What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Engine is gleaming. Beautiful bike.

 

What really stands out is how it's not overdone, clean and proper like it was intended. I say it's very well done.

I have put almost 450 miles on my SECA over the past two days without a single problem, have to say it's a really good road bike. We had some strong storms come thru and I have a number of radio tower sites that I manage so I made day trips out of the visits on the bike.

 

Changed oil & filter and just some general maintenance. Went for a shake down ride of about 35 miles. Bike just clicked over 10000 miles the other day.

 

Details in my own thread, but over the weekend, I trimmed back my spark plug leads, put on new boots, and put in new plugs to deal with a suddenly rough idle. Today, I unkinked the fuel line so it would keep running.

Then went for a 50 mile Father's Day gas run. After a coffee stop, I had a little kid 'help' me start the bike. Think I made his day.

 

Also, oil/filter change today.

 

Did a fuse box conversion this evening. I'd bought this for the 750 but it's just a few frogs hairs too tall to fit under the seat, but it fit the 650 real nice. Getting pretty close to having the 650 slapped back together.

 

If there ever was a weak link on the XJ its that fuse center.

 

Sooo... what am I doing to my Yamaha? How about a couple of 8000+ RPM fly-by shots for your entertainment? Thinking of two or three side of the road shots and one POV camera on the headlight, I'm also open to ideas & suggestions. A something to do between downpours and damn good excuse to run my SECA hard. They'll get posted on YouTube and this time I'll keep the res quality higher.

 

My SECA 750 turned 40,000 miles today.


Wait for it... almost there.



WHEW! We Made It!

 

Vinyl wrapped the side covers too. Finally matching gold colors. Now I have to find a new tank or repaint it.

 

Can you give some more detail on how you did this? Looks like a good result.

 

Welcome to the club: https://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/what-did-you-do-to-your-yamaha-today.4769/page-427#post-683814

 

nothing really complicated just cleaned the surface first, applied gold vinyl wrap over letters, squeegee'd out folds/wrinkles, used a hair dryer on hot, and then got a olfa hobby knife (changed blades twice on one cover).

 

Got the 650 on the road for the first time this morning. I still have a handful of bobbles and bits to finish, but couldn't wait to ride it after I had enough pieces to be roadworthy. Trying to work up the ambition to paint the side covers.

 

Ok one more photo. I got pretty much all the pieces back on other than the front fork plastic emblem that I am going to attempt to paint. The center stand is also getting painted so it is off right now. Side covers turned out so so...unfortunately couldn't salvage their emblems.

Photo of when I brought it home for reference. Rebuilt forks, new tapered stem bearings, master cylinder rebuilt, wheel bearings packed, new tires fore and aft. Seat cover, painted tank. Lots of little wiring things repaired back to original state. Busted flashers and mirrors replaced. Hours and hours of cleaning. Every bit on it works like it's supposed to.

Runs absolutely fantastic. Wish I could keep it, but I'm out of room. If you're in the PNW and need a 650, lemme know!

 

What a transformation!! That's some nice work, @Roast644. Should be good for another 40 year run. Somebody will be lucky to get it.

 

Thanks @Dan Gardner it's definitely not a full restoration, maybe a "rust"-o-ration, but beneath the cosmetic corrosion was a pretty good bike. I enjoy giving something like this new life, since if I hadn't grabbed it the odds are good it would have just turned into eventual scrap metal. Old Yamahas deserve to ride on.

 

Very well done! I'd roll on that bike any day.

 

Great it's saved for the road where it belongs.

 

Holy resurrection, Batman!!!

 

I'd recently lost one of the metal horns to my Wolo air horns I've had for nearly 20 years. It was less than half as loud anymore. I replaced it with their "Bad Boy" horn which combines the compressor and horns into one compact housing. Neater install that was a direct swap for where I'd had one of the horns mounted anyway, and wires went right on (came with a relay, but I already had one installed). Truck-loud again! GTFO the way!!!

 

Might be my last post as this two-step verification is becoming a pain, I flush my logins each time my browser is closed to keep things secure but it also flushes the verification cookies set by the site server. I'm not going to compromise my security for the sake of convenience

 

Well after having several scammer breaches, I guess the list owner decided to tighten things up a bit more. It’s a bit of an inconvenience, yes, it’s in the interest of safety/privacy/etc….. But, I have to jump thr0ugh the hoops and log into everything with two-steps, now ……….so I just figure “oh great…….we’ll, it’s just one more————“

‘At least we don’t have to change passwords once a month yet like I had to at W@R*.

if you know of a better way, let me know and I’ll pass it on for consideration. In the meantime, we all have to get used to another hoop. Just like when we migrated to this platform——it took us all some time to get used to it. Probably took ME the longest!! Lol

 

Sorry no I don't have an alternative. I was hacked back in 2020 and all of my stored credentials were stolen and used to clean out my saving account to the tune of over $133,000. After this I have adopted a strict policy of using the highest level of security within Firefox while running Linux, I have a common forum password I use that is stored locally along with a common username and now this 2-step is asking me to compromise. This is something I will not do. in Firefox you can set your username & password then save it, after that change it to Never Remember History and it will clear everything BUT the stored name/password that is kept in it's almanac.
As a long time systems administrator with over 35 years of experience going back to the 1200 BPS bulletin board days I understand the need for authentication but had to balance this with the needs of my members, the one thing I have learned the hard way is one never gets their loyal members back once they leave, as a super-moderator on OneFora this balance is tempered with the loss of sponsor exposure. There have been numerous conversations regarding this issue as recently as last Thursday and while we have very tough anti-spammer policy we have had to temper this against the potential losses of members. Scammers & Spammers are going to get around this 2-step verification, I'm speaking from experience here and found the only way to deal with them is administrator & moderator vigilance. Anytime there is a flag on a user name, IP address or a new member they all get put into a moderator cue for further consideration and I go thru them weekly to see how they react. I approve more than I flush but it's paying off with the reduction of problems and riff-raff plus my members are very happy with how the forums are running. I'd gladly throw my hat into the moderators ring for xjbikes if this would help, anyone can contact Cricket on OneFora for a reference if they would like but as I stated before I will not compromise my online security regardless.

What did I do to my Yamaha today? Added another 150 miles to the clock because I had nothing better to do and all day to do it!

 

Well, I think admin and Moderators HAVE been quite vigilant. When I say we are seeing an increase , the increase something like
Two this year or maybe a third one....... then there was one a year or two ago. I think there was another one a few years before that.....that also slipped through.

 

Sorry
i wasn't implying the moderators were not being vigilant and I know the riff-raff will slip thru the cracks, I just can't afford to be lax on my security and while I'm looking for an alternative way to satisfy the 2-step process it doesn't look promising. What a pain in the___________ (fill in the blank)

 

Let’s now move this off of the “what did you do to YOUR YAMAHA forum”.

 

I would love to do that, but when I tried to post what I did to my Yamaha I again got caught up in the chaos of Texas Two-Step Authentication Security Theater, and by the time I finally got recognized as a member I forgot what I was going to say.

Oh, yeah, something about FD fluid leaking. I think the problem is the previous owner lost the crush washer from under the drain plug. I, of course, therefore didn't know the drain plug used a crush washer till I looked at the diagram on Partzilla. Other sites strongly suggest this is a standard 14mm crush washer, but I will probably pull the fill plug (which, according to PZ, uses the same part nunber crush washer) and measure. As Ronnie and Maggie said, "trust... but verify."

 

XJ650 Maxim sighting out in the wild today. He was getting on 494 Westbound from France Ave in the SW Minneapolis area.

 

What do you mean by FD fluid? Fire Department? That would be water.... I guess you have an X? Check your radiator drain.

 

Final Drive??

 

Ohhhhhh
80 weight gear oil

 

Well I'm trying to but every time I attempt to post at image everything recycles back to the verification code point, I enter the code and try again and end up in the same place starting over with the verification code. This happens under Linux and Android using Firefox after I have entered the code the first time... took me seven attempts just to get this message up.

 

Got float levels adjusted on the X's Mikuni's, looked at the filter and saw a small gob at the bottom. Looks like it is doing its job but changed it anyway.

 

Mounted carbs and bike started right up. Idled @2000 so adjusted down. Did a vacuum sync but all mixture screws still at 3 turns for now. Bike runs very well at this point.

 

Tried painting my fork emblem tonight. I got some "chrome" paint from Alclad after watching some video reviews on it. The results on YouTube were definitely better than what I experienced, but I suspect the surface smoothness has a lot to do with how much the chrome plated, fully aluminated surface will pop.

So this will go into the category of "eh good enough" and move on....

 

Family photos. Maxim class of '82.

 

Lovin' the family portrait to the Maxim!

 

Which one do the pets ride?

 

The steer actually wanted to ride one! I had to hustle my butt off to get them all parked out there before he decided to use one for a scratching post.

 

Looks nice. Mine was in worse shape as the plastic mounting ears were breaking off. I just trimmed off the bad plastic, made a lower tree cover/cable retainer out of 1/8" by 1/25" aluminum stock I had around (didn't quite get the curves identical on both sides, but close enough) and double-stick-taped the plastic logo into place:



It needs repainting, and possibly sanding/scraping/whatever off the remains of the plasti-chrome. How did you paint yours? Spray the whole thing with silver and then meticulously brush in the black, or spray the whole thing black and try to apply silver with a roller? I am thinking about trying the latter.

My next project, and a NEW QUESTION FOR YOU EXPERTS is replacing the forks (tubes and sliders) with a used set I got that doesn't have mutilated seal seats and should not leak (I am, on the advice of the donor, replacing the seals anyway). My bike is a 1980--no air suspension and a P/N 4H7-23141-A0-00 (according to Partzilla) "heavy duty" spring. The new forks have air fittings. I haven't opened them up but the "XJ650J Supplement" in the front of my XJ650G factory manual says they have the P/N 5N8-23141-00-00 spring (no mention of "heavy duty") and P/N 5N8-23118-00-00 spacer. I also assume (because the manual says to run about 6-11 psi in the forks for solo riding) that the stock '82 springs are softer than the stock "heavy duty" springs in the '80. And (if that's not enough) I have heard scuttlebutt that the air forks don't hold air very well. So... does it make sense to transplant the "heavy duty" springs from the '80 into the '82, replacing its stock springs and spacer, and run zero air pressure? I intend to use the air caps anyway, primarily because they make fork oil change easier (remove the valve core, drain the fluid, hook up a source of vacuum to the air fitting, and suck replacement fluid in through the drains). I am also planning to go to 15W fork oil (Bel-Ray), because with 10W in there the forks are just too soft. What say y'all?

 

QUOTE="ScottFree, post: 684548, member: 34985"]did you paint yours? Spray the whole thing with silver and then meticulously brush in the black, or spray the whole thing black and try to apply silver with a roller?[/QUOTE]

The Alclad chrome paint requires a special primer that is black, so my first thought was to mask the letters after priming and leave the black, so I stuck the plastic in the xerox machine and made a copy that I could cut the shapes out precisely with scissors.

Then at the last minute changed my mind and decided to paint the whole thing chrome, then repaint the black. I used Testors model paint and a fine tip bulb syringe, typically used for applying CA glue. It worked reasonably well, and actually looks better in person than the photo turned out.

On your fork spring thing, yeah I'd just run the heavy duty springs with no air. It's easy to adjust afterwards if you want to play with spring spacers on top. You can make them out of pipe, 1/2" PVC I believe fits.

 

Broke the rack down and headed to church. Only found a few things really concerning, a clogged fuel inlet, and a rather tense moment with a pilot screw.

 

Started my "parts bike" 650 seca today, not been running for 2 years or maybe 3. Put some fresh fuel in and connected a battery, took a while, but away it went. Smoked heavilly for a while, needs a top end rebuild at least I suspect. That 4 into 1 sounds SO different to the twin pipes on the maxim.
Where did I put the compression tester?

 

In the spark plug hole

 

That's nasty. Exactly the kind of thing that a lot of people don't see when they superficially clean them.

 

And that is also why I always get the beanie screens when I get my fuel valves from Len

 

"beanie screens"?

 

I was also thinking that if I remove the Schrader valves and replace them with bolts/locknuts of the correct thread and maybe a spacer atop the spring, I've got real simple preload adjusters.

I am still trying to figure out how to get the damper rods out, as I shine a light down there and do not see anything that looks remotely like a hex socket or anything that could be turned.