Ikea 1984 XJ1100... some assembly required

You're doing an awesome job and having the time of your life in spite of every obstacle known to man biting you! Frustrating, but like you noted earlier, you now know pretty much every system on the bike inside-and-out. Congrats.

Now once you get out on the road with it, take it easy for a while, it's a monster bike and you can get in all sorts of trouble on it..........

 

A heat pump? Must be a stand alone one that only draws head from the water table? I know here in WI they are water and then LP or Natural Gas to bring up the BTU's. Either way, I know it sucks waiting for the garage to warm up during the cold season. I use a old stacked double barrel wood to bring mine up to temps. I have drop tarps in the area I work to hold in the the heat, no reason to heat the rest of the garage.

Them relays can be fun. Those must be the ones located under the rear of the gas tank and attached to the underside of the frame. Mine too needed some TLC and had to use them a while before they worked right. I don't know if you have tried the turn signals yet, but mine was the round relay left side by the battery that was weak or dirty inside. The more I worked with it the better it worked. Will be 50 here in WI today, but with the rds full of sand and salt, need to wait for some good rain showers.

 

I went through the whole thread and it reads a little like a script for a disaster movie, well one very specific to old motorcycles lol. I'm pretty happy with getting it running and down to the last few details, even the compressor committing suicide isn't such a big deal after some creative combinations of words directed at it. I've left it for a couple of months because it was just too cold to go out and fight with it. I've got a new motor on already so its just reset the governor and replace the pressure cut off switch when the new one shows up. I'm very excited to get this thing on the road but I agree Chacal, I'll be taking it easy. 1100 is a lot of bike! my riding buddy is brand new so I've got a good excuse to keep it slow and steady. This is my first liter+ bike, and looking at some YouTube videos these things are absolute beasts. I hope it'll have a nice soft ride, especially with the progressive susp. springs up front.

The compressor cleaned up pretty well and the garage doesn't smell like burnt insulation anymore, I had to cut the cage around the belts a bit to fit the new motor. Thank god for princess auto.

 

I got the heat pump from Costco, it's an air source unit. This one in specific:

https://www.costco.ca/danby-18,000-...ariable-speed-inverter.product.100980779.html

I installed the unit and head unit but hired an electrician for the wiring. It's not a total loss, we can probably get it put in the house somewhere. I think for next winter I'll have a propane furnace in the garage, I want more BTU's!!!

You called it Timbox, the relays under the tank! the ignition kill one is 100% failed closed with zero clicking when I tested and continuity all the time. The one for the starter circuit works but sounds funny so it's getting replaced as well. I took a quick look in the XJ4ever site for new relays but for $20 I've got some sealed "waterproof" aka splash-proof one on the way.

I read that it's suggested to scrap the original fuse box with the glass fuses and I think I'll do that. There are lots of inexpensive blade style fuse blocks available and that's one less headache. That may be a fair-weather project.

I did overhaul the turn signal switch and gave the internals a good clean and fresh dielectric grease and they're working like a charm.

I'm in the same boat as you with weather, here in Nova Scotia it was -7 deg c (19 deg f) and there's still snow on the grass so I've got some time.

 

On a slightly different topic is there a go to tool kit for under the seat? I don't have the one that came with the bike. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to carry in the way of tools while riding? any small parts? fuses for sure.

Also I'd like a windscreen, does anyone have any experience with adding one of the cheap generic ones?

 

Yes, but you probably already know, eventually you''ll have to encourage him to keep up.....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YCEJDonhGoY

 

Getting rid of the old glass fuse box is a must IMHO. I have mine mounted on the right side of the battery compartment, just above all the other stuff. Hoping it will tuck under the side cover okay. I don't have a right side cover yet. Nice on the work with the turn signal. I have not broken into the left bar switches yet, as they seem to be working okay. We are looking at a little better weather this week and up to 60F next Monday. I have a few road ready bike, might have to get one out.

