What did you do to your Yamaha today?

After trying to set my pilot mixtures up (following RickCoMatic's excruciatingly detailed instructions) and discovering that the bike refused to run rich, at least on the #1 cylinder, I pulled the carbs off yet again a few days ago, broke them down, and started polishing the diaphragm piston bores with the 600 grit and WD40. Made a dramatic difference, to say the least.

 

Jumped it to get it running, and went to work, rode it at lunch time so it will start when I get to go home.

 

oh and I listed the 550 Max for sale. Anyone wanna buy a great running XJ550?

 

got the head pipes swapped out and the exhaust back on in rather short order. I also detailed the entire exhaust with steel wool and blue job.

 

Took her out.
Beautiful day, and had an hour to spare.
Drove from bicheno through to White Sands resort, about 80ks return. Check it out on google maps. A nice piece of road with incredible views. I'll take the camera next time so I can share my bit of Tasmania with you.

Tim

 

Went on another ride today to "feel" out the new jardine slip ons.
Also still waiting for the chill to come.
A good 80 something.
I know guys I will get mine...just not yet hopefully!
Probably need to pull carbs and clean the heck outta them

 

Got the 1000-2500 grit sandpaper I ordered. Any words of wisdom on using them?

My plan so far is to remove the Kerker name plate and the bolts on the exhaust so I can remove the remaining chrome (probably with coarse sandpaper). Then #0 and #0000 steel wool over the surface, then in with the 1000 grit paper, and on up from there. I assume that I'll want to wipe down the surface periodically to clear it of dust, but with... what? Just a wet shop towel? Dry shop towel?

At the end, if I understand correctly, I'll need some polish and a buffing cloth to shine it up and protect the surface. Then on to some of the other metal surfaces like the carb hats!

 

rhys, try tack cloth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tack_cloth

http://www.rockler.com/go.cfm?find=tack ... okietest=1

 

I finally insured mine!!!!!

Next step: tag and title the little beauty for daily road use.

 

Changed the oil and pulled off the carbs. Need to pick up some better fitting screwdrivers to start the disassembly.

 

broke an exhaust stud while fixing an exhaust leak. NOW I have a good reason to start disassembling her for a restore...I'm going to take the engine to a machine shop and have them get all the old studs out for new ones and get that left side engine cover stud out that broke on me too.

 

Oil change to Rotella syn and a new filter of course!
Rode her to work at blazing speeds as usual! 70 degrees today!

 

Extracted a stuck float bowl drain screw that had a damaged head!

 

Well, it's snowing like hell up here, blowing and dang cold so I'm hid out in the garage tinkering with the 83 XJ900RK and 81 XJ650H Max.

XJ900
1-Cleaned airbox and installed new filter
2- Removed, cleaned and polished exhaust headers.
3- Removed rotting mufflers. One of them sounds like a salt shaker.
4- I've got a pair of end cans from an 85 Honda Sabre I'm going to try on the 900 Seca.
5- Installed new rear rack on Seca 900, painted in black satin, fit perfectly. Worth the $100 price.
6- Tried Rick's clutch cable saving trick by dripping oil into it then twirling interior cable with a drill. It's working but slowly. A few more sessions and it should be nice and loose. Saves the cost of a new cable, about $30.

That's about it for now.

 

1) Finally re-did the previous owners Fuse Box (I used individual sealed
fuse holders with push in fuses)

2) Started designing new Buell XB style Fairing

3) Assembled my brand new Supertrapp

4) Cleaned up wiring that used to be in Headlight

More to Come soon!

 

Discovered that the problem with my flashers is likely that the bulbs are all a mess. Pulled them all and found that I have two 1156s (put those in the back) and I need two 1157s (two-filament equiv for the front).

Also got a ton of parts from chacal. ^_^

 

MY XJ 650
really cold today so I spent the day in the barn.

1. got it started via 2 cans of starter fluid

2. color tune

3. sync

4. color tune again

5. power wash

tomorrow is going towards polishing some aluminum. then pics for the forum.

 

Registered and titled the bike today. I even tried to take it for a short ride today.

 

Clip on's!





And ordered an R6 MC o replace the stocker (clearance issue)... So if anyone has brake lines and a spare banjo for an R6 lyin around... I need em!
8)

 

Looking good Ease! You know if you ever decide to sell that bike I'll be aaaaaaaaaaaaallllll over it... I'll even drive to Canada to get it! OR I'll just have to build my own.

