What did you do to your Yamaha today?

nice to see others have used the 555 timer! That was a favorite chip of mine back in the day.

 

Any tech geek with a well stocked junk box can cobble up a 555 to do the job but for under $5 on eBay an adjustable flasher you have to ask yourself if it's really worth the effort! I've long ago given up on little projects like that for that exact reason.

 

I'm a bit of a fossil in that I will make a something on my bench using junkbox parts and perf board, by the dollars & cents no it doesn't pay when you can just order the same thru Amazon but doing it myself I can honestly say I made it myself. I really get frustrated with all the offshore junk Amazon and the others keep dumping on us that ends up in our landfills in sort order.

 

Magnets used to secure the side wings to the lower back of the tank. I have about 75 lbs of JIS hardware so finding the best screws is quite the challenge.

 

thx.
how hard is it for a ninny engineer in China to put a darn voltage regulator in the LED flasher module to make it not sensitive to voltage. geeze!
I'll report if the ones I have work or not. If not, I may just rip it open and put a regulator in myself. I think I have some at work that just drop 0.5V

 

I used a 9V zener and series resistor on the front and 2200 uf cap to smooth things out.

 

Today's shakedown run...


123 MPH didn't take long at all and the bike was stable, I on the other hand was about frozen over at 46F

 

Took it for a 120 mile ride in the country on a 55º day in February. Nice.

The "purposes" of the ride (aside from having some fun) were to (a) have some ice cream...


Mission accomplished.

(b) pick up a valve shim remover tool at my local motorcycle shop, also accomplished, and (c) to scuff in and check out the first tires this bike's gotten in something over 20 years. I wanted tires with at least some off-pavement capability, so my choices in the rear were pretty limited by the Maxim's 16" wheel. In fact, the intersection of 130/90-16, off-pavement capable, and tubeless contained exactly one tire, the Kenda K761, a tire that gets (shall we say) mixed reviews. Some complain about its performance in the wet, others say it's just fine and some folks need to learn how to ride. I will reserve judgment, as it was nice and dry out today (and anyway, before I go riding in the rain I want to replace the coils and plug wires). In the front I had more choices, and because the K761 was back-ordered (first promised in December, then late January, most recently late March) anyway, I went with the Dunlop Trailmax Mission. Almost undoubtedly a much better tire than the Kenda, and if I have to have one so-so tire and one really good tire, I'd prefer that the really good one be on the wheel with the disc brake.

Oh, and I should note that after we ordered the Dunlop front and canceled the Kenda, both tires arrived on the same truck. Of course. I still went with the Dunlop.

So I set off in search of all the curves I could find, which in the farm country west of Chicago ain't all that many... and most of them had been sprayed with beet juice, even though (far as I know) there is no snow in the forecast. Perhaps the road department has too much of the stuff left; aside from January it's been a mild winter. Anyway, beet juice can be slick, especially if it's a bit chilly, so I took it easy for a while. Both tires seemed to grip just fine. And then it was time to explore some of the pavement-free highways.


Where the road to nowhere meets the road from nowhere.

I managed to not photograph any of the bomb crater sized potholes, or the one squishy wet stretch where the bike moved around a bit, but overall I am happy with how the bike handles our mixture of dirt, clay, sand and a bit of gravel. Nice to not have to clean a chain after riding on dirty stuff.

The odometer turned over 8000 miles on the way home. Bike's barely broken in!

My next project is going to be doing something about the seat. It is waaaaay too low for my 34" inseam. No, I don't want highway pegs or forward controls; they're not any good for peg-standing. I doubt anybody makes a taller seat for this bike, so I'm just going to have to figure something out.

 

Get a Seca!

 

Installed the Amazon LED turn signal relay.
You have to remove one wire from the relay and then ground that terminal to use it. I think it then might just kill the self cancellation feature. Have not tested it.
Blinking speed is now consistant with voltage.

Also had installed headlight bracket and turns out the replacement was a little bent (in the other diretion than the one I pulled) but I bent it back. I knew my front fender was bent but after pulling that off to work on straightening it, I can now see the forks are misaligned so I'll be loosening things up and then straightening that back up.
The Brat/cafe style that the bike is, I'm not sure if I'll mess with the front fender or not. seeing people turn these bikes into bobbers and remove the front fender, I wonder how they can ride it without a fork brace that the fender works like

 

How would that help?

