What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Yesterday... Signal attempt #2 done, not a final, but looks ok, and works.
Found a loose screw on the MC cover, hope that fixes the leak......

Todays plans....

Paint the panels and fenders to match the tank, maybe the fairing too.
Tighten up rear inner fender (loose after relocating rear signals) and get that pic I promised for smeaghead

 

Did some rewiring to fix the battery warning light, Took apart the brake reservoir and cleaned out the float to clear an intermittent brake warning light, and changed the oil and filter.
I then took a nice long ride with some friends.
Man I gotta mow the lawn one of these days.........

 

Finally finished painting the Turbo and assembled it.
All I like is painting the lower fairings and installing them.

Turbo Painted

 

Beautiful!

 

looked things over, checked the sync on the carbs, adjusted, found gas seeping out of some spots on the carb the shaft that turns when you twist the throttle. from the biik it look like there are o-rings in there. I really don't want to take the carbs off during the riding season but alas better to miss a few days then risk fire while driving. Oh yeah and took a little ride with some friends.

 

Adjusted floats, put the carbs back on, changed the fuse box, and started it up for the first time in 8 years. Overall, a good day.

 

I got help putting new tires (Bridgestone S11 Spitfire) on my rims on Saturday and remounted them yesterday. (Video: http://flickr.com/photos/oblivion/2583212625/ ) I also replaced the front and rear brake pads and shoes and cleaned everything up real nice while I had it apart. 'Twas a happy Father's Day weekend.

I must say I love these new tires. They've eliminated the head shake I've lived with for a few years (steering head bearings check out OK) and the bike feels more agile (but still quite stable). This is coming off 10 year old, 10k mile Dunlop K591s (IIRC). Well overdue on the tires.

TODAY, I rode her into work (as usual).

 

New tires (Spitfires) and bearings. Oil change and diff. lube change.
Replaced shaft seal and o-ring in gen. compartment (finally got the right seal/o-ring from the Yam dealer)
Ordered Lamps and throttle cable from Len.

4000 mi. since purchase She now has 23, 690 mi.
At this rate I'l double the OO's mileage this summer!

 

Removed old fairing frame work. Removed crashguard that stuck out one side further than the other. Adjusted the brake pedal so I didn't have to pick up my foot to use it.

 

Pulled all the valves out o the head. De-Carboned the the piston crowns. More clean-up to go in the next couple of days while I'm waiting on the parts I ordered from Chacal.

Everything is sitting in 8 red SOLO cups on my bench at the moment. Just taunting me while I siut here at work.

My 5 year old daughter got quite a kick out of helping me work on her grandpa's bike. Give her a brass brush and some seafoam cleaner and she goes right to town. She EARNED her popsicle last night.

 

last afternoon. riding home from work.
waiting at a railway for a train to come by. an other biker came standing next to me:
"Ain't your reartire a bit empty?"
"Well, dunno, it has some strange behavior for corners, but my rear shock's leakin' too"

Went to the gasstation, set the air pump to 2.9 bar, connected the nipple air pump showing an actual pressure of 0.3 bar

"damn" thats bad

Now the bike is functional again as it shoulds. (with corners that is, engine wise its not cool yet)

 

Last night i cut my tach in half to screw on of the screw back into the face of it

 

Well I'm on the East coast, so i woke up just a few hours ago (Up Watching the Celtics Win the Finals)... No work today so I'm going to get to work on the bike. I need to drill out my left mirror because it broke of. Luckily I already have the new ones, problem is finding a 10mm X 1.25 tap... Ugghhhh no one has them except sears in a 100 dollar set. no thanks. Gonna head over to the local machine shop and ask them to do it for me for a few bucks. Then I can get my new inspection sticker and I'm good for another year!

 

I got new Metzler LaserTecs in both the front and rear.
(She handles all the way to the pegs)
Got some Kona shocks just waiting to be cleaned up and installed
Solved my leaking petcock issue(luck)
Took her for a test run, first in about 3 weeks.
Ran a plug chop, and confused about what I saw
More work to come...

 

OK... Newbie question. Seen it a couple of times and am clueless to the slang.

"Chop the plugs" "Ran a plug chop"

 

Some of the tuning you need to do you can do without hitting the road.
Put some new Plugs in it.
Lean-out the Pilot Mixture Screws IN ... 3~5 Degrees ... not much.

Run the bike.
Set up an electric fan for cooling.
Rev it up to 5,000 rpm and hold it for 15-seconds.
Hit the Kill switch.
Look at the Plugs.

