New guy with a Seca! (XJ650RJ that is)

HI!

I'm glad I finally found an XJ community! I've this week started the teardown of my XJ650RJ Seca. I bought it a few years ago for 500 bucks

It's a great little bike and I've been riding it a ton in "junker mode." It has its share of problems, though, all of which I'm hoping to get fixed in the next month or so! (not counting the new ones I create in the process)

Problems:
1) first gear pops into neutral under load or at 2500-3000 rpm, whichever comes first
2) generally out of tune. Lot of vibration, impossible to get it to idle right
3) suspension is completely shot. Rear shocks are thrown on from some bigger bike from the same era, so they're old and too stiff, front is, well... dry
4) I think the steering head bearing needs replaced. Wobbles a lot if you don't have both hands on
5) needs new grips and a new throttle (planning on putting a simple throttle lock on it when I do this)
6) generally banged up
7) leaks oil from the front of the motor, it looks like it's just coming from where the tach cable goes in

In order to fix the 1st gear problem I've got to get into the transmission, which means I've got to crack the case open, which means I've got to get the engine out. So... I went and took the engine out, and while I'm at it, I'm just going to start the restoration project from the core. I'm tearing it down to the frame so I can shine the thing up with a new paint job.

Going to re-paint the block before I put the engine back in, and in general clean every part up nice as I put it back on the bike. There's a bunch of stuff that I won't be able to get back to 100% right off the bat, but that stuff doesn't really require the bike to be torn apart to get to, things like gauges and engine covers. That stuff I figure I can just tackle one bit at a time, after I've got the thing back up and running!



Here's the fella in his previous state:


and the current state:


and a photo gallery of the project so far:
https://picasaweb.google.com/treschlet/ ... directlink

 

WELCOME from TN! Good Luck with the rebuild...

skillet

 

I thought only the 750's had dual front disks.

 

My guess is that the Maxim 650 may not have, but the Seca did, as it's designed to be sportier.

 

tresch welcome to the site you defiantly came to the right site for help restoring your bike. First of all I dont think your bike is a J model because it has a manual tach that would make it a G 1980 or H 1981. You do not necessarily have to split the cases to fix the popping out of gear problem there is a fix that can be done without doing that sometimes but sometimes you still have to open it up. For parts and a huge amount of info click on the xj4ever banner top right of this website you will not find a better parts supplier than Chacal. Good luck to you,

 

It can be a "J" model; the 650 Seca only came in a "J" in the USA and it had a mechanical tach.

The single disc and electronic tach were on the Maxim.

 

it's a 1982 as well! And it's got probably 60K+ miles on it. It actually runs pretty good, considering!

The odo reading is no longer accurate as my speedo cable fell off a couple years ago, so I'm not exactly sure what the number is anymore! It reads about 55K but I rode it a lot last year.

Fitz, hows the resurrection going on your 82? Have a gallery somewhere?

 

VERY slowly. Gallery has only 6 "before" pics in it.

So far, I've been gathering parts; I found an unrashed left muffler and a straight headlight shell, plus a straight and solid gas tank. I rebuilt an eBay petcock and installed that in my replacement tank, and it's on the bike.

And that's it so far.

 

I stand corrected

 

Looks like fun. I'm doing the same thing. Mine is down to a freshly painted frame!

 

I'm almost there! Just gotta get the swingarm off!

Though, maybe I could just paint it with the swingarm on?

I need to figure out how I'm going to clean it, prep it, what kind of paint to use, etc etc

 

Honestly? Buy a couple of cans of a product called Tarminator. It's a spray solvent-type bug and tar and grease remover. Using a kitchen scrubby-brush or two and some old toothbrushes, CLEAN the frame thoroughly, and then assess it. If it's less than 10% in real need of painting, just touch it up with automotive touch up paint (spray.) A LOT of what often looks like rust turns out to be dirt. I would only completely repaint it if it was more than 10%-15% gone. The original Yamaha paint was some tough stuff, and is often in much better shape than first appears.

 

very good looking bike! it definitely looked like it was more dusty/dirty than anything else...

 

dusty/dirty/oily/etc

I found a couple small rust holes in the bottom of the left side of the frame. This scares me! They're on the bottom of the frame, and they're small, so I don't know that they'd affect rigidity much as most of the strength there probably comes from the sides of the tubes.

Not sure what to do. I could weld some reinforcement on there, or just clean it up and let it be. thoughts?

 

That pipe rusts from the inside out so its much worse than it looks some folks have had there bikes fall over when on the side stand because the pipe gave way right in that area.