82 XJ650 Cafe Build

This is what she looked like when I picked her up!

Phase 1: put on new tank and pulled off stock shocks

Installed new taller shocks

I've got a seat pan/tailpiece being built now and the battery will be relocated in the tail. Airbox will be coming out and pods will be put in place, it's going to be a headache to tune the carbs I know but it will be worth it.

 

Glad ya' found a tank that would fit. Keep us updated with pics...

skillet

 

Thanks! Had to do a little frame mod to get it to fit, don't have pics of that right now.... I believe the tank is from an old BSA but I'm not 100%. Getting ready to place an order for some drag bars, bar end mirror, and fork gaiters. Not sure yet about head light and tail light options.

 

Just a quick thought, I'd hate to see you get "bit" after sinking a bunch of time, money and effort into the bike:

Have you put the valves in spec and done a compression test so you know you're "building" on a viable platform?

We've had more than one member finish a really nice-LOOKING project only to discover that his motor has a bad cylinder or two when he finally got around to trying to make it run right.

 

Been a while since I've posted an update, been making slow progress since I started my new job and whatnot. Got the airbox pulled out and pod filters installed. Did some touch up paint on the frame, installed new handle bars and fork gaiters and got the gauges put back on. Got my new battery today, going to run all the wiring tomorrow and then she'll be almost ready to start up.

 

Make sure your rear wheel spins without binding the u-joint.
When I was building my café, I put larger shock in the back, and the wheel did not turn at all. I had to build a custom sub-frame to run the larger shocks and create the illusion of the back being lifted.

 

Thanks Samson! From what I can tell so far just from rolling it around the shop it seems to spin fine. The shocks are longer but I think they're also softer, it doesn't really sit very much higher than stock.

 

im new to the forum. just want to say nice progress. seen some killer bikes on this site, great tips and suggestions on builds. getting alot of great ideas. thanks guys!

 

I'm about to order some exhaust wrap, I've never wrapped pipes before so I have no idea how much I'll need and don't want to low ball myself..... will 50 ft of wrap be enough or should I order more?

 

I used 50 ft of wrap for my 4-1 exhaust, lapping 50%.

 

Here's a couple of shots of it, had to retap one of the exhaust stud holes today.... I worked on reshaping my tail piece but don't have any pictures of it yet, it will follow the shape of the tank a little more and also fully cover the battery.

 

I got my tail piece about 90% finished at this point..... also got the seat pan shaped to the frame!

 

Cool build, what are you doing to replace the bracing you chopped out?

 

Are you talking about the bracing in the rear subframe? It's still there, used it as part of my new battery bracket

 

I'm building an XJ750 Cafe Racer (Just about to make my thread), I'll subscribe to yours!

 

Sneak peek..... gonna be fabbing these up into foot pegs. Not exactly sure how yet, but I'm taking them into the shop Monday and not leaving till they're done!

 

Got the foot pegs fabricated today! I need to get better at taking pictures in progress. I took the pedals and stock mounts to my friend's shop because I don't know how to weld and this is what we came up with!

We cut the stock foot pegs off the extension arm, then welded a square piece of steel where the pivot was for the stock peg. Then welded a steel bolt to the square piece of steel, that runs through the pedal and has a flanged lock nut holding it in place!

 

cool man. i would have never have thought of that. so they spin right... i have those same pedals on my mountain bike.

 

Been a while since I updated! My tailpiece is finally finished, minus paint. Also exhaust is back on.

Before starting this I had no idea how to do wiring, it's been a slow process but I've got my wiring all redone.... still trying to figure out the best way to minimize the appearance of all the wiring without running it through the frame.

Also decided to cut the front fender to create a fork brace/mini fender, going to be painted black

 

Coming along nicely. Keep on it.

 

Thanks! I'm horrible at updating this thing lol. Actually got to hear her turn over for the first time once I got the wiring done.... didn't have gas ran to it so didn't get to fire it up completely. Have a few gremlins in the wiring to fix and then it's just cosmetics to finish up from there.

 

Ok so, I'm pretty dumb when it comes to wiring.... I got everything finished up with the wiring today (or so I thought) everything seems to be working ok except for the rear most relay, the one that eventually gives power to the headlight. That aside I noticed that even with the key turned off on my ignition the headlight and dash lights (neutral, high beam etc.) are still on. Any idea what could be causing this?

