My Johnny Cash bike ( one piece at a time)

Today regressed and adjusted the head stem bearings , decided for now to stick with ball bearings , maybe one day I will swap for taper bearings . Started to look at forks..oh dear left looked okay , right fork had water inside fork have not got it tore down yet was getting late so called it a day . Yesterday I put swing arm back in at least for now . Still trying to figure out what I need and trying to get hardware figured out . So far bike bought for 120$ and abused PayPal bought a bunch of parts off eBay so about 350$ , one day will get it all back together . Some pics for both bikes hope "new" bike will look as good as Old Yellow my 82 seca

 

You'll make out on the deal.
Ball bearings work fine, just make sure that the races aren't notched.

 

Keep at it, no use rushing. The yellow 750 seca is a good looking bike, no doubt about it.

 

Nice project for the Autumn and Winter.

 

Update got right fork apart it is toast lower fork housing is full of rust and fork tube has rust spots on the chrome where seal rests , trying to clean it up , inner lower piston is badly rusted and pitted . Think this guy I got bike from was using it a boat oar ? Think I'm going to look for another fork , have not took left fork apart but looks better .

 

#1000.

 

Had to take swing arm out , forgot to put rubber boot over drive shaft , so installed and reinstalled swing arm, put foot pegs and rear engine mount bolts back on . Reinstalled rear brake arm back on , and put wire loom back on ...oh boy some was labeled others were not . Well will have to do it hard way wiring diagram. On a brighter note rode 8 miles on my other Seca , road was pretty wet in places so did not go far.

 

Got swing arm back in, rear shocks and fender, put wiring loom some of the connectors are not in real good shape , I ordered a kit off of Amazon of plugs and connectors , while I was at it ordered the kit of butt splices with heat shrink tubes ...pretty impressed with these kits will make things neeter .

 

Went on road trip to Joe Eliff's today got whole front end , boxs of parts , thanks Joe . Will have to tear into these forks and put new seals in , I'm going to put fork gaiters on . The temperature has fallen into the 40's so it is not real comfortable working in garage (unheated) . Friday rode old yellow down to filling station 4 miles , way to cold for me wind gusts 35miles an hour . So getting ready to put away for winter, very sad .

 

Rebuilt the front forks , I had rebuilt the forks on old yellow a couple of years ago , but the right fork fought me had to take it apart three times ( hope the seal dont leak). Put fork gaiters on think it looks cool , it is starting to look like a bike again .

 

Here are pictures of the forks back on starting to look like a bike again , trying to piece it back together is a slow process . Still thinking about painting tank black , I have a good tank ,side covers, tail and fender in red still away from that though .

 

Yep, Joe’s a great guy

 

I had installed wiring harness, several wires cut off , I had gotten an uncut harness from Joe Eliff when I got forks . Spent an hour removing and reinstalling harness , that was fun still need to hook up turn signals and install headlight housing . I ordered a new blade type fuse block that still needs installed .Ran new clutch cable and put in new throttle cable , gave up for now it is in 40's and wind is howling.

 

Installed new blade fuse block , I installed the wiring harness something did not look right on the wires out of the voltage regulator. I found the three white wires with electrical tape , they were pulled out of the wire block . They had wire terminals , so I have to fix this but ran out of time my goal is to get all the wiring sorted first .

 

This was fun been sorting wiring harness , put battery in and the atari display worked, horns rear turn signals , had tail light working messing around in the head light bucket ,and now it is out . Ran out of time pushing starter button no joy and neutral light is not working either . I also noticed shifting it appears it does not go through the gears fully, might have to pull engine .

 

I wonder if there are plastic chain guide bits in the sump?

 

I'm pumped , got turn signals working and horn , still have to get tail light and brake light working . Could not get neutral light and shifting only felt like it would only go two gears , pulled crank cover turned over fine with wrench. Pulled shift linkage and pulled side cover nothing out of order so reinstalled and put linkage back on. Hmm hooked up the clutch cable success got neutral light and could shift through pattern , hit start button and IT CRANKS !!!! I'm totally chuffed still got alot of work to do but it coming along .

 

Wow got the electrics sorted and did a compression check very happy lowest cylinder was 140 and highest 150 this was a dry check and have no idea when engine last ran. I have spark as well however the carb boots are rock hard and got lucky the Allen bolts were all loose no broken bolts to mess with. The bike is still quite dirty but wanted to get it back together first . My Amazon electrical kit I posted earlier has come in very handy .

 

Finishing up the electrics since I have no carbs on , wanted to see if headlights worked , right below the voltage regulator is the starter cut out relay , jumped the plug and light worked . Went to put head light in bucket , and it would not fit . Pulled another headlight bucket still would not fit , I had another headlight and it fit perfect ...still not sure what is wrong but looks like the chrome surround is larger than the bucket . Put on the red tank and side covers I'm really liking the red with the brown seat .

