What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Rebuilding another set of mikuni bs30 carbs.....

 

tested citri strip on a faded clear coat on side cover.
I had some jet paint remover left over and that did not work nearly as well.
Citri strip with enough put on, the old clear coat just rubbed off.
Here is a test section I did. I'll be draining the oil then pulling all the side covers off.
I recently purchased a bench buffer/polisher also.
Plan is to:
Citri Strip.
Progressive Sanding
Polish
Wax

 

BMW panniers fitted.



Need to get it back on the road.

 

Cranked over bike , actuated the clutch lever, did the same with brake lever. I try to do this every once in a while to keep things from siezing up . I keep the bike on the center stand so in theroy the oil level will be on at least half the clutch plates . Cranking it over will move the position around and actuating lever should keep them pliable. One Seca I had had been on side stand for years and the clutch was siezed up took alot of effort to free it up .

 

Was working on a master cylinder rebuild today. I had soda blasted and stripped everything before painting. Sanded the "Yamaha" back to aluminum and then filled the lettering with white paint and wiped it off. Turned out pretty reasonable.

 

Roast, that looks excellent. When you wiped off after putting in the white paint, what did you use to wipe it off with so it did not dig in the groove or smear?

 

Thanks! I'm no painter, so I just winged it. The black is Duplicolor brake caliper paint, gloss black. It had dried for 4 or 5 days. The white is Testors acrylic...the little jars for model painting. It was the only liquid white I had. Smeared it on pretty heavy, then after 30 seconds or so I wiped it off with a blue shop towel with just finger pressure, nothing fancy. This left some white residue on the flat areas, so after another 30 seconds I wiped again with the towel that had been spritzed with carb cleaner.

Honestly I was expecting a massive mess requiring a full repaint, but it sort of worked!

 

Sandblasted a wheel today. Figured I'd try repainting it instead of just cleaning. Also got the 550 out for a brief ride while the sun was shining. Still froze my ass off.

 

Prior head scratching enabled simple engine removal. I had a piece of stainless plate similar length as the engine and about 4 feet wide, so I jacked up the motor clear of the mounts, pushed the plate 1-2 inches under the sump (plate supported other end on a compact scissor lift). I tie wrapped the plate to the lower frame to stop it slipping as we jiggled the thing out ( no lifting required yet). Then just some webbing through the motor mounting points, and fairly easy lift for two onto the bench. My lifting buddy was quite impressed with the slick operation (I was quite surprised myself!)

 

Looks nice and clean.
What kind of paint are you using?

 

Gloss black Duplicolor caliper paint. I will put some clear coat over it in a week or so. I masked the rim with regular blue tape prior to paint and that worked great. Started out trying to mask the spokes as well, and that is a pain in the butt, so I decided to remove the spoke paint afterwards (prior to clear coat). Not sure if its going to work..........

 

Finally got my rear wheel finished today. Removing the paint from the spokes wasn't easy. Still not sure if masking them would have been better. Originally the paint was machined off the spokes and rim, leaving the circular grooves on the spokes. I ended up having to sand them down smooth, which is a nice look. Sprayed a couple coats of 1K clear on top.

I'm second guessing the gloss black a bit...something a little duller might have looked better. The front wheel just got a cleaning and isn't quite as shiny. Hmm, maybe it needs a paint job too.

I'm curious, has anybody had their wheels powder coated and preserved the bare aluminum color on the spokes?

 

I've owned a few bikes with the black and bare aluminum wheels before and had always been leery of painting them, someone needs to make a "used tire black" colored spray paint! Maybe using a matte clear would help?

 

I like the look of the glossy black and the look of it on the spokes as well. The smooth finish of the paint might be easier to keep clean around and behind the brake discs as well. Nice clean margins between the paint and rim. Well done. Amazing what a little patience can accomplish.

 

Well this was a pisser. I cleaned up a ring and pinion for my project bike. When I pulled the drive shaft out of the pinion, the splined coupler came with it. As I've only had one of these apart once before, it didn't immediately register as a problem. Cleaned and painted the whole thing, replaced the big seal behind the ring gear, had it all nice and pretty and went to reassemble. As soon as I went to plug the drive shaft back in, the light bulb clicked on....aint supposed to look like this. Pulled the drive shaft out of the splined coupler and there was the nut and half the threads from the pinion.

How the heck does this even happen? This came off a non running project bike I bought that the guy had abandoned. When last running it probably sounded fine under load, but must have been noisy when coasting.

 

Fatigue.
It's a not unknown failure on shafty GS Zooks, but not all that common either. Usually the output end of the front bevel drive is the failure on them. Exact same shear of the bolt section though.
I'd not be surprised if many of the failures are linked to running the suspension too low (either loaded or deliberately lowered).
Kind of hard to prove, though.

