Re-re-reviving my '81 Seca 750

There might even be one more 're' in there. I was active on these forums back in the aughts and early teens, but for dumb reasons I can't fully fathom, I unceremoniously put my 1981 XJ750RH Seca up at the end of 2011 with 37k miles on the clock.

I got carb kits and shaft seals from Chacal back in August of '11 and . . . just never got around to doing the rebuilds. I had my WR250R to ride. Then more kids came along. Then a move. And then in 2020, I pulled it out of storage, had absolutely zero brake pressure, lots of oil seepage on the lower part of the engine, and I got overwhelmed/discouraged.

But I'm back at it now. Here's what I know I need and I'm trying to figure out the order to do them in. I'd love to just order all the parts and hit it, but I need to budget over at least a couple months.

1) Rebuild carbs. The bike was running great in 2011, but I was getting gas in my oil while parked as the bowls seemed to drain in to cylinders. I'd cleaned them in the past, but never did a proper rebuild and shaft seals are original.

2) Rebuild master cylinder and replace (YIKES) original brake lines. Going stainless.

3) One oil change w/ Sea Foam and then fresh oil/filter after that.

4) Rebuild clutch. AFAIK, it's original. Was getting some slippage, IIRC, though that could have been down to contaminated oil. At any rate, I'm replacing the friction plates. I had it open tonight and the drive plates look good.

5) Tires, sadly, were pretty fresh in 2011 and have tons of meat, but of course are WAY out of date.

6) Battery is way past dead.

7) Replace final drive oil, basic checks of electrical, cables, etc.

One thing that concerns me before I do any/all of that work, (especially the clutch work/replacing that gasket) is the large amount of oil seepage at the lower front of the engine. When I was riding it regularly, I had some seepage around the valve cover gasket, despite always putting a fresh one on after valve adjustments, but never lower. I'll attach a pic for opinions.

Also, when I had the clutch pack out tonight, I noticed the inside of the clutch compartment looked really good EXCEPT the low spot. There seems to be a good bit of, I don't know, spalling? in that little well. The rest is smooth, as is the underside. Is that normal? Possibly from water in the oil freezing in the low spot? Is it a concern?

And finally one other question about the clutch plates. The couple videos I've seen of XJ clutches mention the drive plates having a tab which is supposed to be repacked in a certain pattern. I don't see anything like that on these plates. Is that not a 750 thing or are these not OEM? BTW, the friction plates are actually in better condition than I expected, but yes, I do plan to replace them anyway (as well as springs and bolts).

Also also, I know about rear brake delam. I put EBC shoes in there sometime in the last 5k miles. I will inspect before I get rolling again, but at least they're not the OGs.

Anyway, glad to be back around. Hope I hang in this time. Nice to see a lot of familiar faces and many new ones.

Please chime in with any guidance/warning/encouragement.

 

Yes, one suggestion - clean the fuel tank and petcock. Then, once the carbs are clean they will stay clean. 99% of issues on these old bikes on here is carb related.
More pictures please as you progress.

 

Good call. Petcock was rebuilt before the lay-up and tank was good last time I checked, but I'll add a once-over to my list before I splash new gas in there. Also, I do run an inline fuel filter which will be replaced.

I think my current plan is to get fresh oil in and try to spark her up with the carbs as-is just to get some oil circulating in there and see how that goes. With that benchmark set, I'll do carbs and order the brake rebuild parts. See how that goes, and hopefully by next billing cycle be ready for clutch parts and battery (I have a donor battery for now, just wrong form factor). I'll do my best to document.

 

Got fresh oil in tonight, a donor battery connected, and an aux gas tank with slim hopes of it actually firing. Almost sounded like it wanted to kick over at one point, but then I caught whiff of the float bowls leaking, so I pulled the plug and pulled the carbs. Rebuild will probably commence this weekend. Note to self, idle screw was about 13.5 quarter turns out before I messed with it. Didn't touch anything else yet.

I do have lower rebuild kits and shaft seals already, but think I'll be ordering more parts to do it right after all this time.