 

http://www.jetav8r.com/Vision/IgnitionFAQ.html
This might help.

 

http://www.polymetric.net/xj650/www.geo ... dway/7795/
This too.

 

It's alive! Got her cranked up today for the first time since I bought it in December! It idles well but when I twist the throttle I get almost no response. I can see that it is functioning properly as far as pulling the mechanism where it connects to the carbs but when I twist it all the way open it starts revving up very very slowly. It's not a quick response at all and it just barely will start to rev up when held wide open. Any ideas what could cause this? I did replace all 4 carb diaphragms because my originals were dry rotted and also put carb rebuild kits in all of them.

 

Clip of it running

 

Could be vacuum leak in the line or the boots, the slides aren't freely moving in the carb body, bad seal in the diaphragm area or else where.
Did you do a bench sync? Jet for pods? Some people need velocity stacks between the carbs and filters because of air turbulence Are the valves in spec?

 

I can move all the slides in the carb body, there isn't friction but they don't move "freely" I'd say. It doesn't feel like there is friction but when I push them up they come back down slowly, not immediately if that makes sense? I did do a bench sync as well. PO had 120 jets in it so I was going to see how it runs with those and adjust from there. The line that runs from carb number 3 is a vacuum line correct? I don't see much difference when I plug it with my finger and it actually feels like air is puffing out of it? I haven't tried velocity stacks either but I do have the boots incase I need to make some, I was thinking though that with the increased air flow from the pods it would make the slide bodies stay open more and actually cause increased RPM's, the exact opposite of my problem? I'm pretty green to all this though and appreciate all the help! Trying to narrow down the possibilities of what the problem is. I hope I don't start another pod filter war on here lol!

 

The slides will fall slowly when the carb is assembled, there's a "clunk test" before assembly where you sand the slides and bore with extra fine sandpaper. Then dropping the slide in the body it'll fall quickly making a clunk sound.
In my signature is a link to pod success stories that you can get a better idea of jet sizes.
Line from carb 3 is the vac line for the petcock. The carbs get their vacuum from the cylinders and jets which is why cracked/loose intake boots play havoc with these carbs along with bad seals.
Pods increase the airflow, but can cause turbulence/disrupted airflow to the carbs causing problems with tuning, stacking the pods will smooth out the flow that helps with tuning.

 

Sounds like my carb intake boots is where I need to start then, mine are a bit ratty looking. I'm not using the original tank and vacuum petcock so do I just cap off that vacuum line? I've read through a lot of the pod filter discussions and success stories.... I don't recall seeing where anyone had this problem though so I wasn't sure what could be causing it.

 

You can plug that line then. If those boots are cracked, they could be leaking. You can apply some rtv on the outside, but eventually you'll have to replace them.
There's a process to go thru to get these running right: valves first, religiously clean carbs, bench sync, make sure everything has a good seal, block off YICS if you have it, and final tune and sync if your lucky. If not lucky, pull hair, cuss, throw stuff and pull carbs and start over. LOL

 

Pulling my hair and cussing some lol.... Would taking the control for the head light, turn signals etc. off the bike be a culprit for making my ignition switch be bypassed? All lights on the bike stay on with the switch turned off and key out of the switch and it will actually crank too! I'm stumped!

 

Chacal at XJ4Ever could help with the cables. How much slack do you have? Can you take up the slack by re-routing the cables?
Could be the ignition switch is internally shorted, happens with old switches. Or something could be wired wrong. Unplug the wiring harness from the back of the switch and see if the problem goes away.

 

Also with me running drag bars on my bike now the throttle and clutch cables are pretty long! Has anyone else done a similar setup and what length cables did you get and from where?

 

I tried unplugging my switch, the only thing that is functioning properly off the switch is my tail lights? Other than that with the switch unplugged I can still turn my head light on and off and the starter turns over?
As far as the cables go, my throttle cable is usable being rerouted a bit but my clutch cable has been a nightmare trying to route. Doesn't help that where it connects to the clutch lever on the handlebar turns in towards the bars a little bit.
Also, I'd like to update my handle bar controls as far as clutch lever, brake lever and master cylinder to something a little more modern. I don't want to have to change my whole brake system however, just at the bars if possible. Any ideas on a good candidate to look for some parts off of?

 

It's not supposed to turn over without the switch so you have some wire tracing to do. You need a good electrical schematic.

