Central New York Carb Clinic #11 -June 9, 2018

There are more... I have to dig into my phone for those, but I'll post them when I get a chance. I'm not thrilled with many of the pictures I got from my camera. The color just isn't there. My old crappy iPhone 5s captured the colors so much better. It was a beautiful "blue sky day," and so many of my DSLR pics looked gray and desaturated. I have to look at why it is doing that. I'm sure it is a "user error."

I'll send the Hi-Rez image of the Big Dog...

Another Great Carb Clinic, I know I speak for everyone when I say thank you again for what you do. Also thanks to Len @ xj4ever for the parts and guidance. I'll post the brake rebuild and engine case guard images soon. I'm off to work now!

 

Looks like the weather gods smiled on you for once Dave! Congratulations.

tafn

Dwayne

 

Dwayne! Good to see you! Yes, it was a nice change of pace . Although a couple guys from PA ran into rain about 15 mi south of Binghamton for the rest of trip to southern PA...

According the reports here, the weather for the NOCC should be picture perfect, too!

Dave

 

That moment you see a pic of yourself and realize just how fat you got!! Lmao!

 

Well we did have a lot of good food

 

That we did!!

 

[/MEDIA]

 

I must be part of this.... direct that baby towards VA!!

 

Every Carb Clinic, I have less hair... Oddly enough you GAINED hair from the last time!

 

You're welcome to have some of mine!!! Though it does help me stay warm when I get caught in a down pour on the bike just as I get to PA....had to stop to get some garbage bags to make a poncho! Lol

 

Looks like a great time, Dave. I'm sorry Connor and I missed it this year. He's now working weekends and I ended up working the weekend too. On the other hand, we have been working on a series of XJ600S's (Seca II's) as he, I, and his girlfriend all have ones on the road this year. I put a full bag set on mine after finding a rack for it. Hopefully we can make it up next year.... you put on a great clinic and the people are all fun!
- Randy
(lots of Yamaha's, Honda's, and Suzuki's)

 

Yes, it looks like everyone had a blast, so sorry I missed it this year!!!!

 

Should be a two day event next year:
Day 1: bike fixing
Day 2: tractor riding

 

And I figured you as more of an umbrella guy.

 

I told Dave I need to learn to wheelie

 

Pop the clutch on that tractor quick enough and you will...

Had my Leyland 270 on 2 wheels once - that was enough.

 

This was my first time actually driving a tractor (other than sitting on my uncle's lap steering the IH) and I was surprised at how sensitive it was, ha ha!

 

The look on saftie's face when he took off....I think he was expecting it to flip!
I've been on quite a few tractors and come very close to flipping a couple of them when I started out!

 

For me it was a new experience as well.

2 brake pedals, 2 brake levers, a clutch pedal, a stick shift...

NO accelerator pedal!

 

That is one cute little camper you have hiding back there Dave. Looks almost identical to my dad's 74 or 76 14ft Shasta

 

That's why it looks like that

 

We'll see what we can do to direct it south!

 

Looks like y'all had a great event with a good number showing up. Sorry to have missed it, but schedules are busy. I appreciate all the pics.

 

Yeah, I am vicariously enjoying the heck out of this too. The camaraderie and joy is tipping the scales in favour of not selling my bike. Thanks

 

More from the Carb Clinic...

Len @ xj4ever is now offering a reproduction Engine Case Guard Kit for the 700n, 700xn & 750x. This thing is sweet! Like so sweet, it looks BETTER than NOS. How do I know, Dave had a NOS (NIB to be exact) set on hand to compare. Len’s kit is absolutely beautiful. The welds are perfect. The chrome shines . The hardware is plentiful and it comes complete with a chrome warning sticker… just like the original!

So Let’s take a look. Here you have our patient. She’s currently outfitted with some ebay specials…



For comparison purposes, here’s Dave’s NOS set, It comes with directions and minimal hardware.


Here is Len’s reproduction set complete with hardware, install directions and chrome sticker. Beautiful!


Look at that finish!!!


And here is a picture of that chrome sticker I mentioned above. Now is a good time to put it in place.


Installation is pretty simple…
Remove the old hardware. You’ll need a wrench on the inside to stop the nut from spinning.



The kit comes with new hardware and instructs you to replace all three bolts and nuts (per side). Here’s a shot from the front with the new hardware installed.


Man that looks great!


Here’s two more shots of the job completed. I installed the flip out foot pegs later on that day.



Much thanks to Len for the awesome goodies provided to the Carb Clinic this year! Honestly, these reproduction pieces are BETTER than NOS! Keep an eye out for additional install images from other bikes during our visit.

