What to avoid getting a project bike started

I am in the process of buying a non-running 82 750 Seca. The story from the previous owner is that he was too drunk to drive home, so left it in his Mom's barn 2 years ago. He started it once last year, but sold it cheap as a non-running bike. I've got decent overall mechanical ability (a previous hobby was overhauling wind-up wristwatches) but almost no motorcycle experience, either riding or wrenching.

I expect I'm going to have to remove and clean the carbs before it will be right. However, I would like to get it at least running (even if poorly) without all that effort if possible even if a rebuild is necessary in the long run. Are there any recommended shortcuts, and more importantly anything that might look like a good idea at first but will wind up making things more difficult in the long run?

 

Having purchased 2 XJs in the last 2 months, I would caution you to make sure you're getting a REALLY GOOD deal if you can't get it running. You're definitely on the right track wanting to get it firing somehow, no matter how poorly, before handing out money.

I bought my XJ700 a couple months ago, not running. I was told all it needed was a starter and probably a little carb cleaning. The starter spun, and spun the motor, but it sounded like a can full of nuts and bolts, and the engine didn't fire. Well, technically, it did just need the starter and a carb cleaning, to run. To be rideable was a different matter. Once it ran, I found that the tach was busted (electronic tach, not cable, so no cheap fix there). Then I got to looking into getting the speedo working. Found there was no cable in the speedo cable housing, replaced the cable, and a couple hundred miles later, the speedo started howling and eventually self-destructed. Also found the battery had no electrolyte in it, and adding acid didn't help much, so I wound up buying a battery, too. There were a few other small issues, mostly hidden from my then-unknowing eye by the fact that it didn't run.

My friend's XJ550, OTOH, went relatively smoothly. It ran, but only on the starter circuit, and died when it was put in gear. Cleaned the carbs well, rebuilt the brakes, replaced the kickstand switch, battery and tach cable, and now it's running a riding like a champ.

Moral is, a totally non-running bike can hide a bunch of problems you might not know about... no compression? burnt valves? starter clutch busted? IMO, if it doesn't run at all, I'm willing to pay what I think I could part it out for if I find out something major is wrong with it.

 

Welcome!
It sounds like you have a good one.
I can understand that you just want to hear it run to see if it'll be worth the effort.
Getting it to riding shape is a whole different deal.

 

You can try to start it but probably will have to rebuild the carbs. You might try putting some Seafoam into the tank and set the petcock to "prime" to get treated gas down into the float bowls. Probably wont help, but may be worth a try. Don't leave it in the "prime" position for too long or you might end up with gas all over and also in the crankcase.

When it comes to carbs on these bikes, there is no short cut. There are many threads on "how to." Bigfitz52 and Chacal both have excellent threads on the topic. Chacal is our local parts store. He has XJ4Ever and is probably the best person to deal with for your parts needs.

 

As mentioned, the battery will probably be toast. Besides a battery, which will run you about $50, some starting fluid (spray actually - sprayed into the air box) would be useful in just trying to get it to run for a few seconds.

 

When I first got my XJ750, I tried for a couple of weeks to get it started, hoping to just "get it going" enough to take it for a cog. I knew it was fuel problems and kept trying to find a quick way to get it to run and idle without the starter spray. After a while the carbs eventually had to come off, then apart, then I realised they needed a full rebuild ... now I'm doing a ground up resto on the whole machine after looking into brakes, tyre life, forks, steering head, electrics and various engine issues. If you are just going to get it going with minimum effort and ride it be sure to read the threads here about brake lines and life limit on tyres. Cheers, Ian

 

I was in the same position as you.... if you want a quick project
.. buy a running bike. If you want to have fun and learn a lot... you're in the right place. Don't expect to be riding in a week though

 

I DO expect to be riding in a week.

..but on the other bike I bought this weekend...

 

Do a compression test straight off so you know what you're buying into.

The plan on around $600-$800 in parts and quite a bit of work, and you'll have a safe, rideable, reliable bike.

It's worth it if you do it right.