87 XJ700N, sitting for a couple years

Hello everyone. New to the site and forum. Apologies in advance if the post is a repeat. So, I've found what I think is a great project bike. Found the bike in local classifieds (kijiji) in Toronto. It has a little over 13k on the motor and the current owner says he hasn't started in about 2 years. Judging by the pics, it appears to be fairly clean. Owner thinks the battery might be dead. I'm very new to motorcycles in general so kind of looking for advice on the purchase. I was thinking about adding fresh fuel and giving it a boost to see if it would start.. what do you guys think?

 

post some pics.
I think 1987 is unique to Canada if my memory serves me, maybe that was 1988.
They were marketed up here for 1 year longer than the USA, even though all the 700's were a result of their import policies.
You need 5 posts to be able to post pics.

 

I think after two years, you’re GONNA have a dead battery. I think you’re GONNA have clogged jets.etc..... in the carbs, maybe even a m0use nest in the airbox. THAT said., I’d squirt a little gas in the carbs just to see if it‘ ll Fire——even one cyl is good. Even if it doesn’t fire on one—all you need is to have it turn over. If it doesn’t, well, you have a good bargaining point, and bigger job in front of you, that’s all.

dfox

 

Serial number will confirm year. What is the 10th digit in the serial number f is 85 g is 86 and so on.Yamaha had so many extra bikes from 84-86 that many were sold as what ever year it was

 

I picked it up today! Just went with my gut and made the decision to

 

Well, bike is in my possession with a few hiccups.. the owner lost their ownership so hopefully it's legit. Will post some pictures and progress soon. Thanks for the tips. I did a little more reading online and many echoed the same tips as offered in this chain. I'll post some pics when I've reached the 5 post mark

 

Before spending any more money or time, do some homework. It will save you some frustration if you start in with some knowledge.

The Information Overload Hour

Read This First

 

Did he give you a notorized bill of sale?
If he has no title to the vehicle then it's not worth much more than a parts bike, unless he's willing to pay the cost of getting a replacement title. There are ways around that problem in the U.S., but none so far as I know in Canada.

 

Well.. bike is legit. Seller was able to get a replacement ownership and transfer went well. Bike is not branded. Phew!

Will get to posting some pictures soon. Oh ya, bike is an 85, not 87 as it was advertised. Thanks for tips, I’ll be tinkering with it this weekend

 

This is great. I also have an 85 xj700n and I'm in NB,Canada. I'll be following this thread as I haven't had the bike running yet.
Good luck!

 

Whats up everyone. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I finally had some time to allocate to the bike this weekend. I didn't get around to squirting gas into the carbs. Maybe should have but I figured if the carbs most likely need work then I might as well start taking some things off to access the guts. I think I'll get tinkering a bit more over the next weekend. Been reading up a lot on carb removal. Hopefully I can pull it off. Lets see how it goes. Here are some pictures. I should be more consistent with my posts. I just really suck at being social online. Anyway, more to come this weekend. Here are some pictures with the tank and seat off. The bike looks really clean for its age.. Hoping it starts up..

 

Looks about normal.

carb removal is not as hard as you think. Putting them back in is the challenge.
Turn the key on, turn the run switch on, put it in neutral and squirt some gas in and see if it fires. You won’t hurt the carbs by doing that. If it goes BROOM, you’’ get enough adrenaline to keep you working. If it doesn’t, no biggie........it’ll get there eventually

 

Normal sounds good to me! Its starting to warm up here in Toronto. Been over 12 years since I last jumped on a bike so the itch to ride is strong.

Do I need to put the gas tank back on in order to start it? Sounds like a dumb question lol. Also, not quite sure where to squirt the fuel when you say into the carbs..?

 

You can squirt a little starter fluid in the air breather and that should get a quick start if the plugs are firing. I have an 85 XJ700 and it's a heck of a bike when running right. Take your time and do it right the first time. I speak from experience on that issue.

 

Yeah..... you don’t need to hear it run for a long time. All you need is about two or three seconds worth of brooooommmm.all you need to know at this point is: will it fire up?

 

I ended up putting new spark plugs and poured a vet small amount of fuel down the spark plug holes.. I got the one second broom and it turned right off. It fires up!! I threw the tank on and added some fresh fuel thinking it might go for longer but that was a bust... so what do you guys suggest I do next? Guessing the fuel isn’t passing through...?

 

Make sure your crank case is filled with fresh oil, and see what happens. My bet is the carbs need cleaning, and fresh gas

 

Thank you! I poured some oil into the crank last week. It looks like there's a decent amount of oil. I think I'll get working on taking the carbs off sometime this weekend. Cheers and have a great weekend

 

petcock has a vacuum line to open up fuel flow

 

Sounds like a good methodical approach.
Get yourself a JIS screwdriver before you start dismantling the carbs. A Phillips will chew the heads. I like the Motion Pro T-handle as it has all 3 sizes and allows leverage for those stubborn screws on the carb rack.
Fort Nine are a Canadian distributor that sell Motion Pro stuff

 

Or just put it to PRI while you’re on it, then turn back to ON or RES when you’re done so fuel doesn’t potentially keep flowing.

Len also carries JIS screw driver sets.

 

Looks sharp, reminds me to get cracking on my XJ700 again. Good luck with it!

 

Hey guys.. so I've been fairly busy doing a ton of reading here and watching several videos. Happy to say that the bike is not a dud. I had successfully removed the carbs, had them cleaned and installed them myself. Ratchet straps work like a charm.. My tank was a complete mess inside, took me a week on and off to clean out the rust and lining. I got an aftermarket petcock from amazon, which I had to modify a little to make the screw holes fit the tank.. it worked well and I started it up pretty nicely.... there was a small issue with the throttle sticking and after reading some more about the possible reasons, I learned that I had made the same mistake as someone here with the clamps on the engine side. It was an easy fix nonetheless.... and of course nothing comes easy right?? For some reason, it seems like the gas is not flowing to through the petcock. Gonna be honest here, I have not done a whole lot of research on this issue since I learned that PRI and RES settings should allow the fuel to flow through but nothing much happens on any of those settings. If I shake the bike a bit, it sends some fuel into the carbs, it starts but will not continue to run, dies a few seconds later. When I first started it, I had it going several times and it ran without issues and would not stop at all.. I wonder what has happened..? I'm considering ordering an OEM petcock but I would rather not if I can get away with it.. What do yo guys think?

 

PRI is a free-flow setting.
RES IS NOT.
RES is a vacuum-operated setting that simply allows fuel to flow after you are ‘just about empty’ on the RUN setting. RES is simply a reserve amount to let you get to as gas station before you run out for real.

 

Got it.. I tried fiddling with all of the settings. One thing I noticed was that on my first attempt, I set it to PRI and noticed that fuel began to come out from the drain lines. This time around, no fuel seemed to be coming out.. there’s definitely something preventing the fuel passing through the petcock. If I shake the bike a little, it will run a bit longer as some fuel seems to trickle into the carbs, when I stop, it dies...

 

Are you empty?

 

Nope! I poured some in because I thought there wasn’t enough.

 

I would suggest installing a separate fuel shutoff valve . the amazon/ebay chinese 44mm flange petcock are shite.
flow without vacume and leak. I went through two of them.

 

How much did you pour in?

 

I have a 5 litre jerry can.. poured the whole thing. Not enough? I know the tank holds much more.

 

Th

Thanks for the suggestion. I think that will be handy in the near future.