What did you do to your Yamaha today?

I have some originals, and I have a couple that a friend machined out of aluminum

 

I replaced the tail fairing (duck tail) on my 550 (seca) with a nicer one I had spare. It had a split though so it was fixed with ABS glue that plumbers use on waste pipes and reinforced with some Lego strips from my son's parts bin
All Lego is also ABS and welds nicely with this glue.

 

Sandblasted and painted the frame today. The rattle can paint job is probably a disservice to how much work the paint stripping was, but it was time to $hi# or get off the pot and move forward with the project. Used some blasting media from Tractor Supply... I think it's a coke slag stuff. Worked reasonably well. Then Dupli- color engine enamel with ceramic, low gloss black. Won't win any awards, but at least the rust is gone.

And just out of curiosity, I made a rough count of pieces that make up the frame weldment. I got 93, but might be off by a dozen. It's kinda a complex little critter when you examine it closely.

 

Very cool!

 

I did NOT ride around on my snowmobile yesterday..... lol

 

So my neutral light would flicker while riding annoying, checked wiring at switch only about an inch in a half. Removed my spare engine wiring harness looked at the neutral wire it was a crispy critter . Looked at the harness wire for neutral switch and found the wire cracked , rather than pulling the harness ran a single wire next to orginal harness I have some cool connectors that are like factory so this looks good and so far it appears good , could only ride around block , the clouds look angry . While I was at it changed oil and filter , unfortunately it is going back down to the 30's so much for spring.

 

So fire up the snowmobile!

 

It was yesterday; took it on the first ride of spring, alittle over 100 miles in New York/Pennsylvania

 

Yep, nice riding yesterday. Had the non-X out.

 

Yes, I was out on my 700n for awhile too

 

Hello all. Started on my xj650. is this a good battery for it???

 

Probably get a couple years out of it......

 

Thanks for the info

 

Put about 60 hard miles on my 550 today

did not disappoint

still surprised me actually..

 

I like it!!!

 

I finished pulling the engine from my bike and stripped the frame of all the components.

 

Got the carbs back in the X yesterday and vacuum synced. Tried color tuning but is basically impossible on that engine, so all screws set at 2.5 turns for now.

 

Put the tank and trim back on and pulled the air filter to check for cleanliness, and it is a K&N H058A6-T. Blew it out, no dirt. Says to oil it before use so I oiled it alright, plenty of motor oil! Blew out and sopped up the excess and reassembled. Tried starting and the engine would barely run if I had constant throttle. Wouldn't idle no matter what. It finally dawned on me it wasn't getting any air! Pull the filter, clean out the air box, hose down the filter with brakekleen and compressed air. NOW, it runs ok. Danged K&N.

 

Supposed to use air filter oil. The K & N stuff is red and is much thinner than motor oil, sprays on. Maybe try misting on something like a little bit of 3 in one oil, something real light like that, WD40 even? The K&N filter media is pretty light, porous so that without some sort of oil the particles shoot through the holes.

 

Supposed to use k&n filter oil...
Its cheap, why use anything else? And to wash it off just use detergent. Plenty on here will tell you k&n filters don't work - they might be right, don't know about on an xj, but they do work as filters, used them loads. Never used engine oil on them though...

 

So my seca 's right side cover is missing the emblem I had one emblem so made a couple of resin copies and covered with bare metal gold foil think they turned out okay.

 

That looks pretty good @Jetfixer

Would love to A. hear about your procedure and B. think about how we can make it work for silver (chrome) too.

 

Bare metal chrome silver they also make a black chrome. I recently ordered a RTV casting kit and resin. The RTV takes six hours to cure but the resin 10 minutes will be ready . I'm happy how it turned out, and now have spares. I also made a copy of the yamaha emblem on the dash pad that covers the two screws that hold it down . By the way the Rtv kit and resin was like 47$ so you have plenty of material. Cheers

 

Hello. Were did you get the seat? Thanks

 

Were did you buy the seat?

 

Rear caliper fitted with new seals. Pistons were in good condition. Glad l had a tyre inflator to get the pistons out on the bench.

 

Hi all. Whats this wire anyone know...and thanks

 

@Erick Quezada Main ground for harness, attaches to one of the bolts that holds the coil on.

You could add this to your other thread as this is a sharing your project of the day thread.

 

Will do. Thanks

 

Took the XJ700N for a cruise around the lakes in Minneapolis. Saw a black XJ700N parked along the parkway at the lake formerly known as Calhoun. Cheers, whoever you are!

 

Finally finished up the few remaining tasks left over from winter, including greasing the rear wheel, reattaching the rear brake and replacing the brake light wire. The plastic insert had broken was was held in with some glue. I thought it was going to be a nightmare to remove the vetter fairing to replace the wire. Four bolts and it was off. Then it was just simply unplug the old wire and plug in the new one.

 

Today had to go to hardware store , it was around 60 degrees so a quick ride and here I am cruising along hey what is that in the road ? A big snapping turtle so turn around a car almost ran over it. Picked him up he was not happy but put him back in the ditch felt like I might have saved his life lol

 

Challenge accepted! This is a 3D printed version. This is a test print in white PLA. Couple more tweaks and printed in black ABS should be pretty good! Going to leave my original safe inside from now on.

 

So making more use of my resin kit today I had a set of side covers the mounting tab was broke off made a mold and casted a copy and epoxied in new mount , it worked better than I thought it would. And here is a picture of it and the resin dash pad emblem. Yea I know a 3D printer you could make a whole sidecover....sorry I don't have one .

 

Yesterday, after washing out the oil from that K&N air filter the day before, I oiled with genuine K&N filter oil. Pulled the plugs from the last ride and 1 & 2 were pretty lean looking, 3 was the darkest and 4 looks about right. Made some small adjustments and went for a spin. Bike runs pretty well.

 

Started cleaning up the Midnight's rims that are very corroded, and realize just how bad I need a sand/media/soda blaster. Wire wheel is just never going to get the job done. Any body got any Nebular Gold paint they need to get rid of?

 

I guess I'm officially OLD I have the front fairing on my Seca and bought a cheap eBay extension it works . I wear a full face Helmet with the visor closed used to get a blast of air over the windshield this breaks it up . My wife of course has to poke fun of it ....she is not the one riding !!!

 

Nah your not old until you need a trike

 

Yesterday: Need the new tires on the non X moved to the X. Front was easy, just swap wheels. Kept the rotors on the original bikes though. Rear tires are a whole different animal.
Today: Spring cleanup. Light pressure wash on the X. Fine steel wool where needed and chrome polish on most everything shiny. I noticed the front fender was quite high off the tire. The non X fender was very close to its tire. Hmmm. Take apart and find someone had mounted the fender backwards on the bracket! Easy fix, looks proper now.

 

Finally back to working on the carb rebuild after a lengthy delay. I feel like the bodies, bowls and jets are very clean, but now faced with the plethora of small hardware. Anybody using a vibratory tumbler thingy for cleaning screws, clips, springs? Might need to put that on my next Harbor Fright shopping list....

 

Well today I swapped out my rotten old xj650 maxim rear wheel for a nice fresh new rubber on a 750 seca rear setup. larger wheel and larger drum brake which will maybe give it some more rear stopping power. I mainly wanted the bigger rear tire for a bit of extra ride height since I'm not exactly short, but i also like the look of the bigger rear rim. bike just passed safety and still needs a plate but will take it for a ride soon and see how it handles !

I also repaired my pitted forks with some JB Weld which worked great and so far is holding up !

 

Weather finally got warm consistently so finally got my XJ550 out and rode it to work for the first time this week.
Fired right up after 7 months of storage without a jump from another battery.
Basic storage maintenance sure helps the "spring" (in this case summer) startup. Wash the bike, change oil before storage, use Stabil and straight gas, and use a battery tender.

I do have to investigate the 2 small drops of motor oil on the garage floor. :-(
Oil level was fine however...

 

Whooo finally got a day of good weather took the day off from work rode 85 miles bike ran great and my new windshield extension worked great really cut down on the wind noise. Would have riden longer stopped at a garage sale found stuff my wife would want so headed home spent the rest of the day with her actually had a good time , so was a good day . Next four days RAIN figures .

 

I brought one home. 85 XJ700, twenty years of dust. Small dent in the tank. It will clean up nicely.

 

Looks pretty good! Has the desirable high rear backrest and everything.

 

Clean it up., keep it stock. These were low production bikes.

 

So I tried the vibratory tumbler for cleaning carb hardware. Mixed results. I started with screws and levers that included a fair bit of rust and scale. Used the resin media, which are pretty big pyramids of plastic, seemingly too big to fit into tight spaces. Nonetheless, it cleaned up the threads of screws well. A couple levers with thicker rust I had to hit with the wire wheel. This was used only on steel hardware. I thought retrieving the small screws, like throttle plate, from the bowl of media might be difficult, but that part wasn't too bad. I have some glass bead left over from another project that I will experiment with. At any rate, it was a better process than soda blasting, which for small hardware is fairly labor intensive.

Before and after photos, probably 2 hours in the tumbler.

 

Evapo-Rust will help with the leftover rust.

 

Got the parts bike outside under a tarp and the working one on the table and moved so I can walk around it. Started it for the first time in awhile then took the tank off and the search begins for the parts I put away over the winter...

 

I made gas tank soup. 650 Maxim flavor.