 

Haha, hey if I'm sellin her I'll drive it to YOU, lol. Get one last ride out of er.


In all seriousness I hope I never have to sell this bike... But you never know, even the hardcores are starting to thin their collections around here. 8)

 

Yesterday just watched it sleeping lazily in the corner of the shop. Temperature out side was a nice balmy 3 1/2 degrees,and about 8 inches of snow on the ground. I didn't feel like waking it up, so I just threw another couple logs in the stove. It looked comfortable, and must have been dreaming, cuz it would occasionally twitch and growl, started snoring once.

dave

 

Ease! You is da man! Nice looking bike! Is that the stock XJ650 tank? It looks kind of long for a Seca tank. How about posting some more pics where we can see the whole bike.

 

i think you can click his gallery

 

I just dropped mine in the mud and slid into the gate. Can't see whats screwed up yet, I know the headlightis pointed way right and the right front turn signal is bent... I have a look when its light

 

Bummer dude..........

 

Put 1157 bulbs in the front, since they take two-filament bulbs. Unfortunately, flashers STILL don't work.

Opened the relay chacal sent me and the relay I originally had on the bike. Contacts look fine to me. Not stuck. Don't look pitted that I can see. Clicks once just fine.

I do know that the innards of the right flasher are a problem. The tabs on the plate that holds the contacts are broken off so the plate is free to rotate, instead of being held where it belongs.

More interesting, though, is that neither side flashes - just comes on and stays on - but the left side won't ever come on until after the right side.

I think I'm going to have to pull open the controls and see what's going on in there. The thumb switch itself is bent to the right, so I know something ain't right with it, but I had assumed that it wasn't really a problem.

Last hope before digging in there is that after tinkering today, I stuck the charger on the battery and it actually decided to charge. If the batt was low, that would do it, but at this point, I'm not getting my hopes up. :/

 

You known rhys......since your bike is not suppused to use 1157 bulbs up front....someone added them.....is it possible that they did something funky in the wiring? When you say that they come on and stay on (and never flash) even though the flasher unit seems to be okay......sounds like they may have wired things backwards or ????

Also....the flasher switch is, by design, supposed to be operated as follows:

a) turn it to the right or the left

b) if you want to turn it off (other than self-cancelling), you have to depress (push down on) the switchlever. You should NOT move it from one side to the other without pressing and releasing the switch.

c) Moving it from one side to the other can possibly damage the spring inside the control switch.

More food for thought.......

 

Wiring: While I can't say for absolutely certain that this is a stock wiring harness, I have been over the wiring and it at least all has continuity where it should (and shouldn't). The only odd thing, really, is that it's a 650, and yet there were connectors on the harness inside the headlight shell for the running lights in the front. They didn't look rigged. Voltage is good and appears (or not) as appropriate on all the wires.

It looks at this point like the batt was just really low. I haven't run this bike in a while, and after charging the batt, the left blinker now flashes (though slowly) using the 1157 in front and the 1156 in back.

Remaining problems: Turn signal light on the dash didn't light. Right side front flasher probably needs internals replaced and new connector ends put on the running light.

Also, I need to figure out which of these is the case:

a) running lights are *necessary* (only pulls 27W when both filaments are one) or:

b) running lights are *impossible* (main filament pulls 27W by itself)

A little experimentation later tonight should do it.

If ALL else fails, I could order another pair of stock front flashers from you, chacal, though I'd rather use that money on other stuff I know I'm going to need.

As for the switch, I've never had a problem flipping from one flasher to the other on any bike, though it's much, much easier to turn them OFF by pressing the button inward than to try to get it at that 'half-over' point.

I may still replace the thing, since it's damaged and kinda sticky, but if it can wait until a few more paychecks run past me, so much the better.

 

I love Cleveland winters.
81 XJ550H

1. New levers. Old ones were broken

2. New tires. Spitfire. Front and rear.

3. New oil.

4. New turns and bulbs all around.

5. Yelled at it for not starting.

6. Drained the carbs, called it a year.

 

Running lights on the front turn signals are NOT stock for an XJ650. Only the XJ700 and XJ1100 models used a 3-wire, dual-filament bulb in the front. The housings for all those models are identical, though, so that's where they probably robbed the housings for (if, internally, it looks stock and looks like the rounded XJ650 housings). I believe the lenses on the XJ700 are similar but slightly different in appearance than on the XJ650's, and I'm not sure on the 1100 lense. The 700 lense should also use a separate brushed-finish external lense "trim ring" that all other models did not use.

As far as voltages go, the dual filament bulbs are rated at 8W for the running lights, and 27W for the turn signals. While the turn signals are operating, then the total SYSTEM load is 37W per bulb, since the 8W filament stays "lit" all the time (since it's a running light). However. since the running light and the flasher lights are on different circuits, their maximum circuit draw doesn't change.

Perhaps they have the running light circuit (going thru the 8W filament) routed through the flasher circuit instead? Then it would only draw 8W, when it's supposed to be drawing 27W, and that would account for the slow or no flasher function, even though your flasher relay is good.

That would also mean that the running light circuit is routed through the 27W bulb filament, which means the running light would be much brighter than the flasher light (not the way it's intended!). It's just two wires that would have been reversed.......the ones leading to each filament.

I believe the standard wiring configuration is the chocolate (dark) brown wire is a flasher light wire on one side, and the dark green wire is the flasher lead on the other side. I don't have a wire diagram for a 700 or 1100 handy, but the RUNNING light wire is probably the same color RH and LH, so if the third wire is, say, red....and that wire is routed through the flasher circuit, well----there it is. (The black wire is ground, of course).

Speaking of which, make sure the lights are grounded well!

 

Ease:

You got it going-on with those sweet clip-on's.
What kind of ransom did you pay for those bars?

 

YAY!

Blinkers work! Solutions come from the oddest places. Left light - running light lead doesn't work - was flashing inconsistently. I chalked it up to the battery, since the charger was having a hard time keeping up with all my testing.

So I decided to figure out why the dash light wasn't working. Checked voltage on it and it was acting like the bulb was out (though I KNOW I checked them all a while back). Not to deny evidence, though, I replaced the bulb.

BINGO! Left flasher blinks consistently! Rebuilt the (still-dodgy) right blinker and now those work as well! Also hooked up the running light on the right side and it still works properly. Booo yah!

All I need to do now is put a new connector on the left-side running light lead, replace the right side's innards (eventually) since they're so dodgy, test the self-cancelling unit, and figure out what I'm going to do with this sticky switch.

On to the new annoyance. Apparetly, the brake master cylinder is not stock. How do I know this? Because the stock mirror with the reverse threads doesn't fit it! The crappy-looking mirror on it is threaded normally. I tell ya, if it isn't one thing, it's another.

It's okay, though. This is probably the first time in years someone has put time into *improving* the poor thing, and it's getting there.

Hey chacal, do you happen to have a replacement spedometer that will read more than 85? I'm thinking one that goes up to 140 would be appropriate. That other thread here suggested the bike can do at least 125.

Thanks to all who helped me figure this out. Just about everything in the entire system was screwed up in some way...

 

Pulled the front wheel off my other 'project' x. Reseated the bead after a short discussion. Remounted the wheel, which was a real joy considering that there is no center stand. Repairing the speedo on the same bike. Put two of the four airbox to carb boots on (it was too cold to do the other 2. Found the side cover for the x on my xj700. Cleaned the working area for all three bikes.

 

Got em from a guy named Jim Hinshaw (jimhinshaw@fastfromthepast.com)
He has a website under construction Fast From The Past. And sells all kinds of Tarozzi on e-bay (Clip-on's, Fork Braces, Rearsets)

I paid $129.00 plus shipping.

Says he has at least one of each these sizes in stock in low-rise (like the ones I have) and a High Rise version that comes up about another inch-inch 1/2):

 

Thank's Baz.
Yep it's the stock tank. with no modifications whatsoever - except for a dent (that can be seen in the 2nd clip-on pic).
I do have some pics in my gallery, but I'll throw one up here for ya anyway:

 

I have said it 5 thousand times and I'll say it again... I LOVE THAT BIKE

 

hell yes that's a great bike! nice look.

 

Damn, Ease, that thing is looking amazing!!

 

Ease, I was going to ask you how you got your mirrors on there, but it looks like you just did away with them completely. That's one way to go. :wink:

It was a little bit warmer today, so put the 650 all back together with the intention of riding a bit to warm up the oil and (finally!) change it. Cramming all the stuff back into the headlight is SO MUCH FUN!

