What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Brought home a Xj700 parts bike..... only 13k on it. No title/foreclosure on the property/etc..... no key, fork lock set, flat tires....sheesh

about 45 min of huffing and puffing...dead it a couple feet,crab-wise, at a time to the truck, then winch it a couple inches at a time Up onto the truck....geez if he had told me the fork was Locked I could have taken my come-along. But Nnnnnoooooo-oooooooo-ooooooo...... I had to use my ratchet straps— took forever, but I’m home... in the snow

 

How are the handlebars?

 

I’ll be able to get a better look tomorrow

 

More or less; I could get the bike to idle under 1100 rpm without the bike acting like it was going to stall out. Also it had a continuous wandering idles usually about 100-250 rpms above a specified idle speed. And when throttle was blipped or acceleration was induced the bike had a hanging idle. Very slow to return and then would continue to have a wandering idle....... now I can’t start with virtually no choke; and the idle hangs around 1050 pretty steadily and doesn’t have a hanging idle.

 

Here’s the Xj700 I brought home last night—-

yup....May 9, 2020

 

I see you got snow last night I woke up to the same thing this morning.

 

Wow, late snow? Were 20 plus degrees (C) here. Ie summer.

 

I rode between some of my Yamahas today—-

 

Motobikin' in the snow...

 

They’re fair..... straight, but not super shiny chrome anymore, little putting—-they might clean up to be decent, but definitely not near show quality

 

'81 XJ650 now has '76 XS750 bars.

What do yall think?

 

They look good to me, could do with turning back a fraction perhaps? I removed the maxim bars from mine - crazy way to hold on to a bike. I fitted a seca master cylinder - not ideal because it gives a hard lever. Keeping an eye open for a more suitable diameter one. I guess I could replace the forks for seca ones and double up on discs, or is it possible to double up on maxim brakes?

 

May 13, 2020


hopefully be able to play with bikes later this afternoon when the snow melts—-

 

Hopefully I can check out your stock first hand if the Carb Clinic still happens.

 

Where the hell in NY are you, here in chenango County its like 60 degrees out.

 

you need a different mastercylinder

 

Rode it around all day today without an issue, why do you say that?

 

your MC is pointed down not a good angle for it.

 

Bike was on kickstand, its not that bad when it's straight up and down. However, I see your point, how would I know if this causes an issue? All I can guess is prematurely being low on brake fluid, but I keep it topped off.

 

If you’re talking this afternoon, yeah it was warmer , but this morning it’s wasnt!!

I’m straight up the road from 1/2 hr. 28 degrees when I got up. Yeah, 53 by mid-afternoon....but that was half a day later

 

I've met a few people on and off this forum that are in upstate NY. Wonder why there are so many vintage yamaga loves here. Could just be a selective coincidence.

 

brakes stop working

 

Because there ARE only a few people in upstate NY—-

 

population doubles with the carb clinic

 

@XJ550H is correct here - you really need a different m/c. And then a clutch lever, so your mirrors are where you want them to be.

 

Mirror is fine where it is, wouldn't the only issue be premature low brake fluid? As long as I check it as often as I do, I can't see the brakes just magically stop working.

 

For the first time in a long time I was able to do a little work on ScratchX. I was able to install most of the Xhaust.

went from this:


To this:

 

Finally got the main crank seal out and installed the new. That was a pain in the butt.

The new one had to install twice, as it had a "pucker" at 5 o'clock. Like instead of being square all around, just that part recessed in an extra 1/8 inch. And the old one looked original and had the same condition and why I thought it was leaking in the first place.

Took it out again, back in and even all around, and hopefully the little bit of sealant I used will keep it from spinning / leaking. I don't think I marked up the casing much but it looked a little beat already.

 

For those who didn’t already know, ScratchX is an xj700X that I’ve been slowly building from scratch. Hence, the name. It’s been so long since I worked on it, I had forgotten what I call it! Lol. Anyway, it started as a bare frame. I mean BARE. It’s a factory replacement frame, so it didn’t even have a number. See??—-BARE. I only add parts to it when I get a part that is either new, near new, or in really darn good condition. Yes, the brake pedal pinch bolt will get swapped out. That is there only to retain the pedal for now. I expect to put the rest of the Xhaust on tomorrow, and I have a NOS set of engine guards to put on.

 

My bike came with painted covers all around. I've replaced the crank covers, but the others were badly needed and I bought a couple from Joe Elif (hope I got that spelling right). The sprocket cover was already in great shape. I got after a few scratches and polished the entire thing again. I think that came out great!

The clutch cover was a bit rougher, but I took it on. Many features on that cover which make it a time sink. Looked good in the basement last night, but in the sunlight, not quite as nice. Still, maybe it's good enough for a survivor bike!?

