THE X(j) FILES: EPISODE IV
by Al
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Morris: I was a
"man in black." Doggett: I saw the movie. Morris: Yeah, well there were a lot of technical inaccuracies in that. THE X-FILES |
For those who came in late: Episode I, Episode II, Episode III.
I got a call from Ant the next day. "Come in", he said. I want to show you your bike". "Is it going already?" I asked. He laughed. "Just come in."
I went in.
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XJ carburettor jet before sonic cleaning |
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...and after |
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Some of these old girls don't look too bad if the light's right |
He showed me how the rust and crap that collected in XJ fuel tanks made its way through to the carburettors. One jet was completely blocked, all the others were partly blocked. The float bowls and bodies were filthy.
"Just wanted to show you", said Ant. "The only way to clean these is a sonic bath. I'm sending them out to one tomorrow."
"Great", I said. "What else can be wrong with this bottomless money pit?"
"You'll only have to do it once", said Ant. "And they're a great bike." I gave him a day and then started hounding him on the 'phone.
"Well", he said, "I've re-fitted the carbies, and balanced them, and shimmed the valves, and changed the oil. The motor's still a bit rough, but a good blast will probably clear a lot of it. I'll do the carbies again when I can borrow a YICS tool". Yamaha had some kind of swirl generating Yamaha Induction Control System on the XJs, and it needed a special tool to tune properly.
"Great", I said. "Let's get it registered."
"Um, no." Said Ant. "It's got an exhaust leak and the brake calipers are locked solid."
More money. "Fix it", I said.
"Don't feel bad", Ant said. They're a great bike."
Ant stripped the brakes. He had to use a pinch bar to get the rear caliper loose. He replaced the front pads, and he replaced the front brake master cylinder with one off an XS1100 that he happened to have lying around.
I dropped in on Friday. "Will it pass rego?"
"Dunno," said Ant. "It's still got an exhaust leak. It's either a gasket or a hole in the collector box."
I started it up. It didn't sound TOO bad.
"Let's try", I said.
So, he took it down to the rego outfit, and they issued a blue slip.
I raced to the green slip place, raced to the motor registry, raced home and got a helmet and jacket, got a cab to Firebrand, and fronted about 5:30pm. Just in time to ride it home in peak hour traffic in the dark.
"It goes", said Ant. "But the brakes are crap. You can see the brake lines expand when you pull the lever. The manual always says replace the lines every four years. Not that many people do. This bike's twenty something years old, and they look like the original lines."
"I tried to pressurize the forks", he continued. "But they leak."
I paid the bill, which came to slightly more than the purchase price of the bike. It was dark, it was peak hour, and the bike had lots of things wrong with it.
So I rode it home the long way.
The next day was Saturday. I skipped training and took it for a ride. The exhaust was a bit loud, but I figured it could wait. The fuel gauge didn't work. The brakes were marginal at legal speeds. And without air assist, the forks bottomed out if I hit a bump under even light brakes.
With suspension like that, I didn't push it at all. But, the engine was nice. It was still a bit lumpy at idle, but it had a nice broad power band and it accelerated with authority in pretty well any gear any gear from pretty well any revs. I kept going for a non-existent sixth gear, but I guessed I'd get used to it.
The eighty dollar mirrors gave me a fabulous view of my elbows. And after I hit a bump under brakes and the forks bottomed out, the fuel gauge started working.
I dropped in at Firebrand on my way home. "Ant", I said, "the forks are shot. There's no travel, and it looks like I've blown a seal already."
"Yeah", he said. "There's twenty four years of sag in those springs." He checked the fork. "Seal looks OK", he said. "The air balance tube is leaking, and the oil is dripping down the fork leg."
"Can you order some Ikon fork springs and a set of O rings and fix it before I throw this bottomless money pit at someone?"
"Sure I can", said Ant. "But you won't do that. They're a great bike."
Shopping list time again. Some bike shop in Texas was selling a set of braided steel brake lines on Ebay. I emailed them to see if they shipped to Australia. They did. I ordered.
Yamaha said the RRP on a new exhaust collector box was $460. They were NLA (No Longer Available) ex Yamaha, but Yamaha have a fantastic system whereby they can query the stock of all Yamaha dealers in the world. If you order it, most of the time they will get it for you. And there was an outfit in the Netherlands called Laser Exhausts that still made a 4-1 for the XJ900, so if the leak was the collector box rather than the gasket I had a couple of options.
But, I was starting to get used to the growl, so I put that on the bottom of the list. Top of the list was the front suspension. Ikon (who used to be called Koni when the XJ was first built) said that XJ900RK fork strings were not in stock but they could back-order them.
Fuhgeddaboudit. I wanted to go for a ride.
I called Cassons, and they had a set of Progressive Suspension fork springs to suit in stock. I ordered, I purchased, I fitted. The ride height lifted 100mm, the forks stopped bottoming under brakes, and oil stopped leaking out of the balance tube. The Progressive documentation recommended starting with zero psi fork air pressure. That suited me fine.
A couple of longer rides around the suburbs and I was getting used to her. The brakes bedded in a little and went from crap to below average within a hundred kilometres. The suspension seemed OK, she steered OK, and the motor pulled hard.
I decided to ride it to Lithgow over the Bells Line of Road on the weekend. It rained all weekend.
I decided to ride it to Lithgow over the Bells Line of Road on the NEXT weekend.
It rained all that weekend, too.
