Yamaha xj550 sitting for 10 years

Hi guys !

I'm Wottel (nickname) from Belgium, 25 years old. This weekend i'll pick up a yamaha xj550.
This bike is gifted by an old couple to me (was standing in their way)!

I allready went checking this bike. It's fully complete and verry low mileage.
It has also a cafe racer style winscreen and side panels for Luggage.
The bike was bought by the parents for their daughter. The daughter drived it 10 years ago a couple of laps in the garden and decides that the bike is to fast. So the bike ended up in their barn and didn't saw daylight until this weekend .

I'll post pics asap.
The chrome is rusted and the wheels and engine is oxidated.
The storage conditions were not ideal....

I allready did somme research of this model but i didn't find that much at all.
Are these bikes so rare?

Before starting this bike their will be plenty of work i need to do :
-Remove old gasoline from the tank and remove the rust inside
-Clean the carbs
-Inject little bit oil in the piston rooms and let it in for couple of days
-change oils
-change spark plugs
-See that all fuses an electrical system is ok
-...

I realy need somme advice to get this xj550 starting.
So if u guys can give me somme advice and thing i need to pay attention shoot it !

Greetings from Belgium ;
Wottel

 

you have come to the right place.
here is an wiring diagram for you hover your mouse over things
http://frankjohansson.com/stuff/xj550/XJ550ElectricalDiagram.html
after soaking pistons for a while
i would change oil first then remove crank cover on the left side as sitting on bike.
then see if you can manualy turn it over 18mm wrench be very carfull not to damage the pickups.
if motor will not turn wait to spend money. let us know

go to this link
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/forums/xj4ever-supporting-vendor.23/
read
information overload, church of clean, secerat life of carbs,follow the link in something new something naked, and read talkin tech

 

Post a few pics that will help us help you to determine model you have and did you mean panniers ? We call them saddle bags on this side of the ocean

 

Thanks for the advice !
Wow that wire diagram is amazing.

I'll post pics when i picked up the bike tomorow.

 

I'll do .
Yeah plastic panniers and a huge windshield,

 

it is my understanding that the only xj550 overseas are all seca, but not called seca.
it could be a NA version brought over through a military base or something.
I know this because I have asked members from that side of the ocean. I am/was looking for a euro maxim for the front right lower fork to convert my xj to dual disc. it seams my only option to do that is to go seca front end and obtain a left lower fork from europe. Just qualifying my statment do not wish to thread drift. I do have a old thread about this.

 

Hey Wottel

Euro xj550s ar eteh coolest, twin disc and an oil cooler. wow ! I had my first one at 19, a long time ago.. Trying now to rebuild one from crates but time is precious. Look after that baby and have fun.

Cheers

James

 

Don't know if I ever saw a 650 Maxim dual disc setup it would be gold if you ever find one.

 

The bike arived home !
I littarly pushed the bike to my house (500 meters).
Me and my dad are verry happy with this bike. I like the style and first thing i noticed; what a giant engine !

It will be a project i'll do with my dad during the winter.
First thing to do is to carefully get the engine started step by step.
If we see the engine comes alive and it's not stuck, we will invest somme money into parts in order to put it back on the road.
Exhaust pipes are rust on the bottom and also the fuell thank needs to be cleaned.

What do u guys think of this project?
The bike is from 1982 type 4v8 xj550.

 

thats a seca style XJ550 RJ
the flat seat and axle at bottom of fork. dual disc euro model
nice find

 

Welcome to the asylum. What do I think? Looks like a decent steed. Rebuild it and ride the wheels off of it. Varoom, varoom!

Gary H.

 

Looks like a BMW would have fit in better with all the Germans in your garage! That is one dusty, grimy Porsche...
Welcome to the group, and good luck with the bike!

 

Would love a set of those euro switch clusters with pass flash and light switch

 

Ok Yesterday i worked on the bike.
I removed the gas tank and drained the old nasty brownish fuel...
We gonna use elecrolytic to remove all the rust inside the gas tank.

I injected a little of motor oil in the cilinders to soak in for a couple of days.
We struggled to remove the spark plugs... Is this a special size? I think its wrench size 18 (Belgium).