 

Thanks Nuch, glad you liked them!

In that last picture, is that a bell on the frame tube? Deer warning? Ice cream delivery?

 

Len,
These items are truly superb. The fit and finish is unbelievable. The welds are smoother than the originals that Dave had. Other than that, I noticed that the reproductions are "flatter" on the ends of the straight pipe (non issue).

Yes it is a bell. A guardian bell to be exact. There are various companies out there that make them, but the overall idea is that:

"Legend has it that evil road spirits have been latching themselves on to motorcycles for as long as there have been bikes on the road. These spirits are responsible for mechanical problems and bad luck along a journey. Legend goes on to say that by attaching a small bell onto your bike, the evil road spirits will become trapped inside the bell where the constant ringing drives them insane, making them lose their grip until they fall to the ground."

It actually makes a pretty cool ring when shaken. Though you really can't hear it when the XJ is roaring, I was able to hear it when the truck windows were down while trailering up to the Carb Clinic.

My wife gave me that one for the Maxim. Now I need another one for the Seca and you're really not supposed to buy it for yourself... Guess I have to do a better job dropping hints.

 

I have one on the Reb. There was one on there when I bought it. I thought, bah, silly superstition, I'm cutting it off. That day, literally the first ride without the bell, I blew out a crankcase seal and leaked oil all over the exhaust, huge cloud of smoke when I got to work. It ended up being a $200 + repair. My wife bought me a new one, and no Gremlins ever since. I crashed, but the bike is fine!

 

Oh, yeah, nice looking guards, Len! You da man!

 

Awesome!!!

 

And the rest of the legend is that when the gremlins lose their grip and fall to the ground, they get run over and squashed by the tires.

The ringing from the trailer didn't drive YOU insane, did it?

 

No, the trailer that I borrowed in fact was really quiet... with the exception of the bell... I'm going to look into keeping it permanently. The owner mentioned that he doesn't need it anymore because he has 3 others... Ahhh to be sitting on a lot of land where you can park many toys.

 

I meant the ringing of the bell on the bike on the trailer.....being heard from inside the truck

 

Yeah.....

 

I was taught you don't buy them for yourself, it has to be given to you.

 

Hi!
I'm a little late to the party, we were trying to track down the pictures that go along with the write up on installing engine guards for the '82 XJ650 RJ Seca, but that hasn't panned out. So, here it is, possibly not 100% accurate, but to the best of my increasingly unreliable memory:

Road Rage(?) Engine Guards installation writeup

We had a great time at the Central New York Carb Clinic XI (CNYCC11) and three luck attendees received brand spanking new engine guards for their bikes! Two 700's and a 650RJ got outfitted with some seriously shiny new bling, and I got to help install a set on member Elliot's 700. The set of guards he go by the name of Road Rage, and were of a similar style to ones that he had on his bike already. One of the first things you notice after your eyes adjust to the GLARING light being reflected off these pristine examples of polished steel, is the major difference between them and the old ones: Len's guards are adjustable! Although they come pre-adjusted in a position that should match your bike, you can have them tilted forward or back as you see fit. Did I mention how SHINY these things are? Elliot commented that he was going to have to remove them from his bike when he got home and bury them for a year so they would match the rest of his bike.

The first thing we had to do to install the new guards was to remove the old ones. The old guards utilized the upper engine mount (the long bolt that goes through both sides of the engine) and the two lower engine mount bolts on the tubes. Removing these was no issue once we realized why those upper bolts just kept turning while we were working on opposite sides…

I will take a moment here to remark that Elliot and I, as two MANLY men, hadn't glanced at the instructions before embarking on our little journey here. The resulting process was certainly much more interesting, and a veritable roller coaster of emotions. There was pain, joy, and sadness; there were times where we questioned our very sanity! However, once we completed our task, and actually read the instructions the whole way through, instead of just looking at the pretty pictures, we both let out a collective “Huh, that would have been good to know before hand”. Let our experience serve as a cautionary tale for those that come after us. You have been provided with a great set of instructions, not the maliciously cryptic ones the sadists at IKEA come up with, use them!

At any rate, once we had removed the old guards, and began making sure that we were documenting which bolts and nuts went where, we realized that the new guards came with beautiful new hardware as well! Not only had we failed to read the instructions, but we failed to take stock of what was even included. Don't try this at home, kids. While we got a few extra “Cool! Look what else this came with”s , this kind of inattention to detail led directly to aforementioned questioning of our mental faculties. BE WARNED!

