What did you do to your Yamaha today?

I got my old girl going....just. She's running like a hairy goat (on only one cyclinder).
Have moved her to my garage & removed the back wheel for a new tyre.
Will be checking running issues next.

 

Rode all weekend, everything seems to be right. Put over a hundred miles on her without any issues. Need to check brake fluid, but cant get the master cylinder cap off. Will work on that the next couple of days.

 

Prepping for paint. No more Rasta Colors. Might actually prime her today and just get a nice coat on.
She runs really... really good.. Better than last year
I need to fix front wheel squeak, find out my no start problam (New/Old controls on the way) and replace forks.
But I think I'ma go ahead and prime her grey.
-Chris

 

Got the ignition switch put back together & had the bike running PROPERLY for the first time in ages

 

Thing that makes it expensive is i have to get new banjo bolts and ends for the line as well, the brake line itself is only 40 bux.

 

What i did was almost have a total breakdown. Wasn't starting after I ran it for a while. Went through a whole ignition test and everything was checking out. Found out, after checking what should always come first, that I was out of gas.

 

Doh! Sometimes easy to forget the little things & think to far :?

 

Today I replace break pads. Installed new tires. Replace fork oil seals. What came out of the ofrks was not oil any more. It was like baby poop. After I finished I took her for a short spin and WHAT A DIFERENCE!! I can't bilieve I was ridin the bike with almost no oil and really old.

Any way I just wanted to share because I am exited to go for a ride.

Carvall

 

Replaced my rear tire and gave it a pre-season oil change and new filter. Then took it for a ride to break everything in. 80 degrees in Vermont today!

mikeg

 

Hauled the motor out of the basement, hauled the bike out of the shed and put the two together without any assistance. It's amazing what you can do with 4x4 blocks and 2x4 levers. Started all this at about 1pm and stopped as daylight waned at 7:30, so for my 6.5 hours, I have the carbs, exhaust, oil & filter, fairing and seat left to go.

Would have been completely done if I hadn't had to do things three or four times. Been about 6-months since I took her apart and the re-assembly order of major pieces went awry once or four times. For example, put in the engine, starter, battery & box. Then tried to put in the air box. What an idiot!

Anyway, tomorrow will see the old girl hit the streets as long as she starts and works. This was quite a project for me and I have learned a pile, thanks to this site and the help of its members (all strangers really) and Len at XJ4Ever.

Question for the voices of experience - during removal, I did not mark the mating points of the drive shaft flange and middle gear output shaft. Is this a huge issue? Will I run into an imbalance running the bike? Also, is there a technique for filling the oil filter assembly to be sure the pump is primed well, without making a mess on the floor?

 

Well, took her out for the first time since last fall. Did the back brakes, new tire for the front, new brakes pads for the front, changed the brake fluid and did some polishing.
One of my screws on the brake fluid cover was seized, but with the dremel cut a small notch and tapping it slowly she got lose. I guess kroil helped too. Used 2 screws off an old set of carbs and they worked out fine. Had the battery in the basement fully charged. Fresh gas and after the 3 rd turn she fired up. Drove 25 Km without any problems. Still lot of small stuff to do. But I just couldn't wait any longer in this nice global warming April 2nd.

 

Installed stainless acorn nuts on the engine mounting bolts and on the foot peg mounts and crash bars. That was the last of the stainless hardware I needed, most all the bolts have been replaced with stainless. Sure does shine nice.

 

Re-checked the float levels after my re-carb cleaning yesterday...
All looked good, no leaking, everything in spec....
RE-installed, new gas filter too, Fired up 1st touch of the starter, wouldn't fire up yesterday at all.
Took her out for a test run, all seems well, will let it sit and then check the plugs again..... see if I'm still getting gas seepage into the right cylinder

If the problem returns I guess it will be new float valve seats/valves

 

Finally remounted the rear cowl. The PITA had all four mounting tabs broken off & has been floating loose for the longest time.
I think the luggage rack was the only thing holding it on. Fixed now!

 

I pulled the clutch cable, drained the oil, removed the carb, pulled the exhaust, and unplugged the wiring so I can take the engine out on tuesday to RTV the gaskets and hope for the best.

 

Prepping up a shopping list for the old girl now, seems I have a slow leak on my right side float vale seat, showed up this morning, was fine yesterday, but I either left it on Prime, or someone played with it in my driveway (most likely me)

 

Waiting for parts,,,,

 

Lubed the CLUTCH cable.
Cleaned the Perch Adjuster.
Adjusted the Clutch.
Cleaned and Lubed the Clutch Lever Pivot.

Installed a New Gas Shut-off Valve.
Inline Gas Filter.

The three Hose Clamps attaching the Straight Gas Shut-off Valve looked way too DisneyLand for my liking, ... so I disappeared them by coating them with two coats of Black Ladies Nail Polish.

 

I was thinking of a gas shutoff as a failsafe......saw a right ange one.... thinking that may be the ticket.....

 

Today is a good day!!!!

Started at the weekend when my second hand set of diaphragms arrived from the States. So took the carbs back off my XJ700 Maxim X Sunday morning took them round a mate's place, tore them down again, completely blew them out with an airline & the idle jets weren't completely cleared out from when I last cleaned them with carb cleaner.
Fitted the replacement diaphragms after cleaning the bores of the sliders and now they 'snap' closed.
Fitted the carbs and the bike runs now at long last! Only taken since last October to get this far
So by the end of play Sunday I had a running bike .... although it still had the underlying rough hunting idle that it's had since I bought it mid last year, but it was a start.
Then Monday nite I took the whole bike back round my mate's & we did the fork seal that was leaking as made the mistake of only doing the one before.
Tuesday I had to work in a different office where I knew there is a reasonable bike shop I've used before so booked it in for an M.O.T. while I was at the office. Came back to collect it and got the ticket with a full bill of health with no advisories.
Rode it to work today and got pi$$ed off that the idle would drop & hunt to to point where it seemed to stall at every set of lights on the way home
When I went out for a cigarette this afternoon I was showing the bike to a work mate and realised that after all the cleaning and adjustment that I have recently done on the carbs there were a set of screws that I hadn't adjusted or cleaned, so I looked them up on the exploded diagram on the Yamaha website and realised they are the pilot screws.
Came on here earlier and read up that they should be roughly 2.5 turns out. Armed with this information I went out to the garage with my lodger and checked the pilot screws ....
Here are the results: 2.25 turns, 1 turn, 2 turns & 1.75 turns. This could be the running problem!
So wound them out, cleaned them & the recesses & refitted them winding them out 2.5 turns ... and guess what, then bike runs smoothly for the fecking 1st time since I've owned it!!!!
Adjusted the idle screw to get it running about 1000 RPM and took it out for a blast. $hit it feels like a NEW bike, even the throttle rolls on & off smoothly! Readjusted the idle again when I got back home & am now looking forward to the ride to work with a big grin on my face.
Lastly I would like to thank everyone here on XJbikes.com who has helped me out answering my dumb a$$ questions since I joined the forum last year as without your advice & how to's I would never have gotten the bike back on the road! This is the 1st bike I have really got stuck in to working on myself & found it's no harder to work on than my 1964 VW Split Screen campervan, I just needed a nudge in the right direction.
Cheers guys!

Babylon