What did you do to your Yamaha today?

small is a relative term considering how small the spec is

syncing carbs is actulay syncing the cylinders to the one with lowest output

 

Today I am pretty much free of the Honey Do List-My wife has graciously given me the green light to ride and burn up a tank of fuel. This equals 120 miles + or - of free riding.
Now the question is where to go. Like it really matters anywhere is a good destination. I think there is a great mom and pops Diner about 40 miles away that serves old school milk shakes !!

As with the previous comments- Everything begins with the valve adjustment, carb sync. and then the color tune.
Doing the valves for some reason is, I am surmising is the least likely thing to be done on the XJ's or any bikes for that matter.
After doing the XJ700X (5 valves per cylinder) any valve adjustment is a breeze in comparison.
As with myself I was very Leary about doing the valves but since my bike needed a complete upper end rebuild I really only had two choices pay through the nose or do it myself. Being as finances are tight and it happened to be winter time I did them myself along with everything else. For that I am grateful as it built up my confidence in my engine rebuilding skills.
I am also grateful for this web site for it gave me detailed instructions and the many members also contributed with their input as well.
Long Live this site!

Dowski68

 

BINGO! This man is today's big winner, pick any item from the top shelf....

And in order to make it even clearer, you synchronize the ENGINE by adjusting the output of each cylinder (to make their output equal) VIA THE ADJUSTMENT OF EACH CARB, VIA THE MOVEMENT OF THE SYNCH SCREWS.

Adjusting the synch screws slightly opens (or closes) the butterfly valve, thus allowing more (or less) fuel/air mixture into that cylinder, thus creating more (or less) output from that cylinder, thus allowing you to equalize cylinder outputs across the board.......which is the whole goal of "synch".

NOTE THAT YOU COULD ALSO ADJUST ENGINE SYNCH BY LEAVING ALL THE CARB BUTTERFLY VALVES SET EXACTLY EQUALLY OPEN (how that would be achieved is beyond the scope of this discussion, but imagine that it could be done....) AND THEN ADJUST THE VALVE CLEARANCES ON EACH CYLINDER UNTIL YOU ACHIEVED EQUAL CYLINDER OUTPUTS (closing off some valve clearances, opening up others, the compensate for too low (or relatively too high) cylinder pressures, etc.). Yes, this would be a tremendously inconvenient way of doing things.....and have its own set of inherent problems/issues........but it would be another method of EQUALIZING CYLINDER OUTPUTS.

Can we think of other ways? Sure we can........we could gently "shim" the choke plungers on individual cylinders to keep some of them slightly more open (all the time!) and thus boost the output from some cylinders. Or, we could mess around with pilot and/or main fuel jetting......fitting some carbs with smaller pilot jets and some with larger jets......in an effort to equalize cylinder output.

Key point is: "synch" is not so much about the carbs as it is fully and completely about GETIING EQUAL POWER OUTPUT FROM EACH CYLINDER....it is the power output from each cylinder that is "synched" to one another. Slightly adjusting the opening of the carb throttle valves is the easiest way of doing so (even though there are other ways of doing it, as outlined above). As long as you understand the "getting equal output issue" as being the true meaning of "synch", then you're good to go, and, perhaps even more importantly, you'll fully understand the purpose and necessity of doing so, and, give yourself a much better understanding and insight into engine "system" type of thinking.......which is really the most important thing to have when dealing with engines (individual components work together in an overlapping manner, cause-and-effect, there are many paths to reach the peak of the same mountain, etc.....).

 

Yeah, I was really nervous about it the first time. Did the valves on my two spare motor's (totally unnecessarily) first, and realised that it's actually a very simple process (Yay for 2 valves per cylinder and air cooled engine) that goes pretty quick and painlessly.

 

Well as in life things never goes as planned. Sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse depends on your perspective.
Instead of enjoying the ride today by myself I asked my wife, daughter and finally daughter in-law to go for a ride.
Daughter in-law accepted with a huge smile and off we went.
60 Miles round trip just to get some homemade ice-cream from the roadside café/diner.
I actually expected it to be a rough ride as she had only riden on the back of dirt bikes.
Ran over the basics-
When I accelerate lean forward when I brake lean backward
Corners- just stay aligned with me
If I go to fast just tap my leg (which she never did) I also wrapped the old girl out a few times through the gears.
Great Sunday (for me) ride as work week begins tomorrow. Kinda sucks not having weekends yet the time and quarter for working the weekends makes up for it.