 

I'm wondering the same thing...

 

Seat is higher and further back, pegs are further back. That's it.

 

Working to bend the front fender back.

Re aligning forks. What is torque spec of this bolt?

 

You shouldn't need to deal with that at all.

 

Without a front fender you'll be getting a lot of dirt kicking up in front of you that will end up on both your body and in your face. Forget about riding it in the rain without a face shield! "Bobbing" the fender to a shorter length is well worth considering.

 

Just a few pics of my SECA from this afternoon

 

That is what I was thinking plus the cross brace. I did end up clamping the fender in my old Black & Decker workmate bench and bent things back into shape. Its back on the bike.

Well, I loosened it cause that is what the video I watched said to do. Got things straightened out but need to torque this down fully. I don't think it was torqued down much cause it did not take much to loosen it.

 

Another hundred miles of mixed riding today and the clutch has gone from one extreme to another and slipping under power just after a shift. It's holding road power and when I do a full throttle pass but we're having a very breezy day and I'm not going to push it. Thinking I may do a full circle ride around Mille Lacs this weekend, no RVs to compete with.
Overall it's definitely more sport bike and far stiffer than my old Honda CBX and Kaw K1000 even with my 220 pounds of weight. Going to change the leaking cam cover gasket this afternoon and make another run, I'm just outside Ogilvie MN with plenty of long county roads and no one to really bother me, the fruitcakes come out once the ice is off the lakes.

 

My XS is probably not much different clutch wise from an XJ. If I don't get the adjustment screw for the cable inside the right cover set just right mine will do the same exact thing. If I need to tighten my cable up with the lever somewhere just beyond the point of having any slack and can't get rid of clutch drag then I know it's time to open it up and adjust it.

 

Difference I found though was my XS was sensitive to temperature cause of the metal rod and the aluminum case. A known issue. Solved that by a guy that sold an aluminum rod (that might need more frequent but EASY replacements).

 

I slacked up the cable some during my ride today and got a little play in it but the clutch will slip if I hit the throttle hard after backing off, the bike will make a 50 to 75 pass without flaring up but I don't want to burn it any more. Running Shell Rotalla-T diesel oil now so I'm thinking this is just old-fashioned 36K miles of wear.
Once I warm up some I will take a closer look at the service manual while I watch on of the Dirty Harry flix, kitties want some lap time. Friday is going to be cold but they're promising us highs in the upper 50 close to 60 by monday and I want to get more miles on the bike.
Overall it cruises well, speedometer is waaayyyyy off the mark and I got stopped for doing 86 when the needle was showing 65... thought it seemed a little fast. Going to fashion a mount for my Garmin Nuvi and a small 5V power supply to run it.

 

When you strip the clutch, check that all the steel plates are flat - if they're not, you cannot get a decent bite point setting. It's like you don't have enough travel in the clutch lever (or cable more correctly).

 

I found a really nice tank to replace my original. The paint is perfect with the only imperfection being cracks in the decals. I'll treat the inside for surface rust and leave it bare. I can hardly believe I was the only bidder!

 

Moved bike out of hibernation and put other seca in its spot. Hopped on and started it up dropped it and gear ....died, tried it again same cycled kick stand and all was good . Rode around the block it just did not pull like it should pulled into garage . The number four cylinder pipe was not hot pulled plug was not to bad , I have spares swapped in another plug problem solved . Since it snowed quite a bit Friday night and salt and sand everywhere elected to only go around a couple of blocks a few times . Felt great to ride but want to ease back into riding since my last ride was in October.

 

I did not winterize any of my bikes. Took the '78 XS650 and the '83 stock XJ650 out for 30 min rides.
'78 XS is kick start and electric start. I had been using just electric till today and decided I'll just use kick for now to build up better experience with it. It started today both times on first kick.
Both XS and XJ needs some warm up time. 46F when I took the ride today. '83XJ has not been out in almost a month. Took a while to get carbs wet enough to start.

