My XJ900F tidy up and major service

Introduced myself to the forum a few weeks ago when I bought this for a steal



It had been sat for 10 years then got back on the road by the guy I bought it off.
Good points were full stainless JAMA system, stainless brake lines, fully overhauled carbs with new rubbers, new spark plugs, overhauled front brakes with new pads and a full original toolkit!



The wiring is all in good order, thank-god!



There is however a fair bit of corrosion to be dealing with....







The fork seals are also leaking and the stanchions need a good clean up (possible pit filling too).

So far in the last week or so after/before work I have stripped the bike down to this:



These parts all need a good clean up and some paint.



Plan is:

Fork strip, clean and overhaul
Swingarm clean and repaint
Shaft drive oil change
Engine oil change (already done with new filter)
General rust removal and paint
Wheel polish and paint
Good coating of corrosion inhibitor
Check and re-grease of bearings and seals

It's all going to be time consuming dirty work!

 

I truly envy your wiring mine had three tin foil wrapped fuses and chopped wires everywhere.I would gladly trade for some corrosion are you going back stock?

 

I like the black n purple. Is that a stock Yamaha paint job? I don't think I've seen any like it before.

 

Steve what do you mean going back stock?

Matti, it's a UK/Europe paint scheme from what I can work out.

More progress has been made in the last few days, I'll try to update this thread tomorrow but I'm pushed for time at the moment!

 

Haha, I am leaving as is for now!

It's just a good tidy up and getting ready to be used as a long distance weekend commuter for the next year or so.

Maybe when I don't need it for that anymore I might do something, I have been looking at Cafe Racers....

 

As said before I have been pushed for time recently and as a result the progress on the bike will slow down next week whilst my bike trailer takes priority to be readied before the start of my trackday season on the NC30.

But I have been hard at work this last week and today for that matter. I would usually take more photos than this, but I have been concentrating on learning a new bike and plowing through the task I have set myself!

I ordered a Haynes manual, fork seals, fork and gear oil, hammerite smooth black and smooth silver, a polishing kit and some abrasive wire wheels which all came this week on time.

First on the list was stripping the various metal brackets, I had taken off the bike, of their rust and paint ready for this lovely fresh thick coat of brushed on Hammerite.



What else do you use washing lines for right?



I also stripped the rust/paint off the bad parts of the frame and lower yoke and gave them a good coat.





The oil cooler pipes will also get painted as it seems I missed them!

There's still a fair few things to strip and re-paint, one of them being the swingarm...

But instead I need to get the front end back together as the stand you see in the previous picture is not mine, and I have had to improvise with a spare wheel and some wood under the engine to keep the bike up as the stand's owner is away racing and needed it back.

So I got the forks stripped and cleaned, thankfully the bushes and internals were all in good nick. Unfortunately the stanchions were quite pitted but as this is currently a cheap bike (and it's staying that way for now), I opted to wet and dry the sharp edges of the pits back with some 1200 grit and WD40 then polish with autosol. That removed the seal destroying sharp edges and left no extra marks. Fresh oil and oil seals finished the forks off, now they're just waiting to be fitted back on.



Also I had a massive battle with getting the front discs off the wheel and ended up drilling the centre of two bolts then getting the trusty mole grips on the rounded heads to get them out.... This was after 48 hours soaked in PlusGas, an electric impact driver and a hammer driven one plus an f-off breaker bar!

After that pain it was time to strip the corrosion and old finish off the wheel, made quicker and easier by way of some steel brush attachments for my drill. I was going to polish the edges of the wheel and the flat face of the spokes but I'm not great at polishing and got fed up of it so I just painted the whole thing Hammerite smooth silver.



Front end re-build, rear wheel re-paint, swingarm strip/paint, footrest bracket and exhaust polishing, and the general put-back-together of the bike to come soon!

 

Any pits in the forks can be filled with a 2-part epoxy, and then wet-sanded to blend the surface. It's an ugly, but permanant repair

 

Thanks for the hint k-moe, luckily the pits weren't too deep and I don't think I should have any problems with them in the near future.

