What did you do to your Yamaha today?

I pulled my engine out, got the frame ready to have the freeze crack repaired.

 

I fired her up - first time for a few weeks.
She started fairly easily (been sat on the Optimate) and then ran for a couple of minutes with a little bit of choke.

Will try her again around Christmas, just to keep her on her toes.

Had to buy a new battery for the Bonnie though - it just eats them (don't think the vibration helps much). I'm spending a bit more and getting an AGM (absorbed glass mat) one. Apparently can't sulphate as there's no liquid/acid in there. Will let you know the benefits/probs with this once it's seen some service.

Happy Christmas everyone.

 

Inspected from my recent two weeks of paint and waiting. Looking good so far!

Got my new grab bar in from prince_albert3. Ready to clean and strip it later this week or weekend.

Planning my next step: carb rebuild (again). Should have done it right the first time. Gotta take them apart anyway for some paint, so it isn't so bad!

 

Bidding on a chole cable, Still gathering parts for this 900 seca, have most of the stuff to make a bike now. When I aquire all the plastics I want, lookin for a frame mounted fairing, will weld and jig mounts on frame, send down for sand blasting and powdercoating, on the frame and swing arm upper clamp and all related footpeg mounts, silver for all the bracketry and swing arm and black for the frame.

 

Made the next bit of progress on sand blasting the '92 frame.

Now excuse me while extract all the sand from certain places.

 

Today was a warm day, so I finished up getting the '95 road worthy.

[flash=640,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/sJcwbgLThJw.swf[/flash]

 

Picked mine up at the shop as they did a caliper rebuild. I was in over my head after I put the new pads on and I bleed the system and it wouldn't hold... But its back in business and running great. Thanks to: http://www.kickstandcustom.com/

I also put on side covers with the correct grommets. Rode it everywhere. I am thinking I should ride it easy though because its 30 years old and has 25 k miles. Or should I thrash the hell out of it when I take it out?

 

I finally got around to re-adjusting the sync on my carbs after the last valve adjustment. The valves weren't too far off, I only had to replace one pad, and so the bike seemed to run well either way. But I want to get it just right before I try commuting on it soon.

The only problem is that the bike dies if I take too long to adjust the sync. It doesn't die instantly, but over time the idle gets lower gradually until it just stops running. I'm afraid it's overheating or something. It's never done this before, but I never have let it idle in place for that long, nor will it do this after riding around town for longer periods of time. I have a small fan pointed at the engine while I work, but maybe it's not enough? I hope I'm not hurting it.

 

Today, I;

Took gas tank off for the first time
Took valve cover off
measured valve clearances (no clearance, time to order shims)
troubleshot sticky throttle. Took throttle cable off bike, it was fine. Ran tome tri-flow down the cable to lube it anyway. Took the grip/handle apart and saw that gunk had built up between bar and sleeve. Cleaned the heck out of it with degreaser, sanded it down to remove the rust, and slightly lubed it, put it all back together, now throttle is good as new!

 

Changed out the old seat cover for a new Saddlemen and then road to work this morning. It was 87 degrees today in So Cal..thanks to the G.W.

 

continued to be anal about EVERYTHING

 

Swapped out the faded voltmeter, fuel gauge, and tachometer with newer units from a cluster with 30,000 less miles.

Actually seeing the red markings (where the old ones had faded to white) looks great; plus, the new voltmeter is quite a bit more stable (the needle doesn't bounce). The dampening in the old one was evidentally shot.

 

ran out of gas ccoming home from work, fortunately right in front of a gas pumpin 7-11. need to figure out this shady petcock issue. actually need to figure out this paycheck issue.

 

Replace valve head cover gasket, and replace two shims.
had it sitting for 20 days, just waiting for parts to arrive.
was able two find a local xjbikes member, he had the two shims i needed,

 

Fresh fuel in tank, battery sat on Optimate for past few days - fired it up!

Struggled a bit at first, but judicious jiggling of choke lever got it going. Ran it for five mins then turned it off 'till next time.

Should really get back into the habit of running it every three or four days (been neglecting it for a while as spending time working on the Bonnie instead).

Cheers y'all.

