'82 XJ550 Project

So I picked up a 82 xj550 on Saturday for $450. It came with an extra engine and almost all of the original parts plus some duplicates from an old parts bike he used. Ole Hank (the PO) was an interesting man to say the least. As you can tell from the pics, he lived on a dirt road. I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.

Pics from the Craigslist Ad





The tank is an aftermarket Sportster tank. (As you can see it doesn't fit very well and the PO's idea of a shim is a deep socket.)
The rear fender is also from some sort of Harley. I actually like the look of this and I think I'm gonna keep it.

After I got it off the trailer and in the shed at the golf course I work at, I took the Harley tank off and put one of the original tanks on to get an idea of what it will look like.





As you can tell my bosses and I like motorcycles.

My plans for the bike are as follows:
-Convert to a hardtail (PO had it as a hardtail but he used cheap metal that scares me, so I'm going to use 1/4" steel flat bar)
-New Seat
-Drag bar
-Individual filters for the carbs
-More compact headlight
-Clean up the wiring
-Re-paint flat black
-Forward Controls....some day
-Get rid of rusty exhaust pipes
-Wrap header pipes
-Give the whole bike a heck of a cleaning...haha

Trying to keep this as low budget as possible since I have no money. I've been getting lots of ideas from some of these bobbers on here and I love it. Wish I could work on it more, but I can't keep it at my house seeing as how my parents have no clue I even own a motorcycle...let alone two :twisted:

I'll try and keep you up to date with some pictures as I go.

 

does anyone know what models the back wheel that is on his bike came on, as so far I have only seen it for the bikes with shaft drive. I want one on my 82 550 seca as that is the same front wheel I will be using on my front conversion from a 650

 

hey, can you take a picture of how the 4 headers go onto that one pipe, im really interested

 

There are actually 4 of those little shorty pipes on there. He put them on with anywhere from 4-6 self tapping screws per pipe. Not sure where the pipe came from, but they definitely rust pretty easily.



You can see 2 of them sticking out in that pic. I like the concept, but poor execution.

 

Yo, rtyler, I would go with box section for those hardtail struts, 1/4 bar will flex too much. Is that air filters (pods) your talking? Wiz.

 

The only chain drive XJs were the 550's. His is a Maxim. The Maxims had the "swirly" wheels, the Secas had the straight spokes (ONLY on the 550s.) Bigger Secas had the swirly wheels too.

 

What size thickness would you use for the hardtail stuts. 1/4" box section? Yes air filter pods is what I'm talking about. Just ordered a set off e-bay the other day.

 

I would use 1 inch x 3/4 x 1/8 thick box & solid bushing at the bolt mounts.

 

swrly wheels are from the maximums but I had only seen shaft drive maximums, so the 550 maximums had chain drive? So I could do a direct swap for my 550 seca?

 

Cavi; The 550's were the only (US market) XJ's with chain drive. Both the 550 Maxim and the 550 Seca are chain drive; you could do a swap yes but remember the Max has a smaller rear wheel than the Seca, 16" if I recall.

 

So I'm thinking about stripping this thing all the way down to the frame to completely clean every part and re-paint everything to give it a clean, simple look. I haven't messed with bikes that much (I wouldn't fool with the engine mechanics or carbs cause thats over my head at this point). I guess my question is: am I an idiot to think that I can strip this thing down to the frame and rebuild/customize it on my own? I'm pretty good with a wrench and have done some work on cars and have a pretty good understanding on how things work. I'm all for it, I just don't want to get in over my head. What do you think?

 

Only you can make that call.
I find if you take your time and lay everything out so you know how it goes back together almost any job is do'able.
Me I would be much more comfortable working on the motor.
To tear the whole bike apart would intimidate me.
So many safetys to deal with.

 

I think I'm gonna go for it as long as my bosses are okay with me having it in pieces at the golf course. Anyway I took the rear fender off so that I could get to work on getting it repainted and I hit a little bit of a speed bump. This thing is not in good shape. Apparently the PO cut and rewelded it in the front of the fender, but his welds look terrible and there is a lot of overlapping and gaps where he tried to weld. Look at the pics.





And then he welded in a piece so that he could mount the tail light.



And he cut the front of it in a very uneven fashion.



Trying to figure out if i want to clean up this mess, or just buy a new fender. Something like this http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... _200330787

That way I have some fresh steel to work with and customize to my liking.

 

How about something like what you had only brand new in fiberglass for less than $50? http://www.oldinc.com/oldysbt.htm Check it out, then go to their "home" page and check out the rest of them...

 

So it's been awhile since I've even had the time to touch this thing. I finally have some free time in the morning before work so I have been getting started on it. I started on the tank yesterday. Tomorrow I will finish sanding it down and hopefully get some primer on it.





Only 5 layers of paint....lucky me!

 

Well I got to work on the bike some more this afternoon. Got a lot done. Now its time to start prepping the frame for paint and getting everything cleaned up.

 

is the black with skulls xj tank one of the ones that doesnt have the dipples in the side? If so Id like to buy it off you if its in decent shape.

