What did you do to your Yamaha today?

I pulled my engine out, got the frame ready to have the freeze crack repaired.

 

I fired her up - first time for a few weeks.
She started fairly easily (been sat on the Optimate) and then ran for a couple of minutes with a little bit of choke.

Will try her again around Christmas, just to keep her on her toes.

Had to buy a new battery for the Bonnie though - it just eats them (don't think the vibration helps much). I'm spending a bit more and getting an AGM (absorbed glass mat) one. Apparently can't sulphate as there's no liquid/acid in there. Will let you know the benefits/probs with this once it's seen some service.

Happy Christmas everyone.

 

Inspected from my recent two weeks of paint and waiting. Looking good so far!

Got my new grab bar in from prince_albert3. Ready to clean and strip it later this week or weekend.

Planning my next step: carb rebuild (again). Should have done it right the first time. Gotta take them apart anyway for some paint, so it isn't so bad!

 

Bidding on a chole cable, Still gathering parts for this 900 seca, have most of the stuff to make a bike now. When I aquire all the plastics I want, lookin for a frame mounted fairing, will weld and jig mounts on frame, send down for sand blasting and powdercoating, on the frame and swing arm upper clamp and all related footpeg mounts, silver for all the bracketry and swing arm and black for the frame.

 

Made the next bit of progress on sand blasting the '92 frame.

Now excuse me while extract all the sand from certain places.

 

Today was a warm day, so I finished up getting the '95 road worthy.

[flash=640,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/sJcwbgLThJw.swf[/flash]

 

Picked mine up at the shop as they did a caliper rebuild. I was in over my head after I put the new pads on and I bleed the system and it wouldn't hold... But its back in business and running great. Thanks to: http://www.kickstandcustom.com/

I also put on side covers with the correct grommets. Rode it everywhere. I am thinking I should ride it easy though because its 30 years old and has 25 k miles. Or should I thrash the hell out of it when I take it out?

 

I finally got around to re-adjusting the sync on my carbs after the last valve adjustment. The valves weren't too far off, I only had to replace one pad, and so the bike seemed to run well either way. But I want to get it just right before I try commuting on it soon.

The only problem is that the bike dies if I take too long to adjust the sync. It doesn't die instantly, but over time the idle gets lower gradually until it just stops running. I'm afraid it's overheating or something. It's never done this before, but I never have let it idle in place for that long, nor will it do this after riding around town for longer periods of time. I have a small fan pointed at the engine while I work, but maybe it's not enough? I hope I'm not hurting it.

 

Today, I;

Took gas tank off for the first time
Took valve cover off
measured valve clearances (no clearance, time to order shims)
troubleshot sticky throttle. Took throttle cable off bike, it was fine. Ran tome tri-flow down the cable to lube it anyway. Took the grip/handle apart and saw that gunk had built up between bar and sleeve. Cleaned the heck out of it with degreaser, sanded it down to remove the rust, and slightly lubed it, put it all back together, now throttle is good as new!

 

Changed out the old seat cover for a new Saddlemen and then road to work this morning. It was 87 degrees today in So Cal..thanks to the G.W.

 

continued to be anal about EVERYTHING

 

Swapped out the faded voltmeter, fuel gauge, and tachometer with newer units from a cluster with 30,000 less miles.

Actually seeing the red markings (where the old ones had faded to white) looks great; plus, the new voltmeter is quite a bit more stable (the needle doesn't bounce). The dampening in the old one was evidentally shot.

 

ran out of gas ccoming home from work, fortunately right in front of a gas pumpin 7-11. need to figure out this shady petcock issue. actually need to figure out this paycheck issue.

 

Replace valve head cover gasket, and replace two shims.
had it sitting for 20 days, just waiting for parts to arrive.
was able two find a local xjbikes member, he had the two shims i needed,

 

Fresh fuel in tank, battery sat on Optimate for past few days - fired it up!

Struggled a bit at first, but judicious jiggling of choke lever got it going. Ran it for five mins then turned it off 'till next time.

Should really get back into the habit of running it every three or four days (been neglecting it for a while as spending time working on the Bonnie instead).

Cheers y'all.

Nige

 

Look at your email and see if it has a calendar reminder. I've set mine up for every Friday and do it religiously.
I set the timer on the stove for 15 min, go out to the garage and fire the bike up. I let it run until the timer on the stove beeps and then I go and shut it off.
This way I know that it is definitely up to running temps and that the treated fuel has had a good chance to run through the carbs.
I figure gas in the carbs for just a week is acceptable and should inhibit the formation of gunk and varnish.
Also have it hooked up to a battery tender between fire ups. The garage is heated as well, keep it around 45-50 degrees when I'm not out there.
2 cents.

 

Hi Maxim-x - you have a heated garage?

Mine's fookin' freezing. I was in the habit of firing it up a couple of times a week, but fell out of that habit (as I started letting the Bonnie have a share of the trickle charger).

both bikes have to fight over this (though I bought a new glassfibre-filled battery for the Bonnie - no liquid acid- I will report on this product after it has been in use a while longer).

The VFR just sits there - then fires up straight away every time I want it to!

N

 

I'm fortunate that my garage is attached to the house and last year, after convincing my wife that it was a good idea to heat the garage I bought a heater shown below and had a couple of mates that are in the heating busines "Legally" install it.
It makes any work out in the garage a lot nicer as all I do is turn the temp up to the mid 60's wait a bit and go out and work.
The nice part is that it is a radiant heater and therefore requires no chimney or exhaust to be compliant with heating regs in my area.

 

Nice one "Mr. Heater".

 

What did I do to my YAMAHA, today?

I moved it out of the way so we could get the SnoBlower out!