Just sitting here thinking and typing-

Indeed quick is a relative word when you go to do the X model might as well book the entire day or two Kinda goes like this-
Remove coils, Plugs valve cover and lower left side cover to rotate the engine.
Set to TDC hopefully you have the narrow feeler gauges as to access all the valves. Run entire valve train. 1243 keep a written record of valve specs.
utilize the manual to see what you need to regain proper valve specs. Then order wait for 2-14 days depending on who you go through I highly recommend CHACAL you get the right parts the first time or at least what you ordered. 2 days
While your waiting you then get to remove cam gears tie up your timing chain remove cams, buckets ( Keep these in order of where they came from). Might as well thoroughly clean everything while your there.
Keep looking outside for that package from CHACAL you know the one with the air cooled engine emblem (slight jab at CHACAL as he also owns an X)
Replace needed shims. Reassemble- have fun getting those two timing dots aligned the first time and if you do thank the XJ gods cause usually you get one and the other is one tooth off. (Take a break) try again.
tighten cams down using the books recommendation-
Run the valves again for proper clearances cross your fingers that you did the math correctly or place another order to CHACAL
Re-assemble
Finally start engine
Realize and be thank full this only has to happen every 24,000 miles or depending on how much you ride 3 to 4 years.
Then you get to re sync the carbs to the lowest setting and do a color tune.
Finally you get to go out and ride knowing that You did this and be proud!

 

For the third tank in a row now I've gotten 45 MPG and that's with me riding it hard.
Doing the carb sync and the fuel mixture makes a world of difference.

 

Today my XJ550 back up to 42.5 mpg - 1/2 town and 1/2 highway after finally getting mixture right and synching.

Beautiful ride today through NE Nebraska. Several inches of rain in recent days and hay is really green on rolling hills.

Chacal, great description of synching. Would better terminology be 'cylinder synch by means of carbs?'

 

That's a good (and correct!) idea............

 

Went to a motorcycle show today got compliments on bike not bad for a mostly HD show. Rode about 40 miles was a great day. Decided to check over bike , I've had an issue with hard starting ...found out why the vacuum line to petcock was split surprised it ran at all. Fixed it and seemed to take care of that. I had not checked plugs since last year..so pulled them all 4 were brown so now it runs like it should. Even got yard cut was a good day.

 

Did a full synthetic 10w30 oil change with 20% lucas oil stabalizer. Seems to shift smoother and clutch seems to pull abit easier. Big change for the ol girl. Only use to 10w40 normal motoroil.

 

had to remove calipers to be able to remove it
did an inventory of my new purchase XJ650RJ , 16k miles. missing right side cover (his wife threw it away 3 weeks ago)@#@#$%&%$#@
has tool kit looks complete and the power chain got to figure out how that comes out of the holder.
has a oem what paper says luggage rack but you can not open the seat thats coming off tommorrow

does this bike have an ignition switch cover?
no dents in tank a few scratches

last reg 2005

 

No ignition cover for the 650rj.
Power chain key should be same key as ignition, lock is on a stud when not in use.
I MIGHT have an extra right cover... hafta look to see if I still have it

 

Woo! Took a ride to the (only) local electronics shop, grabbed a 5.6k resistor. soldered up a little bullet-wire-resistor-wire-ring terminal device, attached it to the starter relay 12V+ input and the once-mysterious white/red wire and.... BAM! No more annoying BATT warning. Now, there's just the TAIL complaint to deal with. May actually cave and use a load resistor, as much as I don't want to.

 

I have to say this is nonsense. Any motor oil will provide all the lubrication needed for the shifter and clutch actuation. Lubricate a door hinge with synthetic then with conventional and tell us the difference. Washing and polishing has more affect.

 

A door hinge is not a motorcycle. Im pretty sure thats nonsense

 

A door hinge is a simple mechanical device I used as an example, same as the shifting parts and the clutch throw. There are extreme conditions in a motor where superior oils have beneficial results, main bearings, for one example. Sorry for the flame but I just had this discussion with a friend. If you can really tell the difference then I'm not going to argue further. Again sorry.

 

There are a lot of fires in my area and when I came out from work today my bike had a light dusting of ashes. Dusted her off and enjoyed the brilliant RED (from the smoke) Sun Set while riding the 16 miles home.
Tomorrow up at 4am gone by 4:40 AM temp supposed to be 60 Burr.