 

I hope to get a full weekend update written sometime today at work. ;-)

But right now I have a question about the front brake rotors. Does anybody know the original thickness? I know minimum is 4.5 mm, and I have 4.85 with very minimal run out at 37k miles. I'm just wondering how much mileage (ballpark) they've got left. I don't have any notations of prior thicknesses, which is a bit unlike me. I'll of course keep an eye on them going forward after a few thousand miles.

Thx

 

@chacal do you know the original thickness of the rotors on an XJ750rh?

 

Pretty sure stock is 5mm, although I do not know for a fact. The FSM should have the specifications.

 

Yes, 5mm is original thickness, so after 37K miles you're half-way to min. thickness........so maybe another 37K miles before getting out of spec. Stock brake rotors are made from an incredibly hard material. Using metallic or semi-metallic pads will increase friction, provide better stopping power, but will eat up rotors more quickly.

 

One item , your valve clearance and at same time replace the valve cover this should take care of your oil leak.

 

@Jetfixer Thanks for the tip. The seepage seems lower than the valve cover, but I AM going in there for a valve check while the carbs are off to dfox for detox (AKA The @hogfiddles Summer Camp for Wayward Carbs and Stuck Floats) - tracking says Out For Delivery! And a new valve cover gasket and pressure washer bolts are on order from Len as soon as I work out a small cash flow blockage. I can't give the case a good scrub/degrease at the house, so my plan is to work on mechanics now and cosmetics when I can ride her to a self car wash (yes, I know to be careful w/ high pressure) and get a better idea where the oil is from.

Also going to do a compression test before I get too far ahead of myself (getting a gauge tomorrow). A little worried about how long the jugs sat un-loved, but it did crank pretty easily a couple days ago (i.e. not seized, but hopefully nothing the other way, too).

I'm overdue on a big write-up, but it's percolating. If anyone wants to see recent tear-down pics (brakes and clutch mostly), I did upload a slew to ye olde Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/oblivion/albums/72177720301209843

 

They have so much fun up there. They get to run around and play, swim in solvent, all kinds of fun carburetor activities. Mine came home so happy.

 

You PROBABLY meant Factory Service Manual, but I prefer to read it as Flying Spaghetti Monster. I hadn't seen a start-thickness in my Haynes manual. I have XJCDs around here somewhere, but thankfully Len piped in to concur with your 5mm, and that's good enough for me to ballpark my remaining wear.

 

LOL. I waste a LOT of my own time, but occasionally I realize it is worth something, especially with so much else to do on this bike. My time saved plus his expertise made it an easy decision. I'd already half-assed them once almost 20 years ago, so at over 40 years old, they deserve to be full-assed for once.

 

When you do valve clearance a metric feeler gauges are major requirement. I recently bought some from Northern hydraulics . I have several that supposedly had both SAE and metric...I call BS the set I just bought were like 9.00$

 

Yeah, I've done the check before, so I've got the holding tool and the gauges.

Cleared one hurdle today. Got a new plate for her. I was a little worried this might be a hassle, so thought it good to get it out of the way before dumping more cash in. The problem is that the original owner got the original title with the "shorty VIN," which I also did, both here in Illinois, in Wisconsin when I lived there a couple years, and then again coming back to Wisconsin. The first time I ever realized there was a longer VIN was when I changed insurance companies and they rejected the shorty VIN. So I'd found the sticker on the headstock and . . . part of it is rubbed off. I was able to reverse engineer the full VIN thanks to searching here for the code, but I worried getting it back in the system (I'd let the plate lapse in 2015) was going to raise some questions, might need a cop to clear it, and they might not be happy about the obscured sticker. BTW, mine was manufactured in February of '81 - just months before they started stamping the full VIN. But that's future me's problem. Like MIGHT be a problem if insurance ever gets involved, but . . .

 

And when you know what shins you need...... you know who runs the shim pool, cough cough

 

I've been meaning to confirm that rumor. Would make sense to drop a couple in the box on the return trip if needed. I'll let you know.

 

Compression was within a needle's width of 150 on all 4 cylinders. 2 dead on 150, one at 145, one around 152. Not bad after sitting 11 years.

