New Blood

1982 XJ650 Winter Project Purchase

So I was sitting on my couch last Sunday morning playing video games and browsing the internet when I came across a picture that an old friend of mine posted:


I pretty much immediately decided that I wanted to do this, or something similar - just anything to do with refurbishing/modifying an old motorcycle.

So after browsing craigslist I started to get the feel for liking the XJ bikes, and when I started doing some research I found multiple builds that looked really nice, and as I delved depper down the rabbit hole I found XJBikes.com and started reading. I called on some bikes that were sold and then found one and set up an appointment to go take a look. The bike had been ran this year, not sitting, started no problem, and didn't seem to have any issues according to the seller who had recently acquired it by trade. I spent the rest of the night researching technical info on the XJ650 (about 15 hours of reading this forum that day).

Picked her up the next day for $500 - WINTER PROJECT!


First road bike I've owned but I grew up riding EVERYTHING; mostly dirtbikes and enduros but also inlcuding many rockets and cruisers of my friends and family.

After all my reasearch, and taking a better look at it, I could see that it was molested a bit, with pod filters, terrible half assed engine paint, and ugly sticker on the tank.

Furthermore the condition is far from "good" with a dent on the tank, missing Yamaha logos, missing side panels, pounds of dirt, mismatched tires, torn seat, and the blinker sometimes just stays on instead of blinks.

Oh well, I still am glad it starts easily and drives through all gears smoothly. May not be fired up again till spring after last ride on Friday.

(my mechanical abilities are from cars, trucks, and diesel tractors - my first time wrenching on a bike, but I am careful and do my research first)

After about 20 more hours of forum and video lurking I started to strip her down...Not exactly positive on every aspect of what I want to do to her, but a good general idea of minimalist values, clean and basic aesthetics, room for a passenger (ruined my original bobber-esque seat and axle fender idea), and running clean and smooth.

After a closer look I found more problems during the carb rebuild including a diaphragm with a hole burnt into it, little jet screen with a small hole in it, and Float bowl gaskets fell apart during disassembly (Ordered all these parts yesterday).

The pod on the main carb looked damaged, and glued up, and the carb looked dirty (it ended up being the one with the hold in the diaphragm). Also, whoever podded the carbs (and I see that I may have inherited more work than a stock bike after researching these carbs, pods, afr, airflow, jetting, tuning, etc, for about 10 hours this week), they also re-jetted with 120/40 (probably off of an XJ750? - they looked used)...anyways, after cruising 55 for an hour picking it up, the plugs were a nice brown...however, I chopped the pipes and did a few 7-8000rpm pulls one day after work and checked it and it was quite lite...not that I plan on riding that way but I wanted to see.

I do like a challenge.

Anyways, I threw the pods away as they looked cheap and one was definitely damaged - a bridge I will have to cross when I start to put her back together.

Pic berore pulling the carbs, tank, pipes, and battery:


After carbs are back together I am following the advice of the regs on here and rebuilding the drum breaks and replacing break lines...well, buying the break lines anyways, may not be in stalled for a while.


I am trying to decide whether to pull the engine for frame painting or not...if anyone could let me know...how difficult is it to frame paint with it still on versus pulling it and making it easier?

Also trying to decide what to do with the tank...how difficult is it to rework the surface of the tank and repaint? Shave off the mounts for the Yamaha, and do some body work on her? Or would it be simpler just to find another tank with no damage? My abilities are limited to augmentation, removal, and some modifications and fabrication...I do not have a welder, but I could get it to someone if I had to.

More about my vision:
bars that slightly curve down and back, new switches, grips, and levers, speed or speed + tach chrome guages, lowered, possible rear-wheel-in-front conversion, forward pegs and controls, single seat, but load bearing fender with detachable passenger pad, or just one long seat?, probably wrapped pipes to a turn-down tips with stock headers and cutoff pipe, Bridgestone spitfire tires with the raised white lettering, cream colored frame, dark brown tank with asymmetrical cream stripe long-ways, engine brushed aluminum, not sure about the steel plates. I saw a guy who stuck like an old ammunition box on the side with his battery, electrical, and start on it and that was pretty boss, so i've thought about that...but I'm not sure if I would do it properly, or if I could find a spot that wouldn't get in the way of passenger.


Anyways, I know this is long and all over the place, but thanks for looking! Also, thank you for all the information that you all have already provided me I think i've probably put about 50 hours of reading on this forum in a week.


Cheers!

Rob - Grand Rapids, MI

 

Pulling the engine will also make installing an airbox easier if you are going that route.

I can't imagine painting the frame with the engine in, you can't get to much of the frame for prep or painting that way.

You can also paint the engine a different color while it's out :wink:

Pulling the engine isn't particularly difficult. If you want to do it with the frame standing up, you'll need a helping hand to get it back in. Others have used the technique where the lay then engine on it's side and maneuver the frame over the engine.

