XJ900 Seca StreetFighter Build (Pic Heavy)

I picked up this XJ900 in mid-Feb and it was in rough shape(see pics). Paint was in bad shape, seat was torn to shreds, side covers missing, and 40k on the odometer...perfect for a custom. I've never had a bike that was rough enough that I wouldn't feel guilty about tearing down and rebuilding as a streetfighter until now.
Lots of fun to do and a helluva lot of work...especially in late winter without much of a garage (I've managed to squeeze into a tiny corner of my landlords garage while she's down in Texas..shhh! Don't tell!). So anyway, this is as far as I've gotten already. More to do so check back if you're interested. I need to start documenting now otherwise I never will. Too much work going back and posting, not to mention trying to remember what the heck was going on.
Any questions please feel free to ask, however I'm more apt to ask the more experienced for advice rather than vice versa

So this is what she started as:



After a day I tore it down to this:


Took the seat up to my folks place to get some seat work done. Between my mom doing the sewing and and my dad and I cutting and stapling we got it to look like this:

Not bad for a first-timer. Thanks Mom and Dad

Today I got a bunch of work done.
Replaced both oil pump caps on either side with aluminum ones from a 750 because they were all I could find. Tore off(I use the term loosely) the rest of the front brackets, signals, and gauges.

Now what I really need from someone (Please!!!) is a wiring schematic for a 900. I have no idea what the PO was thinking but this is an absolute mess!!!!

He said he had to replace the front signals(I'm guessing from laying it down and she was pretty scratched up) so now I have wires clipped here and there and taped together all over the place. Colors don't match anymore and I've got a digital Acewell wannabe speedo on the way so I need to get things sorted out. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
From the pic you can see the signals that I'll be throwing on. Just tossed them on to get a look for them at this point and I'm pleased. L.E.D., of course .
I've been ordering replacement parts like mad from different places and on Friday alone I had 4 boxes waiting for me...no good trying to explain THAT to the wife...oh well. From those boxes I received my used side covers as well. I got the time today to paint the covers, tail cover, and front fender. I used Dupli-Color spray on truck bed liner. Gives a great orange peel(thank you for the term kevineleven) texture and looks great. Almost an eggshell gloss black. Had everything inside overnight to get it warm, took it outside to paint and brought it back in to dry...the cats loved having all the windows open this afternoon Here are the pics:


Slightly more close up


Finally I got to the fuel tank. The problem was there is a large crease in the side of the tank, PO said from getting transported improperly against the rail of a truck(gee go figure) not to mention a few ripples in other places from getting knocked with something...Anyway, I started by getting quotes to pull it out. Only one body shop I went to said they could do it at a price of 300 big ones...nuts to that. Then I got online found a guy in CO that said he had one that would drop right on. He thought is was from a 750 or 900or something. Well that showed up today and no dice...not only did it not fit, bars hit on each side, it looked weird and serious modification had to be done to make the seat fit properly. Back to square one.
After much deliberation I've decided to just bondo the thing to get the form back and hope for the best on the inside with the tank sealant. I used chemical stripper on the tank this afternoon and that stuff is amazing!!! I wiped all the paint right off the thing. Looks gorgeous now!(Aside from the large crease)

And now for my next big trick! Getting everything out of the dining room and off the table before my wife gets home!! Hope you enjoy the update thus far!
Joel

 

Thanks for the pics ... tips on keeping the wife happy help too!
JUST DO IT

 

What is wrong with the original tank, that you are using one with such a large dent?
If it was damaged in shipping UPS has $100 dollars insurance with anything shipped.
Get your cash back.

 

The original tank is the one with the big dent. That is the one that I'll be using after I throw some bondo on to make it look nice again. For the record, it feels like I'm literally covering up a problem rather than fixing it but at this point I think that is the best course of action. I may pick up the tank on eBay too....
I had another one shipped to me from CO but it is the wrong one and more importantly, the guy shipped it to me locked closed without any keys :roll:

 

jdrockin'

Great introduction mate. I have an 83 900 myself here in sunny old Sydney Australia that I am taking a similar approach to. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), it had a stuffed starter motor, so has now had the motor completely rebuilt. I am hoping to kick it over for the first time since the rebuild this weekend!

I've got an Acewell and plan on using the truck liner on the tank and fendors as well. Don't have any photo's as yet, but I'll post something soon.

Best of luck with the adventure.....

 

Welcome.
Look forward to the progress!

