For all new guys. My advice is, Do it yourself!

Nobody is going to do work on your bike like you can. Not one single shop, dealer, or garage mechanic.

Why? These bikes are old for Yamaha. Parts for them aren't made anymore and Yamaha would rather you buy a new bike than keep an old one going. Not like BMW where they take pride in what they still have on the road after all these years.
So the dealer guys want to see the latest V models or YZF models etc. Their tech guys usually consist of younger guys who went to college to learn how to dial in fuel injectors with a computer. They don't have the experience with these old bikes and rarely see them at all.

You'd have better luck at an independantly owned garage. Bad thing about that is, these guys are usually jerks. You've pulled your carbs. Remember how frustrating that was? The garage guys do stuff like that all day long. Plus they have to deal with P.O. and current owners chop repair jobs which will consist of JB weld, a bent hanger, and some rubber cement. yeah... those guys live a frustrating life. And you're bike, not being their bike, is just another frustration to fix while the owner calls 14 times in 4 days wondering if his bike is done. They care about getting your bike as close as they can really fast so they can charge you $70 bucks an hour + parts and guaging the time they charge you for by how long it might have taken you to do it. Plus if they don't get it right the first time, you'll always bring it back.

The only person really qualified to work on your bike is you because the only person who really cares about your bike is you.

That is coming from a guy who learned the hard way.

This website is the best thing that can happen to any xj or fj bike out there. Years upon years of experience, trial and error, tricks, advice, how-tos, parts, and good nature. You will almost never need to go anywhere else. Better than the manuals in a lot of ways.

 

Add pictures to the how-to's you guys put up, and I'll yell halleluja every time...

 

Ok Erman, let's here that helleluja! Big thanks to Gamuru!

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8588.html

 

Chuckles_No,

Very well said........A DIY'er, a factory shop manual, & a great website like this go hand-in-hand.

Absolutely agree with you, nobody cares about your bike except one's own self.

Hats off to those that repair their own bikes.

XJ's live on....

5ofakind

 

I wouldn't have it any other way than DIY. I do all my own work on all of my vehicles and I have friends that have older bikes that I do the work on because I won't them take it to a shop to get messed with.

I had a buddy take his bike out to Utah a few weeks ago after it sat for over a year. He ran into issues with his carbs when he was about 400 miles outside of Salt Lake where he was heading. Rather than fixing it right and tearing the carbs open and cleaning up whatever gunk was causing the problem the shop just turned the idle screws to give it more gas. Needless to say after he got about 200 miles from the shop the gunk must've cleared itself out and he was idling way higher than he should've been. Moral of the story... don't trust shops to do it right.

 

I remember the first week I was trying to find a petcock at the local shops and they all would tell b.s. Yeah, we can get for you for $80 but your bike been sitting to long, you needed to bring it in to have the carbs rebuilt and some tuning. But when I told them all I needed was a petcock and I was doing everything myself, the price jumped up! I confronted him about it and he said it was the wrong year he quoted me for :? B.S. right! I ended up paying full price but at a yamaha dealer instead just to make sure I don't get a cheap aftermarket one! I drove to 4 shops and called 5 more only to find one good shop that I can trust! All they wanted was to scare me to bring my bike and have all this work when it didn't even needed it just to take my money!

 

It's much better to research here and diy... I learned the hard way, it was before I found this site. $400, 2 weeks, and my carbs still weren't right. The guy at the shop actually really tried and gave me a break when he couldn't get things right. These XJ's can be tough...

 

They can be tough for sure, but when they are running right... WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!