Wouldn't start, wouldn't start, flipped petcock to PRI and back, bingo! New batt was worth every penny. Finally had a chance to field test the oil light on the dash (lit during cranking). Put some air in the tires and took off! Still need pads on the front brake, and I should really overhaul the caliper, but it's still MUCH better after the master cylinder rebuild. Bike actually stops...

That's where the good news ends. I'm pretty sure now that these are not stock handlebars because I can't see anything with the stock mirror I just put on. Also, when I returned, I found that the 4-into-1 exhaust prevents me from getting at the oil drain plug at all. So the old oil is still in the bike. Also, neutral light is acting a little flaky. Wouldn't light consistently until I got back. Worked perfectly after the ride, though.

Question: The drain plug is the 19mm bolt just below the oil filter housing, correct? If that's it, I'm going to need either a 3/8" drive 19mm socket or a 1/2" extension to get at it.

 

Ease:

You got it going-on! That is one sweet looking ride. Man-oh-man how you got the Retro and Classic look working for you on that ride of yours.

Sort-of reminds me of the Bike that NORTON featured in that Classic magazine full page color ad, introducing the Commando to the U.S. Market back when I was a kid and riding a Honda Super-90.

Work of art my friend
I'm thinking we ought to have a little Contest and end the year with Bike of the Year honors ...
We'll be needing pics of all the eligible entrants!
There's some fine Bikes to acknowledge.

This is one of them!

 

Loose or dirty connector somewhere probably.

Yes!


And congrats, makes all that effort seem a little less difficult......

 

buy the tool and change the oil. You are looking at the right bolt!

 

pulled my speedo off and repaired it with jb weld. nub broke off where it mounts to the cover.

 

Took her out again to warm up the engine and discovered a few things.

1) The front brakes still aren't working as well as I'd like. Time to sand the rotor surface and replace the pads.

2) The self-cancelling unit works!

3) The left flashers only work sometimes. Need to open the controls and have a look. Yes, I know there are teeny parts in there.

4) Neutral light still has that weird problem. I may have to take the headlight apart again and look in there. Not sure if I care that much just yet, though. Works fine once the bike is warm.

5) Horn button is dodgy. Probably needs to have the contacts cleaned.

Also changed the engine oil at last. Getting the oil oil out was a royal pain. There is no place one can put the oil pan to catch all of the oil! Big mess. Going to need a bigger pan. This 4-into-1 header isn't helping at ALL.

While getting the old oil out, managed to shear off the head of the middle gear dra... just kidding, Rick. Didn't get to the gear oil.

The owner's manual is kinda vague on this point. Is the oil level properly measured when the bike is on its centerstand? If so, is this true for both engine and gear oil? If not, I have probably overfilled the oil a bit. Runs fine. ;p

Found some places where the valve cover gasket is completely missing. Will have to replace that at some point. Still need new spark plugs.

Despite all of that little stuff, she runs GREAT. Lots of pull, and with the spedo fixed, it occurred to me that before I was likely getting false odometer readings. Need to re-check the mileage. This is going to be a fun bike.

 

proper oil level is checked while on the center stand.

It does seem that you have an issue in the switch assembly on the handle bars. Be very careful disassembling and make sure everything is documented so you don't forget how to put it back together. Spray it out with contact cleaner and use some di-electric grease on the turn signal switch sliders and springs and all the contacts. The horn button may be broken completely and you may need a new button. There was someone on here selling them...but the name slips my mind now. Maybe Chacal has some.

Anyway, good luck and you seem to be on a good road.

 

Verily, not just a pushbutton, but with it's spring, too:

Starter Pushbutton:

HCP1072 Aftermarket starter Pushbutton & Spring, properly replaces or repairs damaged or missing "start" plastic pushbutton and coiled copper spring unit on the right side control switch assmebly. Each:
$ 10.00


I haven't verified all of the applications for this unit yet; I know it fits at least 550 all models, and 650 Maxim/Midnight Maxim/Seca models, and probably any other models with a round starter pushbutton, too........if anyone has any insights, please do tell!

 

Thx. It's likely to be February before I can get to this due to parts money drying up. :wink: It's just as well, since I know I need to replace the handlebars. I can get the bar and the horn button from chacal at the same time (and some spark plugs, and...).

I know the horn itself works perfectly. Connect it to the batt and it makes quite a lot of noise. Ha!

 

yeah, my guess is the button is shot. Just clean it up and maybe replace it.

 

What did I do over the Xmas break?

I got into the polishing.
I can now see myself in the Rims and the rearset brackets