Hallo,

Hello all you XJ owners.

Hi I'm Irish, a huge big brute of a fella, strong, good looking and brainy as hell. Ok so does that qualify as an intro?

I've just acquired in exchange for money a complete (excluding original exhaust !) but tired XJ 750 Seca having owned a demo model from a local dealer a bit over 30 years ago. Loved it then, looking forward to bringing my "new" (1983 model) one back to ... well ok I dont have a strict target! I'm looking forward to taking it for a spin as we say over here and hope I will be able to draw on your collective wisdom as I work towards smartening it up. I think I probably need some work to the carbs - quelle surprise! and lots of cosmetic. Anti dive had been disconnected - anything sinister there ?

Is the Haynes manual considered worthwhile? I bought one soon after buying my earlier bike (young and more foolish then) it was useful although probably not altogether necessary for routine maintenance but how do you guys rate it for the more senior operations. I ask because their manual for a 1990's period car that I have a bit of fetish for is very hit and miss, sometimes correlation between what Haynes says is there and what you will actually find there is a bit hit and miss. Its still very helpful, just throws up the odd surprise here and there and usually its fairly obvious so it does not cause problems.

Strange as it might seem I think my "new" Seca may have come from America, it has the red line / sector at / from 55 mph on the speedometer although my earlier one had it too maybe all the mph (as opposed to km/h) speedometers had the red line. Is there any way to tell what market it was made for and is there a reliable resource that will allow me to understand if there are differences between them?

 

Welcome!
Try this
Enter your vin and it should give you the market the bike was for. Please let me know if you run into any issues.

I found the Haynes manual to be helpful more often than not. I did also buy the FSM when I split the cases. I think if you're doing major or sensitive surgery it would be best to have both. I was a complete noob when I started though, sounds like you have a little more experience.

 

You will NEED both the Haynes, and the Yamaha factory service manuals. Neither one covers everything. Between those and this site you'll have all the information you'll need to get her back in proper order.

There are a few links in my signature that should be considered must-read items before you begin.

This one will also be helpful; TECH TOPIC: Model ID and VIN's

Disconnecting the and-dive is a personal choice. Causes no harm (but leaves you with a very basic fork setup). All the parts are available if you want to make it work as intended again (I personally like a well set-up anti-dive fork).