Valve clearances are good on 7 of the 8 valves. Have to find my misplaced stash and see if I need any shims. Not a bad Saturday morning. Even had the 8 year old helping me out a bit.

There is a bit of grimy oil settled in the top. Will get what I can out of there. Hoping a run with seafoam once I get going cleans things up.

Will be dropping a big order on Chacal soon. . .

 

Today spent a little time with the gas tank. Petcock is good. No gas when there shouldn't be and gas with vacuum or prime. From what I can see inside, very minimal surface rust. I may hit it with a light treatment of Evapo-Rust anyway since I have it on hand. Thoughts? I used it last year to revive a scooter gas tank that sat full of water for at least a year. Did wonders.

Also picked up some new spark plugs yesterday. Old ones look good and don't have many miles on them, but why the hell not?

 

Spark plugs easily last 10k miles today, usually twice that, so I would at least keep the "old" ones for when the new ones are worn out.

 

Don't worry, I just threw out the plugs from the last change. I keep everything.

 

Tank looks pretty good. Evaporust won’t hurt anything, so if you have it, why not? If you were going to go spend a bunch of money I would say it’s not worth it.

 

Already have it and it's supposedly reusable (if you don't spill it all over your garage floor getting it back out of the tank). And I've got your blanks I can 3D print and plug holes. So yeah, we'll get 'er done while waiting for USPS to do it's thang.

Will also be repainting my calipers and thought about printing some blanks for those to aid masking, but since I'll be replacing pistons and hardware, I may just sacrifice one set. We'll see. As you said somewhere (tank donuts?), once you start printing . . .

 

I did the full Por-15 fuel tank treatment and it came out really nice. Time will tell if it's as permanent as they claim but it looks like the inside of the tank is impregnable.

 

So, I've long wondered about the origin/lineage of the fairing on my Seca (again, second owner, and the original owner had the fairing and luggage rack added at time of purchase, not remembering details). I don't currently have good pics (kept meaning to do that all weekend), but have a couple from the hard panel sticker.

Despite that sticker, it's neither a Windjammer IV nor a Vindicator. I don't have the contoured turn signals like those.

Years ago, when I lost a turn signal lens due to and accident, I turned to this group to find a replacement and initially came up empty: https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/turn-signal-lenses-for-vetter-seca-fairing.14025/ Neither @chacal nor Craig Vetter himself knew what I needed. Craig said the fairing was from after he sold the company and he'd already been getting ripped off a lot.

Eventually, I don't know how (maybe the Chicago Vintage Motorcycle group), I tracked down a pair of replacements (and sadly never updated my thread here). Turns out they match the signals from an XS-1100. I always found that interesting.

It became even more interesting today when I found this: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/yamaha/yamaha_xs_eleven_venturer.htm

Aside from the 'Yamaha' decals, and the lower wind skirts, that VERY MUCH looks like my fairing. And now it makes sense why the lens crossed back to an XS-1100. So it looks like in the year 1981, Des Plaines Yamaha fitted up an XS-1100 Venturer fairing to this XJ-750 Seca to make it a little bit of an early sport-tourer.

 

History tells some fascinating stories...........

 

Got my BIG @chacal order today (lightning quick once I pulled the trigger) - braided brake lines, MC rebuild kit, caliper rebuild kits, valve cover and clutch cover gaskets, airbox boots, and some other odds and ends. Carbs are on their way back from @hogfiddles Summer Camp and the preview photos are MIND BLOWING. And turn-around was quicker than expected. I have to remind myself not to get too anxious to slap everything together, but to do things slowly, methodically, and CORRECTLY.

Also, had a bit of a setback in that I'd ordered some Dupli-Color caliper paint from Amazon, and got the calipers all prepped today. The can felt a little 'light,' but I didn't think to much of it until I went to spray and . . . nothing. No propellant in the can. PITA to get a refund from Amazon, but finally did. Will pick some up locally instead.

