Almost a biker...

Hi all,

I am Arne from the Netherlands and by pure chance I have become the owner of a 1990 XJ600 which has been parked up since May of this year due to some holes in the exhaust. I am currently working on getting myself my motorcycle license here in the Netherlands, which I hope to have at the end of October.

Back to the bike. The fork says it is an XJ600 51J where the Yamaha lists say it should be a 3KM as it is a 1990 bike. So, that is something I need to figure out. Anyway, when I picked up the bike I was pleasantly surprised. It is in quite a decent shape. Granted, the exhaust really is leaking. I think the exhaust needs a bit more welding than I had hoped. But we'll see if it can be saved. Other than that, the engine starts immediately and idles nicely. I just need to learn to play with the choke.

Something else I might be interested in changing is the ease with which the front dives when you hit the brakes. But I do not know whether the ease of diving is normal or adjustable even. I know they changed the oil in May so the basis should be alright.

The bike has been sitting for five months and before it was parked it was used as a daily driver. Right before it was parked up it had been given a good service including tuning and cleaning the carbs. As the previous owner drove it daily, I am hoping to quickly put it into service when I get my license and work on it as time passes.


But, the pics. Because that is what this was all about. Right? ;-)

 

Hi Arne & welcome.
Your bike looks remarably like my 84 XJ750RL!
Same fairing, guages, bars, tank, seat, side covers & wheels!
Good luck with everything, this site has a wealth of knowledge & you will get lots of advice.
The link at the top right of the page (xj4ever) has all the parts you will need & has the best service on the planet!!!

Cheers,

Tim

 

Welcome.

Gary

 

@Tim; I looked one up and it has a lot of similarities. Nice. Never knew that.

Thanks @Gary.

 

Before you lose the PO's phone # - see about getting every receipt, and the valve lash info from the tune-up. You must have valves "in-spec".

Holes in mufflers can be Brazed for a temporary fix.

Next is to budget for a front brake re-build, and check tire date codes.

 

The previous owner was more about cash transactions, if you catch my drift.

Valve lash and valves being 'in spec'. Interesting. Anything I can read up on? As well as the front brake suggestion.

Also, the front seems to dive easily. The seals have been replaced, but I wouldn't mind it to be stiffer. Suggestions are welcome.

This week the exhaust will come off and we'll look at getting it rust free and checking out the best way to get it decent again.

 

Since these bikes are now 30 years old, it's basically a restoration of vital parts for safety and reliability.

Here's a link to Chacal & BigFitz articles to get you started -

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14581.html

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... ation.html

buy a service manual, start in by doing all "routine" maintenance like it's never been done before !

 

Hey, I have got a young one. Mine is only 22 years old. Funny thing is that it was registered in 1990, built in May 1989 to the specs of the 1987 model.

Anyway, back to the real point here. I bought the Haynes last week and it has already been helpful in removing the exhaust. That was very, very needed. See image below. ;-)



The good part of this bike is that the previous owner has had it serviced extensively right before he parked it. The biggest thing I want to do before I start riding it is to replace the front fork oil. Right now it dives very enthusiastically, so I think it can do with a slightly more resistive oil.

Other than that, we looked at the brakes and the chain and they are all very nice. No problems there. The engine runs sweet without glitches and the carbs have just been cleaned and have new parts in them. I think that, after we do the exhaust and the fork, it will be time to rack up some miles to see how it holds up.

 

A talented muffler man can gas-weld those holes up, unfortunately it will continue to form holes in the future.

You can look for clean exhausts on E-Bay

 

Trouble with welding is that you need soething to weld it to. The material around the holes seems to be there, but it really isn't.

 

I agree with arne. Too far gone and a lot of work to patch. Would be better off replacing or making a new system. Patching it would just lead to other holes popping up in other places and soon.

 

Thanks. That really is what I am troubled with. On the other side, recreating the original bends is going to be tricky as I need to keep in mind that it has two H pipes in the current setup that are hard to reproduce. And they are functional. I guess that is why you don't see any reproduction exhausts with two dampers.

Something that I am seriously considering is building something along these lines:



The only thing I would need to know would be the diameter of the pipe after the collector. And if I look at this exhaust or the Motad version, I don't think the damper is bigger than the original one. So I can easily butcher the original one and fit a larger pipe to it (as the entrance is tapered anyway) and build a new collector.

Anyone who can get that measurement for me? ;-)

 

About the fork diving - a common and recommended upgrade for any XJ is to replace the stock fork springs with Progressive Suspension springs. I think you can get them through XJ4Ever on this site.

 

Thanks. That is interesting information. I did google around as well and found a guy explaining cutting the springs down and adding spacers to make them stiffer. As this is going to be (and probably remain) a budget build, that could be an interesting option:

 

Thinking along building a 4 into 1 exhaust, I decided to at least take a look at what it would take. So I just roughly measured up the pipes in a MacGyver tyoe of way and found that they were around 2.5cm inside diameter. I also dug out an old book on drag racing exhaust sizes which told me that as a rule of thumb, the secondaries need to be roughly 1.75 times the primaries. That means that if I want to build a 4 into 1 exhaust, I will need a 4.4cm pipe. This is about a centimeter wider than the pipe in the current damper is. Something to think about. ;-)

 

Ok, a lot of work has been done. I have been able to purchase a 4-into-1 Laser exhaust with less welding work to be done to it. So we welded it up, I painted it and we mounted it on the bike. We changed the fork oil for 15W and that is a big change already. Really enjoyable. Yesterday I changed the valve inside for the front tire as that was leaking slightly. It is much better now. And we fixed the 'pass' button for using the high beam for short intervals. It wasn't doing anything, but taking the switch apart and cleaning it solved the problem and it is fine now.

So, it was time to hit the road:



And one with the new exhaust:


Put the lower fairing back on last night, so not on the pictures but it is on there now.