 

My updated pictures

 

My updated pictures from before till now

 

So getting more done , went to change the oil...moose cholock put the drain plug in , had to use a ratchet and a three foot cheater bar , finally broke free . The engine was way to full as well , went to remove filter housing of course it was mangled . Out came my dremel tool with cut off wheel , oh what fun it finally came loose but of course the housing got cuts in the bolt flange . I removed the housing from my other engine , I had ordered another bolt this one is nice 17mm instead of 12mm . My other Seca has the spin on oil conversion from xj4ever , might buy another one at some point , for now spent a little more money than I wanted to .

 

Tried to pull rear wheel to do brakes , could not get axle shaft to budge , pulled swing arm and still could not get it out . Out came the sawzall cut right side of axle , unbolted the diff and got out of swing arm . Got backing plate out , the old brake shoes fell apart tried to knock out shaft out of plate ...no luck so out came my BFH ( big f#$%^n hammer ) finally got it out. The brake drum was pretty rusty inside , using a wire wheel got it looking much better . While swing arm out painted that , I had another diff so painted it with hammer right silver , I like the effect . The brake backing plate is pretty banged up ,so I ordered another off of eBay so as soon as I get that can put this all back together. I need to get another tire , but with the time of the year that can wait not exactly riding weather .

 

Not real happy , I do not cherish putting things together just to pull it back apart. I had to remove swing arm to get rear wheel off , reinstalled got pivot bolt in and adjuster fought getting this in , finally got torqued down . Tried to put right shock in the captive nut and the bolt would not start ....after much cussing finally got it to start. Then I realized I messed up, the drive shaft boot , was over the flange okay ,but the back was not , fought it some more I think I may have to pull it back off .

 

This bike is fighting me putting it back together. I had banged up the brake backing plate , the one I bought off of eBay showed up today , cleaned it up and put new brake shoes on. Could not get it to fit into drum , flipped the shoes over and finally got it to fit. Next the axle shaft did not want to go in , and wheel did not want to line up on splines of the diff had to pull diff and got it to finally line up and got axle shaft in. Tomorrow I'm going to refit exhaust and put carbies back in and see if I can get it started ...getting closer

 

Diff? My Vmax has one, but I doubt your bike does.
Good progress.

 

Differential...just abbreviated lol

 

Nope, you don't have one of them either

 

It RUNS!!!! put on exhaust and carbs. Fired right up still got to hook up airbox and synch carbs , have an exhaust leak on number four cylinder and several more items to work through . I'm very pumped right now .

 

Went in for lunch came back out a couple of hours later , went to start bike up and it would not start.... went to check for spark ..nothing . Pulled TCI out tried my other unit and it fired right up , pulled cover on TCI and it had crud on the board , sprayed down with CRC contact cleaner , plugged it back in and fired up . So fabricated a battery shunt so ATARI does not show battery when running . Now the headlight will not work after starting so need to do some checking , and oil quantity stays on so still some sorting required .

 

Going to call it a day got a lot done , mounted shocks , exhaust, carbs , got bike to start , installed another ignition switch so now have seat lock and ignition key match . Finally got to use my plug kit the instrument cluster the six pin plug had one side broke away , so replaced both Male and female plugs ...wow you can unplug now and it has a lock as well .

 

Worked most of the day figured out why the head light would not work , the starter cut out relay is toast . pulled the relay from my other seca and light worked . Dug through my stash and of course got plenty of relays , but no yellow relay ordered another off of eBay . Going to pause , I ordered new tires been abusing PayPal lucky for me a have a large credit limit but wife is not happy I admit I probably should have just bought a running bike ...BUT this has been fun and I have used a bunch of the parts I collected .

 

Got a good deal from a seller on eBay for front and back tires , my local yamaha dealer mounted them for me . Just spent an hour in the cold garage trying to get back wheel back on had to pull drive off and got that back on ...and of course the axle shaft would not go in ...finally got it to go ...and of course the left shock would not line up after much pounding finally got it back on ...this thing has fought me trying to put it back together. Still have to put front tire on , and rebuild the calipers ( think I'm cornering the market some how I have eight to choose from ) waiting on my airbox boots from xj4ever then I can see about synching carbs right just knowing it runs makes me feel better . I've had relatively warm temperatures, but next week temp is supposed to drop .

 

My airbox boots arrived thank you Xj4ever awesome service as usual . Had to pull the carbs off to get the boots into the airbox , the new intake boots fought getting carbs back in finally got carbs back in. Runs pretty well without putting my Morgan tune synch tool on will do that soon . Yesterday got a few items done, front and back wheels put back on , and torqued ,rear engine mount bolts tighten up , installed short crash bars . Making progress been putting it off need to rebuild calipers so I have front brakes . I have worked on bikes for more years than I care to recall , but this has been a challenge to start with a pile of parts and to get where I'm at makes me feel good .

