Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts guys?

Hi everyone, new to motorcycles, as in, no clue what I'm getting into. I've been more or less looking around for 6-8 months for a starter bike to learn on and work on and I keep coming back to the XJ650 platform.

I seem to have found a diamond in the rough. The seller knows it's not worth much and he's been dropping the price without me haggling at all.

He says all it needs is a carb cleaning and sync and battery. Since I can't see it run I'm still unsure about the purchase. What I'm trying to figure out is: If it IS a bigger problem, worst case, it needs a whole new engine, how much am I looking at spending?

The pictures he sent me don't show much detail but from what I can see it doesn't look too rusted or half falling apart.

Is there any tell tale signs that I should look for when I go look at it this weekend?

Any help is much appreciated, thanks a bunch guys.

 

Re: Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts gu

First off welcome, you've come to the right place.
You should know what you're getting into...#1 when properly tuned and maintained, these bikes are virtually bullet proof (key words..."properly" "tuned" & "maintained"). If you can get it started expect to spend a minimum of $600 (and more than a couple weekends) getting it road worthy, so no matter what the price is lowered too...you've still got that.
You should get a battery so you can, at least do a compression test (you'll also need a compression tester)...if it has spark, all the electricals work, and you've got decent compression...then you can begin your haggling. If you don't get all those 3, me personally, I'd walk away unless it was a very special bike.
If you do end buying, get a manual, read it, then complete ALL maintenance before you ride it....keep asking questions here, you'll find lots of nice people and a lot of great information.

Good luck...post some pix too

 

Re: Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts gu

thanks for that!!

You've given me a great starting point, going to get a battery and compressor tester before making the trip out there.

He is also including some mikuni carbs and spark plugs to get me started. I'll post pics as soon as possible!

 

Welcome. Unless you find something really serious I would advise getting it. We can assist you on almost anything but better than that, this site comes with its own resident XJ parts supplier who has impeccable credentials!

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14561.html

 

Does the seller have the title for the bike? If he doesn't, it is basically a parts bike. How many miles on the bike? Look for rust in the tank. For a non running bike it had better be cheap. How much is he asking for it? You will probably end up putting new tires and brakes on it. It doesn't matter how new the tires look if they are old. They are unsafe. Brakes are cheap so plan on replacing them. Valve clearance check and adjustment will need to be done before synching the carbs after they are cleaned. Like was said before, a minimum of $600 to $800 to get a neglected bike roadworthy.

 

Re: Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts gu

Which model of 650 are you looking at? Reason I ask is that IIRC, the only 650 that has Mikuni carbs is the Turbo...

 

If the bike does not run you can't verify what the potential problems could be. I would be extremely cautious and would not pay anymore than you could part it out and make a profit from doing so.
Just my opinion

MN

 

He says he has the clean title in hand. Bike has about 25,000 miles on it and he's dropped the price to $300 bucks.

I'm posting pictures later today hopefully.

 

You are smart to seek the advice of others, most guys didn't when they bought their first bike....and I'm just as guilty.


Does he have this listed on Craigslist? If you pm me the link to the ad, I'll take a look and let you know while promising NOT to buy it out from under you....I would never do that to anyone. I buy and sell a lot of bikes and I'll give you my honest opinion if you care.

I will tell you that it's pretty hard to go wrong for 300 bucks if it rolls and the engine turns over but I think that you're sharp enough that you already knew that much.

The miles at 25K is a bit of a concern but there are a bunch of owners here who will tell you that it doesn't matter. If it was taken care of, it doesn't, as much. In addition to what the other guys have told you, pop off the oil fill and look inside. Does the metal below the treads look brand new or is it yellow from the oil being burnt over a long period of time?

As mentioned above, you will need some cash to replace some of the expendables like brake pads and shoes, fork seals and head/wheel bearings that we'd expect to need replacing at 25K, especially if they weren't re-greased which they probably weren't. In addition, you will learn something as you rebuild your carbs, another 120 in parts........

To me, sight unseen...if it's what you describe and it's not a bucket of rust.....buy it!

jeff

 

If it blows good compression, and is mostly there, $300 is great!

Know that this will be more of a starter bike to "work on" than to "learn on" because if you are new to working on motorcycles, it will take you a while to fix it up properly. But they are great motorcycles to work on.

Honestly, if you are looking to ride THIS SEASON, find something else. If you can actually wait til next year, it'll be fine. Just don't get ahead of yourself and try to put it on the road when it's not ready.