I may however get the forks re-chromed in the distant future if I decide to keep the bike long term or modify it.

 

You are fortuante to live in a country where there is enough business to support small-scale fork grinding and rechroming operations. Having that work done here is so expensive that it's not even considered an option unless you have a truly collectble motorcycle.

 

Progress for this week has been good, stripping, polishing and painting stuff takes it's time!

First was to get the front end back on as I wasn't keen on leaving the bike resting on it's exhaust for too long.



Getting the front wheel on had to be the most annoying bit. I have captive spacers on the NC30 and the speedo is driven by magnet and sensor, so man handling a spacer that doesn't want to stay in plus fiddling around with a speedo drive all whilst holding up a heavy wheel wasn't fun.

Anyway once the bike was resting back on it's main stand and front wheel again I cracked open the Hammerite again and set to work on putting a second coat on the rear wheel and stripping and painting the swingarm. The swingarm could have been disassembled a bit more but to be honest I couldn't be bothered....



I've had to use the hooks seen before on the washing line to hang the swinger off the bike as there's no-where in the club workshop that I can hang it without causing a hazard.

Whilst that little lot was wet I got onto polishing (sort of) the footrest hangers and pillion grab rail. Just a dull shine will do nicely as these were coated in corrosion.



Then today the swingarm got a second coat of paint, and I stripped and put a first coat of black onto the luggage rack.





There'll be no progress on this for a week or two as I'm going back home for a week for some time off and a trackday!

Hopefully the next update will see the bike starting to come back together.

 

Right, update time.

It's starting to come together nicely now with only a few things left to do, but this is the last few days work.

Second coat of paint going onto the luggage rack.



Front fairing put back on (should have taken more pics really)





Swingarm re-installed after a bit of a faff with the shaft drive and universal joint.



And back end re-built with fresh grease, split pins and all torqued up.





Back on it's own wheels, I put the sidestand back on and removed the centrestand ready for a clean up and paint.





Last bits are the centrestand and the small engine end clutch cable bracket to paint, the tank to be sorted paint wise, and a bit of electric fettling as I kept getting large static shocks off the bike on Wednesday night. That could either be a short somewhere, or could have been down to the foam matting I had decided I was going to sit on instead of the cold floor whilst re-building the rear end.

Either way I'll probably be taking the front fairing off again to investigate the electrics and make sure all is in order. I didn't disturb any of the wires at the rear so I see no need to have a look at those.

Unsure what to do with the tank. It seems a good one without holes in it are like rocking horse poo, so I'll either try to tidy up the repair on the tank with a bit of filling and a colour matched paint, or I'll just bodge the paintwork a bit more. All depends on funds as the NC30 and trackdays seem to be siphoning my bank account nicely!

Again there'll unfortunately be a while until I can update as I'm being sent somewhere for work next week and won't be able to get at the bike.

 

Its cool you live someplace where you can get Hammerite... that stuff is *awesome*!

 

It's sold on e-bay.

Gary H.

 

And WalMart carries that brand. I think TSC does too.

 

Small update today.

I got the bike mostly back together (minus main stand) and decided to use it to get home to Kent this weekend.

I had put the bike on charge as it'd been sat for quite a long time, but it wouldn't start. The starter solenoid was just clicking but I knew the battery was fully charged.
Cue 15 minutes of frustrated head scratching until I realised that sometimes the solenoids can simply get "stuck". So a few sharp taps with a ratchet and the bike started up on the button. Lovely!

I don't have any photo's of the bike complete yet, I will do for the next update however.

The ride home must have been the first proper ride the bike has had since it was laid up a decade ago. It was popping and banging down the motorway as the exhaust got nice and hot, was quite funny really.
I also noticed that at high speed the front end would go light and start weaving, very unnerving! But this was due to the rear tyre being very low and idiot me forgetting to check it before I rode....

Another issue was the fuel tap doesn't seem to like being "on". I had to keep it on "reserve" to keep the fuel flowing, so that's something to investigate and fix when I get time.

Other than that I've managed to clean and strip the main stand and put a couple of coats of hammerite on it.



