New Member, Old Bike... novella

What the hell was I thinking? Craigslist deal: 1982 XJ750 Seca, Runs needs brake work $300

5 hours later it was in my garage. 3 weeks later the mofo is in pieces waiting on parts.

Ran My A$$, I needed starter fluid to get the beast to kinda kick over. The PO got the bike in a lot auction and dismantled bikes for ebay sales. The PO PO said the carbs were cleaned... Unknown maintenance. Where the carbs really cleaned? I didn't know, brakes were a mess, electrical gremlins all things that I love.

Me: Passion for old Japanese cars, bikes, electronics, pogo sticks... hello kitty...Not!

I have had a plethora of cars both jap and domestic first being a 66 mustang. My current car toy has been referenced at the Redbull Gran Prix as a 4 wheeled motorcycle. I don't think so but whatever. Its a cold blooded 1st 83 gen rx7 carbed 12a that has been off the road more than on. Damn Cali Smog and ancient carb emissions.

I got this bike kinda on a whim, mostly cost, another looks and 3rd I "thought" I would have it on the road faster than my disassembled 1991 FZR600

1991 FZR: blew a head gasket, discovered I could make it better with doing a 660 conversion. Did a 99 r6 tank and tail swap and have a set of 01 r1 forks with the stems swapped for the FZR. This is a Longer story why it has been over 3 years since I touched this project one being a trailer that I am building and I got married, and oh the crappy economy.

The 82 Seca: Started with yanking the carbs off 5 times before I decided to completely break the rack and just rebuild the mess. The first 3 I discovered that I installed the floats upside down... DOH! the 4th check the float levels "measure with float gauge method" and the 5th I discovered this place and I already had the rack completely broken down and soaking in carb juice.

Then Chacal... OMG every part under the sun for the bike. Aside from price I can totally keep this bike on the road forever as long as he exists.

Then I tore into the brakes. Calipers Frozen, Master Frozen, Everyting rusted/oxidized farthest from a recognizable mass. At first I couldn't find the master. Then when I did I had one of those moments "what were the engineers thinking" Kinda like when I try to replace the 8th spark plug on my jeep grand cherokee (4 extensions, and a ujoint thing).

Then I decide while I am waiting for the parts that I ordered to hmmm… check the valve lash. I had a Yamaha SHO (taurus SHO) once that I had to do the lash on that every 60k. Procedure was the same But the only difference was Ford's shim code was 4 digits instead of 3. 255 vs 2550. And the SHO also used 29mm shims… If you ever see a SHO in Junkyard get the Shims. They are gold to SHO owners and they go in .025 increments instead of .050 that are available.
The fancy 45 dollar tool I bought in 1999 worked great too. I will snap a pic and measure it for anyone if they would like to see it/copy. Way better than the tools I have seen for the bike side of things.

Now where is the bike?
I have on order some drag bars to swap off the ape hangers that are on there.

Carbs are Clean... Church of Clean kinda of Clean. I originally used steel wool to clean the bores before I found rickomatics mirror finish guide.

Brakes have been cleaned, unfrozen, polished and rebuilt, and the dang dust seal groove was nasty.

The master wasn't much better, but now all nice and pretty and rebuilt.

I have forks on order to dump the anti-dive pitted chrome ones I have.

Headlight wiring is draped on the front fender, waiting for the round headlight. That box thing just looked out of place.

And the gauges. At first I thought they were cool... then I didn't like them, now I am in between. So after reading about the "atari" I am keeping the LCD and nesting it between some XS650 gauges. I have really robust electrical skills in discrete components and DC/AC.

This bike electrically is a Piece of cake compared to the hackjob that I rewired last year, a 1936 BMW R75 6v converted to 12v, using Chinese knock off's for the old PLA bikes... what a mess and NO Wiring diagram. ugh

And lastly I had to rebuild my controls so I also took the time to take them from black to brushed aluminum.

Enjoy:
Brushed controls




600grit and steel wool left, Mirror polished right


Mirror Polished Detail


brake caliper, could use a more even polishing


Master and all the crap on the bracket + Bracket epoxy coated


Something I did earlier that evening, 7mge supra inline six shoe horned into a 86 4 cyl toyota pickup 4wd


Anyway thanks for reading if you made it this far. I am happy this forum is here.

 

Welcome! Nice work, and keep posting updates.

 

TASxj,

Welcome to the club.

Gary

 

What year supra motor 93up or pre 93. So that would make it q 2jz motor if I'm not mistakeing unless ur pre 93. But you kinda sound like more lot of work no time or money now.

 

87 to be exact. No way I could source a 2jz for what was paid for the 7m. The old 22r threw a rod during the smog test lol so out it came and in the 7m. Money is super tight cause I am funding my wife's education and the little she makes goes right into her school. I commute far 70+ miles one way sometimes and the grand Cherokee gets great gas mileage at a whopping 19 highway and the rx7 gets 17 highway. I bought all my vehicles premarriage and wasn't expecting commuting with gas freinsly vehicles. But now its different. I am really good and finding deals. And premarriage I had alot of excess Moneyd so most of my equipment and random parts hoard was built then. Lol I fabricated 2 exhausts from scrap stainless.

Some of my friends call me hackjob or macguyver. And the quality is there. Time. Sometimes I have alot some times I have to muster up and say ok babe...

 

wow, dang

 

Damn, that bike looks friggin rough, lol. Full bike pics?

 

it is

 

Yamaha Control Decals

http://kz900.com/decals/yam/decals-yam-small.html

75 DT 400 B

 

Easier than stencils... Thanks.

 

Welcome to the site. You sure got your work cut out for you. I love working on these bikes.