Not trying to stir the Pot the manual suggests a 20-40 oil for my 1986 Maxim-X. Haven't been able to find any, not that I have really looked that hard.
I used to run 10-40 normal oil
Then I started to run DELO 15-40 and yes this is for Diesel engines.
My reasoning is that it is close to the recommended 20-40. I also like to believe since the oil is designed for the amount of force produced by the Diesel Engine it would work just fine for the X.
I have no evidence to prove this or disprove my beliefs I just roll with it, Literally
Plus the amount of Hammering I do to my engine, Oh excuse controlled acceleration through the gears.
I haven't noticed or found anything wrong with the 15-40 and besides I change it every 1,000 miles.

 

yup it looks like it is locked on the stud kroil has been added have original key and spare. hoping it is just stuck and not a different key
if you do have the cover let me know, I do like a complete bike.

 

Rode to work this morning-looks like fog when in actuality it is the smoke from the fires, still a brisk ride.
Anyway Happy Monday

 

Changed out the oil in the final drive yesterday. Looked like my daughters glitter make-up. I don't know how long its been in there. Maybe 32 years, maybe not. No chunks on the magnet so that it a plus. Only took about 5 minutes and a fifth of the bottle. I'll change it out again in a couple of days until it is clean.

 

Matti has two cents to throw in: on the Rebel forum, they say to change oil when shifts become stiff and difficult. Fresh oil smooths it out. Perhaps viscosity affects the gear engagement. Not synthetic vs dinosaur, but the change in weight might be the difference maker.

 

run some seafoam in it if you plan on changing again

 

I don't think he found any sludge. The "glitter" is just bits of metal from the gears (likely fom the initial wear-in, though there will always be a (very) tiny amount in the gear oil). The post that quote is from was describing chunky oil. A dose of Seafoam won't hurt, but it's probably not needed in this case.

 

Went to go for a ride and I couldn't keep it running once I turned the choke off; even after warm. The idle seemed too low. I didn't want it stall on me at every stop, so adjusted idle speed screw to where it would keep running.

Went on a short test ride. The revs remained at 3-4K when I cut the throttle for shifting. Got home and began looking for an air leak on the intake. Heard a rhythmic whistling sound (air being sucked in) and pinpointed it to a missing rubber cap on the #3 synchronization port. Low and behold, I found the "cap" laying on top of the crankcase. The PO used a small, vinyl cap like what is used to protect the point of a scissors, with no clamp or anything to hold it on. When I replaced it, my idle adjustment became apparent as it was now running 4K at idle. Quick, shut it down and readjusted idle back to where it was. Took her back out for an 8 mile ride and everything ran OK again.

After returning, I dismantled the turn signal switch and sprayed electrical cleaner inside everything as the switch has been sticky. Lubed all moving parts and contacts with di-electric grease. Switch operates much smoother now and actually returns back to center on its own. The push-to-cancel still doesn't work well though. I need to slightly push switch in opposite direction of activation to cancel. The self canceling works sporadically, maybe these are related?

 

Nice find Glad it wasn't a serious issue.

It's supposed to return to center on it's own? *laughs* Mine never has =) Likewise, my self cancelling never worked reliably (rarely at all) - while it may be related, I just got tired of fiddling with it and yanked the module out, and simply have the switch work as LEFT - OFF - RIGHT now. It'd be nice to have it all function properly, but way more trouble than it's worth IMHO. The simple switch Just Works.



I just got my Morgan CarbTune in today, and am super excited to get out and sync my engine. I'll probably do it this weekend - I doubt I'll have my missing shim in yet, but whatever, it'll be fun to do it again once I get that shim in too. Just got to figure out a temporary gas tank.

 

Took the 700 for a 60mi ride with list member "Saftie". He's up in this area for a few days again, so we got together to give his new bike a good breaking-in

 

Finally got my oil and filter changed in my Seca.....after finally getting my new oil filter bolt and grinding the old one off.....due to PO seriously rounding the old one off....

 

I'm so tired of constant smoke

Today was 34C, and so densely smokey it was like a moderately heavy fog. Riding home, it was incredibly hard on the eyes and lungs - my first ride on the XJ that I've actually not enjoyed.

Now we're getting it both from Sask and BC, so whichever way the wind shifts... smoke.

 

I don't smoke

 

Got up this morning and was going to go for a ride when I realized that my front tire was really squishy. Jacked up the front end for ease of tire inspection-nothing observed. Re-inflated front tire to 38 psi. and off I went keeping a good eye on that tire. Got home still 38 psi. ? Kinda strange I'll keep an eye on it or both actually.
Just received a call from boss- and 2nd string of National guardsmen going to fight fires . Another words the other supervisor going to be a fire fighter for awhile. More comp time for me -like saving my AL for another time .