Today i gonna clean the petcock and the carbs.
Also drain the engine oil (gonna do somme research how to do this.

The spark plugs looks fine after 10 years.... Do we need to change this or not?
The engine bay is nasty, the cilinders and head are full of corosion and paint is falling of.

Is it possible to paint the engine black without removing the cilinders and head and all the cases ?

I will take somme pictures of the proces

 

Wow that one only has about 8000 miles on it.
Even though you have such low miles.
Go and replace your rear brake shoes and the brake lines up front. Clean and rebuild your calipers and the master cylinder before you ride this bike. Brake failure because of age is not a maybe it will happen. Be safe and take your time doing it.
Your carbs are going to need serious cleaning and some new parts. Look the carb manifolds over and if they are dry rotted and cracked you will find they may be leaking vacuum and it will be hard to get it to run right. There are fixes for the cracks but new manifolds are nice because the old rubber is so stiff getting the carbs in and out is difficult.
Lastly before you do any sync or tuning the valve clearances need to be checked and shimmed correctly.
Try to find a shop manual for reference and all the required maintenance needed.
Replace the tires even if they look good the date codes are expired and they may not be safe either. Look and I bet they are cracking from dry rot also.
Good luck you have a very nice project bike there and with some patience and hard work you can bring it back to safe rideable condition.

 

Nice find! Plan in investing the money into it, regardless, and you will end up with a real nice ride.

 

thanks everyone !

I'm realy struglin with the carburators.... Allready had to drill 2 screw out because they were rotten.
Now i have a realy hard time to remove the carburator fuell bowls. Any ideas how they can easly comme loose after sitting around for 10 years?

 

use penatrating oil and spray daily for a couple if days do not be in a hurry.
are you using a standard phillips screw driver? or a JIS (japanesse Industrial standard) driver the screws are JIS. some screw drivers made for electronics
are JIS.
you can apply heat and or cold using canned air invert the can.
try tighting the screw first

 

Yeah.... Send them out to have someone else do the work!! Lol

Reality is that if its been sitting out that long, you're GONNA have a tough time. And, anyone you send them to is gonna have a tough time.

The last set of 550 carbs I did was for listmember "Saftie". He sent me his rack, we had to buy another parts rack, PLUS raid my parts stash to build a beautiful rack for him. You can follow his build to see them.

If you wish to discuss rebuild services, start a private conversation with me.

Dave Fox

 

Make her run right then make her stop on a dime and do all the other preventive maintenance.

Gary H.

 

i did it ! I used a plastic hammer to loosen the gas bowls on the carburators.
2 screw that were rotten and i needed to drill out and all the gaskets and rubbers are in realy bad condition.
Also all the rubbers an gaskets from the petcock needs to be changed:




This is what i used to clean out this mess :

After somme cleaning ;




Got the carbs out :

 

This is how the bowls looked like on the inside ;


This is the gaskets i struglin to remove...



Time flies by if i'm working on a bike. So enough of work donne today. Tommorow to do list :
-Clean all carb parts
-drain the engine oil
-Prepare the tank for electrolysis
-Maybe check if the engine is loose... I hope so ! -> what case i need to remove to turn the engine around with a wrench?

 

Cleaning of the carbs is essential to getting your bike to idle and run. Take your time, be meticulous, take pictures and notes for future reference. Looks like you have a decent space and tools to wrench. Got a impact screwdriver?

The left side crankcase cover with YICS on it.

Gary H.

 

Your carbs don't look all that bad considering. I see that the petcock fuel screen is in excelent condition.

 

That's a whole lot better than some racks I've rebuilt----

 

Thanks i will take a look and hopefully it's loose (i will let u guys know)

 

Well it's my first motorcycle i restore from scratch. So maybe i'm not used to work with a bike that's in this condition.
I can imagine that their are projects that the bikes are in worse condition from start.

But here is a picture u can actualy see how dirty the block engine is become after sitting for over 10 years :

 

But the pic shows airbox, boots, carbs, intake boots all connected.... Exhaust pipes still connected, seat still on..... Not easy for water to get inside like that. So you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. Just because it's ugly outside doesn't mean it's ugly inside.

