iT LiVeS!!

Well, the bike is running, albeit without the pilot screw and the carbtuning. That's a necessity, and I think once that's done, I can start riding it all the time. I have to add all the little accessories to it (the chrome airbox covers, the trim pieces for the carbs) and then it'll be 100%.

I should be getting the carb tune any day now, and I haven't heard back from chacal regarding that pilot screw, so that may not be until late next week. I also ordered another boot because one of them was pretty hard.

You know, as I sat staring at the frame of my bike today, I thought, "There's no reason why I can't put the carbs back on." So I did just that. Of course, once I did that, I needed to put the tank back on. Things just kind of fell into place after that. I knew that starting it up would be rough, especially since the willy-nilly nature of the twisting of the screws. I'm going to do some more research tonight on float levels, maybe installing some louder horns, perhaps change out some lights. Little things. I think my days of tearing the bike down are over.

At least for this week.

FiNaLLY!!!

Got it out!

Yes, that little brass bastard didn't stand a chance against a man determined and power tools.

However, it is unfortunate that I broke the screw and will now have to wait to get a replacement. But, that will allow me to do some other things to the bike I have been putting off.

When I arrived at DW's house, I was surprised to find an entertainment center, TV and nice stereo with surround sound speakers in his workshop! Very nice. He also has a pretty nice Maxim X with something like 5500 miles on the ticker. 5500 miles! A 1985! Absolutely awesome. It needs a little cosmetic work, but boy, when he fired it up (and it did fire up almost right away, after having sat for a couple days) it sounded fantastic. He installed some aftermarket horns that will certainly get someone's attention (it sure got mine. I think I peed myself).

We got started on the carbs pretty much right away. When it was determined that we weren't going to remove the carbs by brute strength alone (and we had shaved off what was left of the screw head) we decided to drill a small hole, per xjbikes great how to guide, and use a screw extractor to get it out. However, I didn't have a screw extractor, and neither did he. So, it was off to a hardware store we went. Luckily, they stocked the sizes we needed, allowing us to get right back to it.

We tried using a a regular drill, but the top of the screw was so mangled, we couldn't hit the exact center. We ended up using a drill press, which was exactly what was needed. Using a steady hand, DW drilled into the head.

It took a couple of whacks with the ball peen hammer, but we finally got the screw extractor seated, and slowly twisted the screw out. It was hard, no question about it. We used PB Blaster and 3-in-1 oil to finally get it out.

The other three weren't as difficult, but it was still fraught with peril. Nerve-wracking. I was afraid of breaking something beyond repair. But, it all worked out in the end.

I dripped some carb dip into those holes and let it sit a few minutes. I then blasted it with some carb cleaner, and compressed air to really get 'em clean

Tomorrow, I am going to replace the two good screws back into their respective holes, and hold off on the third because the top is a little mangled. Why set myself up for trouble later? Once I get those replacements, my Morgan should have arrived and I'll be able to do a proper tuning.

On another note, I had noticed before that something had dripped on one of the side covers, kind of eating into the plastic. I sanded it down nice and smooth and waxed it... and waxed it, and waxed it. I think there must be about 8 layers of wax on there. I'd like them to be like mirrors. The tank looks awesome. At some point, I am going to paint the engine cover. I really liked the way DW's X turned out, and he rattle canned it!

Thanks again DW. I couldn't have done it without your help.

Carb Redux

So, new coils installed, battery fully charged, carbs recently cleaned. Boy, was I ready for a ride! I fired the bike up (first time since coil install) and blammo! Instant start! NO hesitation whatsoever! I took a short ride up to the gas station (since I had my tank hooked up as an auxilliary tank and the tubing came off, gas all over ((but not too much, thank goodness)) and acceleration was awesome! Response, handling, everything was looking good and I was ready to get back to cleaning and polishing.

Then, I shut it off at the gas station to fill up the tank. Restarting, once the tank was full, was difficult. I started to sweat a little, but it started and I drove it straight home.

At home, I shut the bike off and after that it wouldn't start. Plugs completely fouled up. Sooty black. So, it's running rich. Too rich. Maybe it could take some of that rich problem and translate it into cash and fill my wallet back up. Thank goodness I'm independently wealthy.

Oh, wait a minute. I'm not.

Anyhow, I called this local mechanic who "specialized" in vintage bikes and had him come over to take a look. He pulls in, and steps out of his car wearing sweat pants, a wife beater and flip flops. Weighed nearly more than my motorcycle. He looked it over and then said, "It's a problem with your carbs. I'll clean 'em up for you for a couple hunnert bucks." My jaw dropped. Of course, I sent him on his way (after paying him for his time, of course... a complete rip-off/waste of time/whatwasIthinking???) and took the carbs off the bike again.

