, regrease the slide pins and give it a good bleed after.
If that doesn't improve things you will have to pull Pistons out and clean properly.
To remove front plugs you just need to undo two bolts holding the oil cooler and let it drop enough to get to plugs.

 

Thanks, have a look on attached pictures for rear brake, it looks like distance traveled by lever is almost NONE. Is there a way that can be changed? Rear brake light does come on after pushing the rear lever pretty hard.

Yeah, I'll check 2 to see if they need any replacement.

Also in the attached pictures, some of these small pushpins or bolts are missing. Should I be concerned or leave it as-is?

 

From the pictures it looks like they're all bolts that are missing. Push pins are down lower and more inside. Some of them
will be bolts that screw into the "well nuts", rubber encased nuts that fit in a hole in the frame or part.

I went down and measured the movement of my rear brake, and it moves about a half-inch at the very front of the lever on
the foot pad. I didn't see any way to adjust the amount of travel. You can adjust where the lever sits, but I don't see any way
to change the amount of travel. But I've never messed with it so I could be missing it. But there isn't much travel at all.

You can adjust when the brake light comes on.

 

Thanks FJ12rydertoo. Does it mean well nuts are missing too? Because I don't see any threads inside them to bolt some of those bolts, I'll look closely in daylight tomorrow.


Also PO has used zip ties for quite a few pushpins which exist on the inner side of fairing. Planning to continue with that too.

Yes, my rear level movement is also nearly 1/2 inch or maybe less, but it's very very firm. Like you have to put a lot more downward force, or maybe I am weak? Lol

Are you saying to adjust brake switch travel, by adjusting that plastic screw thingy?

 

Yes, that's how you adjust the stoplight switch, just the plastic screw.

Mine is basically solid, no mush, just braking. They are a very short travel lever, but IMO
the rear OEM brake pads suck. I changed to aftermarket pads EBC HH pads and the difference
is night and day. I don't use the rear brake much, but at least I can feel it work now.

Oops should have been EBC, not SBS brake pads.

 

Think I am just overthinking, brake is there so I'll bleed and then take it from there.

Thank you, any thoughts on the bolts question I asked in previous post?

 

There should be "well nuts" for the bolts to thread into. Those all look like bolts to me, not the pushpins.