A reintroduction as it were.

Greetings All, I was starting to get active on here several years ago, then life happened. I was working full time and going to school full time. After school I hired out on the railroad, best job I've ever had but it was hard on the family, and left little time for hobbies. After getting furloughed last year I chose not to go back for my family's sake. As a result I now have time to slowly tinker on my '83 750 Seca again.

Before I shelved this project last time i had removed the swing arm with the idea of rebuilding the motor. Instead I've decided to take a different approach. I'm starting at the rear and working my way forward. I pulled the rear wheel and inspected the brake shoes. No de-lamination, but the shoes are worn enough I plan on replacing them along with the wheel bearings which are overly stiff. I pulled apart the final drive and removed the drive shaft and was satisfied none of the splines were worn out. I did put some fresh coupling grease on them when I reassembled and reinstalled the swing arm.

I already had the clutch apart and inspected my discs and springs. Everything but one spring measured within tolerance, but was close enough that I just plan on replacing the works since it is apart already. after that is going to be the carbs and front brakes. I plan to farm out the carb work mostly because I know how finicky they are and there is an awesome old man that runs a great bike shop up in Hatley, WI. that I want to throw some work at.

I do plan on swapping out the headlight, gauges and handlebars but that will be after she is running. The previous owner used it for commuting and had the front brakes lock up on him. he laid the bike down and as a result banged up the fairing, dented the tank and scraped up the side boxes.

I have no delusions about having the bike roadworthy this year, but next year is looking promising.

 

Fairing? Luggage?
Woo HOO!
How bad is the damage? Most things can be repaired fairly easily since they are all made from ABS.

 

The luggage is scraped up a bit, I think with some sanding and a little bit of ABS paste it can be smoothed out pretty nice. Same with the fairing, and I don't have the lowers for it, the guy I bought it from had pulled them off and stuffed them somewhere. I'll see if he still has them, it's been a few years but he doesn't part with things often. I'll dig everything out and post some pics when I get home this evening.

 

Hi Tom-- Welcome back to the fold

Things are going to look a bit different here from what you may remember, but we're still good

Glad you're back.

Dave f

 

Thanks, for the welcome back. It feels good to have time for hobbies again, I forgot what that was like.

 

What's a hobby?

 

It's like work, but you do it because you want to and usually costs you money.

 

Oh.... then I have a lot of hobbies

 

So it's exactly like work then

 

If you get paid for a by product is it still a hobby?

Our 3 hives survived the winter and the girls are dragging in tons of pollen and there isn't much blossoming, I think this year is going to be a good honey year!

Noticed I said get paid not "make money" need to have a lot of Benjamin's to come out ahead on this hobby.

 

I've got the same goal with my blacksmithing hoping that it will sustain itself, but getting set up is expensive.

 

After some soul (wallet) searching I decided to keep the original gauges (I also don't want to bother rewiring the bike). I do still want to put some clip-ons or clubman bars on the bike. I'm still youngish and want a more aggressive/sporty look. My friend that I bought the bike from may have a round headlight bucket for me, otherwise I'll be in the market for an original square one. I've also been plotting out possible paint schemes because I'm excited so far the leading idea is Grabber Orange with an offset black stripe that lines up with the filler cap.

As for sorting out my to do list, I measured the valve shim clearance and the largest gap on both sides was .102 mm so looks like I'll be buying a shim kit as well.
So far the list includes.
-Rear brake shoes
-Rear wheel bearings
-Rear Shocks
-Clutch
-Valve Shims
-Carbs
-Handle Bars
-Mirrors
-Turn Signals
-Headlight
-Tires
-Complete rebuild of front brakes
-Change fluid in forks
-Mufflers
-Cosmetic work

Seems daunting, but that's why I'm working from one end to the other.

 

I've a square original on my 82 xj750 Maxim I'm taking off in favour of a new round light this weekend. You're welcome to it for the price of shipping if you want to go that way.

 

No need to by a shim kit. Hogfiddles runs a shim pool.