NEW guy

Just want to say hi to all.. Been reading the advice from some of the senior members here and just want to say thank you for the advice to others as it has helped me.. especially the wiring diagrams. I'm fairly new to the bike game but understand basic maintence and then some. I got a xj 550 for free because I helped a friend find a place to live.. so he gave me his bike. It sat for a bit due to deployments.. but I got it fired up. I put turn signals on it and some drag bars with new mirrors. Cleaned the petcock and ran some sea foam through it... carb cleaning is the next step for me because I know it needs it. The oil filter cap bolt was sheered off completely so I took my handy grinder and a hammer to it to cut and persuade it off and just replaced it from ebay. He had car oil in it, which I now understand it's bad due to the "wet clutch", but it's now running motorcycle synthetic and the clutch seems better everytime I run it. The throttle tube crumbled in my hands.. so I got one from a virago (cruise control) and had to mod the cable with my dremmel to make it work. How ever, it rained (near Seattle) and now my starting button don't work. I ohmed the switch, took apart the cutoff relay and ohmed the connectors. The only thing left is the starting relay (yellow) I believe.. I haven't checked that yet.. I've got 3 solenoids and it starts up with a short there. Also my flashers don't work.. they work, but they don't flash.. I've replaced the flash cancel... the switch ohms out... so I'm at a loss with that too.. I'll figure the electronics out in time.. Installed dual headlights because I can't stand that huge beam in the front. I want to get rid of my big banana seat and fabricate something a with 2 seperate seats. I'll post some pics when I'm not on a work comp. Anyhow.. thank you to the "how to" advice.. and maybe that can be a new sub section in the forums? And if anyone has any tips on carb removal... a link would be appreciated... I found the bench sync which I know will help... and I know Rick had a post about cleaning that I need to find too... Good to be here and thanks!!!!!!

 

Welcome, again! Just out of curiosity, the drag bars you installed... were they painted? If so, you may not be getting a good ground for your starter switch to function properly. Just a thought; it's burned others before.

 

Welcome Dustball, you can't beat a free running bike ! There's a thread here to help fix everything you mentioned, just takes some digging.
Turn signals? Did you get them from a Yamaha WITH self cancelling and have exactly 27 watt bulbs? . . .
Carb removal? The rubber boots dry out and shrink. WD-40 and patience, pop the air box booties half way into the box, slip a piece of garden hose over a screwdriver or prybar, pry against a block of pine wood under the carbs, don't pry metal to metal, pry slowly.
Then the carb cleaning fun begins!

 

One of these time I'm going to be there when the free bike fairy visits. Welcome, man, and good luck!

 

Gamuru.. Thanks!! You know... I never thought of the bars being used for a ground for the starter switch because it has 2 wires to it and don't understand why it would use the bar because it's either off or on... it ohms out and is working. But I'll grind the paint off and grind the paint off at the forks to try it.. Relays seem good so I'm down to that. gotta be a grounding issue somewhere.. Genius

TimetoRide.. Thanks for the carb advice.. I had seen that thing about leaving the boots half way... I didn't know that Yamaha used self cancelling signals... I assumed that is what the flasher cancel unit is for. hmmm .. but no, I got them on ebay cuz they looked cool and were cheap.

 

Welcome Dustball!
No doubt, you ask a question here, you WILL got an answer!! SOme times more than you need to know, but everyone is willing to help.

 

Welcome Dustball. Be careful about using handlebars to as a ground return path, not all bikes have a complete path. Some bikes (not yours) have vibration isolators made of rubber and will prevent this from being done. Best of luck on your efforts and welcome.

 

Yeah.. I still don't know if uses the bars as a ground... I looked at the switch and the switch housing and hooked up alligator clips to the housing screws to ground.. and nothing... maybe I just have it wired wrong... I took it from a virago, so the connectors were different... I thought I had it right, but maybe I jacked it up.. I'll figure it out with some color codes and post it.. It's too cold up here in the upper NW to go out and play with it.. thanx guys

 

Shoot some photos of the connectors on each cluster and make sure they include wire colors. We can probably sort it out in a quick IM session.

 

Getting a little snow there, are ya? I thought we were done with it for this year!

 

I know right!! Going snowboarding at Mt. Baker next Sat.. so it's welcomed for the time being