82 XJ750J Clutch Position Switch, headlight adjustment

Hey guys. I have two questions;

First, my 1982 Xj750J has a completely broken position switch for the clutch lever. In neutral the bike starts fine. However, because of the safety setup on this bike, when in gear the clutch lever must be pulled in to start the bike. Due to the lack of a working switch, this is impossible. Starting the bike just after a stall (something I've been lucky enough to only do once) requires changing back into neutral, starting the bike, switching to first, then pulling away. God help me if the bike ever dies at speed.

My problem is that I am unable to find just the position switch for the clutch. I can find the brake lever position switch however. Would the switch for the brake lever work in the clutch lever? Should I just buy a complete clutch lever assembly on Ebay? The levers are both bent so replacing the clutch lever might be a good idea anyway.

Also, the headlight on this bike aims way too high. I have adjusted both the bucket and the vertical adjustment screw to their lowest positions but the light still aims too high. My local shop even tried to lower it without me telling them it was a problem, it's that bad. They weren't able to do much. Is there a way to fix this? I think I've read something about the reflector falling out of place. Does that sound familiar to any of you?

Note: the XJ750J has the rectangular headlight, not the standard round one.

Thanks.

 

Start a conversation with member Chacal. He'll have a switch for you.

If the light is aimed too high then have a look at how it's mounted in the bezel. It is possible that the light was installed upside-down (it'd be a trick, but that P.O. guy can do anything). That would reverse the vertial orientation of the beam pattern.
The reflector is not a seperate item (on the OEM sealed-beam lamp). It's a layer of silver that is vacuum deposited on the back of the headlight glass during manufacture.

 

in a pinch you can just cut the wires where they come out of the switch and twist them together or put a jumper across the connector where the switch connects to the harness in the head light bucket.
just remember your bike will start in gear this is a tempory fix just to get you home until you get the correct switch from chacal

 

Last night I pulled the headlight apart to check everything and I couldn't find any problems. The glass has "Top" or something similar molded into it and it was indeed on top. The bulb was properly mounted and the frame securely mounted into the headlight bucket.

Something I can add is that the bike has been dropped a few times by a PO and the left side of the headlight bucket is cracked where the mounting bracket's bolts attach. Other than a risk of water infiltration, I can't see how that could be a problem as the light should still be aimed as far down as the mounting bracket will allow.

Finally, there is one more thing to add. I recently did some measurements on the rear suspension's sag and found that the preload was too soft. After raising the preload to the correct position, not only does the bike ride much more smoothly, but I suppose it likely aims the headlight down more.

Is there a way to measure the correct beam height? So if I have the bike a certain number of feet from the garage door, how high should the top of the beam aim?

 

I have considered this but have decided to not do it for safety reasons. I once tried very hard to start the bike after parking it in first. With this hacked fix I can imagine things in this situation going, poorly.

 

This picture covers the procedure (motorcycle headlight aming works the same as for cars). You'll need to measure the height of headlight with you on the bike. I use my garage door instead of a projection screen.

 

So the headlight should be straight and level with its height on the bike? Should it not aim slightly down towards the road?

 

Oh my.

So I just measured the headlight height at 25 feet from a wall. The top of the housing is 3' 4" off of the ground. From 25' The top of the beam reaches 2' above that point on the wall (so 5' 4" up the wall). I didn't measure the high beam but suffice it to say, in the real world turning on the high beam actually makes the light hitting the road dimmer. The high beam is only good as an emergency backup.

On a side note, this bike has an auxiliary light. How high should that light aim? At the moment it throws a beam about 20' out from the bike on the ground.

 

The auxiliary light aims itself. The bracketry holds it in a (mostly) fixed position. The center of the beam will point halfway between the bike and the curb, about 15-20 feet in front of the bike. It's intended to be a fog light, and actually works pretty well in that application.


Can you post photos of your headlight housing, and of the beam pattern?

Are you trying ot adjust the housing, or are you using the vertical adjustment screw (the lower of the two on the front of the bezel)?

 

I'll put up an Imgur gallery as soon as I can, assuming this forum doesn't have rules about how to post pictures.

I have moved the housing as far as it goes. There are wires and other cables that make moving it further impossible. I have also adjusted the bottom screw as far out as it can go without backing out of the plastic threaded block.

So to answer your question, I've adjusted both. Hopefully my pictures will show more.

 

Well there's your problem. Turning the screw out (CCW) raises the beam pattern.

 

What really?

I refuse to believe that that could be true. The adjustment screw is on the bottom of the frame. turning it out (CCW) causes a spring around the screw to push the bottom of the lens inward. This causes the glass to be further inside the housing at the bottom and as a result, lowers the beam. How tilting the glass back (by turning the screw in (CW)) could lower the beam is beyond me.

Here is an album with some text giving some detail on the situation. If you would like I can turn the screw all the way in and retake the last picture to show you what happens.

http://imgur.com/a/ZIBUq

 

I just went to the garage to confirm on my own 750 Seca before posting. Refuse to believe it if you want, but that's how it works. The spring isn't doing any pushing; it's providing tension that prevents the screw from moving on its own while you ride.

 

Also, from the Haynes service manual:

EDIT: I guess I found another typo in the Haynes. see comments on the next page.



The Factory service manual reads the same.

 

Alright fine. I went out and turned the adjustment screw all the way in (CW), backed the bike up 25', turned on the lights and...

http://imgur.com/iNYHEdp

Now it aims all the way to the ceiling!

I must insist that you reconsider how the adjustment system works on this bike. Turning the vertical adjustment screw CW moves the beam up. Turning it CCW moves the beam down. I have it turned as far CCW as it will go and as a result the beam is as low as I can get it.

I'm posting here with the hopes of finding some solution to what is clearly a problem with the headlights on this bike.

What am I overlooking that might fix this problem?

 

After reading the manual;

What in the world???

My tests resulted in the exact opposite of what the manual states. Something is clearly wrong with my headlights.

Have you looked at the album I posted above? Does anything look wrong about the lens or reflector? If you need any specific pictures please ask and I'll take them.

 

I'll take a closer look at your photos tomorrow.

 

thats why Yamaha put a neutral light on the dash, its a back up passive safety indicator. and a clutch lever. always pull in the clutch when starting bike. operator safety feature

 

Oh of course I had the clutch pulled in. I always do, even in neutral. I'm not sure why I didn't notice the neutral light was out. I think it's because I just don't check the neutral light before starting the bike because I normally park in neutral. It just happens that I parked in first this one time and it tripped me up for a second.

 

when i first started riding neutral lights and clutch safety switches were not in use.
we would sit on bike reach down put it in neutral by hand, rock the bike to confirm and still pull in the clutch.
I still do it that way because I do not trust electrons to do the job for me.

its like when the sign says walk at the cross walk I still look both ways for cars.
or when at a red light and the light turns green look left look right then go

 

And I grew up with automatic cars and the expectation that hydraulics and computers will do everything for me.

Learning to operate a motorcycle, especially one from 1982, has been quite the lesson in using a machine that will do very little for you.

Although admittedly the Xj750J was pretty ahead of its time even for the XJ series of bikes. now if only it had an oil temp gauge...

 

you can install oil temp gauge it is just deciding where to put it that is actually useful. i f you have an oil cooler the feed line would be good, or in the oil drain plug.they used to drill a hole into an oil passage in Harley motors. oil pressure gauges were also installed this way
there is a post here about a temp guage that is the oil cap it really just measures internal air temp in the motor because it does not touch the oil


edited to add oil pressure.

 

Would it be worth the effort of modifying the bike to have a temp gauge?

 

no not really, you would have to establish what temps you were to be concerned about. if over heating is a concern money would be better spent installing an oil cooler.

most gauges are for show. my Seca has a volt meter and fuel gauges, my Maxum does completely for show not.
I can under stand the voltage gauges it does have some use. But by time you know you have no voltage its to late

I know my mpg and the little shudder that my bike does at 125 miles out and needs to be turned to reserve shortly.

 

IMHO no. It'll just make you worry when you're siting in traffic; and there's no reason to be worring about that.

 

Here's the one thing that comes to mind about the headlight. Does the vertical adjustment screw on your machine have a left-handed thread, or does it have a right-handed thread?

 

The screw is right hand threaded.

Are you sure that the adjustment on your Seca works as the manual says it should? Would you mind testing it?

 

I'm walking that back. I went ahead and re-checked, because ...fog of the late night.

Comments below.

 

Then I'm dumbfounded.

As you can see in my Imgur albums turning the screw CW raised the beam pattern significantly.

Is there something that I could be doing wrong? I'm pretty sure we are both thinking about the same headlight setup and the same screw.

Is the screw supposed to be left hand threaded?

 

OK, so I'm a stubborn idiot. Sorry for my repeated errors.

I just re-checked and turning the screw clockwise does in fact raise the beam height.

Now this leads me to believe that the headlight is not seated in the bezel correctly, or that the bulb is not correct, or installed wrong. The headlight bucket is set up correctly.

 

Well the bulb has three tabs, two of which are closer to each other making it impossible to install the bulb the wrong way 'round.

The fixture that the bulb locks into is attached permanently to the back of the reflector so it's not like a PO went and flipped that around.

I suppose it's may be possible that the entire reflector is installed upside-down with regards to the glass.
This would make the "top" molded into the glass appear at the top of the housing while the bulb and reflector are actually the wrong way 'round.

Here's something to check;
Inside the bulb itself there is a small reflector cup which aims the low beam up (or down depending on the bulb's orientation).

If you took the bulb out of your headlight, which way would that reflector cup point the beam?

Once I know what is correct on your bike, I can check mine and see if it matches.

 

The cup shields the lower portion of the beam.

Here are photos of my headlight. In all cases the top of the photo is up.

 

These are reversed; top is down. I can't seem to get them to orient correctly when uploaded.

 

I am no longer surprised at what that PO guy is capable of.

 

Everything looks nearly identical on my headlight (unfortunately). However, I went looking for the obstruction that is preventing the housing from tilting down any further.
I believe that the clutch cable may be routed incorrectly as it runs over the back left corner of the housing which prevents further movement of the housing.
The cable is also rubbing against a bolt which is wearing a hole into the protective sheath.

Could you get a picture of your clutch cable and how it routes through the handlebars, or better yet, could you link a good diagram? The one in the service manual isn't very helpful.

 

So I just took a look at what runs above the housing. The clutch cable, throttle cable, and a set of wires all run right over top of the headlight housing. It would be a real pain to move all of those.

I'm still open to suggestions on why the light might be aimed so high. It really doesn't seem like it should be having any problems, and yet, here I am.

 

The headlight bucket is essentially held in a fixed position once mounted to its bracket. I'll get pics of the bracket, cable routing and whatever else I can think of by tomorrow.
To your knowledge, has the bike ever been in an accident?

 

Has it been in an accident? No, at least not as far as I can tell.

Has it been dropped? Absolutely.

Dropped at high speed? I doubt it.

Mainly the control levers are bent foreword, there's a dent in the tank, one of the front turn signals has a replacement lens and the other is scraped, and I'm pretty sure the rear turn signals are aftermarket.
This bike has had a hard 20,000 mile life. Not to mention the metal shavings in the final drive oil. I really hope a few oil changes will clear that up.

And of course the headlight bracket is bent back a bit on the left side, but it is at the same height as the right side which is undamaged. I don't believe the bracket is bent enough to cause the dramatic vertical misalignment I'm seeing.
I inspected the mounting points (the metal rods and plates) for the headlight bracket where it attaches to the forks and it does not appear to be bent. It's made of sturdy looking metal rods as well, so I imagine it's unlikely that it would bend.

I should also note that I'm mostly certain that it has the correct bulb, a 12v, 60/55w, H4 halogen lamp.

