What the cat dragged home

Finally getting around to posting some pictures of what I dragged home last Friday.

Been working on them, washed first layer of dust off; carbs on Black bike throttle shafts stuck, silver bike, carbs in a box. Both bikes no front brakes. Tank on silver bike is full of rust slush and had about a gallon of varnish in it, but it didn't leak, don't know if I can save it, I'll give it a shot. Wednesday I ordered a truck load of parts from Len at XJ4ever; truck load of parts showed up this morning.......that is fast!!!!

 

Yes save them keep the silver bike if the is a 650 seca it is some what rare ....keep us informed of progress...

 

They are both 650 Secas.

 

Oy. I’m jelly!!

 

Nice grab!!!

 

Found out yesterday that the black bike doesn't balance on the center stand with the front wheel off, wants to nose dive, gonna make service interesting.
So far rear wheel bearings check ok, brakes good; dumped engine and rear drive oil, change oil filter. Engine oil looked surprisingly fresh/clean, maybe 5 years fresh, didn't know, doesn't hurt to change.
Front wheel bearings feel good, next is rebuild calipers, master cylinder, change brake hoses, check/grease steering head bearings, change fork oil.

 

None of the bikes will balance on the centerstand with the front wheel off.
Strap the centerstand so it won't accidentally collapse, then put about 50 pounds of weight on the rear of the seat (you need teh rear wheel on the bike for this to work, otherwise use a stands under the front of the lower frame tubes).

Watever you do, don't mention what you piad for them. It'll probably make me cry.

 

[QUOTE

Watever you do, don't mention what you piad for them. It'll probably make me cry.[/QUOTE]

To be honest it was more than I wanted to pay, I had to buy the pair. I was hopping to get parts for this one; as it turns out the two are better candidates to be riders that this one; 94,000plus miles!! Compression between 70 and 90 psi, 10 to 15% leak down

 

Thosse compression numbers are low, but not explainable by the mileage (that's still low for an XJ engine).
Double-check that you used Yamaha's reccomended procedure, and that the gauge is reading true.
Valve clearances have to be in spec.
Did you do both dry and wet tests to see if it might just be stuck rings?
In any case all three are worth keeping as riders, even if it takes honing and new rings, or a valve job.

 

Those numbers were dry, wet they picked up 20 psi. Valve clearances were checked and are good.
I kinda think that when I'm 40 plus psi low from stated minimum, it's kinda tired; it also doesn't help when you find no air cleaner in the air box, and no telling how long it's been missing.
It may not have helped that the starter is weak and needs brushes at a minimum or replacement.
Leak down also says it's hurting.

 

I was jelly when you said you picked up two 650 Secas. Then you whipped out the third!

 

The red one was my first, was hopping it was gonna be get on it and ride it, no such luck. The silver and black bikes were bought as parts one, ride one, they are much closer to riders, I really only need one bike, it just has to be a rider.

 

As tempting as an engine swap might be (not that you appear to be thinking about it), it's preferable to keep them all numbers-matching machines given the model and increasing scarcity of complete machines.

 

Working on the black bike, changing fluids, etc, checking the bike over; find that the fork springs have been replaced; no big deal; going on to service steering head bearings and find that they have been converted to taper rollers; I'll give them a bath and repack. Wonder what other mysteries Ill discover?? Then put the jigsaw puzzle back together.

 

Maybe you'll get lucky and the carbs will have already been rebuilt.

