bensalf's 4 year caferacer build

I've been posting a few topics in "technical" for a while now, and some of you would have seen my efforts at building caferacer from an xj600 euromodle.
so I decided to document my take on it in a build thread ,so here it starts 4 years ago
bike was bought from a salvage yard on 7/1/ 2012 (that's 7th January)
bike was a category "c" write off, which means it was written off by the insurance company after being stolen and crashed, but can be rebuilt and put back on the road
I paid £175 for it, with no log book (title)
this is how I got it at home

on inspection found frame twisted at headstock, both fork stanchions bent,
tank, seat missing, headlight missing coils ,starter solenoid missing ,carbs seized up.



first job was to get it running, to see if it was a viable project.
removed carbs and partially soaked in paraffin overnight

freed off throttle shafts, cleaned out float bowls, and replaced back on bike

stu

 

sent off for missing items from ebay, i.e. coil packs and plugleads starter solenoid
these fitted to bike .
oh, I forgot, made up a dummy fuel tank from a protein bottle, and wetset floats

hooked bike up to a car battery, and eventually got it running fine,
charging system was producing 15 1/2 volts so that will be looked into later on.
all gears were selectable, and engine ticked over and revved ok.
didn't have a compression tester at this point, but there seemed to be plenty of power available.

soooooo. I began the tear down.

 

first job was to straighten the headstock.
you can see the twist in the frame here,

the bords you can see at the bottom of the picture are my garage "pit" boards.

I put the bare frame in the pit and wedged it all the way round with wooden packers.
myself and 2 mates were then able to twist the headstock by inserting the scaffold pipe with a longer one slotted on the end
through the headstock. then swinging on it.
it was then a case of removing the frame from the pit and rebuilding the forks ,swinging arm and wheels, then rechecking wheel alignment
using two pieces of string along the wheels.
this revealed wee had swung too far, and the headstock was very slightly twisted the opposite way.
so it was a case of stripping the bike again and re-wedging it in the pit, and swinging the other way.
that did the trick, and after rebuilding the bike back up ,the wheels were almost spot on apart from a couple of mm out, which was near enough for me.

 

what does soaking the carbs in paraffin do?

 

Cleans the crud out. He's not using parrafin wax; its kerosene.

 

that's right, I forgot you call it kerosene, used in oil lamps and heaters e.t.c.
it loosened up the throttle shafts great, i'll be replacing the seals later , this was just to get it running.
stu

 

glad you cleared that up

I was wondering how to melt the wax and cook the carbs overnight with out. being asked to many questions

 

next job was to "delug" the frame, of all the brackets I don't need, i.e.
bellypan and fairing brackets, airbox and sidepanel brackets, battery box and rear cowling brackets.
also sliced off the rear subframe, ready for new subframe to be welded on, to fit single caferacer seat.


new subframe welded on


stu

 

next job was to raise the rear end of the bike by 30mm so the rear tyre would not foul the new under seat tray housing the electrics.
I did this by slicing off the top shock mount ,and making a plate to lower the mount by 10mm, this would lift the back end of the bike by 30mm at the tyre bike is a monoshock model

heres a much later pic of the shock bracket lowered by 10mm, the top of the mount used to be level with the top of the frame cross tube.


stu

 

lowering the shock mount ,also means I had to lengthen the centre stand and side stand by 18mm
so the rear tyre would be clear of the ground ,when on the centre stand

sorry for some of the blurry early pictures as I had the camera on close up
stu

 

bike now stripped down, all paint stripped off ,and bare metal painted with phosphoric acid (jenolite)


frame now treated with Hammerite rust beater

2 coats of rust beater applied, now 2 coats of primer


now for the top coat, all primer and top and clearcoats ,done with rattle cans
2 coats of metallic deep red of "Holts "applied


2 coats of clearcoat applied over red topcoat
so nine coats in all from bare metal to last clearcoat
frame now wrapped in a bike cover and hoisted up to workshop roof, out of way , to allow room to work on next pieces.
stu

 

stu

 

next job is swinging arm and monoshock with linkage,
so here's the grotty swinging arm with shock linkage attached

after removing paint, made up a makeshift turntable to allow spraying to be done on both sides
heres the shock linkage pivot point ,with the relay arm, and shock all joined up ,looking from underneath the bike


its a weird set up , the bottom shock pivot point is way below the swinging arm ,and in direct line with the rear wheel, thus all the crap gets chucked
directly at it.