Now, the second time around was much easier than the first. Loosened the clamps, pulled the boots back disconnected the throttle and associated linkage and set up a little table, (muffin tins!) The carbs were still clean on the inside, but I did find one little thing that is worrisome. One of the pilot jets under the diaphragm (I think that's what it is) had some little "bits" of debris stuck in the channel, although the brass fittings themselves seemed to be in good shape. There were a few that I was unable to remove, and the PO apparently tried to do the same because a couple of the brass fittings seemed a little mangled. Not sure if that is a bad thing... if what I found is any indication, then I honestly don't know.

You know, I have been corresponding with this fellow from Pinckney and he's agreed to help me extract my pilot screws (the lil bastards) and look over my carbs. It's amazing they type of people you meet that go out of their way to help a fellow biker out. So, a big thank you to you, DW.

I'll post a follow up tomorrow on our progress tonight.

What a day!

Finally. I did it. I installed the fabled dyna coils on my XJ. It was a trial, to be sure.

Buying the right tools for the job was the first difficulty. I went to my local hometown big box retailer and bought angled aluminum (about 4' long, 1"x1"x1/8") for the brackets, as well as a hacksaw, some decent metal drilling bits, and a little "mini-hack" that was supposed to cut through metal like butter.

I also stopped in at Harbor Freight and picked up a heat gun (more on that in a minute), some bolts, a bench vise, some specialized screwdrivers and some other odds and ends. Note: Harbor Freight is truly a low end merchandiser. Most of their stuff comes from China (hence, my nickname "China Freight"). Unless you're buying bolts, tape, garden gloves or a carabiner, you're better off visiting your local hardware store (not that there are many small town hardware stores left).

I bought the heat gun with the intention of heating up the piece of aluminum I had on hand (a flat piece of door sill that should have worked, but didn't), and then bending it into the shape I wanted. Apparently the metallic properties of aluminum are such that you aren't allowed to do that. The metal cracked, then broke. Well, it was worth a try.

I removed the old coils from the bike. Actually very easy to do considering their placement on the XJ. Coil covers came off, coil wires removed from plugs and set aside. I had received instructions downloaded from the XJCD from a fellow in Pinckney that made the job much easier. Thanks, fella. He owns an X andd we have been corresponding back and forth on a variety of Yama-topics and plan to get together at some point and fine tune our bikes.

I placed the angled aluminum I had purchased in my new vise and got to work hacking away. 10 minutes later, I was halfway through. Butter?! More like angled aluminum! And I had 4 of these to make. I decided to use my trusty dremmel tool. Now that cut through like butter. Of course, I broke about 12 of the little cutting wheels, but all told, a very clean job when said and done. Hack sawing through them would have been ugly in many ways, not the least of which includes my daft handling of said tool.

When I had all 4 of the little brackets, I was pretty proud of myself. There is an old carpentry rule that should be followed to the letter: Measure twice, cut once. The pieces were all the right size, but figuring where to drill the holes was difficult. I only had 2 hands, and fitting everything together, holding it and making a mark on the metal proved to be very difficult. At first, I guesstimated. No matter how strongly you want to do it this way, I must advise against it. The holes are very particular in their placement, and if you willy-nilly start drilling holes, you'll end up making more brackets. In fact, you may want to just cut out 8 of the little brackets right at the beginning to save yourself hassles later. I ended up wasting 3 of them.

What I finally ended up doing was applying some black spray paint as a marking point on the coil mounting posts and holding the brackets, with new coils held in place, pressing the brackets up against the post. This gave me a good idea where to drill. Holes drilled, ViOLa! Success! I applied crush washers and bolts in place and mocked up the placement.

Of vital importance is filing down the burrs on the aluminum. I rounded off all corners, filed down the holes a bit to make them nice and smooth.

Once that was done, I cut off the old coil wires (shedding a tear as I did so... goodbye old coil. I knew you well) from both coils and set them aside. Following the instructions from the Dynacoil worksheet (definitely not layman's language) I crimped the coil wires. In retrospect, I should have used solder, but my gun was out of commision. I used the vise to to "crimp" the wires together and it worked beautifully. I had a crimping tool from my previous install, but it just wasn't doing the job. The trick here is to crimp tightly, but not so much that you damage the threads of the inner plug wire.

It's also important that those wires you just so painstakingly installed do not touch the conductive posts or brackets you just fabricated. Make sure you have enough clearance. This took some finagling on my part, but once done, looked something like this:

Make sure everything is nice and tight (but not too tight... no torque wrench needed, but if you ever need to remove these coils, no sense in making it difficult on yourself.)

Don't forget the grounding wire! I had everything installed, then noticed a tiny, almost invisible ring connector just hanging out, waiting to cause mischief. This would have haunted me for days, but it attaches on the bottom coil post.

One final word on installation. You might find it easier on yourself to mark the brackets with their location (TL for top left, BR for bottom right.) I had to take a bracket off, set it down amongst a few of my previous failures, then spent 15 minutes playing "Will the correct bracket please stand up" as I fit 3 different brackets with different holes in place, trying to make it work.

Finally, the end was in sight. I wired all the coils, measuring them for distance to the plugs then made the cut. (Be generous, you can always cut more later) I discarded the dyna coil plug caps. I preferred the stock caps that came with my bike. I cut these off, applied dielectric grease to the connect points, then screwed them on. Make sure your wires are seated deeply enough! And be sure to slide the coil rubber caps in place BEFORE you slip the end of the wire inside the coil. I don't know how difficult it would be to pull those wires out, but from what I've read, it would be nearly impossible. Once you've trimmed your opposite end of the wire, apply the connector, crimp and insert! Easy cheesy!

Or maybe not. The moment of truth had arrived. Triple checking all my connections, hoping for the best (but preparing for the worst) I turned the bike on. So far, so good. All lights lit up like they were supposed to. Giving it a bit of choke, I tenatively depressed the starter button. The bike turned over, but... what's that?! A backfire? Well, I had just recently cleaned the carbs. Let me give it another ... a hiss, a puff of white smoke and another backfire! CRaP!

Folks, this is what happens when you connect the wrong wires to the plugs. I had followed a diagram to the letter, triple checking the connections... however, my mistake was in installing the primary coil in the secondary coils spot, then wiring them. You can't do that! After a quick check with fellow members of the XJ owners group, I had indeed gotten my wires crossed Unfortunately, I couldn't just re-wire the coils to the plugs. That's right, I had to remove both brackets again, switch them to the opposite sides, and rewire.

Finally, success!! The bike fired right up! Sounds a bit choppy, but I know a carb tune is due. Once Morgan arrives...

All in all, I enjoyed doing this project. I have never been real handy, nor much of a mechanic, but in the last week, I have torn apart my carbs, re-wired my coils. Who knew? A true sense of fulfillment rests upon me.

Much like the aluminum dust and grease, dirt and accumulated grime only a 24 year old bike can share.

Success!

The bike is running!


I hooked everything up, checked the spark plugs, and fired it up! It started fairly easily, but it's still running rich. Not much I can do about that until I get that carb tune done.

My hands are really sore. I know the next few days are going to be difficult, but I'll make it through.

The toughest part of this carb tear down was the reinstall. Those boots gave me lots of trouble getting the lips lined back up on the airbox correctly. I may have to replace one, but they are fairly inexpensive. Of bigger concern are those pilot screws. Getting those out is proving to be very difficult. I put a little PB blaster penetrating oil on them, I am goiong to go back out after this post and see if they will let loose. If they don't... well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I could tear these carbs down again, if I had to, and I know the second time wouldn't be as bad. Patience is definitely a virtue. Chacal from xj4ever has been a huge help. Plus, a great source for parts!

The dynacoil installation is going to be a lengthy process too, but I know I'll prevail. As hard as it is sometimes working on this bike, I am really enjoying myself.

Keeping my hands clean... well, that is hardest of all.

I jumped right in...

Did the complete carb tear down today.

That's right. Tore those suckers out expecting to find something horrible, but it really wasn't that bad. Some of the parts were a little tarnished, but I cleaned things up and put it all back together.

The hardest part was the actual pulling out and putting in of the carbs. I'm still having a problem with the last boot, and I may have to end up ordering another one, but at least they are available.

I'm waiting patiently for that morgan carbtune and the dyna coils... looks like I won't be riding the bike anytime soon. But that's all right. Once the bike is actually running, it's going to be awesome!

More to come...

Fixed, sort of...

Well, I sort of got it working. I finished my clunk test, reinstalled everything and the idle was back down to an acceptable 1050rpms... that is, until I took it out for a test ride. When I got back and shut it off, I tried starting it again, and it wouldn't turn over. I pulled one of the plugs and it was sooty as a chimney. I pulled all the plugs, cleaned them up and reinstalled them (I probably wouldn't recommend doing this, but no one had the BP8ES plugs I needed!) It started up again, only to foul the plugs horribly. Later in the day, I messed a bit with the pilot screws, but until I get the Morgan Carb tune and colortune, I am just guessing. My ear is not tuned enough to tell when it's running clean.

I did get my YICS tool today. I am thinking of maybe pulling the carbs off the bike and taking a good look at everything. The funny thing is, it was running pretty good until I started messing with it!

I also ordered the Dyna coils and wires for the bike. The PO cut one of the wires pretty short, which could explain why sometimes the bike has a hard time starting. Man, I am spending waaay too much on this bike. I am not going to spend any more though. I am tapped out.

I did fashion a temporary fuel source using some fuel line and the gas tank. Works pretty well.

Come on, Morgan!