Oh and none of that really applies to the Turbo Seca...thing is much more complicated than the other 650s and parts are a lot more scarce and expensive.

 

I bought my 81 650 for $300 with the carbs in a box. Guy tried to clean them and got confused and gave up. I spent 15 minutes with my roommate when I got it home and we had it running. There were other things to fix but it was running. Guy had the jets backward.

I've been riding that bike about 5 years now.

If you add a location one of us may be close by to help in person with your project if you choose to buy it.

 

THIS is the kind of scenario I want to play out with this bike if I purchase it!!

 

I should note that I have a lot of experiance with mechanics on cars and trucks long before I got the bike. That no doubt helped getting it going so quickly.

But it can be done. This site and it's memebers will help and if you listen and follow directions anything is fixable.

 

Yes, I assumed you had to have had some previous experience. I see a lot of write ups on this bike so that's another reason why I keep coming back to this model. Also seems like there's a lot of helpful people on this forum!

I'm a member of a few car/truck forums where no helpful comments would've appeared until maybe the 3 or 4th page.

I've worked on many cars both stock (blown heads, dropping gas tanks, fuel pumps, brakes, alternators, etc) and modified cars (mainly BMWs where we'll take the torque-full engine from a newer 5 or 7 series and stuff it in a tiny 70's light BMW body. I've also done steering racks, subframe replacements, and in the process of turbo charging an old 80's engine just for fun)

So I have some experience with cars just none that could apply to these bikes, haha. I'm already looking at a sticky post where someone synced the carburetor with two baby bottles and some ATF fluid. That'll definitely be handy in the near future.

 

Oh well if you've got mechanical experience, access to tools, and the bike looks good, go for it.

But just be warned, that scenario that iwingameover pointed out doesn't happen to everybody. There might be a lot involved, it just depends on the amount of neglect from the POs.

For some details on what to look for on a used motorcycle, here's a checklist:
http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html

It's a little overwhelming, but you'll have a VERY good idea what it'll take to get it road worthy.

 

I say go for it.

 

I'm thinking I will, if the engine turns out to be beyond repair, I guess I'll be looking for a new one.

 

Re: Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts gu

Finally, here's the only pic I have of it so far.

 

BUY it! It looks in really good shape!

 

I made up my mind to buy it but I'm having trouble running the VIN, if the guy gave it to me no questions asked, I think I'm going to assume it IS his bike and the title IS clean.

Didn't know it was this hard to cover one's own butt when trying to make sure they weren't buying a stolen bike, haha

 

As long as he's got the title and it's signed by the person who's name is on it, you should be fine. Most people who steal a motorcycle don't bother asking the person they are stealing it from where they keep the title.

However, laws can vary from state to state, especially with respect to how long you have to title a vehicle from when it was sold. He might be title jumping (which is where you purchase a vehicle, but just get the owner's signature on it and never put his info or titled it in his name), it happes all the time with old Jap bikes that aren't worth the cost to title and aren't road worthy. Just make sure YOU can REGISTER it, you're looking for a bike to fix up and ride, not a parts bike.

"Clean" title refers to leins on the bike, you should be fine just with whatever is printed on the title. But you could always call your state's DMV to cross-you-i's-and-dot-your-t's

 

yep, that's what I've been trying to do all day today in between breaks at work.

It's an Arkansas title and we're in SC so it's being an even bigger pain to just check this. Arkansas said I'd have to drive the bike there to do a VIN verification when I told him where I was he simply said "I don't know what to tell ya bud".

But like you said, most people stealing bikes don't bother to ask where they keep the title, haha.

 

Re: Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts gu

Here is a national database for checking VINs for theft and fraud.

https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud_awareness/vincheck

 

Re: Buying an XJ "only" needs carb rebuilt, your thoughts gu

thanks man, it didn't show up there so I guess I'll trust it

I went to look at it this weekend and it's definitely in a sub-$300 shape. He is giving me an extra Mikuni carb bank although I don't believe it will fit the maxim. I guess I could rebuild it and sell it perhaps?

The throttle grip is unattached, brake lever is broken off as well, front turning signal on that same side, it seems like it was dropped on that side since the exhaust pipe has a few marble sized dings as well.

I tried my best with my very amateur eye to see if there was any crookedness to the frame by looking at it from directly behind it but I guess it looks ok.

I'll post more pictures of it soon, just looking for a trailer now to go pick it up. It all depends on a few things in the next week or two to see if I'll purchase it, wish me luck!

 

Uhaul rents motorcycle trailers for $15 a day.