 

Dec 31, 2023 - took my 900rk out for a short spin. 30 degrees, cloudy but not snowing, roads moist so I’ll have to clean it down well. But I got squeaked my December ride in so I got the whole year. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and dry so maybe I can start the next year of riding.

 

Went to look at the rims of my XS650 thinking I'd touch up the paint with some brush on caliper paint. paint is flaking off so looks like an easy touch up is not in the cards.
Went to look at a 2nd XJ650, this is a 1982 and owner already started to mod it with a flat seat and different bars & turn signals. he has original parts he says but I did not see it.
Agreed on a price and texted him later that night that Ill do the deal. He included a spare set of carbs, 2 helmets and a riding jacket. also had engine guards.
I evaluated the bike, it would not run and its priced as a non running bike, but it had compression, spark, alternator magnet was working and with some carb start, it ran for a couple seconds. he admitted to doing the carb rebuild this summer himself and replaced all the brass with what was in the ebay kit (bad idea). and it would idle but not throttle up.
I have a spare set of carbs I finally wet set this week to hopefully just pop in there.
bike will also need some electrical work cause he buggered the turn signal wiring and fuse box.
Scheduled to pick up this morning but his wife went into labor so pick up is delayed a few days.
My wife may not be happy when she sees it but hey, I'm helping out the parents of a newborn! My civic duty!

 

Whenever I get a good buy on a bike, or a good sale of such or parts of ANY good buy or sale.... I say “hey I just made a good deal— let’s go out for dinner”

she hasn’t complained in 20 yrs now.

if no deal for awhile, and I start getting the “you bought something else again?” Roll if the eyes, I miraculously “Just got a good deal, let’s go out for dinner!” A week or so later. Can’t do it the next day.... she’d figure that out too easily.

 

See, Dave is a true professional................kids, don't try this at home!

 

Don’t forget to:
pull the slide needles out
Remove the sync screw and spring from the T-shaft
Remove the main spring from the T-shaft
Remove the shim washer from the T-shaft
Remove the enricher dust cap
Remove the O-ring from the bowl drain screw
Remove the spring from the mixture screw ( I don’t see the o-ring..... check to make sure you get it out of the bore. )
Source a new stub-cable since yours broke

 

I had a rough week at work a few weeks ago. I was talking about it with my wife and she suggested I buy a new project bike.

 

What a beautiful woman.........!

 

NOT the reaction I got from my wife when she saw my most recent project bike!

You need to take her to dinner!

 

There’s a keeper, right there!

 

I guess you can't argue with her.

If I were you I'd already be headed to Elk River to pick this one up!!
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/1983-yamaha-xj-900-for-sale.132236/

 

Replaced a Shinko 712 about 750 miles past solidly hitting the wear bars, don't try this at home kids!

 

How many miles did you put on those and how did you like them? I'm looking at those if I can get the '82 Maxim running well.
Not so concerned about total mileage as I'm looking at ridability/safety/braking

 

That was about 7500 miles worth of wear on a 1980 XS1100 equipped with full Vetter touring gear and pulling a trailer about 1/3 - 1/2 the time.

The Shinko 230 tour master will give you about the same milage but squares off quicker. The Dunlop 404 is sticky for sure but gets a bit squirrelly on wet manhole covers and tar snakes (even dry ones) and is only good for about 4500 miles. For performance and ride quality you're best off with the Bridgestone BT46 but I only managed about 5500 miles out of them.

The only other choices in the 130/90-17 size are Kendas which I HATED in the wet on a previous bike, the IRC Durotour which I'm leery of due to the continuous groove down the center riding rain grooves and bridge grates and then the Michelin Classic which is $200 with practically ZERO real world mileage expectations reported.

Then there's the "Dark side" option which I've seriously considered, there's someone I ran across running this on an XS with a sidecar rig.

https://www.cokertire.com/tires/475-500-17-excelsior-blackwall-tire.html

 

Speaking of the BT46, just got a pair for the Maxim X.

 

I've had several different brands of tires on my bikes over the years, and from my experience, the Shinko's are not meant for spirited riding. The rubber compound reminds me of a pencil eraser. Michelin's are my favorite (have them on the other two bikes), but are pricey, so I'm giving the latest "classic" Bridgestone's BT46 a try in the Spring.

Tony

 

Spent some time inspecting and trying to clean some plugs I pulled. 2 of them had open circuits from the center lug. Another had resistance from center lug to ground (443K) which I cleaned up and then it opened up.

