kevinneill889 Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Hi all, well first off im new to this here site so hello. Ok ive bought myself a 1992 Xj600 pre diversion with 28.000 miles but need some help. I bought the bike with no mot and i need some advice on this bike. First off i have noticed the bike seems to have a notch in the steering at dead centre, now im thinking head bearings but its smooth everywhere else in the turning. second oil, which viscosity and where is the sump plug? and three anything that is common on these bikes i should check for the mot? No doubt you will be sick of the site of me on here but ive found these forums very handy in the past. Cheers folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wild foamy Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Hi Kevin! first of all i see your a new member, welcome to the forum and please PLEASE go and post an intro, chances are the other members wont reply until you do, doesnt have to be anything special, just a little bit about who you are, where your from, what youve got and what you want to do with it, takes 5 minutes and it will get you in the loop with us regulars. congrats on buying a pre-div, they are the fastest of the series no matter what anyone says, the notch at dead centre could well be the head bearings, its worth taking the top forks off and having a look just incase they have worn a "dead spot" into the race. viscosity? 10w/40, be sure it is a MOTORCYCLE oil and not a walmart special offer oil, if it contains mobylene then leave it well alone, putting a general purpose car/lawnmower oil in it will cause the clutch to slip and cause you no end of headaches, the sump plug is on the very bottom just behind where the exhaust manifolds go under the engine, it can be a right bastard to get off and if your bike is fitted with a Motad Neta system you will have to take the exhaust off to get it out, be sure to fit new exhaust washers when you put the exhaust back on or it is sure to leak (you may get away with using exhaust sealent in the headers for the first couple of times, after that its definately worth putting new washers in) MOT checks, definately check the rear tail lights, there are two dual filament lights just incase one blows you always have one left until you get home, if the cables are a bit coroded these can blow within 5 minutes of each other due to high resistance so check them both before the MOT, other than that check the rear suspension linkage moves freely as they are prone to ceising up let me know how you get on, im madly in love with the pre-divs, especially when they piss all over another young sod on a suzuki SV650 at the traffic lights. regards Foamy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Hi Kevin, Foamy is right take the bearings out and have a look at the inner ball race, I have an XJ 750 which is very similar to your bike so if you get stuck give me a shout, the bearings on my bike are loose roller bearings so when you take the top off watch out for the buggers rolling all over the floor, if your lucky you will have the encased type of bearing and if this is notchy you will have to replace it don't even think about greasing it and shoving it back as it will fail the dreaded MOT, other than that you will be amazed at the bikes performance compared to modern bikes it will shit all over most of them and will put a grin on your face every time you take it out. Oh and one other thing check the rear swing arm movement and make sure that it don't move side to side, bikes with drive shafts tend to put a bit more strain on the bearings here than chains, don't know why but there you are, it's easy to adjust the free play out and while your at it put in loads of grease to keep the crap out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted June 30, 2012 Author Share Posted June 30, 2012 Cheers for the info guys. i stripped the bike today and it turned out the bearings where needing greased. I gave them a good look over and could see no sign of damage or wear, packed them with grease and rebuilt and its like new. Other question i have is where does the petrol gauge get its reading from as i had the tank off today and it clicked on me after i stuck it back on that i never seen any wires for a sender unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 Hi Kevin, there should be a wire that runs from the sender to the connector under the seat right near where the tank attaches to the frame, if you look under the tank to the right you will see the sender unit and the associated wire & that should lead you to the connector, not all of the bikes had the sender unit in them and of course if someone has changed the tank out over the years then it might not be there at all, it's not that acurate anyway to be honest and it only lets you know there is fuel in the tank which you can find out for yourself if you look in the filler hole so pretty pointless really! good luck with your strip down and good news about the head stock bearings, I assume you did do them both top & bottom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 1, 2012 Author Share Posted July 1, 2012 Hi Kevin, there should be a wire that runs from the sender to the connector under the seat right near where the tank attaches to the frame, if you look under the tank to the right you will see the sender unit and the associated wire & that should lead you to the connector, not all of the bikes had the sender unit in them and of course if someone has changed the tank out over the years then it might not be there at all, it's not that acurate anyway to be honest and it only lets you know there is fuel in the tank which you can find out for yourself if you look in the filler hole so pretty pointless really! good luck with your strip down and good news about the head stock bearings, I assume you did do them both top & bottom? Cheers buddy, i took the tank of again today and yes the wire for the sender unit had been taped to the bottom of the tank. I then found the connection you mentioned joined them both and i have a working fuel gauge. Right next thing (sorry if im being a pest). I noticed on the fuel tap i have three positions. ON, PRI and RES. Question is i know on is on and res is reserve but what is the pri and how do i turn the fuel off as i had to mess with the tap to remove the tank today but forgot to look at where it was sitting when i had it turned off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wild foamy Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 PRI stands for PRIME, basically if you run your tank dry and run out of fuel turning the tap to this position will let the fuel flow even when the engine is off, your fuel tap uses the engines vacumn to turn itself on and off so no need to worry when you disconnect it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Hi Kevin, Foamy is right (AGAIN!!) but when you take the tank off make sure you remove the vaccum pipe (upper one) first as if you have it on RES it will spit out fuel from the fuel line if you do it the other way round, the PRI setting is to let you refill the carbs if you have had them off or have run out of fuel, as this bike is new to you make sure you check the rear drive shaft oil level and change the oil at the service intervals it should give trouble free drive but if you let the oil get low it will bite you in the arse, hope you have a good Haynes or similar manual cos some of the bits on the bike need regular fettling, nothing major but if you do regular maintenance it should run with no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 Hi Kevin, Foamy is right (AGAIN!!) but when you take the tank off make sure you remove the vaccum pipe (upper one) first as if you have it on RES it will spit out fuel from the fuel line if you do it the other way round, the PRI setting is to let you refill the carbs if you have had them off or have run out of fuel, as this bike is new to you make sure you check the rear drive shaft oil level and change the oil at the service intervals it should give trouble free drive but if you let the oil get low it will bite you in the arse, hope you have a good Haynes or similar manual cos some of the bits on the bike need regular fettling, nothing major but if you do regular maintenance it should run with no problems. Ah but i have a chain lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campaman Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Need to see some pictures of this bike, I like my Dragstar but the XJ600 is the favourite of the other bikes I have had, and was wondering what all this check the drive shaft was about as I clearly remember mine had a chain. When I first got is my mates had 750's, and the joke was who was going to tow me up to 120 on the way to the Isle of Man, well they got a bit of a surprise on that one :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slice Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Course you do sorry I am totaly wrong (not for the first time) forgot the 650 had a chain must be my age creeping up on me, sorry Kevin I will sit at the back of the room now with my new pointy hat!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wild foamy Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 650s and upwards had a shaft drive, possibly the 550 aswell but all of the 600s' had chains Haynes manuals are good or alternatively just start a thread in the relevant section, these XJs are still rather popular and chances are whatever job needs doing on your bike has been done before by myself or someone else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 I stripped the rear shock off tonight to do the linkage, they where ok bar the left and right ones that pivot on the swingarm but its all been stipped cleaned painted and rebuilt. I will say the shock has some bad rust on it so im wondering if any others fit as ebay dont seem to have many unless i want to pay £400. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wild foamy Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Rust on the spring is negligable, as the spring moves and flexs the powdercoating can flake off or get stone chips, and once the powdercoating breaks the water gets under it and it starts peeling off, if its rust on the chrome rod that goes through the middle then theres a good chance the seals are knackered and it needs replacing/refurbishing, There are enough people breaking XJ600 pre-divs for you to get a second hand one in good condition (ebay breaker), alternatively, find one from a bike of similar weight (230kg if i remember rightly) with the same length and width shock, perhaps an early fireblade? may need a stronger spring though as the fireblades are about 180kg, and dont expect it to ride the same as the rebound and damping settings would all be totally different, my advice is stick with a good second hand one or buy a new/refurbished one, my '89 XJ is still running its original rear shock and its still in good condition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 Ok i will dig around. Any advice on where i should look? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wild foamy Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 eBay, there atleast 4 people breaking bikes from what i can see, best thing to do is if you see an advert like "XJ600 brake caliper - breaking bike" or words to that effect, contact that seller and ask them if they would sell a rear shock, i've used that method to find all sorts of parts for my bike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 ok cheers ill have a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 Another question, sitting on the bike left hand side(side with fuel tap) what is under he engine cover with yamaha etched into it? The reason i ask is i was wanting to remove it for painting but dont want my new clean oil pissing out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wild foamy Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 can't say for sure as the bike is at home and im away for the rest of the week, my guess is probably the ignition gubbins, cant say for sure without looking at my haynes manual (if you havent got one then get one, saves a load of messing around when you cant figure out where something goes or what to do with it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinneill889 Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 ok cheers buddy. did the ebay thing for the shock but seems there all sold. im just going to clean it up and prime and paint it in the now. the chrome rod is fine in the middle just the spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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