XJ1100 soon to be on the road

[stereomind]

Hey guys!

Last year I almost got an XS11. Things didn't work out. bummer. I ended up getting a 750 Seca, to go along with the 550 Maxim that was resurrected after a 20-year hiatus.

But: my buddy just got a XJ1100 with 20K miles on the clock, and I get to help him fix it up.

From the first look, I noticed a few things that need attention:

brakes... Pretty much a complete rebuild.
fuse box is stock, and botched
Fork seals are history
rubber is shot
carb boots are cracked
there's a minor oil leak behind the right crank case cover.
miscellaneous stuff like turn signals, filters, and some electrical stuff needs replacing.
gas tank has some dents that need to be teased/pulled/popped out.
Carbs are probably filthy
Valve lash is unknown yet

Can you suggest anything else to check?
The P.O. claims that there is no 2nd gear problems (which are common I guess).

Thanks!


Vlad

[81xsproject]

Before you go replacing the carb boots check and make sure there is actually a problem. Mine, and many other members< are cracked on the outside but still just fine on the inside with no leakage. But, hey if you got money to throw around, why not.

[trbig]

Woo Hoo! Another Okie! lol.

The leak from the right sidecover is either from a galley plug that is situated at the bottom of the crankcase under that cover. Don't try to operate the engine with that cover off or you'll blow that plug out along with about 1/2 your oil within seconds. I wish I could tell you that I've only HEARD of this happening.... If you lean the bike on the sidestand, you can pull this plug without losing the oil. There is an O-ring around that galley plug you can replace to stop the leak if that's the problem.

The only other thing under there is the crank seal. It sits behind the rotor. The seal can be old and cause it to leak, or the crank is wobbling around causing this to happen. If there's truly only 20k on the motor, I doubt it's that.

For some reason, the XJ seems to get it's 2nd gear problem... with the 1st gear. Some people never have the problem.

Good luck.

Tod

[stereomind]

Cool! thanks for the info. I was thinking about plasti-dip or liquid tape for the boots as first aid. Would that be ok?

Tod, so I guess case-splitting is not required for either of the leak possibilities?...

also... How much of the XJ motor is interchangeable with the XS? are they basically the same, other than YICS?


I'll post some pics as soon as we get the grime off the bike. By the way... the bike's tentative name is "El Burrito".

[Rasputin]

I had cracks in my outer carb boots and I taped off everything and used the plasti-dip. It worked really nicely and now they look new. I was worried that the cracks may leak later if I did not take care of it. At the time I did not know of these guys and had no other info to go on. I have run them for 10 yrs now with no problem.

[trbig]

so I guess case-splitting is not required for either of the leak possibilities?...

Nope. No splitting of cases required. Although it does require removal of the rotor to replace the crank seal, which can be a real PITA sometimes. The original seal has a lip on the inside of the case, so prying it out is sometimes tough, but the replacement seals don't have this lip on them and they just get tapped back into place. Don't buy an OEM seal, they can be had for much cheaper elsewhere.

There are some differences with years and such. The '78-'79 head had smaller valves, but hotter cams. The '80 and above including the XJ had bigger valves but had a larger combustion chamber in the head lowering compression... which was made up mostly by using a higher domed piston.

Short story long, not counting the electronic part of things, for the most part, you could interchange most things mechanically with the XS for the entire power train. There are going to be some differences, but with a little swapping around, you could drop an engine in from any year and make it work. When I got my XJ originally, it had a '78 engine in it.

I didn't like the YICS system and capped it off in the head. It also took me about a month to throw that fuel octo mess into the trash. The XJ's air filter can also be a bugger for installing and removing the carbs. So much so, that I chunked it in favor of pod filters. The XS's will loosen up and move a bit to allow installation, but the XJ's won't.

Tod

[stereomind]

well, we got the bike in the garage today and did some more looking. apparently the PO did not treat this baby well...

the crappy part:
front left fork tube is bent. soooo we're on a hunt for a new (or used) set of fork tubes that work with the air assist thingamajig. while the front end is apart, we're dropping in a set of tapered bearings. never done those before, but how else do you learn?

we also pulled the alternator cover, in search of the mysterious oil leak. I did not see/feel any oil directly behind the pulley, so I'm wondering if it's not that galley plug... it kinda has a brownish residue on the bottom. How hard is it to pull that plug out? do I just grab on with some pliers, or...?

this one's gonna be fun!

Couple of pics here...