What did you do to your Yamaha today?

I used some Back to Black on my used mirrors. (Never used product before).
It looks better but not a dark as I had hoped. I might try again 2morrow or another piece of plastic.

 

Took it for the first real ride. 30 miles this evening. WAHOO!!!

Running great at anything above 2k rpms and at idle. Taking off, there's a little hiccup I've got to sort out, and I need to lube the shifter assembly, but other than that it's the beginning of a beautiful thing.

 

Took a picture of my 85 BRAT with his girl 86 MAXI X

 

I haven't worked on mine in forever - but this weekend, I'm going to replace the wiring connections from the ACG to the R/R, which smoked last time.

Also going to be pulling the carbs, and checking to see if a set from a later 750 Kawasaki will fit. The ones on the X are trash.

Then I'll hope for the best - if it runs, I just need to figure out how to get the airbox to connect to the new carbs' intake!

 

I had to take the Front Wheel off and get new rubber on the front.

The Calipers were tough to remove.
I over-did the Locktite last time.
Needed to wire brush the threads of the Caliper Bolts and the Brake Mount.

The Motorcycle God's looked down upon me, favorably.
No Axle fight.
No real Caliper remount fight.

Got her all back together and rode-over to the Inspection Station.
Got my 2010 Sticker.
Good to go.

 

Rode it.

 

installed some cookie cutter street fighter lights from walmart cuz im broke as a joke ran it for a bit...

 

Did more carb tuning, swapped the inline filter for a smaller one that fits better, mounted my saddlebags, did some cleaning/waxing.

 

I think I talked wife into letting me buy the vetter touring set on the way to our mini vacation

 

Put just over 250 miles on, without one hiccup! This bike handles great, but the seat is gonna need some working on. 250 was too much for my backside on that seat.

 

nothing on the XJ - But i did tear the engine out of the DT175 (it seized) and found that it didn't seize, but the crank seal blew apart and got stuck in the gears. The PO had the wrong crank bearing. It was 1/8" too big and did not fit on the crank properly. The crank was held in the proper spot by the drive gear. I just need to replace the crank bearings and seals - top end looks great. (less then 50 miles on top end)

 

Well, the picture says it all - yes, that's a con rod poking out the front of the block. The motor has 3000-km (2000-miles) since reassembly and was running flawlessly. Returning home, I was on the second leg of a 4-hour trip when 10-km (6-miles) after a gassing up she popped. Running at about 6,000-rpm she started to lose a little power and rattled hard. Backed off the throttle and the rattle stopped. Opened it back up and BAM! She popped in a cloud of smoke.

This is such a disappointment after all the work. I didn't even have the crank or pistons out and made sure the work was super clean. Maybe it was just ready to go...

The biggest disappointment was over the next 10-minutes, about a couple dozen fellow bikers rode by and no one - no one stopped to help. Reached my 85-year old parents by cell and they found a tow service on the 'net. The service answered my call and got me home, my wallet $400 lighter after a 2.5-hour ride in a flatbed carrier.

So, my relationship with my beloved XJ has been forced to an end. As I no longer have any interest in replacing the motor, the XJ enthusiasts here will be the benefactors as my baby gets parted away. This will be a future post in a week or so.

 

Oh man, that sucks!! RIP old gal.

 

Ahhhh PSteele, that sux....

 

That's hard to look at without feeling really bad for you, PSteele.

I'm sorry you labored so intensively to bring her back to on-the-road status.

Remembering some of the things you went through getting there makes it even harder to imagine how bad you must feel.

That's a darn shame.

Rick

 

Poo. I got my generator-to-R/R wiring connectors replaced fine. Then I pulled out the stock carbs, and found that the rack I was going to use (from an '80s Suzuki 750) had different spacing center-to-center. The distance between 1&2 and 3&4 was only 1mm off, but between 2&3 it was 6mm too wide. It looks like I might be able to make some new brackets and shave some things down to bring them in closer. At least the outlet diameter was the same.

So....anyone know of a rack of carbs that will fit an XJ700X without re-spacing?

PS: Sorry to see, PSteele.

 

Decided to replace the rear brake shoes after reading the threads about the original ones delaminating. The originals looked ok but I threw my EBC pads on since I had them sitting around already.

 

Today I rode my bike to work. Walked in and realized I had my wife's car keys............

Today I rode my bike to work twice!

Picking up some oil and a filter after work to clean out her insides a bit. Then the scrubbers and polish will be put to use to try and clean off a little more dirt and grime from the last 10 years of sitting nearly idle.

 

Installed Dyna coils on the beast, replaced the wires and caps. Still need to replace the front and back brakes. Changed the oil and filter.

 

Put on new mirrors (my right stock mirror popped right out of it's hinge thing ). Armor-All'd everything, polished it right up, took it up and down the street.

Lots of 1500 sanding on the rusty bits of chrome, got her looking pretty good! In for a (hopefully) final safety tomorrow and within a week I might be riding!

Heard that before though...

 

Did my first oil change on the weekend. Think I'll be ordering some new bolts before I try another though as the filter bolt and drain plug seemed a little iffy torquing them back on. I even had the oil coming out of the bolt at the top of my cylinder so it went well.

I tried to put on a filter and extra shut off but the length of fuel line on the 400 Maxim is very short so I don't think I can do both. As my petcock seems to be working well I'll just put in the filter and replace with an on/off/res petcock in the winter. I think.

 

Just obtained Carbtune Pro, decided that though the tubes with liquid were pretty nice to work with, this would be much more efficient and I could check the settings frequently, that and the colortune settings.

That little Carbtune works beautifully. I do need a better Phillips to get to the three adjustable balancing screws but da sucka works & what great sound when it's synced properly. Nice acceleration too.