 

Today temp was 50 degrees but had high winds , my bike is still put away for winter , but could not resist started it up in over three months took a few minutes of running till it cleared up but finally sounded so good . My other Seca might fire it up soon . Spring is close , but they are predicting a possible Blizzard next week oh joy.

 

I've ran Shinko tires on four of my bikes gotten good tire life out of them , but agree they are a compromise not real great when pushed hard. I like the Dunlops 404 but never got the miles out of them.

 

Moving on from the introductions forum I completed the carburetor rebuild for my '81 SECA, oh these were a tasty bunch full of a green smelly substance that once resembled gasoline. I ended up making a carburetor cleaning "tube" by soldering two gallon paint cans together and dumping a dozen cans of cleaner in and leaving the works to soak for the day.
This evening was spent pushing little wires through the passages and blowing the works out with air, everything went together well enough despite missing the sealing washers for the main jets. I'm a retired 2-way radio guy with over 40 years of electronics & mechanical experience and remembered a copper washer was used for a particular coax connector... an absolute perfect fit. Needle is pointing to the washer liberated from a Amphenol BNC coax connector kit.

After my break the carb tree is going back on and I begin the task of wrestling the airbox boots back on, I thought about cutting the airbox out but came to my senses and decided to keep things stock. The only deviation is the addition of an external fuel filter to augment the brass screens. Starting & tuning will have to wait until the replacement starter motor arrives, the original piece failed from a burned commutator bar caused by worn brushes, I'm not familiar enough with the Denso starters to do a hybrid using other starter parts so instead I found a used piece on the flea-bay for $145 and ordered a rebuild kit. Yes this has been an adventure that started out with some bad wiring that progressed to basically going over everything with a magnifying glass, last night the gauge pod got reworked with all LED lighting that matches the original color and the capacitors on the tach driver board replaced. The headlight bracket was bent so I had to take everything apart anyway, the headlight will eventually get an LED H4 along with the amber fog light.
Back to the grind.

 

well done! My initial thoughts were to say that the thickness of that brass washer is critical, but my memory won't allow me to tell why. Maybe it isn't...

 

It seems me that the thicknesses would be QUITE important to get the needle and jet in the proper position to function. If something isn't working properly after it goes back together that might be a good place to look

 

Might be more of a theoretical than practical problem, but I'm not sure. The needle jet is indexed from the top, so relation to the needle doesn't change. But the main jet position could be moved slightly higher or lower due to washer thickness, and that probably has the same affect as fuel level in the bowl. But with a 2mm tolerance on fuel level, the jet washer change is probably not anywhere close to that. Would make for a good argument over drinks.

 

Actually the jet secures the needle tube which bottoms out in the body and the washer seals it, the level of the fuel is going to be whatever is in the float bowl at rest and will only change from the consumption so it should be good to go.

After the carbs I serviced the front brakes... overall not in bad condition the pistons were stuck from time. Got everything cleaned and moving again and now they feel great. Now it's a matter of waiting for the starter and the fuel filter to arrive so I can get some fires in the jugs. Tonight it's going to be detail cleaning with small scrub brushes and ZEP heavy duty degreaser, all night. So with that I'm going to crack open a case of beer for all.

Cheers!

 

So to continue with the progress I put the last touches on the wiring last night. I had to get creative replacing the dangling fuse holders with some good BUSS pieces, the previous owner had replaced what was left of the factory block and tape everything together. All was well until some wires got pinched and burned making a mess up the harness, cut it open and made the repairs then got serious with the zip ties.
Also spent a few hours scrubbing the wheels, they're better but still rough looking. Coming to the home stretch and once the starter arrives it gets fired and the carbs sync'd.

 

Replaced 40 pilot jets with 42 jets on the '82 XJ650, will fire it back up tomorrow.
Trying to richen up the lower end, my idle mixture screws are at 4-5 turns out right now.

 

I put a right side cover on my bike. I had been searching for one for over a year until I ran across one on ebay. First time ordering something from Canada. It is from an 81 while the left one is from an 82 so the badges don't match but it looks better than the 3d printed one that I was running.

 

Fired my SECA for the first time since rebuilding the carbs, idle is a little snotty but it revs good and maintains an even idle speed without enrichment. Might have to play around with the pilot screws some to get things right, they came out during the rebuild and got new seals but I honestly don't recall the number of turns from bottom out they need to get into the ballpark, maybe someone can help me with that?
Going to do a shakedown run later this week, still have a little snow in the shady spots and I'm waiting for the new plate to arrive. Wednesday has a forecasted high in the middle 40's so unless I have a major catastrophe it will get its first 35-40 miles since 2016 when the original owner was forced to stop riding.
This evenings work is to seal the cam side plug and rig some of these super strong round magnets to hold the side panels in place, plastic bosses were long ago broken off and replaced with double sided tape... if nothing else I may resort to zip ties.
Will post my findings once the rubber hits the road.
Brhat

 

Brhatweed, there are 2 types of mixture screw threads, a coarse and a fine. According I recall course is 1 1/2 to 2 and fine is 2 1/2 to 3.
However, on both my bikes, those settings were on the lean side and I went richer. I'm fine tuning a carb myself and its cold here which makes bike on the lean side. I have to warm it up really well to judge how its doing.

