Exhaust and rebuild ??

The airbox slides backwards once the mounting bolts for it have ben removed or loosened (one on top center gets loosened, one on the botom left (under the side cover) gets removed). Loosen all of the boot clamps until they have a large gap between them and the boot circumferences. Warm the boots with a hair dryer. Free the airbox boots from the carbs. Work along the rear flanges of the airbox boots to push them into the airbox. Unhook the cables and fuel line from the carb rack. Twist the rack down and back to release them from the intake boots.

Until you take the carbs to church, she won't run right.

 

On the list so far: rebuild the carbs, need new boots for the intake and for the air box, and sync the carbs once it's all done. All I can say is thank God Yamaha is cheap to fix. Had a Suzuki, and a carb rebuild kit on eBay was $100 for all 4. Yamaha is somewhere in the realm of $50 or less for all 4. Boots are cheap too. Only reason I haven't bought any of those yet is because it seemed like the only way to get the carb rack off, was to remove the air box. To do that, other forums and YouTube suggested either a heat gun to bend the plastic, or remove a couple engine mount blots so the motor can tilt forward. Negative, Ghost Rider.

 

If you're thinking you're gonna pay only $50 bucks for carb rebuild, I'll tell you right now --it won't run right when you're done.

Plus, I bet the shop doesn't do them right, either

 

Your poll choices should be
1. Do it yourself
2. Send the rack to hogfiddles, 0r K-moe......

Lol

 

Nathan,
The carbs aren't too bad to get off... K-MOE has good advice, and once you take them off a couple times it becomes second nature. I put mine on and off about ten minutes in each direction now.

I notice all your posts are in this thread so far... you probably want to start your own thread for this bike so people who read it will know what you've done so far when diagnosing problems.

I just started one for my bike after having multiple threads before...
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/1982-xj750-seca-ongoing.118087/#post-591355

I bought a bike that was "running" and I really enjoyed it for a few months, but as soon as it started acting up and I disturbed things the problems started coming out... Carbs are key. Hogfiddles is right about the carbs, they have to be completely disassembled and cleaned back to new, replace jets, needles, seals, etc. I messed with the aftermarket crap until he did it right for me. Bad news is by the time I was done with carbs, boots, petcock, valve shims, I was out $600... worse news was I spent $200 messing around with cheap crap before I decided to do it right. The carbs have a lot of seals in which leaks will mimic boot and hose or valve problems. You may not need any boots front or back... clean and inspect.

With the help of folks here you could do it all... I just didn't have the time.
From my experience here:

1. Valve clearances
2. Carb rebuild
3. plugs
4. No vacuum leaks and original air box
5. She WILL run on all four cylinders and be tons of fun

 

I know she's pulling air other than from the airbox, probably from the boots to the intake since they're cracked. Once it warms up, I'll do the rebuild on the carbs and get those fresh. I have newer plugs in it, but the bike has been ran as it is for a while, so I'll buy new ones when it's all said and done. Got a rebuild kit for my petcock, only to find out that it still drips. Not from the fuel line, but from the screw on the bottom that's all the way tight. The airbox has a K&N filter, but it doesn't stay in place, so I need the stock filter or an alternative (wondering if light foam would work? Only asking because I can get loads of it from work) OEM parts are stupid expensive, so can you make a list of the brands you used, unless it is OEM, lol. That's a route I can take and be fine with it, just wondering if I can save a few bucks. As for valves, I'll get them checked at a shop, and the carbs synced there as well. An older gentleman owns and runs the shop, that has been a mechanic for forever now, and used to be a Yamaha dealer until I guess he got too old for it. He's an honest guy that does good work, I'll just do what I can so I can save that much. Sorry for the long posts, I just have a lot to say and a lot of questions as well

 

Long posts don't bother us at all

 

The bike loves the original style paper filter. Anything else will cause issues.

 

I'll put one on order then. How does it set in there? The one that's in it looks like a "D" shape and has a foam gasket and it kinda just moves on its own free will. Asking about the foam because it's easy to get from work.

 

I believe the air box lid holds the filter tight up against the foam gasket when properly installed. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong

 

+1

 

Well now I know that I have the wrong filter, and that I need to screw down the lid.

 

Not sure anyone has experience with ceramic coated exhausts, but a local place does a silver aluminum color that comes out looking like chrome - i'd guess about 80-90% gloss as opposed to 100% with legit chrome. Four headers, a collector and two mufflers can be blasted and coated for $250, which doesn't seem too bad if your stuff is in good enough condition that it can be recoated and used for the foreseeable future.

I put a MAC 4-2 on my Maxim and it always seemed to work fine, but for the $400 or so I spend the headers miscolored right away despite the bike being dialed in well.

 

Pipe discoloration is due to high temperature, and xjs are air cooled, which means they run hot. Double walled pipes can help to prevent this, but there's no guarantee.
I can show you a burn scar on my leg from where it brushed up against the Rebel's exhaust. You can fry bacon on those babies in no time!