What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Glued some patches to the inside of my seat cover to repair a couple small cracks. Added 1/2" foam to the entire seat and re-installed the seat cover.

 

did up as many loose nuts as i found

 

Nothing yet, as I do not own one. Bandit has been sold but I'm still looking. I sneak a ride on the wife's 400 Maxim, but it remeinds me of the big girl joke. Fun to ride but you dont want your friends to see you on it.

 

Looked at it and got upset all over again.... I have enjoyed the hell out of this bike. Too see her on my patio, dripping oil from the crankcase bodywork in parts just breaks my heart. This is the bike that I have taken the GF on a great ride through the Sierra's,and also rode from Southern Ca. to Denver in one day only to turn around and do the return trip 3 days later. I will have her running again, it will take time besides, according to Evel Knievel "Bones heal and chicks dig scars!!!" Seriously though Keep the shiney side up and the rubber side down!!!!


Sean

 

I did carb adjustments on the mixing screw... then ran it outta gas... flooded it out and had to push it home about a half mile away.

 

bought a regular (non-vac) petcock valve a few days ago. made the mounting plate and installed last night.
filled up the tank and left at 0600 this morning for a nice ride down to the lake.
drove the heck out of it all is well as it sits my garage.
am gonna drive it to work tomorrow

 

dang it! another stinkin' double post :x

 

Today I am trying figure out how to replace the starter push button. Mine is missing. There is just a little spring inside the hole and to start it I have to push in there with a phillips screwdriver. I haven't found one on any of the parts site yet so I may just try to fabricate one if I can find the right plastic round stock. Hmmm?

 

YESTERDAY... i read about the "old school" way of tuning carbs.
I was very disappointed about the way the bike had been running... it seemed like the more i adjusted and cleaned the worse it ran. (mean while running back and forth to XJ Bikes reading for any clues or hints I need)
Finally read the forum about old school tuning by ear. (my last hope)
I gave it a shot. I put the tank on sideways... started the bike and started adjusting the #1 mix screw listening for the engine rev up. Adjusted down the idle screw and continued through at the carbs doing this.
During this operation, the bike seemed to be idling cleaner and crisper.
LAST NIGHT AND TODAY
Riding and enjoying the smooth engine whine at low speeds.

 

Sanding.. Painting.. Sanding.. Painting... Oh *&$%.... Scraping, sanding, scraping, sanding, painting, sanding, painting..

Then took my other bike out for a nice long ride to the lake and had an ice cream..

Back home for more sanding and painting..

 

Kick it again...i"ll Love it tomorrow.

 

I spent most of the day playing with the carbs. I had it idling well last night and came out today and not so good. I zip tied a small gas tank onto the bike and routed 4 foot of rubber hose so that it would flow down into the carbs and with a screwdriver in my pocket I went for a ride to see if I could make it run better. No tank made adjustment easy but I is still running like crap. So I re-positioned the needles again, like the fourth time this week, and reset the idle mixture screws and will try again later.

 

Touch-up paint on verious bolt heads.

 

After lots of overtime last month, finally got to install my new hard bags on my XS. Installed new LED tail lights and made a self canceling flasher following Gamaru's plans.

 

Rebuilt a set of front calipers last night. After replacing the fuse block today I installed the newly rebuilt calipers only to discover that the underlying problem was more than likely a semi seized brake cable.

No worries, chacal to the rescue!

 

Cleaned the carbs on my 550 Maxim, including

- replaced a carb body due to finding the PO broke a float pillar
- replaced a pilot jet that the PO gouged up
- replaced another carb body due to me stripping a butterfly screw
- replaced intake manifold boots (no broken bolts!)
- cleaned air box and carb boots

Anxious to check/adjust float heights, sync and colortune. New tires on order. Hopefully ready to ride next weekend!

 

Put my son's Maxim back together after spending two weeks painting (stripping, sanding, bondo, priming, painting and clear coating) and then went on a 4-hour ride with him. Doesn't get much better than today.

We went from this:



To this:



One happy 16-year-old

 

Hello everybody ,,,took the 900 for a ride today first time in a few years,,,I cleaned the bowls an sprayed some carb cleaner through the holes an put bigger mains in an took the fuel filter off,,,she had a lean surge at freeway cruise speeds,,,,I have to say I still love love this bike an selling it will not set well with me,,,this maybe the best sport tourer,,,,makes my connie feel like a pig an she runs perfect today the best it has ever ran,,,for those who remember me I have more time in these carbs than a sane man could admit an bailed to a newer bike before the final move on them(yea right) but I have to say this I have a great satifiying feeling today that I got it good,,even if it took this long,,,what a great day,,,,,

 

Took my 550 seca for a 150 mile trip to Chicago never touching one interstate. The trip took about 4 hours each way with one pit stop to oil up the chain. I was feeling risky on the way back home, and made the entire 150 mile trip on one full tank of gas riding into the wind. I just made it back into town with the gauge on empty and had about 2/10ths of a gallon left, but now I can say that I made it the entire way.

