My Johnny Cash bike ( one piece at a time)

My updated pictures from before till now

 

So getting more done , went to change the oil...moose cholock put the drain plug in , had to use a ratchet and a three foot cheater bar , finally broke free . The engine was way to full as well , went to remove filter housing of course it was mangled . Out came my dremel tool with cut off wheel , oh what fun it finally came loose but of course the housing got cuts in the bolt flange . I removed the housing from my other engine , I had ordered another bolt this one is nice 17mm instead of 12mm . My other Seca has the spin on oil conversion from xj4ever , might buy another one at some point , for now spent a little more money than I wanted to .

 

Tried to pull rear wheel to do brakes , could not get axle shaft to budge , pulled swing arm and still could not get it out . Out came the sawzall cut right side of axle , unbolted the diff and got out of swing arm . Got backing plate out , the old brake shoes fell apart tried to knock out shaft out of plate ...no luck so out came my BFH ( big f#$%^n hammer ) finally got it out. The brake drum was pretty rusty inside , using a wire wheel got it looking much better . While swing arm out painted that , I had another diff so painted it with hammer right silver , I like the effect . The brake backing plate is pretty banged up ,so I ordered another off of eBay so as soon as I get that can put this all back together. I need to get another tire , but with the time of the year that can wait not exactly riding weather .

 

Not real happy , I do not cherish putting things together just to pull it back apart. I had to remove swing arm to get rear wheel off , reinstalled got pivot bolt in and adjuster fought getting this in , finally got torqued down . Tried to put right shock in the captive nut and the bolt would not start ....after much cussing finally got it to start. Then I realized I messed up, the drive shaft boot , was over the flange okay ,but the back was not , fought it some more I think I may have to pull it back off .

 

This bike is fighting me putting it back together. I had banged up the brake backing plate , the one I bought off of eBay showed up today , cleaned it up and put new brake shoes on. Could not get it to fit into drum , flipped the shoes over and finally got it to fit. Next the axle shaft did not want to go in , and wheel did not want to line up on splines of the diff had to pull diff and got it to finally line up and got axle shaft in. Tomorrow I'm going to refit exhaust and put carbies back in and see if I can get it started ...getting closer

 

Diff? My Vmax has one, but I doubt your bike does.
Good progress.

 

Differential...just abbreviated lol

 

Nope, you don't have one of them either

 

It RUNS!!!! put on exhaust and carbs. Fired right up still got to hook up airbox and synch carbs , have an exhaust leak on number four cylinder and several more items to work through . I'm very pumped right now .

 

Went in for lunch came back out a couple of hours later , went to start bike up and it would not start.... went to check for spark ..nothing . Pulled TCI out tried my other unit and it fired right up , pulled cover on TCI and it had crud on the board , sprayed down with CRC contact cleaner , plugged it back in and fired up . So fabricated a battery shunt so ATARI does not show battery when running . Now the headlight will not work after starting so need to do some checking , and oil quantity stays on so still some sorting required .

 

Going to call it a day got a lot done , mounted shocks , exhaust, carbs , got bike to start , installed another ignition switch so now have seat lock and ignition key match . Finally got to use my plug kit the instrument cluster the six pin plug had one side broke away , so replaced both Male and female plugs ...wow you can unplug now and it has a lock as well .

 

Worked most of the day figured out why the head light would not work , the starter cut out relay is toast . pulled the relay from my other seca and light worked . Dug through my stash and of course got plenty of relays , but no yellow relay ordered another off of eBay . Going to pause , I ordered new tires been abusing PayPal lucky for me a have a large credit limit but wife is not happy I admit I probably should have just bought a running bike ...BUT this has been fun and I have used a bunch of the parts I collected .

 

Got a good deal from a seller on eBay for front and back tires , my local yamaha dealer mounted them for me . Just spent an hour in the cold garage trying to get back wheel back on had to pull drive off and got that back on ...and of course the axle shaft would not go in ...finally got it to go ...and of course the left shock would not line up after much pounding finally got it back on ...this thing has fought me trying to put it back together. Still have to put front tire on , and rebuild the calipers ( think I'm cornering the market some how I have eight to choose from ) waiting on my airbox boots from xj4ever then I can see about synching carbs right just knowing it runs makes me feel better . I've had relatively warm temperatures, but next week temp is supposed to drop .

 

My airbox boots arrived thank you Xj4ever awesome service as usual . Had to pull the carbs off to get the boots into the airbox , the new intake boots fought getting carbs back in finally got carbs back in. Runs pretty well without putting my Morgan tune synch tool on will do that soon . Yesterday got a few items done, front and back wheels put back on , and torqued ,rear engine mount bolts tighten up , installed short crash bars . Making progress been putting it off need to rebuild calipers so I have front brakes . I have worked on bikes for more years than I care to recall , but this has been a challenge to start with a pile of parts and to get where I'm at makes me feel good .

 

Spent a few hours rebuilding the left caliper , tried air to force piston 175psi ...no joy . Finally went to my grease gun popped out piston . Piston cleaned up good , inside bore of caliper was gummed up took a while with 500 grit sandpaper finally got it clean . Reassembled and put it on , AND had to pull it back apart forgot to put the anti rattle shim on brake pad . Still have to clean up right caliper got piston out , gave up for night this piston has some divits in it , making have to pull one of the other calipers apart .

 

I have come to the conclusion this bike hates me , got right caliper done went to bleed system no matter what I did with my myte one man bleeder no action on brake lever. This master cylinder looked okay , but I have others so swapped out for another . Took awhile but finally got pressure , raised front wheel and have FRONT BRAKES . I am using original 82 brake lines , really would prefer braided steel but that will need to wait for now , still need to put head light buckled back in place but getting late so calling it a day .

 

I could not get my MAC exhaust system to seal , bought a used system off of eBay, before I installed it was going to pull oil level sensor and clean it ...of course I did not have enough oil ...off to Autozone , was going to get another set of plugs ...what a waste of time " dude what vehicle is this for? " 82 Yamaha xj750 seca I need NGK BP7ES ...." is that a motorcycle? YES it is ...we don't sell motorcycle parts ...I told him I have gotten plugs from there before ...he asked the girl that worked there no NGK but they had AC delco ...forget it!!! Got exhaust more or less mounted , sound great ran out of time to finish installing.

 

Got more done , finished installing exhaust someone drilled holes around baffle sound great!! Replaced brake cable the one that was on the master cylinder did not look very good . Got out my Morgan tune really shocked was very close to perfect , I have them set about as perfect as it can be !!!! Going to let it cool off and recheck , these carbs I had rebuilt almost two years ago as a spare set so these have worked out good. I'm using my riding lawnmower fuel tank , I bought a new aftermarket petcock I'm not real enthused with . The petcock in the tank I got with bike is different I think it is off a Virago , may get a rebuild kit for it .

 

Seems like a lot of auto zone stores are not selling NGK plugs anymore ,ive been in 4 states and they say we can order you the BPR7es plugs

 

I have used Autolite AP63 plugs( equivalent to NGK) this was hot ticket for my Virago 750 , when I was on that forum , Autozone never stops to amaze me most of their employees cannot tell you anything that their computer does not display.