 

Spent a few hours rebuilding the left caliper , tried air to force piston 175psi ...no joy . Finally went to my grease gun popped out piston . Piston cleaned up good , inside bore of caliper was gummed up took a while with 500 grit sandpaper finally got it clean . Reassembled and put it on , AND had to pull it back apart forgot to put the anti rattle shim on brake pad . Still have to clean up right caliper got piston out , gave up for night this piston has some divits in it , making have to pull one of the other calipers apart .

 

I have come to the conclusion this bike hates me , got right caliper done went to bleed system no matter what I did with my myte one man bleeder no action on brake lever. This master cylinder looked okay , but I have others so swapped out for another . Took awhile but finally got pressure , raised front wheel and have FRONT BRAKES . I am using original 82 brake lines , really would prefer braided steel but that will need to wait for now , still need to put head light buckled back in place but getting late so calling it a day .

 

I could not get my MAC exhaust system to seal , bought a used system off of eBay, before I installed it was going to pull oil level sensor and clean it ...of course I did not have enough oil ...off to Autozone , was going to get another set of plugs ...what a waste of time " dude what vehicle is this for? " 82 Yamaha xj750 seca I need NGK BP7ES ...." is that a motorcycle? YES it is ...we don't sell motorcycle parts ...I told him I have gotten plugs from there before ...he asked the girl that worked there no NGK but they had AC delco ...forget it!!! Got exhaust more or less mounted , sound great ran out of time to finish installing.

 

Got more done , finished installing exhaust someone drilled holes around baffle sound great!! Replaced brake cable the one that was on the master cylinder did not look very good . Got out my Morgan tune really shocked was very close to perfect , I have them set about as perfect as it can be !!!! Going to let it cool off and recheck , these carbs I had rebuilt almost two years ago as a spare set so these have worked out good. I'm using my riding lawnmower fuel tank , I bought a new aftermarket petcock I'm not real enthused with . The petcock in the tank I got with bike is different I think it is off a Virago , may get a rebuild kit for it .

 

Seems like a lot of auto zone stores are not selling NGK plugs anymore ,ive been in 4 states and they say we can order you the BPR7es plugs

 

I have used Autolite AP63 plugs( equivalent to NGK) this was hot ticket for my Virago 750 , when I was on that forum , Autozone never stops to amaze me most of their employees cannot tell you anything that their computer does not display.

 

Got more done bike is almost ready to ride , today changed rear drive gear oil . Rerouted choke cable , and throttle cable , and tied up wiring harness . Painted mirrors as plastic was faded , while I was at it repainted the handle bar covers . Still waiting on some relays I ordered from eBay , the yellow relay so I can get headlight working . Starting to clean up some of the cosmetic items , good times working on my XJ great way to start 2021

 

Finally got my relays I bought off of eBay, my headlight works whoo . The only thing that does not work is the auxiliary light , think it is in the switch getting late and it is cold in garage will try in morning. For giggles I took cover off the yellow relay ....now I know why it does not work , looks like it was under water corrded and contact inside is gritty .

 

I rode for first time in 2021 ....rode all of 20 feet under own power ...whooo it pulled good . Came a long way from a pile of parts ( and a bunch missing) I'm totally pumped it runs pretty good . My wife knows I really want to ride for real ,but snow and ice and new tires and 30F degree temp will wait. Now down to cosmetic items and got a couple of oil leaks well drops I need to track down . The petcock I'm using I ordered awhile back it is an aftermarket fuel feed is on forward of assembly, so I had a Virago petcock that looks just like it . I put it on and of course it seeps, ordered the factory petcock and overhaul kit . At least I have spare parts .

 

no need to winterize that one

 

Latest pictures , picture of the ignition switch before and after ( xj4ever supplied the decal ) , the picture of the other decals I found on eBay not for the xj but is for Yamaha . This has been a real journey still have some issues to work through .

 

With the switch decals, what's the deal? - Paint the switch, float decals on, then laquer? On all my bikes the handlebar switches need doing, but most likely the 650 seca (since it will be the only original bike) will have newly painted switches with new scripts/decals.

 

Nope the Xj750 Seca the markings are a silk screen stencil and they wear off , I used these decals on my yellow Seca I really like the effect .

 

I installed new Honda CB 750 coils , the xj750 coils were badly cracked and had repaired with JB weld but decided to replace.

 

Updated bike runs better with the CB coils , I have rode exactly five miles ( all around my block several times) still have carby issues it idles great but feels like it is only hitting on three cylinders and then kicks in . Of course we have four inches of snow out and temp is way to cold to mess with bike .

 

Temp got to 36 degrees...after 12 days of snow, below average temperatures...could not resist the Johnny Cash bike started after cranking a few times she fired up . Old yellow my other Seca took a little longer and finally fired up ....oh I soooo want to ride ...going down my street is a bit like a roller coaster mounds of ice or snow or actual pavement..and we are supposed to get another snow storm . Good times