82 Seca, that was close to home

Could not let this one go, she was close 30 miles away. Great seller and he was just getting ready to move so I got a deal.

These were after the bath. She was a mess with much white dog hair and of course all the mice nesting stuff in the normal places for Wisconsin. Air box, and tail tool area were nasty to say the least.

oaR8cnb- by Tim Brown, on Flickr
cS0C04ei by Tim Brown, on Flickr
The exhaust looks to be shot, but time will tell. Had new plugs, but no spark and starter ckt was not working. Fixed the fuse box wires with temp wiring. Touched the start button and she cranked over, good spark.

Cleaned up the air box area and got some starter spray. Put plugs back and gave it a try. She sprang to live, and the engine sounds good. All the side covers are there and a added oil cooler to boot. SS front brake lines, but the owner said the clutch was slipping. Hm, slipping for 1st gear going out? We will see.

Picked this up to be a beginner bike for one of my friends' grandson. He will be taking an MSF or ABATE class on Fort McCoy sometime this yr I hope. In the meantime, this should make a great starter bike for him.

 

Congradulations for a good catch and save. Not sure I would think of this big and heavy a bike as a first bike but then again, the cost of getting into riding is a big and very important factor.

 

My Seca was my starter bike. That which does not kill us . . .

Great find, Timbox! I was just up that way last week.

 

In my opinion, 750 Seca would be a good starter bike depending on the person - big and strong enough to handle it and you're fine. A smaller person, maybe not as much.

 

True that...

 

The young man is in his 20's, just got out of the Army and is going into the Air Force Reserves in the area. We wanted to find something for his size, as most other smaller bikes he would have been large on. I think he will do great on this bike.
Them carbs were nasty. I should really think about getting a full rack sized sonic cleaner. Not to sure how good a sonic would do with all the fuel varnish, though. Float needles are the only things that I could not save. The little rubber points on them just can deal with long term fuel abuse.
RFnUauvf by Tim Brown, on Flickr

PO must of has a small white haired dog, furr all over the bike. I will need to geta new valve cover gasket or do some repairs to it, old leaking oil all over the carbs and left side from the valve cover.

Forks have blown seals as well, but the rest of the bike it good now that I have a new fuse box in place. Will check the back brake shoe and change out the hydro oil in the rear as well. I will do that once I make sure the bike runs and it shifts through all the grears just fine.

 

Sounds perfect. Well it will be anyway, once it gets the @Timbox treatment.

 

Thanks @Dan Gardner for that much-needed pep statement.

Had a set of carbs cleaned, so I put them on in place of the original ones that came on the bike. The will need a little more TLC before they can be used on a bike again. Bike started up with a little starter fluid and then ran very well. Oil window was over filled so once bike warmed up, shut it down and changed oil. Yes it was nasty and even the new oil is now nasty from running it again.

Everything works as it should except the clutch and maybe the trans . Jacked the bike up and pulled in clutch, pit it in first gear and the rear wheel jumped into gear just like there was no clutch at all. Reason I hoped was the clutch adjustment was way off. The PO must have though something was wrong with clutch and adjusted the motor side of the cable all the way. No slack at all in the clutch. Took care of that and tried it again, same thing. This time I ran the bike up a little in the RMP range with the clutch handle being held in to the bar with a clamp. I noticed that the tire stared to slow and then stopped. I thought great, looked up and the bike had popped into neutral all by its self. Motor oil is filthy, and the clutch is acting as if there are no plates in the clutch.

On the good side, the engine sounds good. The exhaust was spitting mouse nesting stuff out like silly string at a party. I cleaned the K&N filter that was in the bike, letting filter dry. No oil leaks so far from underside but I am sure there is seeping going on around the valve cover gasket.

Guess I will need to warm it up, drain oil again and then take a look at the clutch pack. Any suggestions would be great if anyone has had this issue. Bike speedo says 26 K miles.

 

For that k&n to have any chance of working it MUST be oiled with k&n oil, beware that many have said they do not work.
Strip and inspect the clutch plates, anything wrong should be obvious, one of my secas had a dried up clutch, I thought it would fix itself but I had to strip it in the end.

 

Flushed the motor twice, the second time added half a can of Sea Foam. Yes I didn't want to break open the clutch cover. Still no joy, so just as I was inspecting the clutch through the oil fill plug, I got an idea. I used a long flat screwdriver and gave the plates a little nudge. This is with the clutch handle being held to the bar with a clamp. Guess what, it worked, the clutch plates came free. I filled the oil back up with fresh oil and tried it. Seemed to be the same. I used my hand to put pressure on the rear wheel to see if I could slow it down and sure enough, I could. Lowered the rear tire onto the table and let it run in great for a good 10 mins in gear, clutch pulled. I had a good fan on the front of the bike to keep her cool. Seems to have worked! I have to admit, this is the first stuck clutch pack that I had to flush and then love tap it to have it come loose. I will see how it does, I might have to break into it later on to inspect if things start to go bad. The second oil pan had sludge in the bottom. Should have taken a pic, nasty. I will keep an eye on the oil to see if it stays fresh for a while or turns dark again.