 

Ah, I got confused with the tank that was sent from CO.
Check the Austrailan ebay site as they have boo koo 900's,

 

So got my new speedo a few days back and I may have an issue. The oil light is triggered by the Red/Yellow wire and Black/Red wire.(see schematic). Has anyone had problems with their Acewell speedo not registering the oil light properly due to only one input wire on the oil light and a ground rather than the two wires specifed?
Also, has anyone gotten the fuel gauge to work properly with the Acewell gauge due to the 100 ohm input and the XJ's putting out up to 330 ohms? Thanks! Joel.
P.S. I've got more done just haven't had time for pics....and its been friggin cold. I'll get some up as soon as I can...

 

Update. Lo and Behold the weather finally cooperated with me today and I got things painted and loosley mocked up to see how it looks. Prety rough still but I have a ways to go before she's beautiful again...or something along those lines. Anway enjoy the pics. Can barley tell I had to bondo the tank, but its close enough for me!

 

So I've been making slow progress but I am making progress.
Waiting on a few parts still to finish things up but its coming together. Front end in mocked up, still need a cover under the headlights. I have all the fairings painted and ready to go, waiting on the mounting grommets. Speedo and stuff is completely mounted.

Added the Tommaselli bars that I ordered from the UK. They look sweet and dropped the front end by about an inch when I mounted them. Looks great with the drop, but now I need to drop the back to make it look right. I also can't keep air in the front forks. Any suggestions as to what I need to do to keep it from bottoming out?

AND IT RUNS!!!!! I kinda slapped things together today to go on a quick ride with my bro. Tossed on the tank and seat, bled the front brake line, threw the plate on the back and tried to enjoy the beautiful 70* WI day(prolly have snow tomorrow).

I had the carbs completely apart, threw in a stage 1 jet kit to help compensate for the 4-1 exhaust and pods from the PO(he was running stock jets, plugs still looked brand new from running so lean...)but the bike was running well enough that I didn't even sync or colortune before the ride. Forgive me but I HAD to enjoy the day. It was running like a three-legged dog but it got me from A to B. Got it back and the plugs still looked brand new. And the ride brought another bright spot, my front brakes that I had just bled that morning (terrible job) had a break at the banjo fitting. So I rode to the cycle shop and bought the stuff to make my own steel braided line. Now that I have that one I want to replace ALL of them! It looks great! Too bad I don't have the cash. That will be a "as I can afford it" project.

Synced and colortuned, took it for another ride and what a difference. I think I may start the "Colortune was the best investment ever made" thread just to show how happy I am with it. It's still not perfect. Pulled the plugs and STILL looked brand new. I think I need to bring my jets up another notch. I'll do that on Thursday I think and let you know how it goes. May have to do some plug chopping as well. Anyway, enjoy the pics.


Bought grips at the cycle shop as well. You can see them in the last pic or so.






If you really want pics of something else let me know!
Huge thanks to everyone that has posted on this site, as I've pretty much been able to do all the work on this because of other people that have already asked the questions that I would have had!
I'll be chopping the back end as soon as I have the time, might be a rainy weekend project for the summer. At this point, I just want to ride!!!!
Later
(Sorry for the long post)

 

Dude thats smokin!

 

Thanks!

 

Awesome work mate, it looks great, very tough.

How did you go with getting the fuel gauge to work on the speedo? i really want one for my Street Fighter XJ.

How did you find the handling with the one inch drop on the front?

 

Oh and i had to go up at least four main jet sizes from standard and 1 up on the pilot jet to get the fueling right with mine (4-1 & pods). But i drilled mine

 

Drilled mine as well, still working with the jets. I had to replace my fuel sending unit with one from an XJ650 or 750, don't remember which. Goes from 5 ohms up to a max of 104 ohms when empty so it falls within the gauge restrictions.

Steering it really heavy. Combo from the shorter, lower bars and dropping I think. Not a great cornering bike, just have to be careful with it.

Flash, how does your bike perform with all of that. I'm not looking to stunting or anything, but some power would be nice. Is it enough that you could pick up the front end if you really wanted to, or at least give some of the 600's a run for the money?

 

WOW!!!

That's lookin awesome man.

 

It goes really well for a 1983 bike (has the 853cc).

You will never...ever....ever..... stunt a xj900 and if you can my hat goes off to you because it is one heavy bike :lol: but i know you know that.

With picking up the front wheel, hells yes it will do it. I haven't had the balls to get her right up yet but with a good take off it will hold the front wheel off the ground and give a nice little wiggle with the change into second. Actually i really need to be careful if i drop it back a gear coming out of a corner (yeah i know stupid) cause it will come up, and its a worry if your still turning 8O .