 

Thank you for the insight - I will be pulling it out then...definitely need to fix whatever the last guy did with painting half of it black, then having the other half dirty.

 

if you are pulling the engine. I would recommend doing a COMPLETE frame strip. Do some good clean up to it, or maybe send it out for some powder coating instead of painting. Do your steering head and swingarm bearings while it is torn down. About $75 in parts + worth every penny.

 

You're probably right...I was thinking on trying to cut corners because my worst fear about this project is taking a running motorcycle, stripping it, making it "better", putting it back together, then it not working anymore

I do want to get the frame painted, and there is some surface rust around the swing arm bearing area that I need to take care of.

I think you've talked me into it; it's a long winter afterall.

 

I was in the exact same boat you were, being afraid to pull it apart and never get it running again. Check out my post, here to see how it turned out.

The whole thing seems daunting at first, to put it mildly, but once you've done, and redone it because you forgot a part... and then redone it four more times for the same reason, you become much less afraid. I managed to cross wires in the fuse box, and tried to get the thing to start for about a week before I realized my mistake. It's just about impossible to kill.

My main advice about the frame: if there's rust, strip it and get it repainted. Do powder. It's cheap and super-durable - which you'll need when you're lasso-ing that frame back around the engine.

Second bit of advice: when you go to take the engine out, disconnect the u-bolt sticking out of the transmission. Leaving that in makes it near impossible to get the engine out without doing a twist within a zero-G environment.

 

Your bike came out great - the seat is awesome. Thank you for the advice!

 

Been doing some tear-down. Took the bike in the basement for some winter work. A lot of ideas dancing around in my head for some uniqueness. Sort of a technology theme has been in my mind...things like using CAT5 cable casing for visible wiring, imbedding the key into a USB stick, fashioning a phone cradle for navigation, maybing cut side panels out of some bad motherboards.

Got the engine pulled - Wasn't too bad after pulling the oil filter housing:



Guess I figured out what all those deadlifts are for in the gym - got her up on the bench and started some love with the wire brush attachment:






Here's some parts. My pipes are going to be wrapped, and I'm hoping to find some turn-down tips...I also thought it might be cool to have them going straight back, and then put tractor exhaust flappers on them.



Still have not set on a frame color...I have my original cream and brown idea, but if I go with the techy theme, that will not cut it.

Just focusing on cleaning the engine, and begining to replace wiring for now.

List of parts to buy:
New pod filters - threw the ones out that came with it
Black clip-ons - will clip on the inch of the fork poking through the top
head lamp w/ blinkers
tail light mount
plate mount
tail light and blinkers
Grips
Break MC
Stainless break lines
Clutch lever
Break Lever

 

Looks like you're off to a good start. Keep us posted

 

You and RobbieRobot both have me cringing at my choice to forego cleaning the engine while I had it out. The cleanup jobs are looking great.

 

Yeah, I really like the polished look...I am going gloss black for most of it, but I will probably leave some polished pieces. It does feel good to get the grime and crap out of the deep nooks. I am not going to the extent that RobbieRobot did, just buffing it out

 

Ha, whoops! Forgot to tell you about that one. Sorry.

 

yea... I did not go for the pulling the engine and cleaning/painting it when I resurrected mine. I'm totally regretting it. On a similar note, guess what my winter project is?

 

Actually, I think I saw you mention removing it somewhere in one of your posts. I saw someone else say that they got it out without taking it off so I DID try that first for about two seconds. After removing it, it popped out like a dandelion head.

BTW FF7 owns and the Red 13 seat is awesome.

 

Good winter project! If you live in Michigan, I fear you would run out of project real fast during the 5 month winter (even though they're much less severe because of the global climate shift, they still drag on with rain and cold). I definitely want this bike ridable by May-June, so I will have some projects left for next winter.

 

Wow! You're making good progress. I've timed my project badly. It's approaching completion just as the first frost has arrived. Keep it up.

 

Man I really need to clean my engine like that...
Whatd you use? Just a wire brush attachment to a drill? Dremel?
Type of polish?

 

coarse wire circular attachment > fine wire circular > "dremel" (cheap version lol) random tips for hard to reach areas

I didn't use any polish, or go finer with paper because I intended to use some gloss black hi-heat engine enamel. I will post pics of the outcome - I am extremely happy with the way it is turning out!

 

Thank you! I've read through your build probably three times - it is wonderful. I will definitely be referencing back when it comes time to work on the bars/controls/guages.

The engine is 90% complete, and I am almost bummed that I have to move on to some of the frame/wheel/break stuff.

 

Yes it does, and thanks! Though I don't think that's Red XIII. I think it's Fenrir and/or the wolf spirit that represents Cloud and his lost identity/guilt over Zack's death/fear of hurting those close to him. Not that I'm trying to apply that meaning to me; I just think it looks bad-ass, which is why I edited it slightly and took the ring out of his mouth.