New Project, "The Fat Girl"

[wingnut]

My friend Adam bought 2 XJ1100s from somewhere down in Texas and trailered them home The naked one is in his garage and the bagger has been dropped off here for me to go over. So I have started going thru the make it road worthy process on Fat Girl, he found no humor in what I named his new bike. Serviced up a new battery yesterday, removed the tank which had no rust in it to speak of, marvel mystery oil in the cylinders,and started the inventory of what she will need. Air cleaner, fork seals, and drive shaft boot are already on the list but I'm having trouble sourcing those parts. Seems everyone is out of stock on the seals and air cleaner. I installed my test tank with a 4 oz of seafoam to 1/2 gallon of fuel mix and let it flow thru the carbs until I got clear fluid. Let them soak overnight. Guess it had been sitting for about a year from what I am told. The carbs will need to come off as it started running fuel out the airbox. Needles, orings and level set should stop the leaks. No big deal as I planned on that anyway. The plan is to see if I can get it to light off and run around the block to see if the trans and clutch are ok. If so I'll start the carb work and the rest of the to do list. I think the PO has installed an oscillator on the head light as there are a few strange looking connections in the harness along with a black box I do not recognize. The head light comes on as soon as you turn on the power. Is this normal for a bike with a windjammer fairing?

[natemoen]

The head light comes on as soon as you turn on the power. Is this normal for a bike with a windjammer fairing?

I believe every bike 79 and newer by law has to have a headlight that turns on with the key. If the owner of the bike modifies that feature that is their thing but from the factory it has to come on with the key

[DGXSER]

Every XS I have ever seen or owned the headlight comes on when the engine comes on, same for the XJ. I wonder if this headlight is one of those HID kit ones.

Sounds like a nice little project.

[SFerinTEXAS]

Had same question about the headlamp on my XJ. Thanks to C-bug's downloads found the XJ comes on with the key. Thanks C-bug.

Also highly recommend Yamaha Cab Cleaner. Remove the diaphragms and soak the complete carbs. No need to pull the float seats and disturbing the o-ring. No worry on the shaft seals. Just don't soak longer than 24 hrs

[SFerinTEXAS]

Forgot to mention should strip the carbs to ensure the jets and e-tubes are clean.

[petejw]

nearly every xs,
my 81 rh still uses a switch to turn the lights on and off
that came stock.

[XS1100 Newbie]

My 80 Special comes on with the engine start, and there is no off, only high and low beam.

[wingnut]

Well the fat girl runs. She started up this morning and even idled. Idled rough but idled. No strange engine nosies or fluids pouring out. Test ride showed the trans was good although I didn't have the opportunity to pull large amounts of power to really stress the gears. Clutch works really well and no signs of slippage yet. Brakes must have been worked on as the fluid is clear and the system provides plenty of stoppage power. Turn signals are not working. Switch needs clean and lube and you can bet there is a ground that's dirty somewhere. All in all I think she is a keeper. Plan now is to pull the carbs and go thru them, R&R the fork seals and replace the drive shaft boot. Change all the fluids and put her back on the street. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

[Cobia]

Xj

Hey Nut,
You can get the fork seals from Georgefix on ebay, maybe even the pads. The air filter is another story. It's just not available anywhere I've looked. There's a thread or two here where members have used K&N filter material, or foam, to make a working filter for themselves. I still have a functioning one on mine, but don't look forward to when it falls apart.
I also had a lot of electrical issues at first, but they disappeared after installing the blade type fuse block from TC and cleaning all the conectors and grounds.
The driveshaft boot is the same as in all XS's, Andreas should be able to help you with that.
Good luck.

[wingnut]

I've had bad luck with the aftermarket seals on 3 different bikes. And as the Fat Girl has that windjammer on the front I only want to do it once. Is there a differance between seals XJ and the XS?

[vileneeds]

I went down to my local bike shop and got an air filter for mine for twenty bucks. It was not stock and it was a little snug but it fit. They are not hard to replace.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Vile,

That's the benefit of having an XS...they were made for several years, and so aftermarket air filters are still available, but the XJ's were only made for 1 year in the US, a few in Canada, but not many. Their air filter is completely different than the XS's, and so as mentioned, folks have to get creative to use the old air filter frame, and make a new one that they can reuse/clean.

This is another reason folks go to INDY pods as well.

T.C.

[wingnut]

Well the Fat Girl is on the road. The carb clean, adjust and sinc fixed most of her issues. The bike pulls really well thru the whole range. After Adam spent a whole day getting the Texas dirt off of her she even looks pretty good. Issue we still have is the left fork tube. We replaced both seals on the forks but the roughness of the left tube destroyed the new seal in 100 miles. I have a good set of air forks from a 81 special in the parts pile. I know the preload adjuster and air fittings are different between the 2 bikes but can I swap over just the tubes?

Also the Fat Girls naked brother is in work. We have pulled the carbs and cleaned them replacing all the orings and needles. This bike is not in the best of shape and we suspect a second gear issue because of something the PO said. Plan is to get it running well enough to test the trans and then decide if we are going to do an engine off restoration or leave it in and work from the out side. New battery with the clean carbs. It cranks well but we can't get it to light up. It will try to fire but only after we release the starter button. Any ideas on what to check next?

[XS1100 Newbie]

If you check, i believe the diameters are different. Don't know about anything else. Maybe length?

[wingnut]

I thought the tubes were the same diameter but I'll check again.

The naked bike runs!!! If you want a testimonial on fuse box maintenance or up grade here's one. With the plugs out we would get very weak spark on all four plugs. Weak enough that when they were put under compression there would be no spark. Remember that we would get one or two nice fat sparks after we released the starter button. We had new fuse holder clips which we soldered in. With the new clips in place the spark was fat on all four while cranking. While we had the plugs out we pulled a compression check. Nothing less than 148 and its been sitting for years. We put the plugs back in and it fired right up. That was the goodness. After getting the brakes in a facsimile of working I did the test ride. 1st gear is screwed!! You can't even get the bike to start moving without it slipping out of gear. Start off in second and everything else feels fine both up and down. So the question has been answered, the motor is strong but we will pull it out to do the gears and paint the frame. Off to search the second gear fix