As far as giving a 600 a run for its money... i guess your taking about the new 600 sports bikes?
Im still am yet to have a sports bike want to drag me (mine looks a little to evil i think :twisted: ). Ive dragged a couple of Harley's... and there no competition at all, but i have had a few street races with sports bikes. On the high speed corners mine is really "nervous" which is something im still trying to fix, so they get away a little but on the slower speed stuff (under 100km/h) they never get away, if anything i can get past them but that could be the rider :wink: :lol: but under acceleration i keep up pretty well. Ive done a TL 1000, a Honda hornet 900, a cbr 900, and a Ducati 998. I just love it when they hammer it around a few corners... then look in the mirror.... and im still there. But i am trying allot harder than they are... allot harder..... i think :wink:

 

have you still got the original fairing?

if so how much do you want for it?

 

Thanks Flash. Reason I ask is that mine still doesn't seem to have a lot of power. At all. My 750 could have easily outperformed it at this point and my bro's DRZ400 nearly did, however I haven't been tweaking it too much yet. I just needed a gauge to find out my ballpark power curve.

Techline, I do still have the fairing. You can take a look at it on the wesite I have while it was still on the bike. It has a large crack on one side that will need to be fixed and a large area where it looks like a chemical was spilled on it and the paint is peeling off(no actual damage to the fairing in this spot, though). Take a look and if you're still interested shoot me a PM.

 

And thanks to all the comments! Bad news, my wife started adding up what I've been spending.. S**t has hit the fan...pardon the language.

 

That seems to be the way it is with wives. They don't seem to understand that we NEED the things we buy for our bikes.

Now, I'm not saying that it's necessarily a bad thing they're like that. Left to our own devices we would probably spend the milk money on beer, motorcycles, and pay per view arena fight shows.

Such is the plight of man........

 

Here, Here! I raise a glass to that.

 

I've got a 750 but I think the solutions should be the same. My problem was that over 70 mph she started to develop a nice wobble which scared the hell out of me. So, I changed the head bearings from ball ones to roller ones however the old ones looked good. She became better. Then I put stiffer springs into the forks. Better. Lowered the forks by about 1 and a half inch. That was a good idea, because she started to cornering better. Then I figured out that the wobble is starting at the rear suspension and the solutions was on my bike to make the rear stiffer than the front. Of course, the rest of the other changes made a huge difference. The last thing I did is to overfill a bit the forks with oil and air for more responsive damping.

With those changes I'm able to release the handlebars over 120 mph and do the thing what you can see on advertisement picture of the latest Titanic movie (was years ago).

Also I'm able to go across a set of bumps which are 3-4 inch high in a corner over 80 mph without any problems. Did it yesterday accidentally Yeah, we got a few pretty bad roads in Hungary

You know: "The performance what you're looking for in a Cafe Racer is handling"

 

So this past week I got some more work done and just haven't posted yet. Chopped the back end off and stuff. Here are a couple of pics. Camera went dead before I could get a shot of the whole bike so close-ups only for now.

This was the best "before" pic that I could find.



After:







Need to do some seat trimming, fitting, etc. for next week, providing it doesn't snow. (Gotta love Wisconsin) Although I don't trust the weather people any farther than I could throw them, and at less than 140 lbs...you do the math

Also ordered some tires from bike bandit, Shinko 712's. I hope they live up to the reputation!

 

Are those signal stems strong enough to hold the grab rail when you put the bike up on the center stand?

 

As I personally found out trying that exact thing, they are plenty long enough, just not strong enough. The signals are from Shock Racing and the whole light housing/casting is all steel, the stem however, is just plastic...how's that for quality?

 

I LOVE IT! Damn fine job JD.

 

THATS IT!!!! I'VE HAD IT!!!! I'm done for now. It is starting to get nice out and I can't stand having a bike sitting around all the time and not being able to ride it so I'm done for now. This fall/winter I want to pull it completely apart and redo the frame, rims, etc, but for now I just want to ride.

Still not running terribly well. I've spent a LOT of time tuning and stuff but still can't quite get it right. Anyone who is good at tuning is welcome to stop by the Madison, WI area and help me out sometime! Anyway, here are some pics of how its going to look for the summer...

 

Cool! That looks good!

 

I like the "eyes"! The headlights look good!

 

Nice little street fighter you got!

 

Yeah I was thinking it looks like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Sweet looking bike man.

 

nice

 

Thanks! I can't wait till winter to tear it down to nothing. I want to paint the frame a deep red to offset the black...

 

Great Job, JD. I've been working my XJ900 into a ratbike type deal but your streetfighter look is impressive and giving me some ideas. My only problem is a cacked front brake master cylinder. Just won't pump, even after a bike mechanic buddy rebuilt it. He says the plunger bore is shot. So time for a new FMC. I painted my XJ900 with black matt Tremclad rust paint (like Rustoleum).
thx,
baz

 

jd - looks badass. You should bring it up to the Valley sometime, let me and chazmati drool around it.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Good job!

 

bike looks great! just the perfect mixture of street