 

Not that lucky..........throttle shafts stuck

 

This makes no sense; been working on the black bike, rebuild master cylinder, calipers as the bike had no brakes, actually neither bike had front brakes. Done rebuilding, trying to bleed air out, not getting very far, MC won't pump up. So on a whim I gave the silver bike a look, MC has no fluid, got crap in it, add some brake fluid, pump the lever, crack the bleeder on the right side, get air, keep pumping, bleeding, get fluid, move to the left same thing, it pumps up hard, here's the MC

 

Fill the reservoir, tie the lever to the handlebar, and open the bleeder. It may take a little bit but as long as the lines are free from obstruction eventually fluid will flow. Once fluid is there, close the bleeder, refill reservoir, untie the lever and bleed "normally " by pumping the lever, holding, and cracking the bleeder open

 

Once all the brown stuff gets soft, get it out of there. Also look and make sure you have fluid moving around that little hole in the middle. When it gets pressure going have glasses on or something so it will not splash up to your eye. That little hole allows air bubbles to come back to the MC and allow the clutch line to dump the hydro pressure that allows the clutch to engage fully.

If that brown stuff is down in the MC of that one bike, it might not even pump up pressure until it is cleaned. If the MC was dry and that little hole was full of brown stuff, you might have to break the MC down and clean it from the inside. Good luck.

 

Oh, I know clean out the crapola; I surprised myself, that after tear down, cleaning and rebulding of MC and calipers on the black bike, and them not being cooperative bleeding out; I go to the silver bike, the MC is full of crap, put fluid in and it bleeds out and gives a firm lever in less than 5 minuets. Black bike still does not have a firm lever after more than an hour of pumping/bleeding.
I was just going with the irony.

 

First of all a BIG thank you to cgutz for his back fill method of brake bleeding, gave it a try on the black bike and in 5 minuets had a firm lever it works great; again cgutz THANKS FOR THE TIP!!!!

 

The black bike runs!!!!!!!!!!Just fired it 10 minuets ago; now to sync and colortune

 

Hmm..... I have a thought.
How about a themed trio of show bikes.
#1. Runner but otherwise in as-found condition.
#2. Road-worthy, but not cosmetically perfect. A rider.
#3. Showroom conditon restoration.

Might be a fun thing to do.

 

Yes with the number of people on the forum it would be interesting. I have one bike at the moment in good condition.

 

I mentioned the idea because JBurch has three XJ650 Secas on-hand. No so common in the U.S. for that to happen.

 

I just want to ride; wasn't looking to rehabilitate 3 bikes, wasn't looking to rehabilitate 1 even.........make me an offer I can't refuse and maybe you could have the trio to do the theme thing.....but that would leave me with out a ride; I really want to ride.

 

I'm just a not so common kinda guy

 

Oh no man. I ain't crazy enough to take on that big of a project.
I'm just the idea man.

 

Well, that's an idea that I have no desire to make a reality.........This, is what I need to rehabilitate

 

Is that a Commando with the isolastic suspension setup? An 850cc?

 

Yes, it is a Commando, 1972, 750, Roadster with the Combat engine; 5 more hp than the standard, standard was 60hp; the isolastics are not suspension, they are the mounts of the engine, transmission, swingarm cradle. They isolated the rider from the engine vibration and made the ride smooth. I dropped it in September of 1981.

 

Never owned a British bike, didn't know that about the engine mounts. Loscar motorcycles restored one on You Tube nice bikes.

 

Rode the black bike in the driveway, lights all work, I think it's ready to go on the road...........

 

What I shook/vacuumed out of the silver bike tank...........more to come

 

I can't tell if that had a aftermarket liner in it or was that just OEM stuff? Looks like there was some type of old liner in there that gave up the job. No pin holes or worse in that tank? I use distilled white vinegar on my tanks. Takes a while and I rinse the living heck out of them when I am gone but for cheap $2.64 gal solution seems to work. I don't know what the inside of yours is like and how thick the metal is still. The bottom edge of the seam I would guess would go first. When you fill it up with what ever you will be using to clean that up, check those seams.

 

I'm gonna give this stuff a shot at it:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw36qimiJEWIFWtCCtzSUP34

Tank didn't leak when I got it, had about a gallon of varnish in it when I first started checking the bike out. Hopping it doesn't leak.