This just needs to dry nicely then it'll be fitted back to the bike!

 

So main stand all dry and fitted back on earlier.



It has made all the things I haven't touched look worse, but hey ho I could do a full resto if I didn't stop myself!

As promised a couple of pics of the bike with a before pic for comparison.

Before:



After:





Looks a lot better now, until you get up closer and start noticing all the small bits and the state of the engine....

 

I love this XJ. The chin spoiler. the color, it all looks good! Stainless hardware kit and a good polishing would go a long way on this bike. Is there luggage that attaches to the side rack? She'd make a sweet tourer.

 

Thanks! I agree with you, a good clean and polish with some replacement bolts and it'd look amazing.

It'll probably get that in between track days and work when I don't have much else to do.

I had a proper rip round on it the other day, it's so smooth and comfortable. I definitely agree with the tourer idea, I will be doing 400 miles a weekend on this bike soon.

As for luggage unfortunately no there wasn't any panniers with the bike, but I don't think I'll need/want them. I won't be carrying that much on it plus I think it'd hamper the filtering I find myself quite often doing through rush hour traffic on the motorways!

 

Great improvement !

 

Well, I meant get it easily. I first bought it in the late 1990's at a paint store in Colorado. I did get some on Amazon fairly cheap, but our WalMarts in AZ do not have it. I *love* that stuff... it is pretty toxic but used safely is the proverbial bomb

 

tres sexy...

 

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I got round to looking at the fuel tap issue and it seemed that I had simply allowed the vacuum pipe to get stuck and kinked inbetween two of the carbs, whoops....

With that sorted I got round to trying to fit some engine bars I bought recently. But there seems to be either parts missing or a mount point is missing off the bike.
I am talking to the seller at the moment to try and find out if he missed any of the parts (I think he has).

But in the mean time do any of you guys have engine bars on a XJ900F you could take some pictures of? Mainly the rear mounts of the bars, thanks!

 

well done!

 

Small update, having done a few thousand miles on the bike now with no hiccups other than running out of fuel (gauge isn't working correctly) the only niggle I have is the vibes.

Is there any way to damp this out? As I'm getting white finger after a 100 miles or so!

 

Have you performed a running synch on the carbs?

 

often looked enviously at the 900 but it's such a heavy bike

 

It's only 480 pounds (dry). That's only 34 pounds heavier than the Seca 650.

 

No I haven't done a synch, I was told by the previous owner that he'd done one.

Whether that meant a simple bench set-up or a proper vacuum gauge job I don't know. May be worth looking into.

The vibes are the worst at 60mph 4K revs, but still present above that too.

It's not that heavy once you get going, but yes it's a bugger to push about!

 

The 4K, 4.5K vibe patch is quite normal on these, but you can tune it out as much as possible with careful synching. Iow, keep on top of the tuning elements - valve gaps, carbs, ignition health. These engines are also quite sensitive to zorst condition - they'll run with a bean can, but let you know it's not right. The Jama silencers will rot at the hanger brackets, by the way. It's not a totally stainless system. It is, however, a bloody good system, and well worth hanging on to, and grabbing a NOS set if you see one.
Even with all that done, Yamaha decided they needed bar end weights, so go figure.
Even with the bar end weights, I decided I needed comfy foam grips for anything longer than an hour aboard.
I'll take a pic of the engine bars later.

 

I have filled my bars with butyl-rubber caulk, use reproduction GranTurismo grips (sooo comfy), and have gloves with gel padding in the palms. All of that lessens the tingle.
Hi-frequency vibration is a consequence of all inline-four engines. Even active counterbalancing shafts won't completely eliminate it.

 

Better late than never, here's the engine bars pics I promised.

 

Good looking freshen up job.
I wish I would have seen this sooner. I would have asked you to get some pics to document the lower cowl mounting and install.

~Ghost

 

Been a while since I've been on here, work got in the way!

Since then the fuel tank sprung a small leak which I've patched (don't think that's the last one it'll get though....) and had a good few thousand miles aboard.

