Woohoo!

Yay.

The new $100 650G project bike came to life this evening. This is the first time it's been fired up since at least 2001.

I spent 3 full days rebuilding the carbs. They were not the worst I've seen, but someone apparently has tried to "fix" them in the past... Two of the float pillars were broken off, one carb had some unknown biomass living in it, and another was full of water.
I adjusted the valves... Pretty much every shim was one size over, but after shuffling them around, I ended up only having to acquire two new ones.
Short story long, I put the carbs back on, hooked up a car battery, and a small fuel tank. Hit the starter... It cranked for about 3 seconds, and then VROOOOM!!
Holy crap, that motor sounds great! Even made the neighbors come over to check it out :mrgreen:

My wife wants me to build a cafe bike out of it... So far the plan is to strip it down to bare frame, have it repainted, wrestle a 750 Seca fuel tank and front end on it, along with the 18" rear tire... Somehow muster up a one-up seat, add some rearsets, a single instrument cluster, new lighting all the way around, clubman bars, have the mill soda-blasted... uhh.... and lots more, I'm sure!

Any suggestions on the cafe thing would be greatly appreciated...

 

Congratulations! It's great to hear that another XJ will be back on the road. Sounds like it needed your TLC to come back to life! Be sure to post pics when you have it done up as a cafe racer.

 

Outstanding!!
Nothing quite like the satisfaction gained by perserverance and the results of your own labor.

Congrats.