My Seca II Scrambler Project

Two years ago, February 2013, I bought a Seca II from a kid at the Air-Force Academy. He had cut it up and dismantled it. I gave him way more than it was worth and hauled it home in the back of my Ford Escape.



I laid the parts out on the driveway and took note of what I had. The engine looked alright; had some dents in the crank plug and some rash on the fins. The carbs looked alright; had some damage to a couple of the slides. Most everything else was cut or ground in some fashion. I think Mister PO thought he'd build a fighter with it. Too bad he didn't possess the skillset to follow-through.




I planed to turn it into a faired touring bike. To do some updating. Fit a newer fairing and tail, install a 17" rear wheel, fit a more modern front fork, etc, etc. I made it far down this path and ended up here: A Seca II with an FZ6 front, FZ1 rear and custom tank. You can read more about this foray of insanity, here: http://www.xjrider.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3040





I had hoped to ride this bike out to the Seca II Rally in Arkansas in May of 2013 but as the deadline for the rally quickly approached, decided it wasn't going to happen and took my other Seca II to the rally. I parked this one in the garage and left it there.



The bike sat in the garage for two years, waiting sadly for me to return. I had trouble finding the motivation. Given that I also own a fully faired Seca II, I couldn't see how I would use the bike. Too much overlap. Well, in April 2015, I was sick to tears of looking at the bike, sitting in the garage, and decided to do something different with it. Given the amount of dirt here in Colorado, I wanted a scrambler. Having owned many XJ's and having restored them, I had a mess of spare parts. This one would be a Parts-bin Scrambler.

I began the project by cutting off the rear tail that I'd built two years prior.



A new tail was built to suit the idea and support a rear fender and light. The fender came courtesy of an XS400 and the light, well, Wal-mart:




Little by little, the design came together and finally, I had a workable design:




Parts were reconditioned and I slowly became more and more disgruntled with the previous owner. The height of that disgruntlement came when I discovered that he'd damaged the starter gears, likely when he flooded it with his modified petcock. I split the cases and went through the engine, replacing the gears, the seals and the gaskets. I cleaned the cylinders and went through the top-end. When done, the engine began to look the part:




It was the same story with the carbs. Damage at every turn. I replaced all four of the diaphragms, rejetted it for altitude and fully reconditioned the carb set.



I continued to recondition parts and went through every aspect of the bike. After years of sitting on the garage, the bike was finally back together.





Finally, on June 15th, with lack of fanfare, the bike fired to life and ran for the first time since 2012.




With the bike running, I turned my attention to cosmetics. I painted the fenders and tank using Spraymax products:



And tuned the carbs using a monometer and Wideband O2 sensor:


Finally, this past weekend, I was able to get out and put some miles on the bike. 120 or so later, she's running well and feels like an older bike than she is. When I got home, I sat in he garage with her and we shared a short glass of Jack Daniel's No 7. A tradition I share with all the bikes I bring back to the road.



There is still much work to do. I am working on fabricating side-covers from ABS plastic and designing some brackets for the sides of the rear rack that will be cut from aluminum to mirror the headlamp brackets. If you want to read the entire story, you can find it here:
http://www.xjrider.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6900

Thought you guys would enjoy seeing a bike put back on the road, even if it weren't a first-gen Seca. More to come on the progress of this one, someday soon. Stay tuned.

 

I love bikes with a good story behind them. Especially when they actually look good haha nice job

 

And for those looking for other gauge options, KZ1000p gauges will work with both the Yamaha speedometer and tach signal. That means, they should work on the Radian, Fazer (FZX), Fz, FZR, Maxim 750, and Seca II.

I'm certain there are other Kawi gauges that would work though my experience is solely with the KZ clocks.

 

The blue goo (or whatever it is) on the carb diaphragm is Hall of Fame type material. The PO is Dead, Long Live the PO!

Very nice rescue work, Radare. The spraymax paint is the bomb for do-it-yourselfers.

 

nice build and story to boot. can never go wrong with some Jack Daniels either

 

Does anybody believe that the bloo gooo would fix a carb diaphragm? That is crazy!
Enter now! You may have already won:
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/previous-owner-masterpieces.57929/

 

It's not the best thing to use, but it does work in a pinch. Liquid electrical tape is preferred over that stuff though (looks like it's blue RTV, but it may be Hylomar or some other company's equivalent). The PO just went crazy with the stuff; you only need a little bit to cover any holes in the diaphragm.

 

Po would have had better luck with a Trojan!

 

They are known to leak too! On an unrelated topic, anybody want to babysit my newborn when he arrives in Oct?

 

Excellent work, I love how its all just sitting in milk crates, then boom! 2 years later its a work of art. Getting me that motivation I need to get to work!

 

Working on finishing touches now. Made side covers and front frame infills using ABS plastic. Still have to finish and paint them.

For below the seat:




To cover the coils (these will get sanded down and will look a lot like the below-the-seat covers when done):




And the rear covers, sitting on the bike. I'm waiting on a set of coupler nuts and M6 studs from McMaster-Carr before I can get them completed and attached:




Also, ordered a new Yuasa battery for it. The Everstart (Walmart) battery that is in there now, died after only one season. The Yuasa's seem to give me four or more seasons.

And ordered a set of #100 mains and #20 pilots. This combination works great at my altitude, just a lick under 6k feet, and still works at 14k feet when I decided to visit the top of Mt. Evans. More, soon.

 

That looks sweet! Nicely put together.

 

Finished the side covers. Well, at least their construction. Bodywork and paint to follow.

 

Just checking--- you DID say 'unrelated', right?

 

Shaped and sanded. I'm headed to MN for a week but when I get back, I'll get a coat of 2k high-build primer sprayed on them.

 

I think they look good as is! Kinda a graphite/carbon fiber (minus the fiber) or alien metal thing! How did you make them? Lots of the older Secas and Maxims need new covers, and original ones are hard to find! Would this process work with compound curves, or is it flat and corners only?

As for that, the wife says he's related to me...

 

They weren't difficult to make. I used flat 3/16" thick ABS plastic sheet and ABS pipe cement. The ABS plastic can be heated and molded to shape, so it would be conceivable to make pieces with compound bends/angles or other shapes. For my covers, I kept them simple. I cut them out using a combination of my bandsaw and table saw. I trimmed and shaped them with my Dremel and sanded them with a palm sander. You can read more about it, here.

Here are the pieces I used:




As glued together:




After trimming:




And after sanding:

 

Thanx, dood! I think they look excellent, even without paint.

 

Pretty good day for the project. First, the new YUASA battery came so I charged that up and installed it. The #100 and #20 jets came too, so I installed those and tuned the carbs to match. Oh, and I finished and installed the side covers. They look good. The bike's pretty much done and ready for shakedown.

I took it out for a short ride this evening and had fun. Enjoy some photos.

 

I really like the looks of it. That would look good setting next to my 97 vmax! Your bike has made me change the direction of build on my 79 xs750. I was going to do a hard tail bobber but not any more.