On another note; my caliper mounting brackets are rubbing on the rotors after making a couple of laps in my lawn/driveway trying to get a feel for the bike, heard a scraping noise and discovered left rotor is rubbing on the mounting bracket.
Would fork alignment be the cause?
Thanks.

 

Those calipers float on pins that allow the caliper to move. Grab it with your hand and see if you can move it a little. Most of the time then pins need to be removed, cleaned and polished if you can and then add some grease to them before you install. That will help the caliper move. The Puck could be sticking as well. Most of these old bikes you have to go through most of the brake system, the Master Cylinder should be looked at and the fluid should be changed out. Some or all of these items could need attention.

 

It's the caliper mounting bracket; the piece that is bolted to the fork slider; that is rubbing on the disk. Just rebuilt MC, calipers, new hoses; had the steering head apart to check/lube bearings.

 

Can you get us a pic of that? I don't know how the bracket is hitting and not the caliper?

 

I'll see what I can do

 

This is what I've got...........

 

You are going to have to take that off again and see what is hanging up. She is stuck for some reason and it should be sliding on the pins so the brakes and pucks can do their jobs. When you rebuild the calipers you took them all the way down, cleaned up the pucks and got rid of all the nasty stuff inside the caliper to puck area? I see pics of the MC you cleaned but nothing of the caliper take down. I would guess if you just drained the fluid and did a flush you have some more issues down there. This is only because of the pic if what is going on and I didn't read that you took the calipers apart.

 

It is the caliper mounting bracket, that bolts to the fork slider, the piece of hardware that does not move, that is rubbing on the rotor; it is not the caliper body; that slides; that is in contact with the rotor. Thing is, when I first got it together, nothing rubbed, front wheel spun nice, no brake drag.

I suspect that the forks are twisted in the triple tree, after having the whole front end off to check and lube the steering head bearings, I suspect I did not get properly aligned , OR something not tight. Looking for some one to confirm or deny that hypotheses, and give me a good one man, shade tree, fork alignment procedure.

The pic of the cruddy MC was a bit of irony about the trouble I was having bleeding my brake system; the MC got cleaned. rebuilt, the calipers got cleaned and rebuilt, new hoses all the way down...........the irony was that an MC full of crap could be filled with fluid and system bled and produce a firm lever in less than 5 minutes, where as I worked for over an hour attempting to get a firm lever on basically a new system with zero results.

 

Check the fork alignment for good measure but how did you tighten the axle down? How are the wheel bearings? Check to make sure the spacer is on the inside of the bearings if you can.

 

Pin punch in the hole on one side, and torqued to spec. Checked bearings, they roll smooth, spacer is in place.

 

I would loosen the pinch bolt and the axle nut and start over. It is not necessary to put a punch in the hole at the end of the axle and could be causing some or all of your alignment troubles. Checking the fork alignment is still a good idea.

 

I believe per the FSM the left side of the 650 Seca is assembled as so, I did have difficulty finding good pics and info so this may not apply:

4. Tighten the axle nut and install a new cotter pin.

Axle nut torque: 10.7 m-kg (77.4 ft-lb)

NOTE: Tighten the pinch bolts temporarily before tightening the axle nut.

5. Install the front fender.

6. Before tightening the pinch bolts, stroke the front forks several times to make sure of proper fork operation. With the pinch bolts loose, work the left fork leg back and forth until the proper clearance between the disc and caliper bracket are obtained.



7. Tighten the left and right pinch bolts.

Axle pinch bolt torque: 2.0 m-kg (14.5 ft-lb)

 

Took everything apart, inspected, all looks good. Realigned forks, did a change in order of operations of things that get tightened up. Hot lapped it in the yard/driveway, see how it goes.

 

I learned something new, thanks for posting about this, I have never head of the disk hitting do to the forks being out of whack.

 

What I did was re-read the mounting procedure for the front wheel and realized you pry the left fork leg back and forth to achieve clearance between the rotor and the bracket.......DUH

It's hell when you've been away from bikes for almost 20 years

Gonna put the bike on the road today...............