 

I immediately thought of this product!
https://www.meguiars.com/automotive/products/meguiars-scratchx-20-g10307-7-oz-liquid

 

That's looking good - will it be a single seater? Guess not with those pegs on. Some vmax cues I recognise from that era - front wheel style, footpegs, head "finned" casting. There were a few of these around ebay and so on in the UK, not so many now, perhaps it's for the best..

 

No, standard build. The seats and backrest are new covers from xj4ever.

 

So I normally try to keep my Seca 100% Stock. But, the side panels are so oxidized in the "Black Area" they are pretty much silver all over and the black just looks dirty.

Thoughts on the carbon fiber look?

 

Replaced front brake lines with braided steel and the rear shoes. The original Yamaha ones looked to have lots of wear left but they still went on the shelf as “in a pinch” parts. Tires are ordered and once those come in I’ll be riding more regularly and motivated to fix the Atari cms and get the carbs dialed in perfectly. She idles and moves just fine now, just a flat spot around 4K to work out

 

This has made me think about my own frame up build. It's an xj900f, frame, engine and airbox. I have a 650 maxim tank which I like the look of, but it doesn't quite fit the frame. Is there another, wider at the base that might fit? I've compemplated splitting the tank and letting a wedge into it, but it seems a bit drastic.
The rest of the bike is waiting for a suitable xj900 diversion, the plan being to rob wheels and forks off it. Yes it might be nice to have wire spoked wheels, but better suspension tyres and brakes are high on the agenda.

 

I like that.... subtle. If there were more, j probably wouldn’t like it. But that is good——,do it on the sides of the tail cowl where that blackout is, too.

 

This afternoon’s progress—- a few NOS parts that have never been out of the box.....and new seat covers from xj4ever

 

Yay for upstate!!! Not!!!! Dang snow

 

Thanks!
I was thinking of that because it too is pretty "cloudy" and dirty looking.
But, like you, I'm thinking too much of the stuff will make the bike look cheap... "From the 'hood" so to speak.

 

Aaand now its 82 out.

 

And under tornado warning

 

I decide to part out my XJ900F.
A couple of weeks ago I had started to rebuild her after 10 years of standing still, but I found just too much expensive repairs.
One of which was that the head was apparently warped so that exhaust gasses passed over the gasket to the opening of one of the studs.

I will put an advert in the for sale section.

 

Well the starter clutch is getting worse get bike hot and slips you have to try it several times and then catches been getting , I've been in denial well guess it is time...to swap out engine for the spare engine I've had for 2 years . Bought engine off Joe Eliff ( thanks Joe) all we know is bike it came from had 38k , I did a compression check all good 120 to 130psi ...I have. To check valves and going to pull oil pan to check for anything hinky . My goal is if engine is good , tear down original and replace starter clutch at some point.

 

The vision is slowly coming into focus. The gas tank is NOS perfection. The fuse box is Georgia Jackal stock (thanks Len). The headlight & instruments are flea bay specials

 

Looking good Joe! But........what is that on the ignition key?

 

It’s just a raggedy piece of leather, it came with the bike. Near as I can tell, when the PO wasn’t busy hacking away at superficial components, like fuse boxes or brake master cylinders and in between the monthly crashes, then he entertained himself by attaching his motorcycle key (with the leather fob) to a twenty foot chain and dragging it around Texas on every caliche road he could find. Based on fob wear, I’d say it has at least 50,000 miles under its belt. When I brought the bike home, that raggedy piece of leather was the best looking part of the bike.

 

Got my master cylinder rebuild from Len, tore the master cylinder apart. Got it rebuilt. Did a bleed from the bottom end of the system. Forced fluid from the bleeder screw all the way to master cylinder. Wow what a difference; to have brakes again. And of course the moment I had brakes again the moment came very quickly when a solid apply came... fricking old lady didn’t see me over her steering wheel. Just made me appreciate having rebuilt the master cylinder myself and having bled the system. However I got the bike nice and hot on the back roads; fun fact that I learned about my bike it can hit 60 mph in second gear!!!! That was awesome and the engine screams for more! I love my 650. And to all who have done small write ups of registering bikes through the Vermont dmv. Thank you; this took a while to get cleared but my Harley sportster is finally registered to me from a passing relative and they, along with myself were very worried that the bike would get caught up in the legal system to pay medical bills.

 

Got myself and the old lady on the 650 today and rode to Dansville. Which is about an hour long ride. Cruised at nearly 80 mph for a good long while. That bike pulls like crazy!

 

Removed the oil cooler adapter plate so I could add an O-ring to it (had sealed it with Yamabond, but that didn't seem to be quite good enough). Made a tool to cut the groove in it and started cutting it in the lathe... got the groove about halfway done, but had other things I needed to do. Will try to finish and reassemble it tomorrow.