Rubber Bits

Hi all, It's goofy haphazard me again,

I just wanted to find out what these little rubber bits are that are wedged between the cooling fans all over my cylinder head. My best guess is that they are vibration dampers, but the cylinder head should't be vibrating internally too much... And they're really small to be dampers.

I've looked all over the internet and forums, except for the XJ4Ever.com catalog, which is super long and hard to Cmd+F through sometimes.

I have 3 questions about them:
1. Are they original with the bike?
2. What are they for?
3. Should I remove them?

Right side near cylinder 4 Close up on the left side near cylinder 1

And one more thing:
They're not marked. One fell out, I examined it, then put it back in.

 

They are for reducing engine vibration and harmonics. Some have not noticed and difference with them missing and some have. My XJ11 did develop a noticeable vibration around 4000 rpm with them missing. They fell out during a cylinder head rebuild and I had to fabricate some replacements. It went away after that.

 

That's what the previous owner's father said, too. His name was on the title as the actual previous rider of the bike was 14 when his father bought it for him. IMO a 420 lb 550 cc 4 cylinder bike is too heavy for a boy going through puberty, but oh well. They took pretty good care of it for what the situation was. He only tipped it over in the yard once and chipped the paint on the cowling and broke the right front signal housing and lens, which I've already repaired!

Despite my handiwork, I've dropped it in less than a week of owning it. Haha, my jeans caught on the peg and down I went. Lucky the exhaust landed on the grass, but after touching up the one spot that the PO chipped off, there's now a medium sized white scrape on the right side... Will have to repaint that too, now.

 

All good bikes have battle scars. Leave the scratch and make up a story to go with it.

 

Haha, good point. Damage on a bike is a tattoo on a person. They almost all have an amazing story behind them. Shouldn't try to laser off the little things.

 

Mine had those rubber wedges in 1985 when I bought the bike new. They fell out within a few years and Ive never noticed any problem. '83 XJ550 Maxim.

 

Both the 650 and 750 will ring at certain RPMs without them. I used vacuum hose to replace the blocks that were missing on my Seca.