First Bike

Hey everybody!

Just bought a 1982 XJ 750 for $700. Starts and idles and runs perfectly. Has 43000 miles on it and there are only a few cosmetic problems. Its my first bike!

 

Congratulations on your first bike and welcome to the site. Get to know your bike well and find a manual on it. Being a old bike it will need some maintenance. First thing to do is check the rear brakes for pad separation, could save your life. Then you'll want to check/replace the tires if they are old or worn, check the valves and the brake lines.
Riding these bikes are fun, knowing that your bike is safe and in great shape while your riding is priceless. :wink:

 

Next, and I'm sorry but this is a bit of a pain in the butt; Check your valve clearances, especially the exhaust valves. You see, this design, is called shim over bucket and as the valve train wears the valve clearances get smaller and if the bike you just bought was owned by someone who was unaware then you may have some burnt exhaust valves and not even know it. The symptoms of this is popping when you roll off the throttle and low compression test numbers. Welcome to the club! and don't worry too much there are lots of experts here to help with tech.

 

Thanks!

I have a Haynes Manual, that came with the bike. Tires are newer, especially the front one. What do you mean by exhaust valve?

 

Search bigfitz52 valve clearences part 1 and 2. It will be all you need to know. Good Luck

 

Engines 101, inside that doo-hickey that makes lots of noise and vibrates there are a few rotating shafts, a couple of these are the cam shafts, as they turn they open the valves which allow the air/fuel mixture to be drawn in and the exhaust to be expelled. Springs then close the valves. It is very important that the clearance between the cam lobe and the valve shim are kept within a specific range, just thousandths of an inch actually. This range is maintained by measuring the gap with feeler gauges, and adjusted by inserting a shim of a certain thickness.
Please excuse the attempt at humor, I forget that there are people out there who have no idea about the workings or parts of they're cars and motorcycles. If you are interested in riding motorcycles, you should have at least some maintenance ability. One of the best reasons for this sites existence is to save you money! there are mechanics out there, the ones who work in a shop, who are just waiting for some poor "noob" to come along and get fleeced.

 

Check the rear brake for delamination and the front brake lines date code.

And update your sig with your bike and out the location in your profile too!