Things are coming along, and I hope to have a running engine by the weekend. Still want to get the gas tank rinsed out with some Evaporust and spot-clean the engine a bit while I have the carbs off and things are accessible. Bought a new toilet brush - my cleaning weapon of choice, some purple Simple Green, and already got to work on the valve cover. Need to strip some of the remnant clear-coat, though. Not planning to get things spotless before I get her on the road, but want her presentable. Have to live up to those 'new' carbs.

 

Carburettors look like new.

 

When I say I was shocked . . . Spousal Approval Rating is high as well.

 

Carbs showed up a day late today, but it was OK, I still wasn't ready for them. They look amazing. New battery also arrived. Did get both calipers painted and rebuilt over the last couple days. Though I sprayed both at the same time, one came out glossy and the other more matte. Not going to fret it, they look way better than they did. Also got the master cylinder cleaned up, but did not embark on the rebuild yet.

Also used airplane remover to get the unclear-coat off the cam cover. Going back and forth on more prettying or slapping it all together to make sure she's still a runner and saving more detailed cleanup to the off-season. But while I have easier access with the fairing, tank, and carbs off . . . Nah, I want to hear her run!

Tomorrow after work is pretty hosed, so probably be Saturday before I can test fire it.

Moving along . . .

 

Could someone (@chacal ?) advise how to replace these? My guess is the original rubber is so hard, it's a physical impossibility to easily remove them and they must be cut off, then the new ones will slide on fairly easily, perhaps aided by silicone grease. Can someone confirm or correct?

Thx.

Hoping to get the cover and carbs back on in the morning for a test fire.

 

Oxy-acetylene torch is a good method; if one isn't handy, a jaws-of-life will work in a pinch, too......



Or you can do it the e-z way:

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/thre...-tool-now-with-how-to-pics.40308/#post-351301

 

I tried searching, I promise. I should have been looking for donuts. Mmmm, donuts.

Thx for the speedy reply!

 

I used the end of a tube of caulk to make a substitute donut tool. Used a pair of tin snips to remove the old ones.

 

I 3D printed a thing, but I won't get a chance to test it out until probably tomorrow.

 

This morning I got the pressure washers changed, did the car boot wrestling match, and she fired up on the first try. Need to dial her in of course, but so grateful to the great work by @hogfiddles getting the carbs right in the ballpark. Details later.

Instantly thought the engine was grenading itself, but then remembered I left it off with a pretty bad rattle in the exhaust collector. I feel like this was a known issue? Just ride it until it gives up?

 

So, after that excited post . . . it was a really up and down day with the ol' girl. First, those pressure washers . . .

Weapons of choice - and those 4 inner ones needed more persuasion . . .

A little wiggle with the Vice-Grips got 'em.

And just how hard that rubber was after 41 years.


My 3D printed guide tool was the business:

(I uploaded the files in the 3D Printer Files forum.)

I had my first 'oh shoot!' when I started cross-threading one of the bolts. Rule #1 of holes - when you find yourself in one, stop digging. I backed the bolt out, cleaned up the bolt and hole with tap/die and got it in straight. I went really easy on the torque. I'll keep an eye on that spot and if I have oil seepage, I'll do a helicoil.

I then moved on to re-mounting my refreshed carbs and fighting the airbox boot fight. I know old boots have a bad rep, but the new ones were tough because they weren't sure what shape they should be in and were pretty happy to just flop around. But I eventually got things buttoned up.

Installed the new battery, double-checked my oil level (had drained out the old stuff a couple weeks ago), and gave her hell. As I said in my prior post, she pretty much started right up - second button-push I think. I was elated (and made that post).

After that, things started to get a little frustrating. I went to sync the engine and couldn't get good readings with my brand new CarbTune Pro as discussed here. Did the upside-down thing and got them lined up pretty good, but as Len mentioned in that other thread, that shouldn't be necessary. I should have stronger vacuum. So I don't know if I have a problem with my intake boot ports or what. Didn't even bother trying to ColorTune, since I could not really get idle stable. I later started to suspect the cheap aux fuel kit I got isn't giving reliable fuel flow. But I'm also starting to get suspicious about the intake boots.