also obtained a replacement shock as the original one had a bent damper rod.

heres the swing arm with a coat of primer.



stu

 

here it is finished in metallic silver.

the relay arm pivoting pins (where they fit in the swing arm were heavily pitted. Luckily I have a "big bro" who has a lathe and a welder .
he made up 2 new pivots, bored out the old pivots and welded in new ones. luckily he's an engineer, as they had to be spot on to line up in the swing arm

stu

 

relay arm now sprayed up, together with bottom fork yoke.

shocker stripped and spring sprayed "post office" red

shock now reassembled


shock link arm sprayed up, and new seals fitted.

stu

 

here are the pieces "temp, bolted" together, the bottom shock "eye" fits between the linkages in the centre.
although its should be the other way up

stu

 

here's the swing arm bolted to the frame with shock and linkages


stu

 

next to the forks. these dismantled, using a long 19mm bolt with nut welded on end to loosen the bottom damper rod bolt

bottom leg polished up

fork tube dismantled, bushes checked.


new oil seals and dust seals and snap rings, obtained and fitted

fork legs built back up

 

top fork yoke cleaned up, the large ring is where the ignition switch goes. as I wont be using this I cut the ring off, as my Acewell digital dash will be mounted here

here's a later photo with the dash fitted ,top yoke polished up and ugly serrated handlebar mounts covered with blanking washers
more on the dash later.

stu

 

next to the wheels, first to knock out all the seals and bearings, 5 bearings on this bike ,3 in the rear wheel ,2 in the front



2 in the sprocket carrier,


new bearings and seals fitted

next, to polish up the exposed alloy part of the wheels,
the milled finish of the edges will have to be smoothed off before any polishing can be done

 

the edges were smoothed using 320 grit paper then gradually decreasing to 400,600,1000,1500, then buffing wheel




now to start masking up for spraying



discs also masked up and sprayed

new hi-max tyres arrived


stu

 

Great attention to detail! Looking forward to the finished project. I'm about 1 yr into a similar build on a 650 Max.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great attention to detail! Looking forward to the finished project. I'm about 1 yr into a similar build on a 650 Max.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
yes, thanks,! so you're probably like me , a bit timid to start posting pictures in case the whole project collapses?
I've seen so many projects on here and other forums that never come to a conclusion because the builder hits a snag.
at least mine's up and running , just needs a little more dialing in ,when the weather improves.
cheers
stu

 

so I finally got around to bolting some pieces together.

next, the engine
stu

 

oh!, also ,above, note the 6 little up-stands I had welded onto the rear top frame , these are to mount the seat rails on , also to bolt
the new under-seat tray to house the electrics.
stu

 

so, engine lifted onto bench, and paint stripper applied




stu

 

after an initial steam clean, and wipe down.

overdid it with the steam a bit.

stu

 

I starting posting a build thread, but it's taking longer than I thought so I figured I would just do a full thread once done.

Keep the pics coming!

 

did'nt have a compression tester at this stage, but did a valve shim check.
only 3 were in spec, managed to swop one around, which left me needing to buy 4 more.
obtained these and fitted , all valves now in speck.
here's a tool I made to hold the bucket down , while the shim is extracted with tweezers.


I made the tool out of a 1 foot steel rule, and stuck an old wire brush handle on,
after seeing a similar thing in the Haynes book


stu

 

this was before I read about the zip tie /bent wire methods.
didn't like the home made tool very much ,as it had a tenancy to cock over whilst holding the bucket down,
although it did work.
I used the bent electrical wire at subsequent times.

 

obtained a compression tester, like this one.

run a compression test on all 4 cylinders.

with the following results

1---- 0
2---45
3---100
4---85

with a tablespoon of engine oil in each cylinder

1---110
2---155
3---165
4---100

re-tested the day after

1---25
2---75
3---105
4---90

left a week after

1---0
2---100
3---240 eh?
4---85

dunno what happened to the no3 cylinder test above, probably me, getting used to the guage.
so these results would indicate a fault within the cylinders, so decided to pull the head off, to have a look.

