What did you do to your Yamaha today?

^^^NICE^^^

I replaced my fork seals last night. About 3 hours total time (had to make a hardware store run) total and wow. Thank you Chacal for the service. It is amazing how nice a bike rides when the forks actually have oil in them!

 

Cant wait to get my forks done.... After I figure out !WTF! is wrong with her and why she wont start!!
Oh, I chucked my helmet at my bike today.. at about 3:30am.. Need a new helmet..
-Chris

 

Took it for a spin! I love her when she's running

 

Yesterday made a 240 Km run up the the lake. I hit reserve at 209 kms and filled it with 10 liters. Works out to 58 Imperial MPG. Best I can ever recall getting! Maybe all the carb work was worth it after all.

Today changed oil and painted the exhaust pipe. New exhaust seals to go on with the pipe.

 

Mad Bohemian, I love the look of that engine! What sort of paint did you use? I was thinking of using barbeque paint.. ?

I replaced my spark plugs last night and got my headlight sorted out (except that it's pretty dim and needs replaced).. Going to be bondoing the tank and painting the bike soon.

 

hehe, newenough.com has some clearance EXO 400 and 700s...

 

>Ordered a front wheel from E-bay, swapped the rotors and tire and put it on the 85' 750 Maxim X. Much better. Also cleaned the brake calipers and drained the brake fluid, refilled and bled them. All good, but want to get the braided steel lines sometime soon, not as squishy a feel to the brake lever with them. (got some on my 86' 750 Maxim X). Cleaned and repacked the bearings etc. It's a smooth ride now. Took it for a spin, that's another story that I'm posting in the form of a question in the forums.

 

Rode it!

And changed the spark plug caps as the ones that were on their were from 85, and were out of spec for resistance.

 

Found pantyhose where the airfilter should be! Checked filter screen above petrol tap. Found that the "New battery" fitted by the previous owner only gives a few cranks before dying - well it does come from China!!!

Rode it "Just to make sure it was ok" - that's what I tell the wife!

 

stared at it and wondered how to get front shocks. havent even been able to ride it yet.

 

Finally got all my Maxim X valves into spec and put the cover back on with new gasket and bolt washers. Cleaned 3/4 carbs, hopefully finish the last one tonight.

Next up, bench sync carbs, petcock rebuild and Dyna coil upgrade.

 

Oh that sounds depressing. In time, man, you will be having fun on it.

 

Routine:
Oil and Filter.

$27.00 in supplies.
Funny how a Bike always seems to run better after the Oil Change.

 

Sounds like what I have to do to my bike: check valves, vacuum sync carbs, petcock rebuild.

 

Pulled the plugs from the 650 for the first time, even though I've had her for 2+ years now (yeah, yeah, I know). Found several things.

Most interesting was the fact that I have everything. #1 was chocolate. #2 was sooty. #3 was white with a chocolate smear. #4 was really really white. This also explains the way the engine tends to race once warm, I think (lean 3 and 4).

Those plugs were a $#^*!& to get out. If I had waited much longer, they might have corroded themselves permanently to the head. As it was, I damaged the wire-end (outside) electrodes getting them out, not that I cared.

New plugs: $10 for all four. Mental note: Replace plugs annually.

Since I had the plugs out, I ran a compression test. 130-135 on all four cylinders. Builds up to max in about four revolutions. Looks like I've escaped a valve job for now.

I'm working on the 750's carbs at the moment, so I'm thinking I should just adjust the 650's carbs in place (sync and mix). The anti-tamper caps are gone on the 650, so I have access to everything, and I have a four-barrel manometer (mercury and everything. No idea how to use it, but I have one!

More coming soon...

 

Hmmmm well let's see. Adjusted setting on both front shocks. PO had one set on 1 and one set on 4. :^( Set 'em both on 4 cause I'm a big guy.

Checked air pressure on front shocks. Supposed to be 5.7, PO had put 10psi.

Pulled springs on automatic cam tensioner. Inner spring had been compressed and stayed that way. Stretched it back out and most of the annoying chain clatter is gone. Only hear it now when I'm going too slow for the gear I'm in.

Fixed small grip problem. Duct tape does wonders and blends right in with the theme of the bike.

Found bare wire and loose cable connections which were causing the intermittent "Warning" for the battery. Can't believe that the bare wire was over an 1" long! Surprised it didn't cause more problems. All good now.

ReDyed the seat, it was starting to show some wear. It's proper black again now.

Looked for 'nekkid pics of Mila Kunis and Laura Prepon an errrrrr oops My Bad wrong forum.

 

Got the bike all nice and warm and rode about 30 miles. Would have gone further, but Car Talk starts at 11:00.

Noticed that as the bike warmed up, I had almost zero engine braking. Not good. Front disc is definitely warped as well. One thing at a time.

Did a plug chop as I pulled in and looked at the plugs. Rich, lean, rich, lean. Since I had the plugs off, I went ahead and ran a compression test. Bad news. Only 120-122psi in any cylinder. Ran the test with the TCI still plugged in, but managed not to fry it. (I have a spare, but still...)

So it looks like there's a valve job in my future. Never done one, but I do know my valve cover gasket leaks, so at least it'll be a chance to fix that...

 

Well, not today, but over the weekend...

Took it up to Woodland Park (about 8800 feet elevation) for a dyno session. Tuned WOT and some of the off-idle and ca 3.5K RPM areas. Much better ridability now, cold or warm, for puttering around and starting off from a stop.

Also tweaked the idle stabilization settings, which seemed to help keep things right when sitting at idle for a long period of time.

About the only thing left to do is check into the charging circuit a bit... seems not to be putting out as much at low RPMs as it used to.

 

rode it to work for the first time

 

Rode her to the court house and tranfered the title to my name and got current tags, then off to Mi Hacienda for lunch and then it's time to rider her to work.

SC