With that, I gave up on the engine (it was getting hot) and moved on to my brakes. I'd rebuilt my calipers the other day, but just got them mounted up today. I also started installing the new braided stainless lines but ran into a problem with the right side anti-dive hose I need Len to help me work through. I polished a few bits and bobs and called it a day. A decent but somewhat frustrating day. Slow and steady, though, I'll get there. Aside from the tune and brake line, the other big thing is putting the master cylinder back together and getting that piped in and eventually bled.

Good tired tonight.

 

Here's a brief video where I was nice enough to block it the underwear show my buddy didn't bother telling me about.

And you can hear the collector rattle. I've read a few threads on it and will check on the usual suspects like heat shields next time I'm working on it. I do have a mechanic's
stethoscope.



And it's hard to make out, but I mentioned an old mouse nest blowing out of the left tailpipe. I hates those meeces to pieces.

 

I had one where the gasket between the collector and the muffler was bad - causing a rattle.

 

See here for the documentation of my battle with a rattle-y exhaust and figuring out the gasket:
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/xj700n-exhaust-collector-to-can-gasket.130066/#post-659791

This was an XJ700N, but the gasket is the same.

 

That's awesome documentation, thank you. It seems like that might be in the right area for this sound, so I'll keep it in mind. In 27 years of ownership, I've never dropped the exhaust on this thing - guess it's overdue.

Edit - decided to just order some up to have on hand at that price!

 

Yesterday, with Len's patient guidance and a rubber mallet, I got the last of my brake lines installed. The tolerance on those anti-dive segments is very tight and I needed some gentle persuasion to get mounted up correctly. After work and dadding, I started the master cylinder rebuild around 10 p.m. and reminded myself what a gynecological exercise it is to get fluid in that system sometime around midnight. Woke up this morning to find a leaking banjo at the distribution block (left).

Now, here's where I confess. Those banjos are a bit obstructed by the forks. Can I get a socket on there? No. Did I think I could get away with a box wrench and eyeballing the washer crush, relative to the ones I COULD torque? Yes. Was I successful? Obviously not.

So, my noob-esque question to the group is - do I need to remove the forks to do this properly? I do, don't I? Confession time again, I was hoping to put off messing with the forks until winter. But unless someone can convince me otherwise, I guess I know what I need to do.

My 8 year old is going to be disappointed. She'd set a deadline of getting the bike ready for her local favorite car show, and the last one of the summer is tomorrow. But I can't rush this project, even for my kid, right?

 

Ok, big update. Feel free to skip to the middle for the 'What I've Done' summary and the bottom for the big question.

First, another confession - I did NOT pull the forks (yet). I used my box wrench and applied about 90 6"-lbs (tweaked until the leak stopped and then a little more). Do as I say, not as I do. But the car show is still off. Not rushing the rest, just moving along.

After fixing the leak and redoing the brake-handle tie-off 'trick' while I was at work yesterday, I got home to nice firm brakes BUT . . . there's an initial little 'pop' at first pull, and then the handle takes its time to return full-out. I'm not liking that, despite having stopping power. Going to removed the PITA remote MC again, pull it apart, and see what I missed. I had honed/1000-gritted the bore, but I'll recheck that as well as the way the seals are set in there. Tips on what to watch for appreciated, always. Might or might not get to that after the kids are in bed tonight.

Taking a break from the brakes, and the whole bike, I didn't wrench at all last night and instead revisited my old threads ( e.g. this one from 2006: https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/carb-slide-sticking.1259/#post-10478 - should have continued that one I guess. Candidate for a thread merge?). This morning I returned to tuning my newly-built carbs. To get all on the same page, I've got:

New air filter (more on this later).
Valve lash checked ~2 weeks ago (room temp, mind you) all brought into spec.
New airbox-side boots (all seated correctly) from XJ4Ever.
Carbs rebuilt by @hogfiddles - squeaky clean (with XJ4E kits).
N.B. the bike is an '81, but the carb bank is off an '83 - I don't know if this will be important later.
Cables all lubed and free.
Engine-side boots are original, but gaskets were replaced in 2006, so old but not original, and boots pass carb-cleaner testing.
Vac caps are old/hard, but not in play while CarbTuning (and not noticeably different with them on).
Spark plugs are 'old' but clean and less than 2k miles on them. I have new, just misplaced them in my Dungeon of Dirty garage. *more sheepish confessions*
Syncing with CarbTune Pro (inverted (of course @chacal was right: https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/carbtune-pro.9574/#post-672701 ), with restrictors) but more on THAT later)
I have a YICS tool and use it for final sync after I get in the right ballpark without.
Have ColorTune plug.
I've owned/known this bike since '95 (second owner), know its sounds and quirks pretty well. Ridden a lot with VAST years of neglect in-between, most recently 2011. Current mileage 37k (purchased with 11.5k).

When I first started it the other day (as seen in the prior video) and again today, I was getting a racing idle. Synced as close as I could but it was tough with it always running away. And the Colortune was showing VERY lean, often mis-firing. I was starting to blame the tools - the Colortune, the aux fuel tank, etc.

Then I remembered my old threads and my OLD tuning situation (2006). After my first rebuild (everything shy of shaft and fuel seals back then), things were rough and I ended up getting the ColorTune. What I found then was I needed to bring the mixure out to 5.5 turns as opposed to the fac. spec. 2.5. At the time, I blamed shaft seal leaks, and/or the K&N reusable oil-based air filter I'd been running. With carbs fresh from Hog's Summer Spa and a new OEM-style air filter, I figured I should be back around the bench-set 2.5 turns on the mixtures. But for Grits and Shins today, I backed off to 5 turns. She fired up and though idling high, setting the screw brought her down and she didn't stumble and die. Not only was I able to sync more reliably, I was getting enough pull to use the CarbTune right-side up. Initially confused myself by not swapping the hoses back around, but got there. Sync, adjust idle, sync, idle, etc. She's sounding GOOD. No creeping RPMs and twisting the throttle gives a snappy response. Of course, we'll see how she does under load once finally road-worthy, but it's in a good place.

For fun, I popped the ColorTune into #1. Backing off to 5.5 ran orange. Screwing down to 4 was getting white and stumbling again. So back around 5 it went. Didn't niggle with the ColorTune on the rest of the cylinders as I had to get to work, but I'm a lot more stoked than I was yesterday.

So, XJ Hive Mind, I ask you, WHY would this carb bank and bike be so much happier around 5-5.5 (in the olden leaky shafts days) turns out than closer to the factory spec? Should I care, or should I just chalk it up to PFM? Does it matter that the bank was pried from an '83?

Thanks for playing along.

 

It’s odd that it would be that far out, and I was surprised during the rebuild how far out they were. But, the 2.5 is an initial setting, not a final target. So, yours is apparently an oddity and want them to be turned out more. What kind of air filter is now on the bike?

 

I put in one of these: http://www.hiflofiltro.com/catalogue/filter/HFA4609 Despite the brand name confusingly being shortened to HiFlo, it's my understanding (both from their website and a bit more googling) it should not be any 'higher flow' than OEM, but I'm willing to be corrected.

Might be 'fun' to one day get an OEM from Len and compare, but I'll have to get a bit further down my 'To Do' list before I'm that bored. For now, I'mma call 'er good.

 

HiFlo are known for good quality products.

 

While I'm waiting for a string of hours where I can do the final work I need to get road-worthy, I've been realizing how much I'm liking the look of the bike naked (and it takes up less room in the garage, too). So I've been daydreaming/brainstorming. I do want to retain the OPTION to mount the fairing. It's as simple as a couple hose clamps, and a 9-pin connector. But I was also thinking of getting another connector/pigtail and being able to wire up a light and signals. Riding my WR250R dual sport has really gotten me to enjoy the bare wind and lack of helmet-buffeting from the windshield.