Rear brake is soaking in blaster overnight. I remember another Seaca I had that the dowel part that goes through the rear brake cover that holds the brake arm to the long link. That was nasty, this one is too. I got it moving but needs to be supper free for driving. Brakes look good.

Front brakes need to be removed and the pucks cleaned. The fluid in the MC looks great, but I know looks don't mean a lot. I think this bike was in a lot of weather for most of it's life. Shade as the paint is good, but some sort of weather nonetheless.

 

Took the bike out for first ride. First gear is kicking out, not sure if it is a fork or just all the gum that is inside this engine. I am hoping that it will self fix but I don't think it will. I will have to dive into new waters and take a look at the shifting dogs, I guess. Front calipers were not responding well, so once I got the bike back to the shop, that was the plan for the day. Pucks looked great, but man were they hard to get out. All cleaned now and if I can get the front MC bled, hope they will work at they should. If I remember, these like to be reverse bled? Have to make a trip to Tractor supply for a big animal syringe.

Forks will have to be rebuilt at some point. That will mean front MC bleeding again. Only thing still bugging me is the battery warning light. I will do a search for the workaround for that, I know there is one on the forum.

 

Regarding the batt warning light - I finally gave up and got the bypass kit from @chacal. Don’t regret it one bit.

 

Took care of the warning light. I would recommend going threw @chacal for that for sure. Was hoping that the front brake MC would bleed the air out overnight, nope. Picked up a big syringe and plan on reverse bleed it today. I am sure that will be a mess with how the MC fluid opening is right be the neck of the bike. Fun and games begin.

 

Removed and cleaned the brake MC, it was not bad at all. I was expecting much worse and I guess hoping it was the issue. I guess I just keep trying to bleed these brakes and hope at some point they firm up. The bucks are making contact with the disks now, but still no real brake pressure for stopping power.

 

The most frustrating part of the Seca brakes is that one morning you'll just go out and you'll magically have full pressure and you won't know which incantation FINALLY freakin' worked. It really is a lesson in patience and persistence.

 

I feel your pain @Timbox

here’s my version from last summer
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/xj750r-master-cylinder-internals.132675/

 

I have a rebuild kit on the way. I think that the rubber in the MC is just too lose in the bore. Just a guess, but I think the fluid is going around the internal rubber, not leaking out into the air, but inside the MC. So, no real braking pressure on the pucks until this is fixed.

 

Had to pull the side case off and take a look. Hoping it was the shifter spring, but that seems not to be it. I have a bore cam that I will see if I can look into the observation hole with. I just think the engine is so fill of nasty oil, that could still be the issue. Three oil changes and still comes out nasty. That is about 25 miles and then flush.

Anyone have a good oil remover or engine flush they recommend?
LwmFLpIK by Tim Brown, on Flickr
You can see the oil sludge still in the engine. That is after I took a rag and got most of the nasty stuff out of the way. No metal filings in the oil or off the magnetic plug. All other gears are fine and have no issue. Anyone see anything I am missing?

I have not pulled the shaft out to see if the spring is broken, but seems to be in tack with pressure on the arm.

 

A little Sea Foam couldn't hurt.

 

I did that the second time. I guess I will just have to keep doing with less than great oil. Once I reach what I think is good, then change over to better oil. I really thought it would be that shifter spring that was broke. Still might be but will have to take it out first. I don't think that 1st gear is bad, but maybe the spacing is off. New skills to learn.

 

I don't know much about them but I did find this that k-moe posted in another thread with a second gear issue that might help:

https://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/difference-in-xj750-years.113535/

"That sounds to me much more like a problem with the shifting mechanism than it does with the gear (the typical 2nd gear problem is popping out of gear under heavy load due to worn dogs, with no other symptoms).
Most likely there is a broken spring. Drain the oil, remove the shifter and cover, then inspect. There is a big spring that centers the rearmost portion of the linkage (#6), a smaller spring (#2) that places tension on the shift-drum pawl (#1), and a large spring (#4) that places tension on the shift drum roller (#3). The #4 spring is the one that is likely broken, allowing the shift drum to skip positions and pop out of gear"

I think there were some upgrades to better / stronger springs also - Len mentions it in the parts catalog

 

Thanks @Rooster53 , that is what I hope it is. Bike is too nice of a find to have to tear it all the way down. As I mentioned above, new waters I am getting into. Have a manual, will get to that work soon.