New Bay-Area Member

Hey,

I recently bought an 81 XJ550 R. I was web-researching and this site came up...

I'm in the process of cleaning her up a bit.



Ping me for rides over Mt Hamilton!

 

Wooo... pretty! The bike I mean. I do miss the Silicon Valley so. Welcome to you Rubba, one of these days I might take you up on the Hamilton ride!

 

Looks like you have clip on bars.Can you post a closer picture of em?Thanks

 

After some bad luck with a couple of my bikes it didn't seem that any of my long-term bike endeavors had a chance of being successful but I found this Seca for sale and checked her out.

Test rides were not an option. I paid my $ and picked her up a couple of days later.

The attendant put my new battery in (I dropped him a dime). I checked the fluids and she fired right up. Idle was smooth for cold starting a Regan-era Yam.

Handling felt OK and the acceleration reminded me of the XB-12 I rode at the MC show. I drove to the parts store and got a can of Seafoam, adjusted the tire pressure and dumped the 'foam in.

Took her out for about a hunnert miles, got home and changed the oil and brake fluid. The contents of the crankcase and master cylinder were clean, uncontaminated and transparent. The next day I put another hundred and fifty on her.

The rearsets make for a comfortable riding position and the shifting is better than it should be. Gear changes remind me of HD shifting minus the effort; a confident clunk into every gear.



She's got adjustable clip-ons, a funky plastic headlight bracket and the stock gages include fuel level and a volt meter. (Cowling was not included.)



The business up front includes a fork brace, after market caliper and a steel brake line. The Metzlers looked fine but had tubes in them. (?!?!?) I didn't find a date code but the model was two name-changes old; they're gone.



Out back she's sportin' some WP boingers that raise the rear a little, this pic shows the brake-side rearset, the pipe and pods. I've been on a lot XS and XJ bikes and they've all been cold-natured to some degree. This Pods-equipped Seca is not; a modern bike warm-up is good enough to get her going with crisp throttle response.



The ignition's been re-vamped too. The "spare parts" box had a pair of coils with wires. The crankcase vent has a home-made separator piped in the old airbox space...eh, gone.



She's a blast, everything works. From 6K she pulls like anything. I hate to delegate her to commuter duty.



She started running rough. I've got new intake boots on her and while the carbs were off I figgered I'd better open them up. I dunno if the Seafoam fixed her or if the previous owner REALLY took care of her but the carbs were clean, clean, clean. no sign of even any sediment in the float bowls!

I'm Stoked!

I must've been a good boy last year cuz Santa was lookin' out for me...Thanks Santa! :thumbs:

 

Nice one Rubba.... Sounds like you're on to a winner there...

Oh and welcome

 

nice bike, if your still around in the spring Ill see ya.

 

While waiting for parts I cleaned her up a bit.

I ordered some new intake boots but they didn't repair the rough idle and she won't go over 6K RPM.

I'm checking the float levels and sync (after I assemble a YICS tool).
Checking the tank filter, petcock and vacuum lines are in my sights as well.

The insides of the carbs are clean enough to eat off of. I'll post for help if I get stuck but if anyone has any insight: she runs great from 2K to 6K but no where else.

Ceramic coated supertrapp with four added disks.
Lowered gauges, lights and bars up front.
Touched up paint, de-rust and polish.

Before:



Eye candy:





I like...

 

Have you rejetted for the pipe?...your lack of upper rpm response points a big finger at the main jet size. :roll:

 

Thanks for the kind response bosozoku. Been there, done that. The first bike I added pods to wouldn't go over 3K until I reworked the jets. :lol:

Bike was purchased with all mods in place and was the best running XJ I've experienced. (did you read my second post ^?) The poor throttle response happened alla the sudden. At the same time, I got trouble at idle and over 6K. I've put pods on several bikes and rejetted/piped all of my bikes (with carbs). This issue just happened.

Let's encapsulate the conditions to eliminate confusion:

She was running fine.
She stopped running fine, I suspected the 25 y.o. cracked intakes and ordered new ones.
While down I checked the carbs - all passages are clean, no contamination, good diaphragms.
Ordered plugs but after I pulled one decided they are OK.
Tank's vacuum line was cracked close to the intake - i cut the hard part off.
I installed the new intakes but they didn't fix problem. Same exact symptoms. So at least I didn't screw something up. :lol:

Next I will check:
float level/operation
fuel supply (tank, petcock, filter and lines)
vacuum line(s)
check for leaky intake seals (i aint perfect)
look at all plugs

So if anyone has experienced this specific problem I'll bypass troubleshooting and go straight to an experienced shortcut. If you see that I've left something out of my "look at" list please advise.

One thing I should note is that the o-rings are missing from the pilot jets. (Screw-type jet, spring and metal washer are there o-ring is not.) They wouldn't dissolve or evaporate so I don't think they were there when I got the bike. Anyone know the size or where to get them?
- or -
Does anyone know if one of the o-rings included in the rebuild kits is for the idle jet. None of the vendors have been able to identify the rebuild kit's components.

"They're the usual rebuild parts o-rings." Thanks. :roll: