hello thar (new kid)

well hi there im new here about 2 days ago i bought a 1981 xj550 r seca for $400, i knew nothing about this bike nor have i ever heard of a seca
so i searched around the net for a place were owners of thes xj bikes congregate .. a feww crappy forums with about 6 people and other websites that have broken down due to lack of participation by anyone i found xj bikes. needless to say after lurking around here yesterday about 90% of the questions i had about this bike were answered, so i decided to register and then introduce myself and my bike. so heres a couple pics tell me what you think, suggestions on what to do with it, also this is my first motorcycle, repeat, a couple 125-250 dirt bikes for jumpin ditches and whatnot but, this is my first street bike ever. go easy on me if i sound like a noob. i plan to participate on this forum as much as i can for being on this bike for 5 minutes i completly fell in love with it. well not to drag on but youl see me around..

 

Hello and Welcome!! Listen to the guys here and you'll be purring along in no time....

 

good looking bike and welcome.

 

Beautiful bike, congrats!

 

yeah right off the bat i got some question

it idles crazy low
it idles for about 6 seconds then it dies and ive been looking all over for the idle screw and also this is my first bike with four carbs so im a little confused my friend in our lames biker gang showed me his idle knob on his 06 ninja 750 to rub it in... but yeah any help would be awesome

 

The idle speed screw is the big knurled-end "thumb screw" that is dead center inbetween the two center carbs, at the bottom, pointing toarad the rear tire............

 

so teh xj's actually have the thumb screw??

my friend was gloating "pssh yeah my ninja's jsut got a thumb screw man your bikes a b*tch to tune"

yeah needless to say i effin love my xj.and was kinda pissed..
had it for about 3 days kinda love at first ride sorta thing

 

Yes, a thumb screw, but that's for the idle SPEED, not the idle MIXTURE, many people confuse the two and it's two completely (although inter-related) things.

By the way, if that bike has sat unused for any amount of time, just go ahead and resign yourself, right now, to the reality that you'll have to---after you try EVERYTHING ELSE (with only minimal improvement)----to pulling the carbs and completely rebuilding them........not rocket science, but tricky and frustrating to people who have no patience or no willingness to follow instructions thoroughly and learn on-the-fly.

And rebuilding the carbs isn't going to help that much unless you check and, if needed, adjust the valve clearances, too (again, not technically difficult, but a little bit of a time-consuming task and with some expense involved, and therefore something that most people tend to avoid like the plague).

You may want to review this write-up:

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=7 ... html#74928

to get a perspective on "the beauty and the beast" aspects of buying old, "inexpensive" bikes.

On the bright side, once that bike is running right, it'll scream!

 

update!
so i went out side with a flashlight ( its rollin around to about 2 in the morning here) and sure enough EXACTLY where you said it would be there was a thumb screw but since noise ordinances and whatnot i wont get a chance til tomorow to try this out hopefully the idle speed is just too low thats what im hopin for. cleaning out the carbs and everyhting wouldnt be that much of a chore like i stated before ive had throught time 4 dirtbikes, two mopeds, and an old ford pickup (hehe still do) ive cleaned my fair share of carbs and rebuilding the carb on my truck so it wouldnt be that much of a bother but tomorow ( monday ) if you havent guessed from the fact that i just got a motorcycle for the first time, i have to switch insurance from car(wich a tree fell on and got trashed) to motorcycle, take my motorcycle permit test, switch titles, and a few other things to get in order. also if you havent noticed i tend to ramble on sometimes. sorry bout that. but yeah hoping for the best also in a nother thread i said that my clutch lever was hard and someone recommened you for the parts so i checked that out and all i can say is wow... thats it wow. awesome

 

Yeah, and that's only about 10% of what I really have available (I haven't had a chance to update the list for quite some time).

Cable luber tool is a must have, but for a quick fix just disconnect the cable at the clutch lever and shoot a pinch of silicone spray or WD 40 down the cable (try and hold it vertical for a while and let the lubricant flow down the inside of the cable, move the sheath back and forth to try and get the lubricant to dlow down, also). The cable luber tool acts as a "pressure luber" when you hook up a spray can to it, but like I said, for a Q&D solution try that.

If that doesn't work, then either the cable is adjusted waaayyy too tight (and you would probably have a badly slipping clutch) or your clutch plates and discs or other clutch parts are terribly worn out in a variety of ways.

Good luck, keep us posted..............

 

Welcome
Nice bike

Ive been to Montevideo! Drove over and back to pick up my friends eBay auction item he had won.

 

captains log: yesterday
ffound the screw raised the idle a little so it idled liek a dream shortly after





destruction




we were heading up to benson ( about 45 miles away) i just filled up and put about half a can of seafoam in there(maybe a bad idea?) the whole ride to benson was great. my second time on the highway with two other hooligans. peggin speedometers. weavin around. passing cars. getting passed by cars. it was probably one of the most relaxing hours of my life care free wind blowing inside my helmet the gentle purr of a four cylinder happiness machine....
sorry bout that i get into my stories sometimes aanyway thats where the fun ended. stopped at the gas station went inseide bought camel wides and a $10 lottery ticket. getting carded makes me feel like my youth is immortal( even though im only 19). and then i bought an air freshner with a naked lady on it and tied it to my keychain(wich is a whole seperate keychain just for my bike).
i digress. started up the bike pulled in clutch shifted down and the bike jumped forward and rolled a little. then i quick smashed the foot brake and turned it off. we checked everyhting over and saw nothing wrong so i started it up a gain and this time smooth no problems cept i occaisionally heard a wierd noise. so we shut it off adn when i turned it back on it started right up with no touching of the starter button.
so after about 5 minutes off pondering we tore off the starter button. then i took out my keys my junk car sitting in my yard and wiggles that in there till it started... ran smooth after that.
then 10 miles outa that town it started sprinkling and the sun was goin down(about id say 70 some degrees after a 90 degree day) so it was a little chilly in just my oily greasy t shirt and shorts. and so we stopped in the next town to let it go away cus there were practically no clouds. so then it died down so started the bike bake up after cleaning teh face shield. and immediatly after proceeding to take off the bikes all jittery but as soon as i got up to speed it was barley noticable.
so we continued the now 30 mile trek back home. and probably one of my worst fears almost happened. my and my friend on a 250 ninja ( he likes the mileage) were probably goin around 75-80 and i was paying attention to where he was and i look up and a semi in other lane wooshes by. by the time i realizied it was past i was wobbling so bad i could barley comprehend where the brakes were and about 2 splits of a hair i pretty much lokked up the brakes and almost did a stoppie but i was leaning back..
i took roughly4 seconds to go from 70 to 0
made it unscathed
then after smoking about 6 ciggarettes in the ditch waiting for my shorts to dry a little( i peed a little bit, im not gonnna lie) trying to calm my nerves i muscled up and got back on
time lapse
rolled into town came to a stop sign and started goin again and the bike was really jittry like pulling then not then pulling again
so i rode it to my friends house and we looked at it and figured the cylndier was missing. so the next day(today) we got new plugs changed the oil and it was still doin it and im completly confused any help would rule
or if anyones in the midwest part of minesota(i live inbetween wilmar and marshal kinda round there) could pm me and stop by and give me some help


incredibly long story short the bike was a dream come true for the first 4 days, the next 2?

Hell

so eyah any help would be unlimitedly appreciated