XJ700 Mysterious Part "1AA-2176E - PLATE" Exposed!!

This applies to 85 and 86 XJ700 air cooled and water cooled models in the USA, and perhaps some XJ750X (??) models where they were sold.

I took me a little time to sort this out, so I thought I would share my findings. Apologies if you already know this.

While looking through the parts fiche for the XJ700N, I saw this mysterious part that I had never seen in real life:


The parts list describes this only as "PLATE". Very helpful. Part AA-2176E.

After a bit of investigation, I finally found a reproduction of this part on xj4ever.com:
http://xj4ever.com/catalog/c-air.html
With the following description:
HCP22905 Aftermarket fuel tank rear RUBBER SHROUD, fits to the rear and below the fuel tank rear mounting plate. This is the flexible, long plastic "flap" that attaches to the rear mounting pad (via 2 rubber "pins") and to the sides of the frame and prevents air turbulence and water intrusion into the airbox. For use on all XJ700 and XJ750-X models.

Here's what it looks like by itself:


Here it is attached to the tank locating damper:


And finally, here it is installed on the bike, with the "ears" of the shroud attached to the mounting points on the frame:


The shroud has a notch on one the bottom that goes on the left side and allows for the wiring harness to pass underneath.

As described on xj4ever.com, the supposed purpose of this shroud is to reduce turbulence and keep water out of the airbox.

Will it really make a noticeable difference? Seems doubtful to me. Maybe if you regularly ride in heavy rain and through giant puddles. At any rate, there was probably an engineer or two at Yamaha that are/were smarter than me that figured they needed it.

Why did I bother to research and replace this stupid little rubber part? I'm just trying to atone for the sins of the previous owner(s) and correct everything that is "wrong", so I replaced this part too. Once the carbs return from their exorcism I will find out how successful all the atonement has been.

 

yes and it was present on the X's I've had. The rubber thingies on the tank mount that holds this plate tend to break. Maybe that's why it wasn't there anymore. And yes here in the Netherlands I think it serves it's purpose!