If you are still Rich you'll see it and hear it.
Based on the performance after Leaning-out the Mixture you'll have to make further adjustments.
Start the bike.
Let it Idle.
Open the Throttle and listen to it coming off-idle.

If it boggs-down before grabbing the Main Fuel Supply ... your still too Rich
If it sputters and coughs ... you have a Lean condition.

You will be tuning to achieve a seamless transition from Idle to when the Throttles Open.
This you will HEAR.
This you will also see as you examine the Plugs.

Plugs that are too clean will require a few degrees of Richness
Too Rich and you tweak the other way.

Hold the Bike at 3,500 rpm.
Listen to the exhaust note.
If the note is unsteady ... (Pop, pop-pop, poppidy-poppity) ... tune-out the miss.
Tweak the Screws a few degrees in each direction until that unsteady note disappears.

Once the unsteady exhaust note is addressed ... you are ready for some road tuning.
BRING EXTRA PLUGS IN CASE YOU FOUL THE ONES IN YOUR BIKE.

Go somewhere where you can do tuning runs.
An industrial park makes a good location.
Run the bike for a few minutes and then do a wide open throttle Plug Chop.
Take the bike right up to high revs ... kill switch and coast to a stop.
If you set up a table with your tools and Plugs you can coast to your work station.

Examine the Plugs.
Closely.
Make individual tweaks to those that ate rich or lean.
Stick-in some cleaned plugs. (Carb Cleaner and toothbrush)

Repeat the run.
Concentrate on getting the Mixture set-up to seamlessly transition from Idle to off-idle.
If it won't "Get-out-of-the-hole" ... make Mixture adjustments to give it enough richness to get going.

After a few runs you'll find Plugs that don't need adjustment and one or two that do.
Make the adjustments to the ones that need the tweak and do further runs.

Before too long you'll fine that you have arrived at where there is no further adjustments to do and the bike is accelerating without delay.

Bring all the tools home.
Ride it.

WRITTEN BY RICOMATIC, STOLEN BY ASS.FAULT hehe!

 

Well, late last week I found out what the ticking was that appeared right after I changed the oil. It was not oil related at all and in fact was a loose spark plug.

I was one of those strage series of events where I was reaching for something and my arm brushed the boot on the right and it wiggled. Seemed odd, so I wiggled all the other boots too and found they all did to some extent. So pulling the boot revealed that the plug would unscrew with my fingers and it was already 1/3 turn out!

Strange fate indeed. A visit with the torque wrench (on all four just in case) solved the problem, the tick went away and the bike shows a lot more zip and much better mileage than before - no wonder.

Sometimes it's the small stuff.

 

Re sprayed the side panels and fenders the other night...
Yesterday, did the big brake bleed.... not bad, yellowed fluid, and some crud, but not as bad as I expected..... still need new brake lines, not a lot of change in the feel, bleed nipple is a bit soft, finally got it loose yesterday...think I'll replace it with a speed nipple when I do the SS brake lines.....if later this year or over the winter it seems now :/

 

does "rode it like I stole it" count as "what i did to my yamaha"? =) Went for a ride last night with a couple local friends, shot down the highway out into the country, then ducked down some back-road twisties to head back into town... tons of fun, found out how fast this little 750 really is

 

First let me say this is a great web site - resolved several of my issues.

Bought my xj650 2 weeks aqo. I went ahead and changed the oil and shaft oil. Went with Amsoil and got the starter grind. Score 1 for the site.

Today:

When I changed the oil last week my filter bolt was stuck and rounded over. Impact wrench and rounded bolt remover sockets saved the day. Drained the synth and put in GTX 20/50 score 2 more for the site (hopefully my starter grind will go away). FYI I paid $50 for the bolt at the dealer before reading the stuff here -1 for me! Got the GTX on sale for $9 a gallon so I may change the oil again in a couple hundred miles or less to further flush the synth.

Cleaned and lubed the throttle cable, spedo cable and adjusted the clutch cable.

Added seafoam to the gas score another 1 for the site.

Cleaned the kill and starter switches. Cleaned the turn signal lights.

A PO had put the blade fuses in but with the in line type and butt spliced in. First cruise last week and the ignition wire came loose. Replaced the mess with a fuse block and soldered the connections. That problem should be dead.

Changed the plugs - they looked fairly new but it starts and idles better with the new ones. May need to do a tune.

So far I have put about 250 miles on the bike, it runs great and looks fantastic. It was in great shape when I got it but I am fussy about maintenance. I feel it's worth the time and small cost to go over everything and have a known base. Besides I like older bikes - you can work on them.

Sill have change the fork oil on the list...