As far as tools, that is your call. Even finding a old OEM kit on ebay as long as it is not an arm and a leg. Once most metric bikes have had a good refresh and good shakedown ride, tires are my biggest worry on ride. A plug kit and some way to get air back in a tire.

 

The new relays showed up today and they are quite a bit bigger! but I really like the idea of waterproof. I did a quick design on tinkercad and came up with a soft mount and printed it up in TPU. It's flexible but stiffer than rubber. I tried a test fit on the bike and they do fit but will need to be removed if the carbs come out again. The relay holder doesn't easily pop on the mounts on the bike, I might need to make the slot a bit wider. I also made mine a fair bit thicker so it shouldn't break.

As a prototype I'll call it not too bad. I'll probably make a version 2 with a little more clearance in the mount slot.

 

Very nice! I've never tried printing with TPU, but obviously would be very useful. Those little buggers are always breaking.

 

Thanks Dan!

Here's a link to the .STL on thingieverse and the relays on Amazon in case anyone else want to do this. This is the Version 2 with a slightly wider slot to fit on the bike.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6969999

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BZYRLTGN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

So today I was back in the garage. I finish up with a big win, a probable win and a miss.

Big win, the compressor is back in action!! I got the new pressure switch installed and that was the problem, it cycles properly and even the pressure release is working. I upgraded and got a decently reviewed one and the install was straight forward. I'm going to play with my sandblaster tomorrow to celebrate!

Probable win, the relay is installed of the ignition kill circuit, however it's untested because of the loss. It took a bit of time with me double checking then triple checking to make sure the right wires go on the correct terminals.

Loss, I replaced the stock fuse block but I didn't really think about it and added a powered compact block, when I turned the key I let the smoke out of the new block, oops. Oh well, minor screw up, I've ordered some sealed individual fuse holders, un-powered. Live and learn. It's not the solution I wanted but will work fine.

I had hoped to be ready to seal it up this weekend, but I'll settle for progress. I'm still on track for riding this spring, the snow is still on the lawn so I've got some time.

 

I had a good day in the garage!

The new fuses are in, it's ugly as hell but functional, I ended up with loose, individual holders not the block I wanted, but I want the damn thing working, inspected and on the road. I'll take ugly.

With that done the rest of the electrical checked out, signal lights, horn, headlight hi/low,start circuit. The front brake light switch is good, the rear is iffy. I'll need to figure that out. The start kill circuit is again acting up, for now I've got it unplugged again. Good enough.

I fired it up and got the carbs balanced, big check mark.

I got the fork and shock air pressure set. one more check mark.

On the minus side I have a flat spot on the throttle at about 3000-ish RPM. I dd a quick google and I see this is a known thing, I'll look into the fix tomorrow.

Sometime last year I removed the octopus and tossed it in the parts bin. Included in the pile of bits and pieces of were 2 different sets of Petcocks. 1 set vacuum activated and one simple on/off set. I put the vacuum ones on the tank but they interfere with the air-box. I don't love the idea of constant flow but I might give them a go until I can find a lower profile set of vacuum ones.

I am ridiculously close to being ready to ride this thing.

 

I had a very productive day. The bike is off the lift. I fattened up the idle mixture by about 1/8 a turn on the carbs and that was enough to get rid of the flat spot around 3000 rpm. With that gone I switched the petcocks out for the manual ones, they fit without sticking on the airbox. Next I set the idle, checked the tire pressures and then went to work looking for the problem with the rear brake, brake light switch. The switch was faulty with random resistance so I swapped it for the one on the parts bike. Problem solved. I got the tank mounted, the seat on and took it of the hoist. With nothing obvious needing attention I was out of excuses. I found my gear and jumped on for the test drive.

It's not perfect, the bike does not accelerate as hard as I thought it should, it almost feels a little boggy. I think the clutch plates are dragging as the shifter takes more effort than I remember previous bikes I've owned. The front brake lever need a ton of effort and hardly applies. I've got brake, battery and fuel warnings lit for the "computer" So I've got stuff to keep working on. That's the "work in progress" stuff. On the plus side IT RUNS!!!!!!! It idles fine, it drive fine, the combo front/rear brake stuff works perfectly. It's comfortable and easy on the butt. I drove it 5 km to the gas station and filled up then rode back, aside from the stuff I listed above it's working fine.

At this point I'm going to fix the obvious stuff, the front brake issue, and look at what's setting off the computer, I tested the battery and charging circuits and they're fine, 14V when running. so it's in the monitoring stuff. I think I'm going to put some Km's on it before I try screwing around with the carbs and looking at the clutch dragging, I think this thing sat for a couple of decades so it just might need some run time to get everything moving like it should. I'm on track to get it on the road for real and enjoy the summer.

 

That is a loud tick.

 

Nice work. I am with @Robert Strumbell with that tick. Once you are ready to look at the valve spec you might find they need a little tlc.

As for that front brake. I know what you mean, the MC only operates the left front brake and well, you would think it would have more distance to move when you try to brake? I have been busy with other things, but with the weather finally looking like spring, I hope to get motivated and get my 1100 on the road.

 

Hi Robert and Tim,

I agree the tick is pretty impressive. I have very little desire to ever take the valve cover off again, the 4-5 reps I got in fitting and re-fitting shims left a sour taste in my mouth. that said I know I have to go back in but it can wait for a bit.

 

Back in the garage today,

I disassembled and cleaned the front brake, it's moving free so the crazy stiff lever must be how it is with stainless lines.
I traced the wiring and got the brake fluid level computer warning sorted out, I just cleaned up the connectors. Same thing with the battery connector. The fuel sender in the tank isn't working but I found a video on that so it probably just needs a cleaning and adjustment for good contact. That will have to wait until the tank is empty, My big problem is the carbs.

I'd appreciate some help with the carbs. The video attached is how it bogs down off idle, I'm not going wide open call it 30-40% twist and it really stumbles. I've got the idle set with the recommended 2.5 turns out from bottom, then I turned another 1/4 turn out and it's a little better big still sounds like this. Before I go all in backing out the idle mix screws to get rid of the stumble I just want to confirm this is the correct way to do this.

Am I missing something else that I should be adjusting?

Idle is about 1000 RPM
The carbs are balanced.

If anyone has a suggestion please let me know.

 

I can't tell from the vid, id the OEM air box on the bike? How are you running fuel to it? Make sure that you have a good seal with the air box and that the fuel is flowing free to each side.

 

Hi Tim,

I am running the stock air box with a paper filter. I'm fueling from a 250CC I.V. bottle that has a T junction to fuel both side. The intake boots are new ones that came with the bike and are soft an flexible and I used fresh gaskets with them. The carbs are tightly fastened. With all that said, I'll fire it up and spray some carb cleaner around the boots to check for a good air tight seal.

 

That looks like running out of gas - the idle jets typically sit deeper in the bowls so low fuel level they can still work. Maybe check the fuel level on the bike to make sure all the bowls are filling adequately

 

The battery light doesn't monitor charge as far as I understand (like the alternator light on your car). There's a battery sensor wire that used to hook to the middle of the cells that new batteries don't have. There's a fix to add a resistor...do a search for posts with details. I've just gotten used to shutting the warning light off after getting on the road as sidestand down will keep it on also.

Nice work on getting it going!

 

Hi Tim, Rooster and Roast,

Thanks for helping out guys, I appreciate it! I'll double check the levels, I was pretty careful on the setup post cleaning and got fussy making sure it was all level and the fuel level was as close to spec as I could make it. A second look can't hurt at all. I'll see what that gets me.

I'm going on a well deserved vacation and won't have time to work on the bike for a bit. I'll post an update when I'm back.

Thanks again guys!

 

Hello Gang,

After an incredible vacation see my cousins in England I'm back to work. I put a fair bit of thought into the bogging down problem. I reached way, way back into my memories of my apprenticeship and what carburetors actually do at what point in time. I though about your comments and especially Roosters comment that it sounds like it's running out of gas. I went through my paperwork and manuals and found the "Mikuni_BS-CV_Carburetor_Rebuild_Tutorial" and it had a small section on stumbling in mid range. All of that led to the main jet needle.

So I pulled the tops off the carbs one by one and reset the needles to the highest adjustment, the furthest out of the jet possible, 2 spots higher than what I set them at during the rebuild. I managed to do this with the carbs on the bike, which actually worked out, I was dreading having to pull the carbs again. I fired it up and I think this is a success! It sounds fine now!! I brought off idle to about 2000 RPM and when I snap the throttle it responds perfectly, in my opinion. Scratch one more job of the "to do" list.

Since this the bike that never stops giving I picked up two new problems. #1 the clutch was dragging so I adjusted it following the procedure in the technical part of the forum. Now the clutch is slipping. DOH!!! This is pretty minor, I'll redo the procedure this weekend.

The second problem is a bigger one, the tank has some porous spots. It bubbled up the paint in a few spots in the few weeks that it's been full of gas. The pain peeled off with a scratching from my fingernail. This is not so good news. If you look way back to the start of this thread I listed the tank as a problem. So the previous owner did some kind of DIY tank liner, that is red (I originally thought it was rust). I've got a second tank that is rusty from the parts bike, so I'm going to see if anyone local-ish does tank cleaning and a real liner. I've got the spare so I can try one myself with being too worried about destroying it.

I didn't see any liquid seeping from the paint blister spots so I think it's just vapor pushing through but the problem still needs to be addressed. In a burst of optimism I am going to get some insurance and register the beast so I can get it inspected and on the road. I can't wait to get a read ride on this thing.

 

If the coating is red, it might be one of the really dodgy ones that dilutes into modern fuel.
That way lies much grief and sorrow as it contaminates carbs, inlet tracts, valves and pistons/bores/rings.
To be safe, I'd drain that tank and not use it until I could be sure of extracting the old liner (some are soluble in acetone, some in MEK, some in some other highly dodgy solvents) and getting it done in a modern coating, proof against the witches' brew of modern fuel mixes.
There's a cautionary tale on XS650.com about this exact thing.
https://www.xs650.com/threads/marbl...er-then-screwed-up-the-warranty-repair.58302/

 

Hi Dave,

I am 100% with you, I drove 3 hours this morning to Moncton, NB where the only radiator repair shop that does tank repairs in Atlantic Canada is located. I dropped off both tanks and asked that they fix the best one. I've put way to much time and effort (and money) to screw around with a sketchy tank. I just want the damn thing to work. It's going to cost me a few hundred by the time I pick it up but I want it done right. So I spent my day on the road and if thing go on schedule I'll do the drive again next Friday, but I'll have a properly done tank. I was told it will probably be sand blasted so I'm going to need to learn how to do a basic paint job this week, good times. The end is in sight, I'll take care of the paperwork this week and hopefully be able to get it inspected and on the road sometime the week after. I've got both fuel senders on the bench and I'll try and get the least bad one up and running.

 