Thanks for the pictures Dave, I knew I was missing some small brackets! I seem to be missing the rear mounts, damn eBay seller told me there were no more parts.

Might get some heated grips soon as the weather starts to turn, plus does anyone have a recommendation for a larger screen? Trying to reduce the amount of buffeting I'm getting around my helmet.

 

Larger screens for the XJ900F have fallen off the cliff these days. You might be lucky and find some old stock in Acrybre (Skidmarx) or there's a Dutch stockist of fairings and screens I came across in Google months ago. Back in the heyday of these, you could find fairing lowers and screens just about anywhere, but not now. However, I've no doubt thousands were sold, so a lot are still out there, somewhere.

 

I don't know what kind of results I'd have with this, but I'd like to put a smal deflector (maybe 8 inches wide by 2 inches long) on top of the actual screen, maybe 1 1/2 inch over it and at a different angle, mounted on four small posts bolted through the original screen. I wonder if someone tried it before.

 

Thanks for that Dave, it might just have to be one of those universal add on deflector jobs. Although not cheap themselves...

 

Hi Yamaha owners

I am new to the forum but Bikemonkey your XJ 900 is looking great, I had a nightmare with mine as the wiring was in a terrible state, so I got another harness and fitted it. I have a tank the same as yours which is a bit rusted inside but I am going to clean it out and put it on the bike. Your wheels look great too looks a lot better than when you got it. They are great bikes.

 

Thanks!

Yeah the tank is a pain, in your case prevention is possible, I'd get it treated to keep it from pin hole-ing like mine.

Thanks, I was surprised at how much the hammerite made a difference actually.



My bike is burning a fair bit of oil, and coming from an NC30 this is very unfamiliar territory to me. I change it every 3000 miles and it goes from full to the low mark in that time, is that normal?
And the front brake is horrible to use, but no mention of any fluctuation on the last MOT. Plus it doesn't feel like warped discs (I've had that before).

Other than this I plan to keep running the bike as my mile muncher, but I do have the idea of a Z1/CB900 muscle bike style special in the back of my head!

 

1. That much oil useage is excessive. Look for leaks first.

2. Rebuild the damned brake system. Calipers, master cylinder, and new SS braided lines.

 

Yes I agree with k-moe as my XJ does not use oil like yours is Bikemonkey, mabe a leak? My front brake master cylinder had poor seals and I rebuilt it and have had no problems since. As for the tank I hear POR 15 is a good tank sealer to use as I don't want the inevitable petrol leaks at the back of the tank. I don't know if other XJ owners have tried this tank sealer, and how good it is? Anyway good luck sorting your brakes and hopefully you have an oil leak somewhere and you can get it fixed.

 

View attachment 23968 View attachment 23968 View attachment 23968

 

Sorry bud, those images aren't working.

 

Hi MattiThundrrr

Yes I had problems uploading pictures of my bike mabe I need to look at the specs and adjust the pixels. I am not sure to be honest. I will try and sort it out. Great website.

 

I think you need 5 posts prior to uploading images. . . .
Glad you like the site, the more time you spend here the more you appreciate the community of helpers, there are electrical gurus, carb gurus, fluid gurus, tire gurus, overall gurus and we even had a hari Krishna guru (of sorts) here.

 

And one obnoxious jerk. It's a game for the noobs to try to figure out who...
Hint: he's not a guru.

 

^^^^^^

 

Obnoxious? Well yeah.
Jerk? meh, I kinda like him.

 

Thanks Stumplifter yes it is a great site I am glad I found it. I got my XJ cleaned up recently and sorted out the electrics so I am looking forward to getting it on the road soon. Yes it is great being able to ask people for their expertise when there is a problem.

Cheers

Franz

 

I shall give it a good once over for leaks, but it's never left anything on the floor underneath it. Saying that it could just be sticking to something or slowly burning off the exhaust.

The brakes were fully rebuilt before I bought the bike, new seals braided lines, pads the lot. Could be the master cylinder but I would have thought that was given some attention at the same time as the bike was sat for 10 years previously. I can't remember exactly what the previous owner said he'd done with the system but I do remember it looking sparkling.