I'll attach some pics of the current situation. Headlight bracket was retained, but I never saw the original light, aux, turn signals - the fairing has XS1100 signals mounted inside it. The front "Yamaha" nameplate bar is gone as well. The main wire bundle is (not currently, but usually) stuffed into a vinyl bag up behind the fairing. And even after 41 years, they're still pretty clean. I'd probably do the same - find a way to keep it tidy, since with splices for the fairing pigtail, I'm not sure it would fit in a stock bucket anyway. Yes, it'd be more exposed to elements than behind the fairing, but if I'm in crappy weather riding season, I'll probably have the fairing back on, anyway, so it'd be down to the occasional bath due to lousy weather forecasting. I've seen a couple sets of original signals available online, in various states of completeness, but I haven't been able to tell from pics or diagrams how they attach. Is there a clamp missing from my fork tubes? Or do they attach via the fork pinch bolts? Or the front 'nameplate' bolts? Clarification appreciated.



Option 1: Initial thought was source an XJ-correct parts, bucket and Aux light (the fairing makes no use of the Aux, BTW, it's capped), signals and nameplate, but honestly, as much as I like to leave things stock, I've never really been a fan of that look.

Option 2: I'd prefer a round headlight and thought one of the Maxims might fit and perhaps go that route. But since it's not 'stock' that way anyway, seems a shame to take a Maxim headlight out of circulation, even if it would/could be made to fit. So . . .

Option 3: Perhaps and aftermarket option, for at least the headlight (probably skip on the Aux) with either stock or aftermarket signals.

I won't be buying parts or doing anything until the snow flies, but anyone have any thoughts? @hogfiddles or any other hoarders have parts burning a hole in their pockets? Recommendations on headlights and/or signals or ones to avoid?

Thx.

 

I've just fallen down the 'resistor plug' rabbit hole and it seems the BR*R*7ES plugs I was sold are not as 'direct replacement' as I was lead to believe, right? So probably good I hadn't swapped them yet. Now, where was that receipt? Or, I could keep them until I'm ready to deal with the caps . . . Ugh.

 

Once you what parts you need, I have a fair amount of 750 seca parts available. You got my number, just text me with what you’re looking for, and I’ll check.

 

Were I not already bald, I'd be pulling my hair out over this master cylinder.

Status:
Fresh braided stainless lines from XJ4E (got a proper torque on the distribution banjos using a crow foot wrench).
Freshly rebuilt calipers.
Anti-dive not refreshed, but not leaking and at the end of the line.
Master cylinder rebuild kit from XJ4E but reused body, piston, and spring (may be starting to regret that).
Only thing not removed from bike were anti-dives and distribution block, but it was cleaned with a bore brush.

As mentioned earlier, I had built pressure, but was getting a disconcerting 'pop' at initial lever pull like the seal was hanging. I had time and a buddy last night, so I pulled the MC, disassembled, and hit the bore again with 1000 grit wet paper (brake fluid lube) on a 1/2" slotted dowel (a single freakin' dowel rod is $7 these days, WTF?). Felt there might be a little burr around the main port, so got that smooth. Verified both ports are clear (guitar string and fluid test) and the seal is in the correct direction. Rinsed out a few times w/ more fluid (thank goodness I bought the big bottle) and reassembled. On the bench, it felt a lot smoother than last time, no hanging, and it built pressure over my finger.

Mounted it up and tried a reverse bleed since I already had fluid in the lower bits. It took a little bit of fluid, but then stopped/built pressure (at the lower syringe). Lever did not build pressure, though. Made a mess when the lower hose broke free from too much pressure. Swore. Decided to hit the bit and hoses with the massage gun, tie the lever off, and leave it overnight.

At early-morning dog-feeding, I was hoping to find a firm lever, but when I untied it, it just sat there. Did not spring back. I had to tap it several times to finally get it to come out. Once it did, action was smooth again, but still no pressure at the lever. Tried a traditional bleed, got a bit of fluid out the bottom on the first squeeze, but then the MC didn't seem to refill/pressurize. Left it tied again, and no, 5-ish hours later, it was the same, lever was stuck IN until I tapped on it several times. Not building pressure. And I'm suspicious of that spring.

So, somehow I've made things worse. At least on the first go, I built good lever pressure. Disappointing. Any guidance/encouragement appreciated.

I'm going to go out there now and set up the rev. bleed again, probably shower myself with brake fluid again, and crack the upper tube bolt and see if I get fluid or air. Just to do something.