So, now that we removed everything from the bag, and glanced half interestedly at their contents, we began working toward installing the new guards. We got the top bolt installed just fine, but realized that the weight of the engine had moved the brackets lower after we removed the bolts holding them in place. If only there was some way that we could have known that this was going to happen…. Oh, wait. It was in the instructions! In order to get them to line up, you can use a pry bar, crow bar, lift, or something else to GENTLY lift the engine back up into place. We used a motorcycle lift first , then a pry bar (the bar was much more efficient). Once we had everything line up and the bolts installed, we tried to put the nuts on and realized there wasn't enough space between the bolt and the oil filter to actually install them. At first we assumed that it was because Elliot had the spin on filter kit installed because, surely we couldn't have made a mistake. However, while going through the parts that we received, looking for the smaller bolts/ nuts that we had obviously missed, we found some spacers! Apparently Len knows what he is doing and provides some spacers to install on the lower bracket between the tube and guard to prevent just this problem! With spacers properly assembled, the bolts and nuts fit just fine and we were on to the next side.

Armed with the experience and knowledge from installing the first side, we dove right into the second. Alas and alack! At some time during this process we lost a nut. We searched frantically in the grass around us for it. We checked all the bags we had opened. All the bags other people opened. We emptied the trash bag. We waved magnets around the underside of the bike and in all the little cracks and crevices it might have fallen into. We conscripted the help of a bloodhound! I may have made that last one up. After searching high and low, reading the instructions (finally) , trying to reason with ourselves that it was never there to begin with, that we had both collectively had a brain fart, that there was a glitch in the matrix, we found it camouflaged under a blade of grass. Handily, the instructions come with a list of all the tools needed. While going over this list we noticed it called for a 17mm wrench. We both scoffed, we didn't need one of those, Len must be slipping! With all of our pieces accounted for, we began work. We retrieved the second guard from its bubble wrapped cocoon and held it up to side it was about to be installed to and noticed that it didn't line up as beautifully as the first one had. Fortunately for us, as previously mentioned, these brackets are adjustable, but they needed a size we hadn't used before: 17mm. With our mouths full of crow, we got them loosened up and put on.

All told, the process probably took us between 45 minutes to an hour. Should you choose to avail yourself of the provided instructions, I would anticipate that you could have this task completed in less than 30 minutes or so, if you have a helper. It is nice to have two people when you are lifting the engine up using your preferred method to line up the holes. The new guards are quite the complement to an already dashing motorcycle!

 

For those who have been to CNYCC over the past several years--- the 700X that I have been building from scratch.....project "ScratchX"now has a heart!! I found a 1986 MaximX engine with only 18k on the clock. I brought it home last weekend, -it has been degreased and shined, some paint touched up, case sidecovers swapped, and engine trim find polished. Now to sort out the myriad of smaller parts.

Funny, I started this because I didn't have a MaximX.... now I get to this stage, and I have two 700X's, two partially assembled X's, and two other frames waiting to be turn back into X's.... and I think I have enough parts to do almost all of them, too. We'll see as time goes by.

This is a long term project... it started with a bare frame. I mean BARE..... it doesn't even have a serial number. Every part that goes on is either refinished, repainted, polished, or new..... unless I just can't do it to that part. So, I hope it'll be pretty sharp when it's done.
Here's an update in pics:

ScratchX as it's been in limbo


The new heart


Cleaned up


Fins

Fins polished


Heart transplant


Ready to be tucked away til next time to play

 

Looks nice!

Please tell us you took the time to check the valve clearances before putting in the frame?

Tony

 

Only 18k on it. Iirc, for the X the first check is at 25k, then every 15k after that, yes?

 

26,000 miles on the interval. Just thought it would make sense before dropping it in.
One that I had with just 12,000 miles needed 8 or so out of the 20 re-shimmed to get them within spec.

Thought it wouldn't hurt to check earlier than the recommendation. Could also be that I'm just a bit anal.....

Tony

 

You need to file off the model number on the engine to match the frame.

 

I was hoping to find a replacement engine, which would have been blank

 

Wow, Tony. More ocd than Dave? You might have a problem...

 

Well maybe just a little OCD on the maintenance.

Can't believe you didn't have a case without a stamped engine #..... we thought that you've horded all the unobtainium?

Tony

 

No----I only have two or three frames with no number

 

I have numbers, but no frames!

 

nowyou have to ride with a 8 ball hanging from the frame. then pass it on to the next rider you know who crashes.

 

Can't wait for details on carb clinic #12!!!