New Guy Looking at an 85 XJ700n

Howdy all. For the past year I have been walking my dogs past a neighbors house with an XJ700 sitting out front. Never moves, and no one is ever around to inquire about it. Well my wife finally caught a woman at the house to ask about it. Turns out she is the owners wife, and she is eager to see it gone and invited my wife to bring me by to talk with her husband. So for the past few days I have been trolling past the house trying to catch the guy.

As to the bike itself, well like I said it has been outside for at least the entire year I have lived here, and its safe to say it has been out a good bit longer. Sadly the exhaust is off the bike, as is the valve cover. This does not give me much faith in the condition of the engine. However the wife assured my wife that the bike was running last year when her husband parked it in the driveway which means it was running not too long ago and the missing pieces should be on hand. As such I pulled $200 out of the bank for when I finally meet the guy. Wish me luck.

As to me, I had an 82 XJ550 back about twenty years ago. Great bike, put almost 20k miles on it, but I sold it when I moved to Florida from Houston. Prior to and since that bike I have had a series of HD Sportsters, Ducatis and currently host a small coven of small bore '70s bikes. I don't have a big bore bike right now, so if I can make this deal it'll be an interesting project to say the least, and for <$200 I should be able to recoup my money in parts alone.

Anyway, hello again, we'll see if I can get my hands on this thing.

 

The engine will be full of water. Hopefully it will all be in the sump and the crank will have an oil film between the machined surfaces and the bearings. Next question, why was the valve cover off?

 

Oh, I should add: don't crank it over until you drain the crankcase. You don't want to push that ater through the engine.

 

I'd call it a parts bike to begin with.

 

Oh yeah, which is why I would never pay more than $200 for it. Actually I am going to start off with a single Ben Franklin, and go from there. No idea why the cover was off, again having not spoken with the owner there's no telling. I can see from standing at the curb that the end of the cam has some surface rust on it, so I am thinking that it is probably a total loss as it sits.

 

...so just put your phone number and a note saying you want to talk about the bike, in an envelope and put it in his mail box, might save you the trouble of going by all the time to see if anyone is going to be there.

 

Yeah, I have to walk my dogs every day anyhow and I kind of prefer the more passive aggressive approach. :lol:

Really I think I am just going to knock on the door, it's too cold to keep wandering around the neighborhood like a wayward teenager.

 

If the rest of the bike is nice you can buy a used engine relatively cheap.

 

Actually,that was my plan, give the original engine a once over and if its shot then just source a replacement. Looks like about $500 shipped to my door from eBay would get it, I have not scoured my local salvage yards yet.

One thing that is keeping me from pushing this is the fact that apparently the owner works a late shift and I do not want to look at the bike in the dark, plus it rained here all weekend (yay more rain in the engine!) and I didn't feel like screwing with it then, either. I'll get over there soon.

 

Cool, hell whip out 100$ to start, who knows if he'll take it.

With the valve cover off, he probably was any the happiest with it the last time he parked it

 

Yeah, the carbs are on but the airbox, exhaust and valve cover are off. All the cars in his driveway are relatively new, no vintage or classic machines. Heck, there's even a couple bicycles parked outside on the side of the garage, so something tells me this guy is not mechanically inclined. I could of course be totally wrong, but all this leads me to believe that he bought this bike on the cheap, it was running like crap (I wouldn't be surprised to find a 4-1 or 4-2-1 pipe without the collector and maybe even pods) and he thought it needed a valve job, then when it wouldn't run any better he tossed his sockets in the toolbox and walked back inside. Oh yeah, just call me Sherlock up in here!
Seriously though, I've been around old bikes since my first one and I've come to recognize certain traits about people based on what is in the carhold. I have old bikes and old cars, nothing particularly special or valuable, but I keep them running because they are solid reliable machines. Ive known a lot of riders with brand new bikes who don't know the first thing about wrenching, and the other objects in their life reflect that, new truck, modern TV, etc. This is not a universal truth, merely an observation. Stereotypes have to come from somewhere.

Sorry, I am overthinking all of this.

 

haha nope, stereotypes and generalizations exist for a reason, as there are such trends!

 

Good luck. Sounds like you might be doing the guy a favor if he wants it all off his hands. Guy might have his hands full with other projects

 

Parts bike.
Buy it, strip it, sell it, scrap it.
Use the $1200 you make and buy a good used one
How many miles were on it btw?

 

Bah, its worth a couple bones just to challenge myself and see if it can be saved. I haven't gotten close enough to check the mileage.

 

Well I got a closer look at this bike today. 28.000 miles, the front brake lever has no pressure, the air box is intact but the boots from the box to the carbs are missing, and since the valve cover is off the cam and valve train are completely rusted. Sadly the spark plugs are also out of the head, so yeah this engine is completely wrecked. Nevertheless I am still going to try for $100 to pick it up, but given $3-500 for a new engine it would never be worth more than that.
We'll see.

 

Engines you can get lucky with. Lots of parts bikers out for sale cheap. Picked up a roller with a good engine for 40$.

So now if I ever have anything go to hell in my engine I have a whole new good one to pop in.

 

Well I actually just picked this bike up earlier this evening. As soon as I can download them, I will post up a couple pictures.
In any case, it is sitting inside a garage for the first time since I laid eyes on it. I hope it appreciates it.
Apparently, the owner bought it in California, moved to Wisconsin, parked it (running) over the winter of 2010, couldn't start it in the spring of 2011, moved to Texas that summer, took the starter apart and rebuilt it, decided to tune the carbs and adjust the valves blah blah blah it ended up in the driveway and never moved again. But for the princely sum of $150 he signed over the title, handed over the pipes and a box of small parts (including the chrome air box covers!) and even helped me load it in the back of my truck.

 

Oh yeah, engine was totally locked up, and it appears to be stuck in gear so we had to push it with the clutch pulled. This had the added effect of pushing gear oil out of the nipple at the front of the driveshaft (just behind the engine). Well, gear oil mixed with some high quality fresh rainwater.

 

Lots of luck to you on this ride! I'm sure with a lot of work and some dollars you will have it back to life. I have that one's twin! I paid 200 for. It has 7800 miles. It's wasn't in near as bad a shape though. I bought it right before Christmas and already took it for a ride. Good luck and enjoy.