 

Installed new headlight beams in both maxims. One out of necessity, the other just because I want to try it out. Trying to plan an extended ride over to the Richland Center area for the weekend but haven't quite got the girlfriend talked into it just yet.

 

14 is a nice ride once you are out of the city. If you are going to Richland Center - and you have time; 56 from there to the Mississippi is a beaut of a road to travel on. Especially once you get in the drift-less area.

 

What did I do to my Yamaha today????? What did I do????? I DROPPED IT IN THE F'N GARAGE!!!!!! Called the local shop to see if I could get my new tire mounted today.... sure.....if you can get here in an hour we can do it while you wait.....in my haste to get moving I knocked it off the center stand pulling the rear wheel out, busted my right front signal lens...........

If you happened to notice a cloud of profanity rising in the air north of St Louis this morning....you know where it originated at.

 

Try to be thankful that is all you did to your bike it may have been much worse like you getting squashed from the bike.
At least did you get your tire mounted? that could be something to be thankful for.

Kinda reminds me when I was getting off my bike and stepped on a piece of cardboard and ever so gracefully fell over. Bike pinning me between the wood pile and the bike. Not sure what was worse realizing that the angle I was at didn't allow me to pick the bike up or calling my wife on the phone to come outside and help me. Fortunately she was laughing to hard to get a pic of me stuck. Her words when she saw me amid laughter was hey stay right there while I get a pic Honey.

 

First ride after new exhaust studs and fuel petcock, runs great! I'd been riding my little 90cc Suzuki enduro around for about 2 weeks and getting used to the 500lb 650 Maxim again was a weird feeling

 

Installed luggage rack and side cases.



I have the trunk also, need the four nuts. It's just resting on the luggage rack in photo below; not attached.
Also need the backrest cushion. Probably will have one made.

 

You'll also need the bolts and washers ....unless you already have those ---

If you need pics and measurements for the pad, start a private conversation with me.... I can measure and trace, and send pics

 

I just finished bleeding the brakes on an xj750 seca today. I finally got good brake pressure after a month of trial and error.
I ended up either replacing or rebuilding every component from the forks to the handlebars. Anyway the new pads on the rebuilt
calipers are dragging. They are organic rather than sintered metallic. Is this normal ? Do they just wear in after riding a mile or so ?

 

Yes I did get it changed and remounted, and my handlebar emblem came today as well.......got the busted cover superglued back together till my new one arrives from chacal even got to get in about 50 miles on it..........I was actually behind it trying to get the tire clear from the fender, got a bit agressive I guess.......was like watching it fall in slow motion....nothing I could do.

 

Oil change day! One day, I'll remember to add some oil drain plug crush washers to a XJ4Ever order - I don't know how it is my oil plug doesn't leak, as that crush washer is in terrible shape. Not that I'm complaining, mind you... but they're cheap, I just never remember to add them to an order.

 

That little stuff is usually what bites you in the a** LOL

 

Rode to harware storeand a short blast in country. Was working on deck most of the day. A little ticked though think I'm going to have to pull carbs bike is getting a little hard to start. Suspect fuel enrichment is problem but still have a couple of more weeks of riding .

 

I hear that! I definitely need to do mine too,but riding season is drawing to a close pretty quick here and I'm reluctant to pull the carbs until I can take my time and really "take them to church." Leaky bowl gaskets taunt me, though.

 

My carbys have been to church but that was 2 seasons ago . Might be time to go again bike runs great just have to play with the choke.

 

Mine is doing the same thing....however my riding season is yr round....

 

I would agree there are things I need to do to my bike yet there is still time left to ride this season so I am also putting some things off like
recovering the seat
Head set
Fork oil and seals
Take the carbs to church again
Possibly the wheel bearings- I had them replaced the first year now it is four years later- not sure if they need to be replaced.
Fun times over the winter though showing the old girl some love

 

wheel bearings should be good for 20k miles but easy enough to check

 

It would be nice to have 2nd set of carbs to swap out on bike when it is time to clean the other ones

 

Ended up with a total of 383 miles this weekend so far. Planning another short local ride this afternoon which should easily put the total over 400. The ride over to Richland center was good. Beautiful country over there. Took back roads to reedsburg Saturday morning, that was certainly a brisk ride. Even more so on the way back when it started to rain. I do not recommend highway 61 between readstown and boscobel. Its like riding the wrong way across a plowed field, although they are working on fixing it as sections have been ground down awaiting a new surface. Over all an awesome riding weekend with the only casualty being an exhaust stud breaking on the 81.

 

To paraphrase an old poet,
"Where do you want this repair work done?
Do it out on Highway 61!"