Current issues with the new 750 Seca.. (pictures)

Well, I'm sure most of the forum members here have seen their share of bad bikes, know what the PO's have done to them and such.. I thought I'd share a bit through pictures though, maybe you'll laugh or something at these... there's a couple questions in there too, I'm not super sure on some of these things!

Click on any picture to see it larger.

Not sure what's up with this tire. Was flat when i went out this morning after sitting for only a couple days. Checked it for nails/punctures and didn't see anything. Pumped it up to 30 and it held while I was working on it. Wondering if this cracking is bad..





The guy said "They put a *huuuge* tire on the back." Looks like it's a bit too big. The tire rubs against the swingarm on the left side. Just cause the tire's too big? What size should I be running?





Not sure what to do here. The guy said he put a new relay(?) in.. Don't have the Haynes manual yet, but it's on the way. Hafta figure out a way of mounting this up in there. Oh, and he didn't give me the side panel. Go figure.





That rubber bumper is loooong gone.





Yeaaah.. looks like I'm gonna need to work on these screws..





Or.. I won't. Is this screw really missing?





Hmm.. Looks like someone needs a new valve cover gasket..





That's a great way to attach those turn signals..





Looks like someone had something mounted here at one time...





No brake handle? No problem! Just flip a clutch handle upside-down...





This spring doesn't look like it came that way...





Not sure what these are for.. maybe whatever was mounted up top?





These manifolds need some work...





More awesome wiring...





The Notorious... with modification..





Not actually sure how this worked on the way home...





Isn't this supposed to be bolted down?





Nice 'n rounded. Brake reservoir, I take it?





At least the air filter looks somewhat good..





At least it's clean inside...





The top plastic piece held in with the one screw looks hacksawed off. Is that how it's supposed to look?





That's a mess. Particularly confusing is the bundled up black wire dangling by the light, and the disconnected wire beneath all those connectors.





Is something supposed to connect to that pin and go into this slot?



Thanks for looking, let me know if this is too much and i'll clear it out. Any other suggestions are welcome!

 

"Is something supposed to connect to that pin and go into this slot?"

Yes. It's a chain that comes with the bike. To lock it up.

 

Haha! Good call. I do remember reading something about a chain one time...

 

Fuel tank:

You're missing the rubber buffer and two-piece metal clip that holds it down.

Headlight bucket- Yes, it's a mess. Everything passes thru there.
Brake resevoir- Yes. Ours sucks. The Maxim is mounted on the handlebar.
Fuse block- Replace it with Chacal's blade fuse block upgrade.
Wiring- Yeah, it's a bummer. Clean it up and solder connections where you can.
Tire: Score a used owner's manual from eBay. They pop up all the time. It has the correct tire size listed. Yes, yours is too big, but you'll have GREAT traction.

 

check the date codes on the tires; I suspect you're going to be replacing them anyway.

Get yourself some Kroil, you're gonna need it: http://www.kanolabs.com/google/ two cans for $12 shipping included.

 

*starts adding parts into the spreadsheet* parts parts and more parts. That's how we fix the bike!

I used an impact wrench (mini Hitachi cordless one, ~70ft-lbs) on the exhaust manifold bolts, the nuts came right off! Very rusty too, surprised they came off so easily after 27 years. I'm going to get a few other bits so I can use it on the other pieces and parts, seems to work very well for breaking that mechanical bond that happens.

The rear tire seems to be quite weather-checked. The guy said he put new tires on in september, but I'm most likely going to get them replaced anyways. They're 140/90-18's.. I was looking on sites like Dunlop and Bridgestone.. doesn't seem like they have many tires that size. I believe the one on there is a Cheng Shin HI-Max. Seems the largest most tire manufs. make is 130/90-18..


Headlight bucket is pretty done. The screws holding the lamp in are very stripped, the plastic bucket is cracked in several places. Horn gives a faint "mmf" when the button is pushed. I'll prolly just try and get a new bucket.

 

WOW!
That IS a mess! POs are NUTS! Takin all the shortcuts.. Get that fuse panel done with some blades AsAp. They like to crystalize.
There are screws in the center of the horn you can turn to fix the sound. Sushi has a great post about the horns, so I'd ask him to look into it.
Wow man. You know, i thought my bike was in bad shape from being handed from one owner to the next, but yours takes the cake with all the little odds and ends that need to be fixed.
Best of wishes!! It'll be a beauty when you're done
-StreetLegalKid

 

Horn: Adjust the pitch adjustment set-screw on the horn. Press the button as you screw it in and out, that'll loosen up the diaphram and make it beep.

 

Sushi is really a Shaman

 

Pffffft...dude, I'm brand-new here. I take my cues from Fitz, MiCarl, Chacal and several others. From time to time, I sprinkle in my own experiences.

 

Rear tire 120/80 18 65H

Front tire 3.25H19 which is a 100/90 19 with an H speed rating. Yamaha provides no load rating, but frankly there is so little weight on the front of these things you'll be fine with anything.

 

Awesome. I'll see what I can find locally, haven't looked around yet to see if there's any local shops here to mount them for me. Might as well change out the drum pads while i've got it off..

 

I forgot to mention in my last post - if they are cracking replace them even if they're only a day old. Looks like you're planning on that anyhow.

 

The pigtail hanging out of the headlight bucket ( Pic #12 Not sure what these are for) look like the brake reservoir fluid indicator switch. Given the stripped state of the master cylinder cap (Pic #18), I'd be pulling that sucker out pronto.

 

Pulling the master cylinder out? Or checking inside?

 

I'd pull the m/c out to rebuild it! Given the obvious state of neglect witnessed I'd be durn sure to go over the all IMPORTANT brake system to ensure my (and by this I mean YOU) continued well-being.

 

Doesn't look like Chacal stocks replacement M/Cs.. rebuild kits maybe..

 

Yes he has the rebuild kits.

M/C are very pricey anyway, as I recall.

Sushi - for the horn, is the pitch adjustment screw the one dead center of the diaphragm?

 

Oye...I can't remember exactly where it is, but I can tell you that it's a tiny, philips head screw with a tiny lock-nut. It does not look like a screw that holds the assembly together, nor does it look like mounting hardware. It IS off by itself on the horn body.

 

Ah, will check that out tonight.


Chorca- your bike looks like it's been screwed with more than my SECA, BARELY... but still in much better shape overall. Good luck with it.
Everyone here will help you get that running in no time, assuming you have the cash flow for it! ha - ha !

 

Hehe, thanks to everyone who's cheerin' me on about this, after messing around with it and seeing just what can be done, I'm very confident I can whip this thing back into shape. I know myself I'm very competent at electronics and such, so electrical problems shouldn't be a big issue for me. It's the other stuff that I'm kind of new to, like all the carb tuning and such.

 

I'd be tempted to keep the air filter and run away from the rest of it. I wish you the best of luck. When you are successful at restoring this bike to a safe, fun ride, you will be very proud of yourself.

 

cracks on tires are NOT good, any on the front REPLACE IT! as for your boot on the carbs , they are like mine, cracked on the outside but MAYBE ok on the inside...they are however $80 (at least the ones i found)...so if its running with no problems right now let them be till you have the extra money. now i noticed you forks are pretty rusted at the top, i would take a wire brush to the effected areas and clean all the rust of them and then cover the areas with spray in bed liner till you can buy new tubes, as for the rubber bushing between the tank and the frame you can make one out of several layers of cut vinyl till you can find and OEM or used one, as for the electrical ..."hodgepodge" just get some proper connectors and a nice pair of wire strippers...pinch connectors are the easiest to work with. have fun

 

Yeah, it's having issues.. Idles at 4000RPM when it's warmed up, so there's definately a leak somewhere.. I'm pretty sure they've never been changed too. Most of this will get sorted out I'm sure when I start tearing into it.

I haven't started yet because I'm moving in about seven days and the last thing I need is bike parts all over the place to lose! I'll start work again in a couple weeks and then we'll really see what I need and such.

Thanks for the help!

 

Updates on the 750!

Well, got the new Mac 4-into-1 exhaust in, along with some new brakes and a Bridgestone Spitfire 130/90-18 rear tire. Threw the new exhaust on and wow it sounds much quieter, and better! I like the all black look of the pipes on the bike and the single exhaust looks pretty nice. I'm going to throw the rear tire on there tonight (taking it to a shop for mounting/balancing) and then putting the rear brakes on as well..

