1981 XJ650 Build

Most definatly ^^ ill send you a message once I get mine running right

 

Rode out to Laughlin for the weekend. I've ridden around 450 miles on this bike now.

Some thoughts on my bike:

I need a bigger more comfy seat for longer road trips.
Having a mirror on the left handle bar would be nice in traffic.
Different bar's would probably be a little nice.
Different grips are going to happen real soon.
Throttle lock would be nice also.
Ear plugs are a must as my helmet is crazy loud with wind noise.

Heres a few pictures of me riding.

 

LoL.. You'll find your helmet a lot quieter if you closed the visor.

Careful with earplugs, in some places they're illegal, and they really cut you off from your environment. I have a pair that have a pair that have little cables on them so if I have to speak to the law for any reason, I can take the earbuds out at the same time as removing my lid, but I don't always wear them..

I have to ride 200km to and from work every day, and in heavy traffic like we have here (I'll guess you get it when you're going into Vagas) it plays with your balance also.

 

haha.. I get lots of wind noise when the visor is closed or open. It was really hot comming up that hill so it was open. Its really only an issue at 60mph+ I don't need the ear plugs in town. 200km commute is a bit much ever day...

 

So I Left a friend’s house on my way to this house party across the freeway when a few blocks on the bike sputtered then died at a stop sign. Now I knew that I was low on gas when I left, but when doing fitting my gas tank I noticed that the petcock had a RES setting opposite the PRI. RES I took for Reserve Tank. “No problem, “ I though as I wheeled the bike across the intersection and onto the sidewalk. I felt pretty clever as I moved the petcock lever to RES and sat there while the carbs filled up. The gas station I was heading for is a few miles up the road; straight ahead on Spencer and to the right. So after sufficient time for the carb to be nice and full of gas I hit the start button, no need to choke it cuz it's already warm. Or so I though. The starter motor gave it it's all to no avail, full choke and everything in-between could not get the bike to rev to life. Feeling less clever than when I moved the petcock to RES, I open the gas tank and some dust blew out, it was that dry inside. Apparently the RES setting does not work on my bike or more than likely I didn't put the petcock back together correctly. Either way I was not feeling clever at all at this point; it was still a mile to the closest gas station. I started walking, well pushing my shiny bike that was now dead weight through the road construction. I headed for the closest gas station, which in Vegas is never very far away. Usually there are at least 3 within 5 miles of any point in town. You'd think we couldn't plan fuel stops or read gauge’s with that many........ Anyway, it's just about midnight by now so luckily I wasn't competing with the afternoon heat. I pushed the old XJ a good half mile to Eastern where it was a nice downhill-ish sidewalk ride to the station. As it turns out the tank holds 3.3 gallons of gas. I was felling slightly more clever as I pulled out of the station and twisted the throttle wide open.

 

One more thing on the POR-15 I used. The liner looked pretty good untill I felt around in the tank and found a large pocket where the liner had lifted from the inside of the tank. I phoned POR-15 and they were sure that the liner gets air pockets like that because of mosture in the tank. They sent me another kit with a solvent for the liner for reduced price and free shipping. After talking to Sully's Cycle Shop about liners I'm of the oppion that they are really not needed. The POR-15 strippers cleaned all the rust out of the tank amazinly well. Once its down to bare metal it back to it's "orginal" condition right? So if it rusts up in another 30 years so be it, I'll probably have ridded it into the ground by then anyway. This weekend I'm going to get the rust out of my tank and disolve the liner in the back tank. Rust may have been the problem with my petcock not working on RES now that I think about it, cus theres some big chunks of rust in there I wasn't able to remove with the magnet...

I'm holding off on all further mods to the bike, fender, bars, grips, RFID and stuff because I got 5 complants from the home owners association and 2 new by-laws passed against me working on "restoring/working on any vehical in the garage in a mannor that is disrupting to the neighbors." or some garabge like that. Dang entitled HOA president!! I'm moveing at the end of the month to a place where you can have hobbies in your garage and if you anger the neighbors they come over and yell instead of pass laws behind your back.

 

That is bullshit man... When I first got my gsxr it had sidewinder header on with a completely gutted yosh pipe on it. When I started it it hurt my chest. That f'er was LOUD! I was just starting it to try and get it running right and my neighbor across the street came out of the house waving her arm at me up in the air like an old grandma... hahahahah... I apologized to her husband later and he told me to ignore her. Needless to say I waited until I got my new exhaust (V&H ss2r) installed before doing anymore work.

Good luck with moving and making anymore progress on the bike.

 

Ah. Neighbours. You gotta luv em. especially the pretty ones when their boyfriends ain't around. Lol

Careful what you do with your tank. With the POR15, the metal ready prep causes the tank to flash rust, you just need to sneeze in it's general direction, even in a dry place like Vegas. If you really don't want to put another liner on, use the marine clean to clean the inside, then leave it at that.

