Pulling the motor

Hey everybody, hope you all had a fun and safe holiday!
I am getting ready to work on my 1981 XJ750 Seca again after a short hiatus. The next step is removing the motor. I have it down to where I just have to unbolt the u-joint and remove a couple of mount bolts. My Yamaha shop manual with its usual economy of dialog simply says' remove from the right hand side'. My question is to those of you who have done this, is how do you rig it up?

 

I used a ratchet strap around the bottom of the motor in an X shape and attached to a cherry picker. I've seen threads where guys have laid the bikes on right side and unbolt and lift frame off engine. That's how I plan to reinstall after frame comes back.

 

I did the same: laid it on its side and lifted the frame off - though I was down to just the frame (no wheels, no fork, no swingarm, etc) and my method was less of an intentional path than it was a reckless, frustrated wrestling match. Don't forget to take the oil filter off.

 

place a scissor jack under the centre of the engine, and jack up the engine so as to relieve the weight on the bolts.
remove bolts and front engine plates, jack up a little more to clear bottom frame tubes.
place a milk crate on floor at right side of bike, with a flat board on top then tilt engine forward , and slide out to right
you may need a mate, one of you on each side of bike.
stu

 

2nd that, done it many times with no problem.

 

I put a short stool on the right side of the frame.....straddle the frame, reach down, lift the engine up and over the mounts and out onto the stool. Nice to have overly-long arms and legs.

Dave

 

Well that works if you're a gorilla Gumby on roids, I'll stick with the cherry picker. You toss those motors around for fun in the yard too? Lol

 

you'll make your life easier if you unbolt the swingarm and pull it back a inch or so. the U joint gives a lot of trouble and you don't want to cut the rubber cover or pinch a pinkie

 

Or unbolt the u-joint. Match mark it to the hub first.

 

Thanks for all of the excellent replies. I have a cherry picker and lifting straps, maybe Ill try Dave's suggestion and see if it can be lifted by hand. That is how we used to roll when I worked at the mines; brute force first and if that didn't work, try it the easy way

 

you have to unbolt the U joint no matter what.
looks like the swingarm is going to get some paint so take it off now. a saw horse under the shock mounts holds the back end up nicely. then grease the swingarm bearings.
those U joint bolts are tight

 

Yeah, Ill take your advice with the swingarm. Yes, it is all getting paint, after I figure out what I can remove with a grinder and a cut-off wheel... not sure exactly where I am headed with this, but no matter what it is going to start with a bare-bones/minimalist type look.

 

I got a bit camera happy when I worked out the easy way to slide the motor in and out.
http://xj.diagnostic.net.au/tips.php
But yes as was said before, you can crack your chest if your not padded enough when you put the pressure on.

 

Told ya....

 

Ok, finally got a few minutes to work on it this morning and got her done! I just put my ancient floor jack under the motor, with a piece of 2x4 on it to protect bottom of motor, jacked it up a little, removed bolts, jacked it up as high as frame would allow. I put my motorcycle jack on the right side, just under frame rails, and just pulled it out... easy peasy.

 

Wow, almost four months to fix the motor and get it put back in... time flies. Had to do this solo, and took longer than it took to get it out, probably because I was trying to take it easy on the painted frame. Fixed the problem with the long, broken starter mounting bolt. I had talked to two machine shops and no one seemed terribly interested in it. So, realizing I had nothing to lose, I went at the broken bolt that was lodged in the bottom case and drilled it out, got a long 8mm tap and ran it through the mounting hole all the way to the bottom case. Then I took a 6mm heli coil and threaded it up thru the bottom enough to catch threads on the new bolt I got from Chacal. Not an ideal fix, but holding tight for now.

Now for some re-wiring fun!

 

Did you use threalocker on the outside of that Helicoil?

 

I did not; I thought about it, and did some quick and dirty online research, and the opinion seems to be divided on that subject. On the website of the Helicoil manufacturer, they *officially* recommend not doing that.

 

Depends on which Helicoil you're using. It won't matter, I was just curious.

 

What do you mean by "which Helicoil"?

Do you mean that Helicoil offers different types of inserts? - actually, I see that they do, one type recommends a special primer to be used, the other type is "primer-free".
Or that different sizes have different recommendations?
Or do you mean thread repair inserts made by companies other than Helicoil?

 

I mean which Helicoil. They make several types, some of which can be used with threadlocking compound to prevent the helicoil from backing out in applications where backing out may lead to a series of cascading failures, or to provide an oil-tight seal. Their pipe thread inserts actually have to be used with threadlocking compound.