Gary

 

You can fit both in there ...trust me
Just take a bit of playing ( get a bit of new fuel line and some spare clamps and play)

 

Ha ha, that's funny. I said almost the same thing to myself last night when I was looking at it again. I had a long filter so I've ordered a couple of short ones to see if that helps and I thought, "I just need to play with this a bit to get it to work." Hopefully I'll get a chance to do it this weekend when I toss in the new AGM battery I got today.

 

Soldered on brand new connections to my fuse box, works great now. Tomorrow, I begin painting the now yellow tank a beautiful red!

 

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

 

Last night, Installed a set of dirt bike bars, too a bit of cable routing afterwards to get the throttle to play nice, and had to redo the clutch throw a bit..... will give it a test to see if I like or no..

 

Found a great way to bring the side stand back to new.

After sand /acidtone prep (cleans all oil and other immpurities from
surface, i shot it with Dupli-color low gloss engine enamel (for the
extra durability over standared rattle can paint), then several coats
of clear to bring out a full gloss- worked beyond expectations.

The low gloss provides a perfectly even coverage which make the clear
a breeze to apply.

I hated the idea of all that work rubbing of the ball at the end so I used the same tech we use to polish alum.
Looks just like chrome now.

 

Set the float levels again (They were over 3 mm low and it still ran pretty good!). Then spent an hour or so with the colortune and synchronizer getting things dialed in. I think she's still a bit rich, but most of the off idle burble is now gone.
Of course we finally are getting some good rain, so a test ride is gonna have to wait.

 

ingredients:
1 3/8" pipe
3/16" plate
2 washers
1 hour
3 beers
1 plasma cutter
1 mig welder

still figuring out what i want to do (shorten and mout some foot pegs??), but in the mean time these work great and sturdy as hell !!

 

Fabricated a fairing mount from a rubber door stop.
Lots of powdered rubber on everything but it'll do the job nicely.
Hopefully the valve shims will arrive this week & I can finish that job.

 

As I only got my XJ550 two days ago I am still working my way through all the 'new owner' stuff. Oil/filter last night, new fork oil today and tomorrow looks like a front brake fluid change and new rear tyre. All this is taking place with vast amounts of tinkering, oiling, greasing, adjusting and of course riding her about loads to 'test' the difference each time I finish a job

 

Test ride to check the tuning from yesterday. ~40 miles, and I've decided that this bike was made for twisty back-roads. Fun, fun, fun! Handling not quite as light as Maggie was, but that huge flat power curve is fun around the corners and twisties.

 

Finally got my side panels back on, adjusted my rear brake light sensor and installed an AGM battery. Feels like I'm finally starting to make it mine.

 

Converted the sidelight in my headlight to super bright LED. Looks crackin'

 

Yesterday I finally fixed my front right blinker.
Had to swap out guts from a single filament assembly to replace the dual one the PO installed with a replacement OEM-Style blinker housing.

Today I hopefully will be buying fair priced highway bars/pegs off an 1981 XJ 650 - Lets hope they fit my 82 XJ750J Maxim

Time and energy permitting I will also be applying multiple apps of back to black on one of my Vetter hard saddle bags. Since apparently painting PE plastic is nearly impossible

 

sitting here on the computer when I should be out in the garage finishing up stuff on the bike, so I can take it for a test spin with thew new apes and forwards on it.

 

Bought Highway bars with pegs
Bought used Haynes Manual
Cleaned and "Back to Black'ed" 1 of 2 Hard Saddle bags
Dreamed of more things to buy and do

 

Commuted to work. After, played with her tickly bits: more fine tuning on the carbs and adjusted the anti-dive.

 

drove it to work this morning
on the way home tonight it poured for over an hour. i was completely drenched. :x got 7 miles from home and it had gotten so wet that it died and wouldn't start for over half an hour. :cry: got it running again and it died in my driveway :evil:
not sure if it was electrical or if just water in the airbox (did i mention i got douched?)
when i got home (my shoes are still drip-drying) i wiped everything down and as it sits right now it starts/runs just fine.

i think a good rule of thumb would be to ride when it's dry outside

 

worked on it enough to be able to rip around the neighborhood for the first time since I installed the TCBros forwards and 15" apes. Fired it up for the first time since I "installed" (not really on there securely yet) the screamin eagle slip ons. The sound BAD-ASS !!!!

Really lovin this bike. Check out my thread in the mods section for updated pics.

 

Got some knock-off Rizoma-style bar end mirrors from eBay, threw them on late last night. Lowers the profile of the bike a ton when compared to the old ones (Emgo long-stem), looks great, I'll throw some pics up in my thread here pretty soon...

 

I hot-wired it with paperclip since my ignition switches failed while I was at work.

 

Worked on getting the GSXR carbs to fit the Maxim X - shortened some of the bits.

 

sat at work and thought about it.

 

Looked to see if I could fix the tach - posting shortly

 

changed oil and filter...readying for a weekend-long ride of michigan next friday-sunday
:mrgreen:

 

Finally got around to finishing valve clearances (parts arrived quickly as usual - thanks chacal, but had no time).
Refit the front fairing with fabricated mounts & reassembled all bodywork. Then a quick fang to test everything.
All good but rear brakes need work - maybe next weekend. Then finally I can get it registered.
Can't wait for that long ride.......ah dreams!!

 

Today, I'm going to change the oil again and work on cleaning up the routing to my battery charging socket.

Ha Ha, got post number 2000!

 

On Friday, FINALLY, found a happy cable routing for the throttle cable to work with the dirt bike bard rotated to a more comfortable position...