Nige

 

Look at your email and see if it has a calendar reminder. I've set mine up for every Friday and do it religiously.
I set the timer on the stove for 15 min, go out to the garage and fire the bike up. I let it run until the timer on the stove beeps and then I go and shut it off.
This way I know that it is definitely up to running temps and that the treated fuel has had a good chance to run through the carbs.
I figure gas in the carbs for just a week is acceptable and should inhibit the formation of gunk and varnish.
Also have it hooked up to a battery tender between fire ups. The garage is heated as well, keep it around 45-50 degrees when I'm not out there.
2 cents.

 

Hi Maxim-x - you have a heated garage?

Mine's fookin' freezing. I was in the habit of firing it up a couple of times a week, but fell out of that habit (as I started letting the Bonnie have a share of the trickle charger).

both bikes have to fight over this (though I bought a new glassfibre-filled battery for the Bonnie - no liquid acid- I will report on this product after it has been in use a while longer).

The VFR just sits there - then fires up straight away every time I want it to!

N

 

I'm fortunate that my garage is attached to the house and last year, after convincing my wife that it was a good idea to heat the garage I bought a heater shown below and had a couple of mates that are in the heating busines "Legally" install it.
It makes any work out in the garage a lot nicer as all I do is turn the temp up to the mid 60's wait a bit and go out and work.
The nice part is that it is a radiant heater and therefore requires no chimney or exhaust to be compliant with heating regs in my area.

 

Nice one "Mr. Heater".

 

What did I do to my YAMAHA, today?

I moved it out of the way so we could get the SnoBlower out!

 

Replaced the inline fuses that the PO installed with a blade style fuse box.

 

Made a start after the engine rebuild. XJR1200 project.

 

That's a "little" more ambitious than what I did.

 

moved it to replace wheel bearing on truck :cry:

 

Tonight I reminded myself why I dislike UJM 4 cylinder twin overhead cam thingys, started stripping my brothers XJ600 motor, starting with a bare engine it was an hour to get the head off and another 15 minutes for the barrel, corrosion on the studs meant the head wouldn't come off easily and about at the point I was considering buying him another engine just so I could smash this one with a big hammer I got it off

In contrast the Ducati starting from a bare engine it is four nuts and about 5 minutes for each head and barrel and a BMW about the same, the moral of the story = Euro bikes good, Jap bikes bad :lol:

I did find one interesting (or not) thing, the XJ550 has the alternator mounted above the gearbox behind the barrels and the XJ600 has the same housing in the same place but when I took off the cover there was no rotor but the tapered shaft is there, my brother thought it had been removed but the alternator is actually on the end of the crank which has a different end cover and thinking back I have seen some XJ/FZ/YX/FJ 600 motors which have the different crank end cover and some that dont

 

I got two shims in the mail today from Brad (Thanks Brad!) So now my #1 exhaust valve at least is in spec.

Close call though, I did not look closely at how I left the machine, and started turning it to roll the cams over- only when I was looking for my tool did I realize that I had left it attached to the engine, and was rotating the cam it was on TOWARD it!

Fortunately, I had stopped short of destroying the tool, cam and or head assembly.

 

Moved it to the back of the garage so I could make this bench and install this new power-toy!

 

There's supposed to be a picture with that... trying again.

 

I finally finished up a couple projects.

Got the front brake bled after installing new SS brake lines. What a great improvement to the brake lever feel! I am sure it will take some getting used to this spring.

I got the modern, blade type fuse box installed and wired up.

 

i sawed off the back end to start the bobber project, added Rfy ebay shocks, cleaned up the wiring abit and stepped back to see what i got.

 

I got stuck in the city last Wednesday, and got every red light when it was 40 Deg C.

I found my oil temp gauge 'only' goes up to 120 Deg C.

Glad its my old clunker engine that will be replaced shortly.

 

Finally got my bike running yesterday after a year project of carb cleaning, oil change, valve clearances, some tuning and some small electrical. Rode it around the block only to get home and find my Petcock leaking. At least it's an easy rebuild...ordered parts and playing the wait game.

By the way thanks to everyone on the forum!! I don't post much but read a ton of posts and couldn't of got to where I am without this place!!!

 

I stripped my bike down and pulled and rebuilt the carbs.

 

I spent the day disassembling an '82 550 Maxim, to salvage parts to make mine prettier and to gather as many spare parts for her as possible.