 

I took my 550 to the local tim hortons and parked it with some other metric cruisers,and was chatting with a guy who was driving a nice FLH harley,he says he has a suzuki tempter he rides as well. Which makes me think....Do all harley owners secretly own jap bikes?

 

Yes they do! My brother rides a Harley Road King and he has a Honda Rebel in the garage as well!!!!

 

I own both and enjoy riding my XJ650 more than the HD

 

Put new front wheel bearings. Seemed like small thing but what a difference, much smoother and firmer ride and even brakes don't screech anymore

 

changed the rear tire. yep... and changed it gooood

 

i road the heck out of mine yesterday.....80 miles (round trip home, work, home). got home changed oil in momma's car and a friend wanted to go for a ride (he's on an '86 radian). put another 90 miles on last night and didn't get inuntil 11p.

 

hi peoples,i have a 1981 xj650,i have some sort of electrical problem"well thats what i think".i will ride for a while and then number 1 and 4 spark will cut out,sometimes just number 1 will and sometimes number for will,so i changed the spark plugs but still doing the same,i bought a coil pack but still didnt do any better.....i changed the CTI unit and some little relay thinngy under the fuel tank but still hasnt done any good.i have been to the bike mechanics but they keep saying its the carbi so i clean out the carbis still no better,any ideas anyone???????

 

Bit the bullet and pulled the carbs. Hopefully I can find some time tomorrow to start stripping and cleaning 'em

 

Started her up!
Doesn't seem like much I know, but that's the first start & run in 2 years.
I have spent about 14 hours over the past 2 days rebuilding & fitting the carbs.
Ran out of battery yesterday cranking the engine & had to wait until after work this afternoon to try again.
Runs smoothly & sounds beautiful after such a long silence. Couldn't be happier!!
Thanks again to Len for the carb parts!

 

Put different headlights on it Friday evening and then rode the holy hell outta her for the next 3 days!! I'll get some pics of the new headlight setup and post them. I was surprised how it easy it was.

 

Looked at my new intake manifolds that chacal just sent me, no time to fit them tonight as i have webmaster duties to perform.

 

Somehow I succeded to almost been run over by cars 3 times last week. So now i've got: Stebel Magnum TM80/2 double horn hi/low tone (139db).
Damn I've got attention now.

 

Video please!

 

Took my XJ for its MOT test today, and it passed with flying colours.

I'd put this off because (since a complete engine swap - my first engine kept jumping out of first) I had a pretty severe oil leak - the kind that covers your boot. I thought this was coming from the cylinder head joint at the front of the motor, so started a top-end stripdown - new cyl head gasket at the ready - only to find it was a split in the cam cover gasket that was the cause - at the back, but running forward past the plugs and down the front of a hot engine. A bit of blue Hylomar on the offending bit of the gasket and back together it went. RESULT! - no oil loss. It's surprising how much oil can find its way out of such a place in so short a time.

Anyway, back on the road now and will hopefully get some miles on this year. The engine is a fairly high-miler out of a German registered bike which I got as one of a pair of XJs last year when I was looking for a new motor. The oil I dropped out of it was good though, and it had a clean K&N filter in the airbox - I dropped new genuine Yamaha valve-shims into the head (£ouch!) and it runs very sweetly.As well as the engine, this bike donated a nice alloy fork brace, chromed lifting handles and a pretty decent Sebring 4-1 system, which makes a nice change from the ubiquitous Motad. Better still, I got a buyer for the engine I'd just taken out.

I'm tempted to mildly chop the spare bike I'm left with, when I get some time and money (but it will have to fight for attention with my four other bikes).

Just wish there was some way to get around the damned XJ flat spot at 6 grand!

Nige W

 

Over the last couple weekends I've cleaned/reassembled carbs, set float levels, replaced the starter solenoid, replaced the rear tire, adjusted the rear brake (no delamination evident), replaced the rear brake light plastichrome piece, checked valve clearance (shim tool ordered), painted the valve cover, installed a new valve cover gasket and donuts, synced/tuned... I'm riding to work.

 

Sounds like fun! Where did you get the rear plastichrome piece? Chacal?

 

Ebay auction, $10. Mine was cracked/missing a chunk.

Original owner must have dumped the bike once; there were also scuffs on the headlight rim (replaced), speedometer cover (replaced), all four turn signal stems (replaced), front fork, etc. Mufflers have a little scuff underneath but you can't really see it. I think the handlebars are a little bent, will probably replace these eventually. I want to get the tank repainted too.