 

The last time I had Maxie ('80 650 Maxim) out he came home with the speedometer screaming and the needle bouncing around crazily. Just before we pulled in to the house the bouncing needle snapped itself off. So. Clocks off and apart, the needle I put the tiniest drop of superglue on and stuck it back to the stub and reinforced with red shrink tubing that just fit over the needle. I had to stretch it a bit to get over the base of the stub. With it shrunk in place all seems well. A couple of drops of very fine, light oil and exercise with a q-tip and it seems quiet and working. So far so good. Oh, and while apart the cable got cleaned and lubed as well. Photo when I figure how to get it from my phone to the computer............

 

My speedometer drive was screaming so loud yesterday I could hear it over the engine, the needle was rock steady so I suspect the noise is from the input bushing itself but it's annoying regardless and will get a shot of weasel juice this afternoon when I change the oil. Going to a "lower" grade of conventional oil to address the clutch slip issue, it's not getting any worse and it only began when I went with Rotella triple protection synthetic. The plan is to tie the clutch lever in and allow some fresh oil to drool down into the pack using a small pump & hose and out the drain before dumping in the fresh charge. We're about to experience a 60+F day before another shot of cold tomorrow, drain plugs have been out all night on the center stand and they were opened hot after a few mins of idle. Parking for the night the fuel cock is closed and I allow it to idle the fuel out of the carb bowls pulling the enrichment at the end.
Overall I will say it's been quite the fun bike, it doesn't have the raw pull that the CBX had but I was a skinny kid back then who only saw the road a quarter mile at a time. The 750 seca has plenty of what it takes to firmly plant my fat @$$ in the seat and once the clutch issue is addressed I will go with a heavier hand, I've been very hesitant on the throttle going around the curves and thru the intersections not knowing where the slip threshold is so playing it safe for now. If I had to bitch about something it would be the gearing that puts the engine at a resonance around 65 MPH, I don't see an easy solution to this issue with the shaft drive.

 

Speedo Scream of Death:
See Hoggfiddles Post 61 and then my post 69
My '83 was test ridden when it was cold out and suspect the cold thinning up the gunky oil exacerbates the scream

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/1983-xj650-maxim-bringing-back-to-life.131454/page-4

 

I blasted both the cable & speedo itself with some weasel juice this morning and it's been quiet all day. Also changed over to dino oil and that seems to have solved the clutch slipping but I didn't really get on it, got a cold front moving in for the next few days so things will have to wait.

 

Wastin' away again in Carburetaville,
Lookin for lost pieces that rolled down the hall...

 

Some will tell you that using modern oil with "friction modifiers" in it will cause the clutch to slip. I'm not sure if the fancier versions of Rotella uses those or not but it could well be the issue. Generally speaking I use the plain Jane "dinosaur" based Rotella or the semi synthetic version for that reason. When you consider that these bikes where designed and built 40 years ago I do my best to stick to what would have been appropriate at the time and the extra zinc in Rotella fits that bill nicely since it provides the "extra" lubrication that was available at the time

 

That's about where I'm at, I read some of the earlier posts and honestly didn't give it much thought beyond the Rotella label until I looked closer. I've since dumped & replaced the oil with the conventional Pennzoil and during the check ride didn't have much slip towards the end. Basically I tied the clutch handle in and used a small pump and hose to douse the pack while rotating the rear wheel.
Changing the oil is a real treat with the 4-into-1 header pipes right under the drain plug and the limited clearance to work the oil filter out of the casting... Kerker could have engineered this one better.
Our temps are dropping into the 20s this afternoon so riding is on hold until the weekend.

 

I mostly starred at it. I rode it briefly yesterday, today is stormy.

 

Some people claim, that there's a woman to blame........

 

Converting to the spin on oil filter from xj4ever would make changing oil easier, converted my two secas , best part if you ever want to go back to stock it is easy to do so., this won't help getting to drain plug. I have a seca sitting in garage with a Vance and Hinds four into one exhaust and can confirm it is not real easy , but doable as long as Moose Cholock has not put drain plug in . Lol

 

This might happen in the very near future and the drain plug might be addressed with a drain cock similar to what is used on the Onan RV generators, the DKD model uses a Kubota engine with metric threads that look like they would fit.