 

Well I got the frame sanded down and repainted. I also trimmed off a little more of the frame so that I can fit the stock fender on there. I also worked on cleaning the engine up some. Took the pipes that didn't look so hot and painted them black.

 

Still cleaning the engine. Hopefully will have it done and back in the frame tomorrow.

Before







After:







Sneak Peak:

 

Engine back in.

 

any more progress on this one?

 

rtyler8140 wrote:
(I wouldn't fool with the engine mechanics or carbs cause thats over my head at this point).

Dude, you'd be surprised how easy it is to clean carbs and even change jetting with the help you get from the guys on this site. Valve adjustments are pretty easy too. Remember that a motorcycle is like Lego. It all seems to fit together.

 

Hey honestly I haven't touched the bike since the last update. Got kinda discouraged and semi-lost interest because of the stage that I'm at. I hate body work (prepping for paint) and that's the biggest thing holding me up right now. I need to patch the holes on the stock fender and re-sand the tank and get it ready for paint. My neighbor also moved all my pipes and scratched them up so now I have to re-paint those. Since I see that some people actually have some sort of interest seeing this thing finished, I'll work on it this week so I can give you guys some updates.

What I have left:
-Prep/paint tank, fender, and handlebars oh and now the pipes
-Get starter cleaned and installed
-Re-wire
-Cross fingers and hope it starts when put back together
-Ride it

 

looking good

 

Don't get discouraged man, I'm kind of at a standstill right now too. I need to make some frame mods and I dont' weld so I'm waiting for my fabricator to have time for me. But every time I run into a bit of work that I'm not good at, I say to myself it can be done and if I do a little at a time I get it done.

 

Yeah I'm pretty motivated to get back started on it right now but there are a few things holding me up. A freak 10" snowstorm has me pretty well locked in at home, which would be great if my bike were here. Seeing as how I still live at home and my parents have no clue I even own a motorcycle, I have to hide it at the golf course where I work. Should be able to work on it some later this week I hope.

 

Interesting progess so far!
I just hope that's BBQ (high heat) paint you are using on those headers. I don't neccesarily care for the "flat black" look on the entire bike, but to each his own I guess. Atleast throw some chrome bits here and there to break it up a bit maybe? Keep up the good work!

 

Yup Krylon BBQ paint. I didn't necessarily want to paint them, but they weren't in great shape so I painted them. It will have a little chrome here and there.

 

I for one am impressed with your progress so far. Keep up the good work and post pics

 

So it's been 2 years or so since I've posted anything about this. I'm finally starting to work on the bike again. I would like to have it up and running this fall sometime. I'm probably going to strip it back down again and re-clean/paint the frame, engine, etc. Anywho, right now I am working on my back-up carbs and rebuilding them. I have stripped down quite a bit of the wiring and need to hook it all back up after I tear everything back down. Here are some pics of whats going on.

Wiring after being stripped. Once I put it in, I will clean it up some more.



Dirty nasty carb junk.



All laid out for the deep clean and re-jet.



Once I got these carbs apart I found that there was a pilot jet missing. In addition, there was a float valve spring stuck in the bottom of the float bowl amongst some sludge. Because I am planning on running pods, I ordered some new jets as well as some new gaskets from Len at XJ4ever. Hopefully they will be in next week sometime and I can finish rebuilding the carbs. I also hope to clean/flush out my gas tank this week as well. I will try and keep this thread up to date with progress. Thanks for looking.

 

Looks awesome and gives me hope for my rebuild!

Those individual carb air filters... where'd you get those?

 

Thanks. I'm still working on the carbs when I have some free time. The pod filters came from ebay. Do a search for "pod filters" on this site and you will enjoy hours of reading on the topic. I like the look of pods and I enjoy tinkering with things so I'm sure I will eventually get it running right.

 

I love the look of the pods, and you've convinced me there is no other way to go about it now. Without me reading anything, what size of pod filter was it? I've got the same year (ignore my signature until I change it to 1982) so it should be the same.

Thanks for this awesome idea!

 

I think the size you want for pods would be 54mm, you might want 2 double check.

 

You also might want to do a forum search on "pods" or "pod filters" so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into. Getting an XJ to run correctly on pods is something that's so far eluded most folks, especially if you're talking about running them on a 550. If you've got a non-running or poorly running bike, it's better to get it running right in stock trim FIRST so you have some sort of baseline for the mods. Trying to resurrect a bike AND get it to run with pods can be a bit of a nightmare; so much so that I could name at least a half a dozen members who are RIGHT NOW in the process of going back to a stock airbox.

Here's a start; read this entire thread: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=29587.html

 

When I bought the bike, it didn't have anything covering the carbs (no air box or pods). From what I remember when I test drove it, it actually ran half way decent. I haven't ripped those carbs apart yet to see if they had been re-jetted or anything. I figure I will give pods a shot and go from there.

 

Excellent, Thanks for the headsup fitz! I was going to tune stock and then mod, as I've learned from reading here, but I definitely love the look enough to make it worth the work (i hope ;P)

 

I see that there is a power loss, associated with that bigger 750... I'll have to read more before I jump head first in!