 

I could fit a .178mm feeler guage between the piston and cylinder, which is slightly out of spec, but I reccon rings are stuck.
cylinder bores look good ,with still some cross hatching showing, so I pulled off the cylinders


pistons themselves looked good ,after a clean up

but some of the rings were stuck in

stu

 

also found no, 1,2,and 3 exhaust valves were leaking through, after filling the head with oil

stu

 

so stripped the head completely to regrind the valves in

 

cleaned up bottom crankcase, and masked up ,and sprayed with simoniz engine enamel



new camchain installed, also note the black plastic protectors on the cylinder head bolt shafts.
originals disintegrated whilst dismantling, these new ones are actually heatshrink tubing

stu

 

cylinder barrels cleaned up and sprayed

pistons cleaned up and refitted, barrels slotted on

 

note the clear air passages, through the middle of the cylinder block,
compared to this picture, before cleaning, shows the passages almost completely blocked.

stu

 

NOW------here's where I made a monumental f-up, yes stupid imbecile, me,----
after grinding in the valves I decided to refit the cams ,and redo the valve clearances, with the head on the bench.
whilst I know xj's are "interference engines ", in that the valves can come into contact with the pistons, when manually turning the cams , without the camchain being fitted and timed up. so that wouldn't be a problem ,with the head on the bench. OR SO I THOUGHT.
what I didn't realise is that the valves also "interfere" with each other when turned separately, as in the photo

so whilst turning the cams with a spanner on the hexagon, I managed to bend all 4 exhaust valves.
you can see here the light shining through the bent valve, this one is supposed to be closed.

I didn't even know I had bent them till I turned the head over, after doing the clearances, as it took remarkably little effort to do the damage.
here's one of the bent valves

stu

 

so after sifting through ebay, I couldn't find any replacement valves on their own.
but I did manage to find a complete engine, at a reasonable price "£75" complete with starter motor, and generator.
and only about 30 miles away.
so I got the engine ,and stripped the valves out of it, reground them into my head, and re fitted them back in.
now masked up and sprayed the head


head now refitted back on, with the new camchain threaded through and linked up and timed.


chain riveted over

all timing marks lined up, with crank shaft set at t.d.c.

stu

 

Good on ya admitting to the mistake and the consequences. Another person will read this thread and save their valves

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good on ya admitting to the mistake and the consequences. Another person will read this thread and save their valves
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
yep I hope so , I think I got away lightly, especially dropping on that spare engine so easily.
luckily my "big bro" is an engineer ,and has all the machines, and he has managed to straighten the bent valves.
which I will replace in the spare engine, and rebuild it.
but at the time I did this, he was away on a 12 week cruise.
stu

 

now I got the engine built up and showing decent compression across all 4 cylinders, valves in spec-- again.
I started to polish up some of the engine covers,
here are some in various stages of polishing.

I polished these covers ,similar to the wheels, starting with 400 grit paper ,wet , then 600 ,1000, 1500, then buffing wheel with brown soap then
green soap,
I spent literally weeks doing all the covers.
cam cover completed


clutch cover done

generator and crank covers polished and painted in the lettering

covers now finished and new stainless steel allen screws obtained

stu

 

starter motor stripped and cleaned, there was still plenty of life left in the brush ,so I polished the cover an rebuilt it

cam cover donuts were pretty much done in , got new ones and fitted on bolts .


had cover bolts chromed
silver painted the 4 large ones with the fixed rubbers,

stu

 

decided to do something different with the sprocket cover.

I cut out 2 of the cast circles
here it is at bottom right, after removing paint



also cut away part of the upper plate

rounded off the edges and began sanding down


polished up the cover and red painted the cut away edges

here it is fitted at a later stage

stu

 

engine now fitted in frame, had engine plates and bolts, chromed

found these, cast ally, headlight brackets on ebay, polished and fitted.


also found some clipon, 2 piece handlebars

stu

 

woooow! very nice work

 

-------------------------------------------------
woooow! very nice work
------------------------------------------------

thank you very much for your comments, I have'nt had many replies so far, its nice to get some feedback from some of the experts.
probably because its in "modifications"
this is my first xj, although I've cafe'ed some other bikes in the past.
I'm already onto my second xj600 now , but that will be in standard form.
here's a honda cx500 I did 25 years ago


stu

 

great job so far. inspiring me to go with a polished looked on my motor instead of black

 

Exceptional craftsmanship. I vote to add this to the build threads in the Information Overload Hour.

Gary H.

 

Can't believe you haven't had many comments....I'm just starting my work and though I may stay pretty close to stock there's a lot to be inspired by here and a lot of good process info. Great work.