New member, longtime owner

Hi guys 'n gals. I am the owner of an 1980 XJ650 ( no letters or names) I bought in the late '80s with 100,000km on the clock, I did a further 200,000km as a motorcycle courier uptil '92, now I am rebuilding the old girl, ( oh incase you'r wondering, that's 5 camchains ( one broke while riding ) and two odo's worn out ( I kept log books )- ,now I'm new to this, where should I post the details of the rebuild ( I'm assuming this will be of interest) cheers

 

Welcome! Great to have you and good to see some one put some real miles on there XJ. I would put your build thread in XJ chat section, any chance of some pics of this epic XJ?
Al

 

gday, welcome from sunny old brisbane(hot at the moment),am looking forward to watching with interest, mines only got 53 000KM's on it and running sweet,will you do the work yourself?will you get the parts here or O/S? the reason i ask is i tried the local dealers here and they wanted crazy prices and their spare parts blokes had never seen one before and didnt even have the parts manuel on the computer for my special(maxim), good luck

 

Okey i'll post the rebuild in XJ chat.
title "XJ revival" give me some of that oldtime Yamaha.
there will be photos and shopping lists and i will do all the work exept some of the machining

 

Wow, that's some mileage there. How many km(s) did an average cam chain last for? My bike has 62,000km, when should I replace them?

 

Holy cow... that makes me feel like there's still a lot of life left in my old girl with 50,000 miles on the clock.

 

Yes bradyb i would definetly replace the cam chain every 50,000Km, i had one break when i gunned it for an orange light, not good, and a head full of bent valves

 

Okey Al some pics of the patient

 

and the xj now, i have already striped it and done some stuff, i will post all the work on xj chat

 

Cam chains are relatively cheap, can I do it myself in the garage? What else should be done with a cam chain replacement?

 

cam chain replacement is relativly easy if you have basic mechanical skills, tools, patience and dexterity (don't get on the turps the night before!), definitely do the valve shims at the same time. and don't drop stuff down the chain tunnel, a few clean rags can save you there.
a work shop manual is a good idea, the special tool for changing shims saves time and is a must have for long term owners, you can break and join chain without special tools, but if you CAN get hold of a riveting tool then do.
I think i saw a link to some step by step instructions on here in the sponsors section, might be worth checking out.
after that balance your carbs I like mercury columns but the other methods work

 

300,000km X .62 = 186,000 MILES ~ then how much further since '92, 20 years ago?? You may hold the record !!

Do you know that the cam chain tensioner disintegrates, and the shifter return spring (?) breaks and the starter clutch can shatter too.

 

holy mileage. post a link here to the rebuild thread!

 

Cool.
Al

 

link to the rebuild
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=35266.html

 

Here is a camchain joined the "wrong" way, works fine though

 

I recoverd the seat this week, was quite easy, I got the kit from wemoto.com