I kinda forgot there's two front discs and only ordered one set of front brakes, so that'll hafta wait a little bit before I can get them in.. the old ones work pretty well though. Need to get ahold of one of those spin-on adaptors and get the oil changed in both the engine and final drive.

If nothing else tonight, I ordered in some aircraft grade polarizing film from www.polarization.com and I'm going to try and repair the instrument cluster so that I can actually read what the computer is complaining about and fix it.. The warning light is getting a little annoying riding at night...

I'll post pictures when I get home tonight.

 

Did the previous owner look like this guy??

 

wow wow wow just remember it wont be done tomorrow or next week just remember time and patience.

 

That's the rear brake switch right? I thought that you bend it to adjust it. Mine was bent a little and it seemed that bending it a little more was the only way to keep it on there and make sure it accuated the switch.

Was I wrong to assume this?

 

But but it has an airbox, AND and NEW air filter!!

I'm the optimist of the group.

The rest of it I'm just wondering WTF do people THINK?! I just answered my own question, the majority don't think... anyway..

When you figure out the slow leak on the tire thing let me know. Mine does the same thing. It's been mounted, re-mounted, the wheel wire brushed and mounted again... damn thing STILL leaks.

 

tires are shot He may have had them put on in Sept.(of 99') Don't ride too far on those plz. Pic 6 look like someone destroyed the scre there is still a rass somehting in there. Good luck THat is going to be surgery to get the old out and save the threads.

The spring pic looks like it goes to the brake light switch a sure sign it was sticking probably from the pads being so badly worn. The good news most of the stuff you pictured isn't that hard of a fix but it will take some time.

I hope you at least got a good deal on the bike

 

It was $650. Not terrible.. but as I go I find more interesting things..

Had to wait on the new tire and such so I decided to pull the instrument cluster and fix the LCD polarizer. Popped the headlight out, disconnected the wires, tugged the bucket back and I see something interesting on the back of the instrument cluster.

" '81 XJ750 Seca " written in white paint pen. Aparrantly it was a pull from a junkyard. Soooo.. I don't even know what the actual mileage is. The cluster works though, and after pulling it apart and replacing the LCD's polarizer with a much better one, it's clear as day. Now I can actually see what problems the warning light is flashing about.

So on to those problems. Lost my key, so in the meantime a friend took the ignition switch (with key code intact) to a locksmith at his work, got a set of new keys made for free, which was pretty cool.

While that was happening, I decided to play around with the sensors here and see what's wrong.. Looks like it's complaining about the battery, oil pressure, and brake fluid. I hooked the brake fluid sensor back up and from what I can see the reservoir is full of fluid, so the sensor leads must be too corroded or the sensor failed.
The oil pressure sensor is in place and I think it's hooked up, but i'll hafta check again.. It might be bad too, there's oil in the bike.
The battery was probably the least problematic. The PO had done the "tie to positive" fix to it.. with bare crimp connectors.. but without a resistor. So i pulled all that off, gonna redo with some heat shrink and a resistor.

So I go to pop the locks to see if the others work with the new keys, and the gas cap is being stubborn, so i put some WD-40 in it and it starts to work again, great! Then I try the seat lock, and shoot it with WD-40 as well, but i can't seem to get the key to slide in fully.. it's being blocked somewhere. The mechanism won't turn either, I don't think the last pin is being pushed in properly. It's the correct key blank and all, and it worked with the old key, but for some reason I can't get it to operate.

I think there might be something jammed inside, so I pulled the seat lock out (with the old remove pins, unbolt latch, remove lock method) and disassembled it completely, but I hafta now figure out how to get the tumbler out.

It's after this time I also take a look at the Haynes electrical diagram and see what those wires that are stuffed back inside the headlight all taped up are for. Someone cut the clutch switch wires flush with the clutch and shorted them, then stuffed them into the headlight. I'm also missing my sidestand switch. Hooray for safety!

 

i had a similar issue with my 550 maxim. in fact still do...

when i had the bike at MiCarl's shop he spun the wheel with a dial indicator (i assume) and he found there was a flat spot on the rim. ALMOST put it in the "junk: do not use" category...

you might have a slightly bent rim or bead allowing it to slow leak. i think thats my issue...