What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Don’t forget to:
pull the slide needles out
Remove the sync screw and spring from the T-shaft
Remove the main spring from the T-shaft
Remove the shim washer from the T-shaft
Remove the enricher dust cap
Remove the O-ring from the bowl drain screw
Remove the spring from the mixture screw ( I don’t see the o-ring..... check to make sure you get it out of the bore. )
Source a new stub-cable since yours broke

 

I had a rough week at work a few weeks ago. I was talking about it with my wife and she suggested I buy a new project bike.

 

What a beautiful woman.........!

 

NOT the reaction I got from my wife when she saw my most recent project bike!

You need to take her to dinner!

 

There’s a keeper, right there!

 

I guess you can't argue with her.

If I were you I'd already be headed to Elk River to pick this one up!!
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/1983-yamaha-xj-900-for-sale.132236/

 

Replaced a Shinko 712 about 750 miles past solidly hitting the wear bars, don't try this at home kids!

 

How many miles did you put on those and how did you like them? I'm looking at those if I can get the '82 Maxim running well.
Not so concerned about total mileage as I'm looking at ridability/safety/braking

 

That was about 7500 miles worth of wear on a 1980 XS1100 equipped with full Vetter touring gear and pulling a trailer about 1/3 - 1/2 the time.

The Shinko 230 tour master will give you about the same milage but squares off quicker. The Dunlop 404 is sticky for sure but gets a bit squirrelly on wet manhole covers and tar snakes (even dry ones) and is only good for about 4500 miles. For performance and ride quality you're best off with the Bridgestone BT46 but I only managed about 5500 miles out of them.

The only other choices in the 130/90-17 size are Kendas which I HATED in the wet on a previous bike, the IRC Durotour which I'm leery of due to the continuous groove down the center riding rain grooves and bridge grates and then the Michelin Classic which is $200 with practically ZERO real world mileage expectations reported.

Then there's the "Dark side" option which I've seriously considered, there's someone I ran across running this on an XS with a sidecar rig.

https://www.cokertire.com/tires/475-500-17-excelsior-blackwall-tire.html

 

Speaking of the BT46, just got a pair for the Maxim X.

 

I've had several different brands of tires on my bikes over the years, and from my experience, the Shinko's are not meant for spirited riding. The rubber compound reminds me of a pencil eraser. Michelin's are my favorite (have them on the other two bikes), but are pricey, so I'm giving the latest "classic" Bridgestone's BT46 a try in the Spring.

Tony

 

Spent some time inspecting and trying to clean some plugs I pulled. 2 of them had open circuits from the center lug. Another had resistance from center lug to ground (443K) which I cleaned up and then it opened up.

 

Today temp was 50 degrees but had high winds , my bike is still put away for winter , but could not resist started it up in over three months took a few minutes of running till it cleared up but finally sounded so good . My other Seca might fire it up soon . Spring is close , but they are predicting a possible Blizzard next week oh joy.

 

I've ran Shinko tires on four of my bikes gotten good tire life out of them , but agree they are a compromise not real great when pushed hard. I like the Dunlops 404 but never got the miles out of them.

 

Moving on from the introductions forum I completed the carburetor rebuild for my '81 SECA, oh these were a tasty bunch full of a green smelly substance that once resembled gasoline. I ended up making a carburetor cleaning "tube" by soldering two gallon paint cans together and dumping a dozen cans of cleaner in and leaving the works to soak for the day.
This evening was spent pushing little wires through the passages and blowing the works out with air, everything went together well enough despite missing the sealing washers for the main jets. I'm a retired 2-way radio guy with over 40 years of electronics & mechanical experience and remembered a copper washer was used for a particular coax connector... an absolute perfect fit. Needle is pointing to the washer liberated from a Amphenol BNC coax connector kit.

After my break the carb tree is going back on and I begin the task of wrestling the airbox boots back on, I thought about cutting the airbox out but came to my senses and decided to keep things stock. The only deviation is the addition of an external fuel filter to augment the brass screens. Starting & tuning will have to wait until the replacement starter motor arrives, the original piece failed from a burned commutator bar caused by worn brushes, I'm not familiar enough with the Denso starters to do a hybrid using other starter parts so instead I found a used piece on the flea-bay for $145 and ordered a rebuild kit. Yes this has been an adventure that started out with some bad wiring that progressed to basically going over everything with a magnifying glass, last night the gauge pod got reworked with all LED lighting that matches the original color and the capacitors on the tach driver board replaced. The headlight bracket was bent so I had to take everything apart anyway, the headlight will eventually get an LED H4 along with the amber fog light.
Back to the grind.

 

well done! My initial thoughts were to say that the thickness of that brass washer is critical, but my memory won't allow me to tell why. Maybe it isn't...

 

It seems me that the thicknesses would be QUITE important to get the needle and jet in the proper position to function. If something isn't working properly after it goes back together that might be a good place to look

 

Might be more of a theoretical than practical problem, but I'm not sure. The needle jet is indexed from the top, so relation to the needle doesn't change. But the main jet position could be moved slightly higher or lower due to washer thickness, and that probably has the same affect as fuel level in the bowl. But with a 2mm tolerance on fuel level, the jet washer change is probably not anywhere close to that. Would make for a good argument over drinks.

 

Actually the jet secures the needle tube which bottoms out in the body and the washer seals it, the level of the fuel is going to be whatever is in the float bowl at rest and will only change from the consumption so it should be good to go.

After the carbs I serviced the front brakes... overall not in bad condition the pistons were stuck from time. Got everything cleaned and moving again and now they feel great. Now it's a matter of waiting for the starter and the fuel filter to arrive so I can get some fires in the jugs. Tonight it's going to be detail cleaning with small scrub brushes and ZEP heavy duty degreaser, all night. So with that I'm going to crack open a case of beer for all.

Cheers!

 

So to continue with the progress I put the last touches on the wiring last night. I had to get creative replacing the dangling fuse holders with some good BUSS pieces, the previous owner had replaced what was left of the factory block and tape everything together. All was well until some wires got pinched and burned making a mess up the harness, cut it open and made the repairs then got serious with the zip ties.
Also spent a few hours scrubbing the wheels, they're better but still rough looking. Coming to the home stretch and once the starter arrives it gets fired and the carbs sync'd.