New to motorcycles, Questions from Tucson!

Hello everyone. I had the opportunity to pick up a SECA 750 for CHEAPP. I know nothing about this bike. Its been sitting for around 2 years, being started up periodicly. Last start up was perhaps a year ago. So I got a new battery and sure enough it started up with little difficulty. It idles fine but then the second you try and give it any gas it'll die. So the carbs need to be gone through and cleaned and needs the old gas to be flushed out or drained. My questions are: How do I find out what year this is? How do check all the fluids? (where is all the dipsticks for engine oil, gear oil ect.) What could be causing the engine to just die out on me? Wheres the place to put brake fluid in?
I am sure more questions will arise as I progress deeper into the project. I have also found a PDF that someone made, (potentially on this site) called "HitachiCarbBreakdown.pdf" which I plan on using to clean and dissassemble my carbs. Anything thing else I should check with a bike that has been sitting?

Thanks everyone, It will be an exciting project!! On to a picture!!



Any more pictures you want of certian things just let me know.

 

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14577.html
That is a huge article on how to get every bit of information posible from the code stamped on both the engine block and fork tube. that will tell you what year it is. #2 fluids-- engine oil is checked through the site glass on the right side (when your sitting on the bike) of the engine just in front of the foot peg. Brake fluid is much harder to check, you can see the resivior if you turn the handle bar all the way to the left and look from the right side underneath the gauges right in front of the fuel tank. you should see a plastic allen head screw coming out of the resivior kinda at an upward angle, remove that screw and you can top off the resivior to know that its full.

for the carbs do a search on this forum and you'll find gobs of information and pictures.

Check your rear brake pads for delamintation many people have found them to be comming loose from the shoes on these old bikes that have been sitting around. The front brake lines may need to be replace also, they say that the stock lines from the factory were only supposed to be used for like five years.

that should clear up a question or two. This forum will be an extremly valuble tool for you.

 

WELCOME! Buy yourself an aftermarket manual NOW. We've got our own in-house parts guru, chacal. Reach him by email info@xj4ever.com. He has just about anything you will need for your bike. Decent prices and fast shipping. I don't get a cut for this LOL! There's lots of how-to's (with pics) here and the members will help with any questions you have...

skillet
BTW Nice looking bike

 

There are no dipsticks; gear oil can be checked by opening the cap. The oil level should be even with the threads -- service manuals will illustrate this.

As for the oil level, there's a small sight window down near the RH crankcase cover.

(blush) Problem is, that file is intended for changing throttle shaft seals, not cleaning the carbs; in fact, it says so in the file. It doesn't say anything about the fuel jets, the air jets, the passages, nor does it illustrate setting float levels or Making Your Carbs Go Clunk(tm).

There is a CD set available that has plenty of documentation and parts listings; you can order it by going to www.xjcd.org. In that CD set is a PDF that does demonstrate how to pull the Hitachi carbs apart for cleaning.

 

smucko, make that clearer, level with the threads is the final drive, I'm not being smart,but the 'gears' as in tranny share the engine oil. Wiz.

 

Thanks for all the fast replies everyone! I do believe I should pickup an aftermarket manual for this bike, as that will teach me alot about the bike and answer alot of remaining questions I may have. Another question, is the motor oil the same as say car engine oil? Or is it some special kind of oil made for motorcycles? I will go through the bike more in detail tomorrow and hopefully have the carbs taken off by then (assuming they are easy to take off HAH!)
So be on the lookout for more questions!
Quick picture of the bike when we loaded it into my truck. Not an easy task mind you. Large bike+only 2 guys+A flat tire+A high truck= Alot of heaving and hoeing (that doesnt look right haha) to get it in! haha

 

be careful about oil. a lot of car oils have additives that will not agree with your clutch. there are more opinions about oil than <insert witty metaphor for something there's a lot of>

up til now i've been using yamalube - but i recently heard about shell "rotella t" oil - i tried it in my KLR and so far so good. i'm going to try it in my seca and keep my fingers crossed.

carbs are pretty easy to take off - a royal pain to put back on.

 

When I changed my oil the first time, I went with the Rotella. It works great and is inexpensive (Wal-Mart). The center of gravity on these bikes seems (to me) to be high, makes for a lot of heaving and "hoeing"...

skillet

 

Woah I see you have at least the LH side cover! not sure if you have the RH one its not in there in the first picture but you would have had to take it off to change the battery. Many people recomend tying them on with wire or zip ties or something because they will fall off when riding. Mine were both loooong gone when I got my bike. The RH sides are pretty tough to come by on ebay.

And Skeeter there are more opinions about oil than there are dirty mistresses to Tiger Woods!

 

No I do have both covers thankfully winterman!
Ok So for cleaning the carbs I am going to use

http://cycles.evanfell.com/2008/09/how- ... right-way/

Along with the whole 9 yards to cleaning your carbs.
The reason I am using the one from evanfell.com is because it has pictures of everything, and with how complicated and intricate carbs are I need all the pictures I can get haha. I will also be sure to take some pictures as well.

 

Ok so I got the carbs off. There were so many things that were not even attached. Like my gas tank, attachment was only the gravity weighing it down. Rear fender liner? Gone. Then under the seat theres a fuse panel with no fuses in it ha and a bunch of wires taped together and but connectors. So I plan on figuring out that mess aswell. So wish me luck on cleaning the carbs haha.

 

Dude, your in way over your head. Don't do it. Just drop the bike off at my house and I will dispose of it properly. Just kidding. It will be a lot of fun and a lot of frustration. Just take a deep breath and keep at it. It will be worth it.

 

So upon removing the bowls I come upon this




Doesnt that look pretty clean? I mean compared to the picture in evanfell's carb. So should I just not mess with it at all? Leave it the way it is? Cause they look pretty darn good. What does everyone else think.
But the jets in the bowl? look to be a little gummed up, so should I clean that out?


Any suggestions would be great.
The only reason I decided to clean the carb was cause it has been sitting for a while (but periodicly started up) and the fact that when you gave it any throttle at all it would just die. But couldnt that be alot of things? Not just directly targeted at the carbs being dirty?

 

here are a few MUST reads for your carbs


http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=1 ... clunk.html
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6366/
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8918/
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2 ... n+own.html
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14692.html
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14751.html

You may have already read some of these. I checked out the link that you posted, good pics but there is a lot more then meets the eye.

 

here is one with a top of pics

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=3 ... heavy.html

 

Yeah Just because the float bowls dont look too bad dosent mean the rest of it looks fine haha. I need to dig deep into them.

 

The brass screw in the carb (the one thats lower, flathead, an important one) Decided it wanted to break....So is there any place I can get a replacement one?

 

Chacal is the man to talk to. If there is a part on the bike (even washers), He has it

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewforum/f=23.html

 

Cool thanks. I PM'd him.

 

Ok so I did a wee bit of work today. Took out the pins that hold in the floats. 3 pins came out like butter and 1 was a total b*****. After some time trying to press it out I noticed that the tower was cracked, then I noticed that it had looked like it had tried to be repaired once alreaddy. Is there anyway I can fix that? I also took out the 2 jets in each of the carbs (thats what they are called right?) and one of them completly desinigrated. Curse brass being such a soft metal, grrr....so hopefully I can find replacements from chacal at CHEAP prices.