 

I used the por-15 on my Seca tank. I wish I would have held off until I was sure I was going to use it, because now I'm NOT and need to get another kit to do the 750 Maxim tank I AM using.

 

Good idea on the metal ready. I'll try that. I remember the instructions saying something about flash rusting, I wasn't to worried about it because its so dry here. But I guess it could rust from the mosture in the air right?

koolaid5 - when you did the seca tank, how long did you wate before poring the liner in? I waited about 20 minutes and had a heat gun in the tank the entire time. When I porred the liner in, it was hot to the touch and I still go a bubble.

Yeah having neighbors who's only hobby is watching TV and spying on you sucks. Can't waite to move.

 

Rust is Iron Oxide. Water creates a situation where slow moving oxygen bubbles are kept in contact with the iron atoms for extended periods, it's not the water that causes rusting, its the disolved air. Therefore, if you make an iron compound ready to bond with something, which is what metal ready does, there's a chance that the exposed iron atoms will spontaniously combine with the oxygen atoms in the air. Flash rusting. You don't need wet air, you just need air, which you probably have over there

here ends today's science lesson. Next week we will be studying how to make things go bang made from common kitchen materials and what voltage it's safe to expose your little brother to without causing permenant twitching and stuttering.

 

What do the instructions say? I forget, but it was definitely longer than 20 min. I had a heat gun in it the whole time in between steps too. I want to say it was at least an hour and it was hot as hell outside that day, so the sun was helping as well. I was building my deck and doing the tank here and there while I took breaks. I also made sure to get all the excess out of it. I propped it up, after coating the whole inside, so that it would pool up in the back corner behind the petcock hole and then tilt it to pour it out of that hole. I did that about 10 times or so leaving it site for 5-10 min each time.

 

There you go! Finally, some useful info that we can all sink our teeth into!!
Is this a great site, or what? :lol:

 

Koolaid.. I think your problem was that the tank had some water in it.. The instructions say that if the tank is wet, the liner won't bomd properly.. I don't think it's anything to do woth how long you left it on each side etc..

I left the bike 2 weeks without petrol in it after lining the tank because I was called away at work and when I got back it was all dried and cured.

 

I don't think I had any problems at all. The liner bonded just fine and looks GREAT on the inside.

 

Sorry mate.. Getting you confused with PerryFager

 

Good leson for the day. I'm eargly waiting the voltage lesson

I did the forkes today on my XJ went pretty well. I used the guide here http://xj650.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-t ... ll_04.html Only issue I ran into was on the right side forke. I kinda bent it while pounding it in with a large socket. So we'll see how long it lasts before it leaks. The oil in the left fork was vintage 81' 30weight by the look and smell of it... lol... the right fork had what looked like rusty water in it.

I also cleaned my tank out with the Metal Ready. Um.. there's more rust in the tank now than when I started and 2 pinhole leakes on the right side of the tank. I was able to get home, but my bike started leaking pretty bad so I had to drain the gas. Before I left my friends house I put some gorilla glue on the holes and covered it with packing tape. Yeah.... apparently it dosn't work. I think I can patch it with something in the POR-15 kit. Going to have a look at it tomorrow.

Forkes right off the bike


Rusty water/oil?


1 Dollar to the first person to take a drink

 

Ummm. If you look above, you'll see I said that Metal Ready will cause flash rusting. Twice I think. You shoulda used the Marine clean.

As it is, I'm guessing you'll need to get ANOTHER POR15 kit and do it properly, all the way to finishing with the sealant. I wish I had shares in POR15 lol.

Try using the Marine Clean on your tank, it should help a little, and stop the rust getting worse at least. But wash it out with water afterwards, before you put any gas in there, and make sure it's dry.

Don't try doing the whole tank seal thing at this point, you'll make a bad situation worse, although you canpatch it with the tanksealer and the cloth you got.

 

crap... must have grabbed the wrong bottle when I left. lol that explanes why theres more rust in my tank and my friends now than when we started...... oh well, I can get another bottle of marine clean if I need it.

So Metal Ready the tank, let it dry, use the cloth and liner to patch the hole..

hopefully won't dig myself into any more holes on this project....

 

Lol. We all dig holes. It's how we get out of them that counts.

IF you put Metal Ready anywhere near metal, then the next thing you need to do is put the POR15 sealant on everywhere that the metal ready went (or some other rust resistant compound). Marine Clean will help get rid of the rust you currently have without making thing worse. The marine clean is acidic, it eats rust. The metal ready is alcaline and it exposes the metal to bond with something. It enhances the bond with paint or the sealant making it grip the tank harder.

You know you can reuse both of these don't you?