What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Did the oil yesterday, tackled the carbs today. I knew something was wrong when I first got the bike and the idle mixture screws were 4 turns out and it was still running lean. Checked out the carb float levels to find that the closest one was 6mm (spec is 3mm) and the other 3 were around 9mm. So a around 3 times spec which was nice. So being a stubborn person with back issues I decided I was going to do these float levels inside my kitchen, suspending the carbs with bungee cables from the handle of a kitchen cabinet. First I adjusted the floats dry and then went ahead with checking the new float levels. It worked surprisingly well until I tried to get gas into the carbs and spilled said gas. So I'm frantically cleaning my counter and hoping my landlord doesn't decide to drop by today and see what I'm doing in my first week living there. Defeated I head outside to sit on a cinder block (Ouch) and get to work. I put em on top of an oil drain bucket/pan/thing and used a small piece of wood to make sure it was level. High tech, I know. Turns out I got 3 and 4 damn near perfect and had to adjust 1 and 2 just a little bit to get them all in spec. Set the idle air mixture at 2.5 turns and put it all back together. Started it up with the choke and it sounded really good to my ears.

Unfortunately as soon as I took it off the choke it went to idle and then slowly died. RPM's just slowly decreased until it died. I could keep it alive by giving it a little bit of gas but if I was hands off it would eventually die. So I kept it alive a little bit to see how it sounded at higher RPM's. It would bog and almost die if I gave it a hard fast blip and wouldn't be able to recover unless I let off. If I slowly increased RPM to about 2k - 2.5k and then gave it a nice rev it sounded great.

I'm thinking its the idle air mixture, need to lean it out a tad and do some tweaking. Anything I should try? Valves have been done recently, bike was idling fine before I actually set the float levels.

 

turned from this:

into this:


All the really good silver will go onto another 650rj, and I’ll have one nice one of each

 

Received new brake parts and seat cover from Len (Chacal) at XJ4Ever. Great stuff, as usual. Started rebuilding brakes until it got to be about 100 degrees in my garage. Also received "new" fuel tank from Germany, and almost had a heart attack. This is what the shipping box looked like upon arrival:

No bubble wrap - just paper. Also, there were cockroaches in there (glad I didn't open the box inside the house). Miraculously, the tank was undamaged. Had to drill the filler-cap lock out because there was no key. Had no idea what the tank was going to look like inside, but I was pleasantly surprised:

 

9 out of 10 time I’m able to pick the lock.

 

Didn't even try that. At least now it will open with my old key. Or a screwdriver. Or...

 

I always try that first, now that I know how

 

Pulled the bike out for the first ride of the season to go get new tires after taking care of all the maintenance a few weeks ago. There is a little alcove in the garage that is just wide enough to tuck the bike into, but I can’t be on the bike to get it in or out of there. As I was setting it down on the stand, the throttle broke, the bike rolled forward slightly as the bars rotated from only having the clutch side grip attached to the bars (standing on the trottle side of the bike), and guided the bike down in slow motion as I tried to save it one handed. I was not successful in keeping the bike upright.

I bent the clutch lever, but at least I kept it from scratching or denting anything.

What did I do to my XJ today?
Broke it and made it not ridable.

I did use a tig welder tip cleaning tool to clean out the two weep holes in the front brake master cylinder, so the brakes no longer drag.

Wish I did that before moving the bike like I considered as that would have reduced the rolling resistance and maybe prevented me from breaking the plastic insert for the throttle grip. I might be riding right now insted of messing around on the forums looking for parts

 

What broke.... throttle tube? Throttle cable?
Let us know what you need— someone is bound to have it

 

The throttle tube I believe (having internet access issues at the moment, difficulty looking things up).

The plastic part that goes over the bar that the grip slides onto. It is what rotates with the grip to pull the cable. It sheared off at the controls side of the grip. I’d try to post a picture, but it will probably take an hour or three to upload at this rate.

 

Apparently I’ve only got reception in the garage and on the toilet. (still in the garage)

 

We have brand new ones in stock, you can send us an e-mail for all of the pricing/ordering info at info@xj4ever.com

 

Thanks. I’ll shoot you an email. I was scanning your parts list, but must have missed it.

 

Cylinders back on engine. Took my time didn't want anything damaged. Easy to guide rings into the bores by hand as there is a good bevel on the bottom of the liners. Final engine assembly in the next few days.

 

Back from paint. Going to order new badges from Chacal to finish the look.

'81 XJ650

 

What kind of coating is on the headers?

 

VHT Flameproof black

 

I have the Midnight Maxim version of that year bike and like the look of that with all the other black. Thanks. Guessing it was fairly easy to apply.

 

The only pain was cleaning up the header pipes. The VHT was the spray bomb from Advance Auto Parts. I did use VHT primer as well. Share pics!

 

Stripped the "new" tank.
Before:

After:

 

Replaced the reed switch in my speedometer. Turn signal auto-cancel works again!