My wife is glad I spend more time working on it than riding it.

 

Just took her for a short test ride.
Everything went great!
Now I just have to get her registered & I can ride legally.

 

New Clutch
New Fork Seals
New Front Blinkers to match the back
New Battery
New Rear Tire

 

Pulled the starter off and cleaned out all the gunk. Wow, what a difference in cranking speed now. Have a rebuild kit coming for it though as the brushes are at their wear limit.

 

Well, after buying my bike about 3 months ago, I got back from school for the summer and the goal was to get it running good. I got new spark plugs, cleaned the carbs, bench synced the carbs, set the mixture screws, checked for rear brake delamination, changed my fuse box to individual waterproof blade fuses and had lots of fun! My question is, is there anything else you guy would recommend looking into? Other than an oil change and a vacuum sync, is there some maintenance I should do to insure a better/safer ride? Thanks guys!

 

Brought it to the shop for new tires and a safety. The plot thickens.

 

Got the engine back in the frame! It's been out for a month and a half now. Hopefully get to ride it this weekend!

 

Changed out valve shims now all are good . Reinstalled carbs after a through cleaning and installed some missing parts 8O now she looks complete :wink:

 

I actually started an Excel log to track purchases/expenses and what I did or tried to do to my Maxim. I also checked my VINs checksum number and the VIN is valid and matching frame/engine.

June 2 - Checked my right turn bulbs to see if burnt out - Not blinking - Nope need to work on it later

June 2 - Seat difficult to remove - Clean seat/helmet lock assembly - 3rd read the manual and correct way to remove seat

June 2 - Found the original tool kit under the seat along with PO's registration and insurance cards - Nice spot for them!

June 3 - Found the manual online - WOOT - Tested out the correct way to remove the seat

It looks nicer in excel and I can color code it as I see fit

 

my original seat cover is t r a s h e d and i haven't been able to bring myself to spend $100 for a new seat cover and haven't found any decent seats for cheap.
yesterday i bought a yard of marine-grade vinyl and some uv resistant black thread. then i took my original seat cover apart and made traced and cut them out.
then i had a friend sew them up for me and stapled it on.
is it perfect? nope!
is it alot better than it was? yep!!

a few things i wish i'd done.
the original seat cover was really stretched out. i wish i would have made the pieces a little smaller as this seat cover may shift a little as the new vinyl stretches.
as you can see the front most button isn't properly spaced. not sure what happened, i must have picked the wrong hole to punch through (it's too close to the second button)

all said, for the $15 i have in it i'm happy and should be able to make a better one if need be

 

What did I do today?

STARTED MY BIKE!

That's right, after a month of repairs and replacements, I started her for the first time and went for a short ride. Gotta love feeling the product of your hard work accelerating down the road!

 

Nothing exciting, New oil and filter yesterday....
Think I need a new chain and sprockets..... maybe new pands and shoes too... was gonna do some cosmetics this year, but this trumps it lol

 

Found out that the PO is actually getting a title for me (couple months after taking possession) yesterday so...

Pulled the carbs, stripped em and flushed / picked / blew them out real well. The bike ran well and the bodies & passages were pretty nice so I didn't soak em. Bench synch'd them for the time being.

Inspected the horrendous looking intakes, all cosmetic - surprisingly. Need to pickup a tube of RTV before I repack them.

Inspected the tach cable to determine what parts I needed to remedy some spatter & lach of a readout - drive cable & seals.

Checked & rechecked the valve shims. 12/2 Copper wire is far faster, cheaper, and easier then buying & waiting on the retention tool. Works the first try every time too. Gotta love backyard engineering.
Good news is that I only need to order 3 shims, I have enough to swap around to set the others up with in 0.01mm of the high end of the range.
Bad news is that I can't use the 29.5mm dia shims out of my wifes Suz GS450... she has what I need and is down for the immediate future. Ah well. I can wait a week I suppose.

Ordered a 6 position fuse block from Summit to clean up the PO's attempt to clean up the OEM fusing.

Generally inspected the rest of the bike.

...and Fired off a parts quote to Chacal.

 

Rebuilt the carbs (the right way this time), cleared up all vac leaks with some brand spankin new intake manifold boots, tuned as best I could and waiting to get YICS tuned. Almost got it running tip top! Can't wait to start choppin it up this winter!

 

I swapped in a valve shim on my lunch break (just barely had time) to bring a tight intake valve into spec. Also ordered the K-D tools metric feeler gauge set from the local NAPA so I can pick it up on my way home =]

Tonight I'll make sure the others are good and retune everything, hopefully be able to almost double the <25 MPG I've been getting...