I got to wondering how many of these bikes this has happened to. It seems a little sad but the dead bike will live on as part of mine for years to come.

 

The weather was nice.
So, ... I took the family for a ride!

 

This is almost crazy to write down!!!

Middle of February, ... and I rode the bike all the way to my daughters house and back,

40 miles.

Dry roads. Spring temps. Not a snowflake or an icicle in sight.
Crazy!
I saw a few guys out enjoying this unusual Winter.

Heres what it L@@Ked Like ... Last year!!!

 

I finished stripping the jug for my Maxim X (which is being built from scratch)........I just posted a pic (of the cylinder jug) in my gallery. I honed the cylinders several weeks ago and just had the time to strip it down today. VHT primer and VHT gloss black will be going on next........then I can put it back on the block!

I was up to a salvage yard earlier today, as I stopped for a slice of Pizza a guy pulled in on a brand new fancy Harley. Yup......not me. Too much sand, gravel, SALT POWDER, etc..... on the main roads--don't even want to think what the secondary's would be like. Rather him than me. Mine are all still snoring.

Dave F

 

In lieu with the rest of my restoration, I spent the day taking the clutch cover and shift assembly covers off the engine, stripping the paint off of them and repainting them (including the gold YAMAHA logos. Also took the time to put a acrylic urethane paint/activator coat on the gas tank to finish prep work before it goes back on the bike. Definitely can't wait to get her all back together and properly tuned so I can start to take advantage of this oddly comfortable NJ winter (58F today).

 

Replaced the fuse box. Next is rear brake.

 

Sprayed some deep creep got out some studs bought some m6 rod cut re threaded and used insted of studs and reinstalled

 

sprayed the vht gray primer on the cylinders for my Maxim X build. Just put a pic on my gallery if interested.

BlueBass, your side cover is on the way! I ran out of tape, so had to get some more. It went out priority mail this afternoon.

Dave F

 

Thanks Dave! I sadly did nothing with my XJ today. Work did not permit progress beyond letting my engine side cover paint cure.

 

I pulled off my exhaust system and boy, that collector needs sanding and painting! Pulled off the valve cover and pulled all the shims and checked. Pulled apart turn signal switch and TRIED to re-lube it but it's really siezed up and requires more force than springs can release to work

 

Started sandblasting exterior of the lower crankcase housing.
Can't seem to get the crankshaft loose from upper housing. Any tips?

 

Cleaned, polished, and detailed front wheel. Aluminum looks factory fresh now. Forks w/ news seals and springs are almost ready to go back on.

 

Fired er up again... after a couple of weeks standing (and the past 5 days sat on the Optimiser). Caught on third attempt, after knocking choke down to about 75%. stayed with her for a couple of minutes and reduced choke a little at a time. After three mins or so, a lovely steady idle of around 1050rpm without choke. Revs up and settles back down to idle perfectly. Feeling lucky - next time could be different!

 

PS. Decided to start the Bonnie too. (Not been on optimiser, but recent "dry" battery installed). Started on FIRST kick! 20 seconds on choke and then a steady idle at 1000rpm without it. Brilliant - a little bit of oil smoke when revved, but hey - WTH?

 

Sprayed the vht gloss black on the cylinders for my maxim X today.....will take a pic a post it in a day or so when I get the chance.

Non-xj work......got the brand new stator into the 78 goldwing engine, and now the engine is back in the frame. Time to start figuring out where all those wires go again............

Dave Fox

 

I put the carbs back on ,,, RODE IT for the first time then decided that the tank needed more work so i took it off sanded it down again,,,, applied filler where needed and its in primer again...a good day http://youtu.be/JsMBjYSq2Ew

 

Today I changed the fork oil. I put in 15 wt. The old oil was nice and clean and I know it had been changed by someone in the past since one of the springs was in upside down. :roll:
Some PB blaster on the caps, still wouldn't loosen the left side. Then I remembered a tip here to loosen the upper clamps. That did the trick. I used a bar clamp and a socket to press the cap in (once I knew it was loose). That made getting the spring clip out easy.
Putting the front wheel on is a PIA. You have to hold the spacer and seedometer drive in, line up the rotor in the brake caliper and slide in the axle. I would be easier if I had a couple more hands! :lol: