What did you do to your Yamaha today?

What do you mean by FD fluid? Fire Department? That would be water.... I guess you have an X? Check your radiator drain.

 

Final Drive??

 

Ohhhhhh
80 weight gear oil

 

Well I'm trying to but every time I attempt to post at image everything recycles back to the verification code point, I enter the code and try again and end up in the same place starting over with the verification code. This happens under Linux and Android using Firefox after I have entered the code the first time... took me seven attempts just to get this message up.

 

Got float levels adjusted on the X's Mikuni's, looked at the filter and saw a small gob at the bottom. Looks like it is doing its job but changed it anyway.

 

Mounted carbs and bike started right up. Idled @2000 so adjusted down. Did a vacuum sync but all mixture screws still at 3 turns for now. Bike runs very well at this point.

 

Tried painting my fork emblem tonight. I got some "chrome" paint from Alclad after watching some video reviews on it. The results on YouTube were definitely better than what I experienced, but I suspect the surface smoothness has a lot to do with how much the chrome plated, fully aluminated surface will pop.

So this will go into the category of "eh good enough" and move on....

 

Family photos. Maxim class of '82.

 

Lovin' the family portrait to the Maxim!

 

Which one do the pets ride?

 

The steer actually wanted to ride one! I had to hustle my butt off to get them all parked out there before he decided to use one for a scratching post.

 

Looks nice. Mine was in worse shape as the plastic mounting ears were breaking off. I just trimmed off the bad plastic, made a lower tree cover/cable retainer out of 1/8" by 1/25" aluminum stock I had around (didn't quite get the curves identical on both sides, but close enough) and double-stick-taped the plastic logo into place:



It needs repainting, and possibly sanding/scraping/whatever off the remains of the plasti-chrome. How did you paint yours? Spray the whole thing with silver and then meticulously brush in the black, or spray the whole thing black and try to apply silver with a roller? I am thinking about trying the latter.

My next project, and a NEW QUESTION FOR YOU EXPERTS is replacing the forks (tubes and sliders) with a used set I got that doesn't have mutilated seal seats and should not leak (I am, on the advice of the donor, replacing the seals anyway). My bike is a 1980--no air suspension and a P/N 4H7-23141-A0-00 (according to Partzilla) "heavy duty" spring. The new forks have air fittings. I haven't opened them up but the "XJ650J Supplement" in the front of my XJ650G factory manual says they have the P/N 5N8-23141-00-00 spring (no mention of "heavy duty") and P/N 5N8-23118-00-00 spacer. I also assume (because the manual says to run about 6-11 psi in the forks for solo riding) that the stock '82 springs are softer than the stock "heavy duty" springs in the '80. And (if that's not enough) I have heard scuttlebutt that the air forks don't hold air very well. So... does it make sense to transplant the "heavy duty" springs from the '80 into the '82, replacing its stock springs and spacer, and run zero air pressure? I intend to use the air caps anyway, primarily because they make fork oil change easier (remove the valve core, drain the fluid, hook up a source of vacuum to the air fitting, and suck replacement fluid in through the drains). I am also planning to go to 15W fork oil (Bel-Ray), because with 10W in there the forks are just too soft. What say y'all?

 

QUOTE="ScottFree, post: 684548, member: 34985"]did you paint yours? Spray the whole thing with silver and then meticulously brush in the black, or spray the whole thing black and try to apply silver with a roller?[/QUOTE]

The Alclad chrome paint requires a special primer that is black, so my first thought was to mask the letters after priming and leave the black, so I stuck the plastic in the xerox machine and made a copy that I could cut the shapes out precisely with scissors.

Then at the last minute changed my mind and decided to paint the whole thing chrome, then repaint the black. I used Testors model paint and a fine tip bulb syringe, typically used for applying CA glue. It worked reasonably well, and actually looks better in person than the photo turned out.

On your fork spring thing, yeah I'd just run the heavy duty springs with no air. It's easy to adjust afterwards if you want to play with spring spacers on top. You can make them out of pipe, 1/2" PVC I believe fits.

 

Broke the rack down and headed to church. Only found a few things really concerning, a clogged fuel inlet, and a rather tense moment with a pilot screw.

 

Started my "parts bike" 650 seca today, not been running for 2 years or maybe 3. Put some fresh fuel in and connected a battery, took a while, but away it went. Smoked heavilly for a while, needs a top end rebuild at least I suspect. That 4 into 1 sounds SO different to the twin pipes on the maxim.
Where did I put the compression tester?

 

In the spark plug hole

 

That's nasty. Exactly the kind of thing that a lot of people don't see when they superficially clean them.

 

And that is also why I always get the beanie screens when I get my fuel valves from Len

 

"beanie screens"?

 

I was also thinking that if I remove the Schrader valves and replace them with bolts/locknuts of the correct thread and maybe a spacer atop the spring, I've got real simple preload adjusters.

I am still trying to figure out how to get the damper rods out, as I shine a light down there and do not see anything that looks remotely like a hex socket or anything that could be turned.