What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Now that you come to mention it.....

 

Last week, i changed the fork seals on the 650 Midnight. The top cap was almost impossible to remove. I almost gave up, my made-up my mind to buy a pair already taken apart ready to reassemble. I went to find a sledgehammer, because if I can't do it myself, and I know how to fix it then NOTHING will be left to "fix". I had to stop myself because I just could not hurt her. I left grabbed a bite to eat, enjoyed the nice cool air-conditioning. After I calmed down, I went to get help. It took three people, one person pushing the cap down, another holding the fork tube, and myself grabbing the little lock ring out. I cleaned the tube, put new fork oil, new seals and wipers. Then I grabbed them again to help me put cap back on.I rode the rest of the day.

 

Bar end mirrors on. Never had any before so this will be interesting. Black Bike is no where near original but I am enjoying her for little investment. The Quicksilver fits just right. It has been waiting for it's right partner a long time.

 

I saved my baby from a horrible death. While I'm not one to shirk riding in the rain, the number of cars that leak oil in this city is astounding so I skipped a much-needed Sunday ride. I took the Jeep out and managed to spin the back tires for about 100 feet coming away from a stop. I was not accelerating hard at all. It's been raining since 2 AM.

Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival thread

 

ALWAYS use new pin clips. Removal almost always introduces stress risers.

 

Happened to me on my GT250 a long time ago diesel on the road and l came off the bike. Was on a slow corner l was lucky.

Did you get your bikes oil leak fixed k moe?

 

I haven't had the time or inclination with the cold, and there are other projects that are must-do. It's on the list for this coming weekend. I'm almost certain at this point that I didn't get the new valve cover gasket sealed properly. It wouldn't be an issue at all if I never wanted to go over 45 MPH.
I'll update that thread once I have it fixed.

 

I unplugged the wiring harness that came from the turn signal switch to test it. It was corroded inside and just needed clenaed and plugged back in. Now I need tog et a new flasher relay because the leds blink to fast.

 

For the last couple of days I've been tumbling my tank to knock as much rust loose as I can after pulling out that big old chunk of tank liner. Here are pics of my tumbler; yes I thought of using my dryer, but the tank didn't fit and it spins too fast; pile on the left is dump #3 after building tumbler, and pile on the right is dump#4. I got a couple of table spoons in dump#5. Setting up now to do electrolysis; anyone try it, what do you think?

 

I was wondering how that had gone!! I'm jealous of your tumbling setup, looks like a solid unit.

Unfortunately, I haven't tried electrolysis. However, I HAVE had good luck with a hot vinegar soak, distilled water rinse and a soda wash afterwards on other projects, but I'm not sure how something as oddly-shaped as a tank would fare. I'm sure some others who have more experience will weigh in.

 

I have not tried electrolysis either. You can do it with chemicals if you want.

https://www.classicbikehub.uk/Workshop/article/petrol_tank_cleaning_and_rust_removal

 

I have used electrolysis on a badly rusted DL650 tank that worked well enough to de-rust it down to pin holes. I used an old m/c battery, a battery maintainer/charger, very cheap dollar store powdered soap and old all thread rod for the anode. Perform the process outdoor as it is going to foam and dribble and leak out as it works and will take several days depending on how rusty and how clean you want to make the tank. It worked well and I would do it again. I have not messed with the acid cleaning method. My preference is the POR-15 tank liner after the de-rusting, or before the rust. I have tried Red-Kote and found it did not seal the above mentioned pin holes. I have used the Caswell epoxy line and it is good stuff but more dependent on the tank prep. Mine was not so good and it peeled off in a few years.
John

 

No need to be jealous of my tumbling unit.........just some 2x4 lumber I had laying around for the frame, the mount is 1x12 pine, pipe fittings came from the hardware store.

I have also pondered the idea of the vinegar soak; how long did you let it soak; how effective was it?

My desire is to get the inside of this tank as clean as possible before I seal it up. After it's sealed, I'm gonna repaint the tank, side panels, fender, tail piece, new stripes, badges.

 

I had tried a vinegar soak on the DL650 tank and saw no effect on the rust or even discoloration of the vinegar drained out after about 2 days of soaking. So that is why I moved on to the electrolysis method.
John

 

Thank you!! Good information, especially about the pin holes and time spent; I was going to put it into a plastic tub to capture the slop. This is a very rusty tank.

 

Today.. the first day after 3 months of parking outside, the bike.. not me, I could push the starterbutton again.
Inmmediatly she started and ran fine so I took her for a spin also to test some new gear and changes on the bike.
Outside it was 4-5 dgrs C. so gripheaters, electric bodywarmer were on. The little extra flipscreen worked fine deflecting more wind from the helmet and is a stay.
USB's worked fine too so music/nav. worked well.
Allinall; after this flu-shit is gone, but I don't think that the powers that be will allow that anytime soon, perhaps travelling abroad could be an option... hopefully this year... sigh.

 

Spent a couple of hours in garage , sorting spare parts ...got more than I realized lol . I have a spare set of partial carbs , reassembled what I have , missing the slides and a few other items .

 

Bought myself one of these

 

You can find them for sale on the "C" list in most area's. If you do get one of those lifts from HF, also pick up the front wheel chalk and change that out. That pinch thing on the table imho SUCKS! If you pick up a wheel calk you can roll the bike into it and have confidence you will not tip the bike over as you put ratchet straps on it. I also drill holes at the ends of front and back plate so the "S" hooks can slide in. That way the straps are not in your way when you are working on the important things on the bike.

 

Wow.. telling to have bought a HD, on a Yamahaforum..

 

What HD, I only see a motorcycle table lift

 

Working In garage , decided my yellow seca needed some care , noticed it was a little loud tapping from right cylinder. Before I swapped in this engine went through valves swapped out a shim on the number four exhaust and this is better . Of course it is only 45 degrees rode around neighborhood still a little chilly for me at least, supposed to get to 60 Tuesday so that will be another story lol .

 

I finished puttying my tank, now I just need to sand and prime it and then it's onto paint!! I'm happy with how the painted plastics look on the bike, I didn't know how much they'd pop until I actually did it.

Any recommendations on paint type? I'm partial to Endura paints (No need for a clear coat, insanely durable and the supplier is semi-close to my location), but I'm also wary of what seems like a too-good-to-be-true paint.

 

Will do k-moe

 

Carbs are rebuilt. Adjusted the float heights to 17mm after double checking the service manual and watching Mezzmo's video on how to do it. The floats were all around 10mm initially so we'll see how she runs when I get everything back together. Need to check the valve shims next. Slowly checking things off of my list. Very slowly.

 

Got the 82 Seca out for the first ride of the season. Had an oil leak at the filter housing and some seepage from the freshly rebuilt petcock. I had ordered a Fram ch6003(since they come with gaskets) and realized it was leaking because the large o-ring for the housing was not protruding past its recess, so no seal. I ended up turning the housing down ~.050' on my lathe and it solved the problem. I know I could have just got a thicker o-ring, but this was faster and I can just keep ordering Fram filters once a year and not worry about inconsistencies in the future. My petcock needed some new screws on the diaphragm side because the old stock ones didn't really fit anymore... I blame it on time. Four oversize machine screws= problem solved.
Now if can just figure out what that annoying high pitched whirring sound is coming from the cluster over 3k rpm (not speedo), I'll be golden...

 

This mayn't be the answer you're looking for, but I did my 82 Seca in single stage oil based enamel tractor paint and a $12 Harbor Freight paint gun. A quart of paint, mineral spirits and hardener did the all my parts and didn't cost me more than about $35 total. they sell it at ACE hardware and Tractor Supply Co.. I think ACE may be able to mix custom colors too. Just remember, prep is EVERYTHNG!

 

I'm actually having the same problem with my filter housing leaking oil, and sure enough I'm also running the Fram ch6003 filter. They're the cheapest and readily available at canadian tire, but I haven't yet checked the filter to see why it's leaking. Now I know what I need to do. Thank you.

As for your cluster whine, you could need to grease your tachometer assembly. I forget what it's called, but the rotating magnet at the back of it could just need a good cleaning/regrease. That's all I can think of at the moment, unless it's a problem with a bulb and your electrical system, but I'm not sure how likely that is.

 

got up at 4 am watched the weather report called out of work for a MHD . got the bikes ready and went riding for the first time this year.
still have 8 inches of snow.

 

Thanks for the heads up on greasing that. I kept thinking it was something in the motor but grabbed the cluster and it changed the pitch completely. I’ll pull it apart this weekend and see whats up.

 

Was beautiful yesterday and my son had the day off to go for his first ride of the season. We put in about 75 miles here in NY with a trip from Rochester area to the north end on Conesus Lake at Vitale Park, to the north end of Hemlock Lake to the north end of Honeoye Lake at Sandy Bottoms Park. Great first trip for him and a good way to point out some good fishing spots.
What did I do to my bike? Cleaned the windshield before the trip.

 

OK, this is a bit irksome. Changed the valve cover gasket and the donut washers today. When removing the gas line from the tank for removal, gas just poured out of the petcock, which was on reserve from yesterdays ride. All three positions acted like prime. Next step is to pull and disassemble the petcock and see why my rebuild from last December is now failing.

 

When you rebuilt it, did you check all the clearances on the rubber parts and pressure check it? I did the same rebuild last winter (with oem parts) and had to shave some material off my petcock body where the selector valve sits. Even with the retainer installed over it (the ring with Res, On, Pri), it didn’t put enough pressure on the selector gasket inside so fuel went straight through regardless of the setting or vacuum.
*****Double check your oil too! When mine originally went out, it dumped about a gallon of fuel into the crankcase since there’s no overflow in the carbs. ******

 

The petcock worked perfectly when tested and during the last bit of riding last year. After sitting for the winter it decided to malfunction. I'll take it off the tank today.

 

Oh ok, I hope it's something small and doesn't ground you too long. Good luck!

 

Today I finished up rebuilding my Master Cylinder with a rebuild kit from Len. I put the body of the MC through my new ultrasonic cleaner but found 4/1 ratio of water to Simple Green to be a little bit too weak to get all the crud off the inside.
Made my own cylinder hone out of a stick and got the bore polished up real nice with some 1200 grit. Super happy to be done with something, no matter how small

 

Got it back together. Must be I didn't test it upon reassembly last December. The wavy washer was below the selector instead of above, which prevented the selector plate from making contact with the valve body seal, allowing gas to always flow. Good thing my float needles work, no gas in the oil from the long winter.

 

That’s great news, so glad it didn’t flood the motor like mine!

 

I printed this wheel balancer a few months ago, and finally had the time and space to put it to use.



File here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4546098

She works great. I need to reprint the cones because I eneded up drilling them out to fit the threaded rod that I used (10 mm was not avaliable locally so I used 7/8"), but they worked fine for this trial.

I put this tire on myself just before my long-lamented trip to Oregon and never did get as well balanced as I wanted, but good enough for a trip that I knew I was going to wear out the front tire on. Since I've been exploring my new digs I figured that the teeny-tiny bounce the rotating mass gives at freeway speeds was worth getting rid of.

Next step is to get my lathe set up....eventually..., cut the rod down, and remove the excess threading to make putting the wheel on the cones less of a chore.

I really would get more done if I had fewer hobbies, but then I'd be paying other people to have fun for me.

 

Just need a bullseye level on one of those pieces of wood and you're golden...nice!

 

I checked for level during the setup. I checked for squareness too.

 

Managed to extract a non damaged set of wavy washers from my bent original forks

 

Took my vmax out for a spin, pure madness. Took my xj 650 single seat maxim out for a spin, pure pleasure. It really is a sweet ride. If I have any reservations I guess it comes from the extended forks and large front wheel, making it a tad slow to respond? It's a slightly modified maxim, so maybe now' she the time to think about going further, with seca forks, smaller front wheel? Is it worth the bother - I'd like to keep front and back the same pattern though..

 

Gave my brake calipers a scrub and a wire brushing after being in the ultrasonic yesterday. Getting ready to paint and rebuild them. Considering leaving then unfinished though...

 

I'm buying my first bike and XJ650 tomorrow. I have a ton of questions but I'm glad to apart of the community!

 

The sun was shining so the bike could dry...
Too cold to ride today with 5 C. and chilly winds.

 

I took her out for a post-wheel balance shakedown (the washers for the oil leak are tomorrow's project).
I did not use the freeway, but did giver her a good goose on a not-too-busy road and had no wiggle from the front at all, so I'm feeling pretty good about the front being in balance.
One other thing that I did last week was to bump up the anti-dive a bit. I've been happy with it set to postition #1 for many years, but now that I'm riding almost exclusively in an urban area I've not been so happy with the amount of dive she has when braking. I bumped it up to 3# and am very pleased. My rapid-stops are much smoother and controlable. Hopefully I'll continue to lose weight and need to back it off again.

As for the reaminder of the very-long weekend (I have 10 days off from work)......It's time to explore the countryside around here.

 

5 C isn't too cold to ride. Even with 48 kph winds I'd ride in that. Now when it gets down closer to 2 C I'm in total agreement.
But then, my people came from a very cold part of the world.

 

first day of spring went for a ride 5C when I started 9C when I was done thats 41F up to 48 f because riding season is to short to worry about cold.
still plenty of snow on the side of the road and lots of sand on the road to keep me alert.

 

I'm in the process of a cross town move. The XJ750K has been trapped behind boxes for weeks since the garage is serving as temporary storage. I moved all of the boxes out of the way and got a much needed ride. It felt so good to relieve a little moving stress with every twist of the throttle.