Another weekend, and it's time for an update. The gas tank is not ready, the shop thinks they'll be done this coming Friday, I'm not surprised for the delay they look busy. With this out of my hands I started looking into the gas gauge, it looks pretty simple. A float, a resistance wire and a slider. As the level goes up and down the length of wire in contact with the slider changes and the resistance changes. Since I have 2 tanks I have 2 sender units and I hope I had one good one. They are both disgusting and nether one worked. I disassembled them and aside from the grime I found problems on both units. One the resistance wire was obviously broken, the other the resistance wire looked fine until I go it out and found the insulated board was broken. Two for two, yippee! Add to that one of the floats was missing and general corrosion on everything. So I picked the best of the parts and got to cleaning. The sand blaster make short work of the crud and a spritz of WD40 is keeping the rust at bay. I transferred the float to the clean one and I'm left with a single problem, no resistance wire for the slider to slide on. I did some measuring and the wire is about 0.13 mm thick which Google says is 36 gauge, I found some resistance wire and the 36 gauge is 26 ohms/ foot. I pulled 3.5 meters of wire off the broken insulator board. From more Googling that the resistance should be 50 - 300 ohms depending on fuel level. With a few conversions the numbers are pretty close. So I'm going to try and rewind the intact resistance board. If it's a failure then I'll clean up the second sender, cut off all the internals and use it as a blanking plate. I'd like to have a working gauge but I'll go without if I have to.




So in a complete change from my usual thing I decided to actually complete a project. It was a huge success.

 

The resistance wire rewind is ambitious and I look forward to hearing more. Well deserving of chocolate cake!

 

Hey Roast,

I agree it's a kind of a long shot, but for $10.00 worth of wire what the heck. I'll post how it turns out.

 

So I had some free time a decided to look into the ticking. As I'm sure everyone predicted I have valves way too loose. I promise on Honda and Acura products I can actually set a valve, people even paid me to do it. I've got the valve cover off and #1 exhaust and #4 intake are out of spec, insert a 4 letter word here, I did. For whatever reason I am not getting any success with the valve bucket holding tool. I either catch the shim or nothing, I just can't snag the bucket. I'm taking a break. I've looked at the thread on how to use it but I'm doing something wrong.

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/thre...valve-adjustment-with-pics-parts-i-ii.116006/

I hate the idea of pulling the cams out but that might be what I have to do. If anyone wants to chime in on how to use the damn thing I'd appreciate it.

 

I've never worked on an 1100, but I'm assuming it's the same as 650/700/750/900 as far as the valve buckets - let me know if I'm wrong...

I took this photo with the bucket hold down tool installed on head without cams so you can get a good look at how the tool needs to be positioned pretty carefully. It is pretty easy to "miss" and the tool slides off and doesn't hold the bucket down.



The punch line it that you have to position the tool pretty exactly to make sure to catch the bucket. You will get better with experience, but even then you will miss occasionally.

 

I tried the shim tool the first couple times, then switched over to snaking a wire under the valve through the plug hole. Just my opinion, but it's ten times faster and less frustrating. The only thing the tool does nicely is hold the bucket when you have a really stuck shim, but I've found a blast of compressed air aimed at the notch frees them up better than risking a scratch with screwdrivers and other pointed things.

I use an solid copper, insulated 10ga wire stripped out of a piece of romex.

 

And regardless of the method, don't forget to spin the the bucket so the notch is visible *before* you try to retain the bucket so you can actually get the shim out once the bucket is held down!

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to have some dinner then take another look.

 

The mistake that most people make when using the shim tool is trying to place the "tongue" of the tool into that notch in shim bucket.......and that's not where it goes!

 

I filed the holes a little bigger on the tool to position it in place.
Without that it wasn't going to fit anyhow.

 

The bucket holding tool is a badly-designed and thought-out piece of shyte*, throw it away and read up on the zip-tie method. Quick and easy.

*I wonder how many cylinder heads have cracks in them because neophytes have turned the engine over the wrong way.

 

Hi Guys,

Thank you all for the input. With a full belly I took another look at the shim challenge. Turns out I was probably doing right, but the shims took a lot more effort to pop out than they did on the bench, I'm guessing there is a bit of load on them. With a bit more force they popped right out and after some measuring and consulting the shop manual the new shims went in and got checked. I am in spec now according to the feeler gauges. I tore the valve cover gasket taking the valve cover off so I've got a sheet of gasket material on the way and it will be here Saturday. I should find out how the fuel tank is coming along tomorrow so fingers crossed I can pick it up Friday. I'm closing in on the mythical working motorcycle.