 

Got it and thanks. Mine apparently has the fine threads so I'm going to do a color tune this afternoon as my dad has a clear plug for his Bonneville 750. I did pull the carb rack off again last night and double checked the passages all around, what I did find was the little O-ring in #3 had balled up and followed the screw down the bore so I suspect this is the problem, getting good with the rack R&R and I found boiling the airbox boots in hot soapy water really softens them up and makes them super easy to squeeze back on.
Found the source of my oil leak on the front cam plug, apparently the previous owner didn't get the plug radius in the lower groove correctly and this crushed the gasket, he later attempted to seal the entire gasket with black RTV which oozed out anyway. Got another gasket on the way and did check the valves, a little on the loose side but I can live with that. Did straighten out the gasket enough for a driveway run and I will post my results.

 

If you don't want to boil the boots, just use a heat gun. I've pulled/replaced carbs enough I can judge how hot they need to be. 140F is the point where average human hands can not put fingers on the hot object for more than a few seconds. circular motion flipping the boot around till soft is good for me. My lastest bike the '82 XJ650, someone previous to me got 2 of the boots too hot and they deformed some and have surface bubbles on them. Likely from getting TOO HOT.

 

By the time I actually get the boots in the water and over to where I'm working they're just at my limit of too hot to handle, I used to work in plastics so I guess my tolerance is rather high.

Sooo.... carburetors. I fought with them for about two hours and couldn't figure out what was *really* going on until I took and pushed the enrichment plunger down on the #2 carb and everything fell right into place. Just over 2 turns on the pilot screws got me the soft blue flame like what you'd see on the burner of a Coleman 413 camp stove burning pump gas across all four jugs and the idle is an even tone down to about 800 RPM just at the point of stalling. Running at about 1000 RPM it sounds like a healthy sport bike without sputters or puffing sounds. I live on a 3/4 mile private road so I took it thru three gears, two of which take the front end up just shy of 7000 with my fat@$$ over the tank. The motor feels crisp but the clutch is grabby and the throttle flares fast right off idle, I don't want to make the assumption that the SECA would be smooth like a Honda 750 or have the low end pull like my old CBX but this is a bit abrupt. I'm running Shell Rotella-T in the box and I believe the clutch is set correctly or as close as I can get without taking the side cover off and going thru the book procedure but maybe someone can offer some insight here.
The new license plate should be here tomorrow and the weather warmer than it was today, quite sure I will get some miles on the saddle. I'm small town with plenty of open county roads that eventually intersect so I can get an easy hundred miles without getting too far from home.

 

Clutch packs dry out over time. In the past I've stripped and cleaned the steel plates, checked over and oil soaked the fibre ones, replaced and all OK.
Maybe your clutch will improve with time?

 

Received a used headlight bracket to replace the bent one on the 82 XK650 Purchased recently. Installed it as well as put in bullet connectors on the after market LED turn signals that the PO put on the bike. Turn signals he drilled holes in the sides of the bracket for the headlight so had to drill those too.
He had spliced and wire nutted them in. Need to get into the turn signal relay he used. It changes speed something awful when the battery voltage changes. It won't run below 12.5V and when the bike is running it blinks really fast and changes speed. I don't like the turn signal lights. They are too close to the headlight for visibility by other vehicles. Same with the tail end. I'll likely put other cheapo LED turn signals on it.
Blinker control is an adjustable with a turn knob and he had to add a ground wire to it. I have some other aftermarket ones that I'll try.

 

I actually made my own 555 based turn signal flasher circuit with a relay output so I can use either lamp or LED. It has a fixed 1 second cycle time 1/2x1/2 second that works down to about 9 volts, works great except it wouldn't trigger the cancel timer circuit so I built another 556 based adjustable timer and stuffed it in the original Yamaha rubber sleeve. Basically it's a pair of one shots that when still has an adjustable cancel timer from between 15 to 90 seconds and another that is triggered with the speedo reed input to cancel after 10 seconds and I retained the OE connectors so the next whoever can return things to stock without having to undo my work.

Working on attaching some of these super power magnets to my side panels as the little pins that fit into the tank grommets have long since been busted off. I get them thru Amazon in a pack of six and they're quite strong.

Very nice Maxim you have there