 

It's what we call a barn find. As Hf stated...looks like a complete bike which is good. And as k-moe stated isn't what we call bad considering it's not been road worthy in 10 years. Cleansing the bike of the bird poo will transform the look. A problematic project is a bike that has a bunch of missing and or damaged beyond repair parts.

Gary H.

 

Yeah. For example, here's my latest project acquisition: ( some people may have already seen this)

Dave F

 

you're absolutly right !

Another question for preparing my fuel tank for the electrolysis :

Do i need to remove the fuel level meter on the inside of the fuel tank ?

And how can i remove the main nozzle ?

 

I like the entire xj series but this one is gonna be good. Please start a build thread (I need to follow this). A turbo that'll boost the way it came from the factory. Can't wait to see the test run video. Make her fly Hf, I know you can.

@Wottel: My apologies but I just couldn't resist.

Gary H.

 

Wottell, yes, remove every thing from the tank.
Main Nozzle: do you mean the tube in the center of the carb? Turn the carbs upside down and the emulsion tubes drop out through the top. They are probably gummed up and stuck in place so you'll have to soften the gooey stuff first. I carefully heat the riser with a small torch to let the heat soften stuff, the drive them out with a drift. It's soft brass so don't mess up the threads, and don't hit hard, either, because you're working in a soft aluminum body.

 

Well i removed the case on the left side to see and turn it around....
I guess i messed up the timing now lol ?
will post a picture asap.

 

The engine is loose !

So here is the picture , if u turn this bolt to left u can turn around the engine.
But i managed to spin it a bit clockwise Does this has any negative effect on the ignition or so ?


Ow and thanks for the advice i managed to get the main nozzle out in the center :
they were pretty hard to get out


So now i put this carb unit into a carb cleaner/degreasser for a day and start to clean it up.
I finished the carb bowls, Maybe i need to polish it with wet sand paper on a flas surface (place where the gaskets commes). Because i used a soft steel brush to remove the old gaskets.


So now we know the engine is loose we can continue to do all the work and order the pieces we need to start this beauty

 

Naah, you didn't mess anything up.

Btw, when your carbs are all torn down and cleaned, they'll look like this before reassembly:

And when they're done, they'll look sort like this:

 

Take care when turning the engine not to damage the lobes directly above and below the timing plate. Those are the pickups for the coils. Your bowls look good.

Gary H.

 

shine bright !


Can somebody tell me what this screw is for (red in picture) ? I removed it but don't know the settings.
I checked 1 screw and if i spinned the screw all the way in its 2 turns loose.
is this correct for standerd setting ?

 

idle mixture screw 2 to 2-1/2 turns out to start

see page 18, 19, 20 of this link
http://www.xj4ever.com/inside your carbs.pdf

 

How did you get the carbs so clean?
Just wondering what you used.

 

That's called an " impact driver". Lol

 

Use a flat file or a grinder to remove the tip of the screwdriver. It'll fit more like a jis. Also be careful to "tap" on the end of the screwdriver or you'll drive the shaft through the handle or it will shatter completely.

Gary H.

 

make sure your cold start enrichment passages are cleaned & unclogged in your float bowls..

 

In picture it looks like he has a big selection of canned magic!

 

Nasty, nasty, nasty, but thorough.

 

K-moe do you like that Chem Dip stuff?
Pretty harsh

 

I love Chem-Dip. I reserve it for the really gunked up carbs though, since it has to be disposed of as a hazardous waste. I want to get as much use out of it before disposal as I can.

 

ok so now my fuel tank is in a solution for the electrolysis.
I noticed that the washing soda i bought the concentration of sodium carbonate is around the 30%....
Is this a problem ?
I used like 100 grams of my washing soda in the whole tank.

Any help would be nice

 

The chemistry is pretty forgiving. As long as the solution is alkaline and bubbling away you're golden. If you had used 100% sodium carbonate then I'd be concerned about your ratio of powder to water. It's hard to get the solution too akaline with storebought washing soda, but as you've found it can be difficult to get it akaline enough depending on the product. The washing soda that I use is typically 85% sodium carbonate (Arm & Hammer brand). Being as you are in Belgum you may have to source that concentration from a chemist's shop or a building maintainance supplier.

 

So if i triple my dose im fine ? Well im curious if it worked overnight.