 

Hi again everyone,

I don't mean to be demanding of the community but I might be going on a long distance ride tonight.
Sorry but this is short notice for me. I would like to find some sort of solution or at least a temporary
fix for my headlight problem as I would be traveling at night for a portion of my trip. Can any of you
think of something I could do to aim my headlight lower than its adjustments would allow?

Thank you.

 

The collective will probably tell you to sort out the real problem before something bad happens. Better safe than sorry.

Gary H.

 

I'm going to have to agree with rocs. I think that if you can figure a way to extend the top "hook" of the headlight bezel to allow the light to be aimed lower then you could ride it at night. However it seems to me that would be as much work as taring it down and looking to see what the problem actually is. Have you removed the bucket to look at the mounting brackets and headsotck?

 

Ah well the trip isn't happening unfortunately. Also the headlights do work. I just imagine they would be a bit brighter if they aimed correctly.

The reason I'm here is because I can't figure out what the real problem is. I've been working on this motorcycle on and off for many months and I have yet to find a good reason for the headlight problem.

Now this thread is getting old and its activity has died down. I think I might be on my own for this one.

 

I have inspected the mounting bracket carefully and as far as I can tell it's in good shape. The bent parts look correctly bent and the straight parts look straight. Everything lines up left to right except for the left hand mounting arm which was likely damaged in a drop. Problem is I can't see a reason for the bent arm, which is bent out, not up or down, to cause the light to aim up. I'm thinking now that I need to inspect the entire mounting bracket meticulously and possibly take measurements to make sure everything is aligned. I'm doubtful that I'll find anything but it's worth a shot.

I'll be back in about half an hour to report my findings.

 

Dang this is a pickle of a problem. Nothing stood out as being problematic in your photos either.

I doubt that this would cause the beam to be as high as yours is, but do you happen to have a larger rolling-diameter tire fitted to the front? Are the rear shocks shorter than stock?

 

Wheels and suspension are all stock on the bike. The tires are Michelin Commander II and the beam has been high since I got the bike with an older set of tires. I recently moved the preload on the rear from minimum (A I believe) to one step up because it was sagging too much. When I got the bike the suspension preload was even higher and again, the beam still aimed too high.

So my inspection did uncover something interesting. The left side of the bracket is indeed too high. My next step after discovering this was to mount the bucket by only the right side of the bracket. Unfortunately this made no change to the beam height. Next I tried as hard as I could without breaking something to bend the left side of the bracket back into place. I was able to get it about halfway there and when I retested the light, nothing.

Oddly I was able to drop an entire foot off of the beam height by jamming the housing down as far as I could possibly get it and cranking the bolts down at that point. Both sides of the housing have plastic alignment tabs which lock the bucket into a fixed position so I can only move it a small amount. Still, I should not have to adjust the housing this much. The adjustment screw should be somewhere around the halfway point. The fact that the adjustment screw is still as far out as it can go means there is something wrong with the bucket or bracket, still.

As I've said before, the right side of the bucket and bracket are in perfect shape and I tried only mounting the bucket to that side, but it made no difference.

I'm now even less sure what the problem is.

Here's something to check. Is there a way to measure the height of the front suspension? In other words, is there a stock height that I could somehow be exceeding thus pushing the beam up too high?

 

I just found a headlight bracket for this bike on Ebay for $14. Should I buy one and swap mine out to see if that fixes it?

 

At this point it won't hurt. You should be able to sell it for what you paid if it doesn't fix the problem.

 

How hard would it be to replace? Would the headlight need to be removed? If yes, how hard is it to remove the wires from inside it?

 

The headlight has to come out. All the wires unplug. The headlight bucket has to come off. The instrument cluster has to come off. The brake line distribution block has to be unbolted from the headlight subframe. It's about a 1/2 hour to 45 minute job.

 

Hmm.. I've been having a problem with the speedometer being too slow (says I'm going 20% slower than I am). If I'm going to have the cluster off is there something I could do inside of it that might fix the speedometer?

Also if I'm going to take the bracket off anyway should I just do that and try to hammer it back into shape before buying a new one? I could bend it a lot more easily with it off the bike.