 

Ok, looking back over the other pages, I see that you rewired this bike. Did you go by a schematic? Some bikes are wired so that the lights will come on without turning the ignition on, but the start circuit should only work thru the ignition for safety, so the start button is getting power from somewhere other than the ignition.

 

Oh I didn't do a rewire on the bike.... the only mods I did to the wiring is took off turn signals, took off the original lighting switch that goes on the handle bars and just wired the headlight to a 3 way switch, and replaced the fuse box with a 30 amp circuit breaker. I'm lost, the tail lights and the lights in the gauges are getting power from the switch but the starter, headlight, and dash lights have power without the switch being in play.

 

The ignition supplies current to the start button, then goes thru a few safety relays(clutch-side stand), then to the solenoid and to starter.
Either you unintentionally created a circuit when you modified the headlight or circuit breaker, or the problem existed before.
First disconnect the power to the headlight and see if it still activates the start button, if it still turns over you've eliminated that.
Then you'll have to trace the wires from the start button all the way thru the circuit til you find the problem or problems. It's the only way to be thorough, shortcuts can come back to bite you in the a**.

 

Did you replace all the fuses with one circuit breaker? If so, that's your problem

 

Yeah the stock fuse panel was replaced with a 30 amp circuit breaker..... Would that cause the issue?

 

Most likely. The circuits need to be separate and have the right value fuse/breaker or you'll have damaged components and burnt wires.

 

It's even more complex than that.

The stock fuse box APPEARS to simply be four straight-through fused circuits. Ain't so.

The "main" circuit is the FEED for the other circuits; their "hot" sides all originate somewhere else in the harness but are supplied from the main.

So the original fuse box is more like the breaker box in your house, the "main" comes in and feeds everything, and each of the individual circuits has its own breaker (or fuse.) Except in this case they all lay there next to each other looking alike.

This is why you need BOTH the circuit and wiring diagrams before you start modding/rewiring. It's NOT what it appears to be. Plus Yamaha has a habit of locating things "conveniently" like putting all the diodes together in one block in the headlight, when electrically, they are parts of other different circuits all over the bike.

I'd refrain from powering it up in its current configuration, you stand a good chance of cooking your TCI unit or other critical, high-dollar components.

 

What would you recommend I do then with the current setup having the circuit breaker? This wiring stuff is over my head so I'm lost lol

 

UNDO it.

Get ahold of both the WIRING and CIRCUIT diagrams (they're different) for your bike and undo your boo-boo. You'll need a multimeter. Add one to your toolbox, now that you've reinforced the need.

Replace the stock fuse block with a blade-type fuse block of the same configuration. XJ4Ever has "kits" and wire loom extensions, etc.

And quite honestly, if "this wiring stuff is over your head" then DON'T TRY TO RE-ENGINEER THE ELECTRICS. Fix, refurbish, repair-- sure; don't modify until you know what you're doing or you're gonna fry stuff if you haven't already.

 

Hey guys, haven't had a lot of shop time to try and trace down the wiring bug.... had another question though. I want to update my master cylinder and clutch perch.... was wondering what specifications I need to look for in the master cylinder or if anyone knows off the top of their head which bikes I could try to find a used set off? I'd like to switch to a remote reservoir on the master cylinder.
Thanks!

 

Got the wiring issue resolved today! No more lights and starting up without the ignition switch turned on. However when I put gas in the tank it starting pouring out from the carbs everywhere! Pulling them back off to check my floats. When I had the carbs apart I didn't have the float pins so I improvised with cotter pins, bad idea and it bit me. I have a donor set of float pins to replace them with now. Doh!

 

So I got to the shop after a week and a half today and found some rats had decided to snack on my exhaust wrap..... so I guess I'll be doing that over again!


Decided to get crazy with a wire wheel, cleaned up my forks pretty nice and started on my motor but I have to get a smaller wheel to get into the smaller nooks and crannies better.
Before and after:

Started on the motor:

With the cold weather moving in for winter I'm starting to think about just tearing the whole bike back apart and painting the frame and powdercoating some parts to really clean it up.

 

Well I got this far yesterday before running out of time

So close! Couldn't quite get it out of the frame though, going to have to remove the oil filter to be able to get it out I believe.
On a side note, aren't all 1982 USA Models supposed to have YICS?

 

1982 model-year 650 Maxims, yes. You probably have an '81 M/Y bike, titled as an '82.

You can "reverse engineer" your VIN here: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14577.html