My build off to a bad start

I don't know much about building a bike but i bought a 1980 xj650 last year and decided to make all bolt on bobber. i picked up some burly slammer 10.5 shocks off kjiji for still a decent price. So, first 2 things i notice is the eyelets are too small to fit on the bolts and its too wide for one side of the bike... well i think grind it down a bit but the biggest bit i could find was 1/2" which is what the eyelets are already are and the bolts 13mm? My stock shocks had no eyelets and i've been reading around and i tried to hammer out one of the eyelets and just beat it up before i decided there was a better way. Should i grind it down or go with something else?

 

You are getting ahead of yourself.
Welcome, by the way.
Go back to square 1 and get the engine and chassis up to proper condition.
-Check/adjust your valves
-Clean/adjust carbs as necessary
-Check and replace your brake hoses
-Check and replace your rear brake shoes
-Check and replace your fork seals and oil
-Check and service your final drive
-Check and replace fuses
-Check/clean wiring loom

Seriously, put down the grinder and get the maintenance taken care of. Get the bike running first or you will run out of steam and toss the whole thing on the pile when you get stuck on some aggravating modified part.

Good luck,

 

I agree get the bike running good and take care of the little things before you chop/modify it. It will save you a lot of headaches.

 

I could do more I suppose but it runs good and did most of that already. One problem is the boots from the airbox are shrunk and there is a small vacuum leak in the 2 middle ones but it only bogs going into first gear. I've tried to heat it up and stretch it but there is still a small gap

 

Get the vacuum leaks attended to before you hole a piston or burn a valve.

Start reading The Information Overload Hour (link in my signature) and make sure you have a viable bike before you do any mods. Used air box boots are inexpensive, and most will be in better condition than yours are; Chacal also has new ones available. Check the condition of your carb to cylinder boots as well. I doubt that your bog is being caused by the air box boot leaks alone.


Then search up the mod threads and read up before you start doing anything else.

 

Your very first sentence was:

"I don't know much about building a bike...."

So don't get bent out of shape or argumentative when we tell you what we're going to tell you. You want this bike to be running the best it can, and be reliable, right? So listen and do. Once you're at THAT stage you can mod whatever you want---

That being said:

As someone else pointed out:
Go back to square 1 and get the engine and chassis up to proper condition.
-Check/adjust your valves
-Clean/adjust carbs as necessary
-Check and replace your brake hoses
-Check and replace your rear brake shoes
-Check and replace your fork seals and oil
-Check and service your final drive
-Check and replace fuses
-Check/clean wiring loom

Seriously, put down the grinder and get the maintenance taken care of. Get the bike running first or you will run out of steam and toss the whole thing on the pile when you get stuck on some aggravating modified part.

Now, go start at the top of the list.

Do it the easy way... Just like we show you...
Or the hard way.... Fight and argue the whole time only to find out you end up having to do it anyway but in a very inconvenient and often redundant order...

 

I didn't mean to come off as argumentive... I'm asking for advice and I appreciate getting it.... Also I did some searching last year for boots and only found a pair for $60 plus shipping and the bog is hardly noticeable

 

But the bog shouldn't be there at all.

Think of it like that cavity that only bothers you occasionally. Do you leave it go until it becomes a big problem, or do you take care of it while it's still cheap to fix?

 

a small gap, only the two middle ones? hummm, look to make sure those boots are pulled out of the airbox all the way. the middle ones are the hardest to get back on and maybe the p.o. just gave up.
the eyelets on the shocks are better pressed out, rig something up in a vise so you can push them out, hammering just bounces, put some oil in there

 

Yeah, i see what you're saying i would rather have them on all the way. When i say gap i mean they aren't overlapping a cm. I spent a day trying to move the airbox as much as i could as well as move the carbs off the front boots to make the airbox boots close the gap... it's old shrunken rubber. I'l look into where you said you can get new ones. And i'll start reading up on other posts as i'm sure everyone is annoyed of answering the same questions over and over i was just anxious to get the new shocks on.

 

I'm where you're at, too Curtis. Patience is tough. So many shiny distractions, but I gotta keep reminding myself of how angry I'll be if I spend a ton on new parts and then later discover that the engine is shot or something beyond salvaging.
This site doesn't help my problem. So many XJs in such good shape... I wanna be polishing and painting and updating '80s style, not disassembling and fiddling (no offense, Hogfiddles!) around! More than anything, I wanna RIDE it, and following the XJgurus' advice is the best way to get there.
Also, they seem genuinely concerned with my safety, which is more than I can say for myself!

 

The front of your airbox could be concaved a bit, too.......I've had a number like that. Just heat it with a hot airgun and push it back out from the inside. wedge or stuff things in there to hold it out while it cools. You can soften the boots by either hot-air gun or boiling. That will soften them long enough for you to install them if you work fast.

Dave F

 

do the boots just fall back into the air box? and if you get that far, there's a oval mark on the carb end where the clamp will go, that's the top