 

Well, it is pretty enough that just sitting and staring at it is appropriate. Also your garage is clean enough and not cluttered enough that the sitting and staring is easy. I am still trying to understand the lack of clutter.

 

He needs more bikes or more project bikes

 

I had the entire garage moved into a 26" u-haul last October (and the bikes in my parent's garage). The floor was done and I insulated the rest and put up plywood and paint. So, still the same amount of junk in the garage, but it's slightly more organized and looks a whole lot better! I've mopped the floor a few times over the winter to keep it clean. I love having a nice floor in the garage!

 

Heh, I have 2 Yamahas, this and my '90 FZR1000. I also have a '68 BSA Spitfire Mk IV in pieces in my basement. Working on refurbing the front forks right now, then to get the frame blasted and powder coated.

 

I did notice that floor and looks NICE!

Planning Some Garage clean up this weekend. Hockey season almost over and I have goalie gear and spare scrimmage jerseys I collected for the County and am turning that in as Daughter is graduating.
Also have some stuff the throw away.

Looked at the darn AGX fuse box of my project '82 XJ650 and was going to put a blade fuse holder but the darn cafe style seat has a spacer boss right in the way. Going to have to look at this again at how the previous owner hacked at it. Having AGX fuses is painful to keep spares and to acquire any while on the road.
I'm also trying to finish putting in different turn signals than what the PO put in which are not very visible from behind and in front of the bike (safety issue to me). Hoping to also spend some time tearing down 2 spare carb sets I have and rebuild them. I think I'll then sell one set.

 

I would have that floor covered in projects.

 

I sent "Maxie", '80 650 Maxim, to a new home where I hope he will be well cared for and well ridden. Another bike that had been neglected and unloved for quite a while. Next up is the previously named "Baby" Maxim 750 to be rehabbed and back in the rotation. This bike really is a survivor as it started up and ran with little effort on 8 year old gas! And settled into a nice idle! I think it will get the Shoei frame mount fairing.......

 

Put another hundred miles on today that is until I felt the crunching of the liners in the rear brake giving out. Found a set of new shoes at our local powersports dealer so they're going in tomorrow. My bigger question is what is the consensus with radial tires for these? Right now I have Metzeler ME77 front and ME888 back with plenty of meat on them but I'm looking for something a bit more modern that isn't going to break the bank.

 

The problem with putting radials on these bikes is the narrow wheels. Radials like and are built for wider wheels that won't fit the XJ's without a huge amount of modifications to fit those wide wheels in and make everything work. You can probably get radials on to the stock wheels but the profile is going to very pinched together and not work as designed and the way that causes the bead to seat is not going to be "right". It might work and then again it might not. Modern replacement bias tires are really good and have more capabilities that I, at least, can exploit. That is as close as I am going to get to the dreaded "tire thread". I have my favorites but tires choices are like oil choices or religions, not always to be discussed in polite company.

 

$6.31 shipped fleabay starter solenoid arrived friday. Installed this morning.

 

It was a beautiful sunny 65F day here in Ohio. Had the turbo out on some twisty back roads. I'm loving the Michelin Road Classic tires. They might be pricey, but they have lots of grip.

 

I buy two so have a spare, I once had a no crank pulled solenoid apart it was FULL of corrosion . Put new solenoid in and no more problems.

 

Changed out the rear brake shoes today and found what I expected, the aluminum under the epoxy had corroded and the liners broke loose making a twisty mess inside the drum. I also cleaned & greased the bearings plus changed out the drive lube so all is well in the back. Good thing I did this before my ride this evening, was cruising down a county road and being ever vigilant of the gravel roads I'm watching this knothead who is messing with her phone while making a right turn into my lane giving me three bad choices all of which involve hard braking. One is to the left into oncoming traffic, right is into the ditch or my third laying the bike down. Thankfully I had just enough brake power to slow down to take the left and narrowly miss an oncoming truck while passing Miss Oblivious who was doing all of 25 MPH, she had the gall to blow the horn at me so I slowed down again and pounded her door hard with a thanks for pulling out in front of me with my foot never dropping the phone.