JimR

Hi, if its leaking from the gaskit this will have no bearing on the the running of the motor. Regards Jim

We had loads of drives go it wasn't the best idea ! Mind you fitting a digi speedo will cure it have a look at the Sigma sport units they are quite good ! Regards Jim

Hi James, it would appear you have over complexed the issue, if the bike tried to run, it would be good practice to check the ignition and carb out b4 pulling the motor to bits. before spending money on rings, carefully remove them from the piston and check the end gap, while they are off the piston you could also check the piston to bore clearence, if this is ok you can deem the motor to be ok and then go to the carb & ign .. I am asuming the bike is a YZ motorx bike and not a YZF road bike... if so please disregard this post. Regards Jim

Hi Martin, I'm just wondering what happend to the first one ? did you trash it ? and I must say Regards Jim

Hi Martin, I'm just wondering what happend to the first one ? did you trash it ? and I must say Regards Jim

Hi Jim, the 80's XV750 was in it's day was class apart from the carbs blowing off. When the carbs were on they were very very good and when off very verry bad Out of the 2 bikes you suggest in my book the XV would win every time !! XS250 was/is slow & heavy for it's size and a pain in the bum to get to run as it should !!! you would need less special tools to maintain an XV750 over an XS250 but the choice is yours !!! Regards Jim

Not on an XS400, just a good old plunger choke with 2 grooves in it and a spring wire behind the rubber cap on the plunger which dropped into the grooves and held the choke full on or half on, back in the 80's the only Yamaha's the had bimetallics were bikes like the SA50, CV80, MJ50, BL125 and other bikes of that ilk Regards Jim

The Mixture is well wrong .. but I guess you have turned down the idle screw or adjusted it, as after work to the carbs this will alter, what you need to do is check the ign timming & valve clearences then connect vaccum guages to the take offs balance them then turn to the mix screws, with all the previous adjustments do the idle will alter so you will need to adjust this at every step of the way. The mix screws need to be screwed in fully home (lightly) and turned out until you get the highest idle, then adjust the idle down & check if the bike cuts out/slows down when you put the lights on ... then just tweek the screws until switching the lights on or off makes no difference. Regards Jim

Hi HoggyF, Xt350 how old ....? if its an old un with no electrics in site the drive at the wheel end needs to be checked out by spinning the wheel with the cable disconnected if the drive turns and the cable is intact the good old non electrical head has seen better days, but if the drive doesn't turn there is a chance that the tin plate drive tag in the wheel hub has broken or bent (incorrect fitting of the speedo drive to the hub) or the drive itself has siezed up ... can you tell us how old the bike is ? Regards Jim

Hi, What colour does the plug come out like after doing a plug 'chop' ? This will indicate the mixture strengh at the time the engine failed. If the crankshaft seals have gone/leaking they can be checked by checking behing the mag for oil deposits (wetness), which would be the l/h seal gone or the gearbox oil level low and excessive smoke from the exhaust for the r/h gone/leaking. If the cylinder is scored you will have a rattle at idle (might be difficult to hear through the water jacket, but is the motor sounds different you may have a problem there) and if severe a lack of total performance and not a misfire at the top end. As a foot note I rode a Rieju RS2 Matrix (same engine in a Spanish chassis) on saturday and managed approx 100 kph and it ran quite sweet, with looking at the electrics on the Rieju I would be inclind to get the read outs for the CDI & pickup coil and test them HOT & COLD. Don't forget what a CDI does ...it dynamically adjusts the ign timing to suit the engine speed (rpm) so your electrics could be sending the spark to the plug at the wrong time, which in turn could cause a misfire at high rpm and other problems. Regards Jim

Hi Joffie, just fire the motor down here (pack it in a good box) and an honest appraisal of what you may have done to the motor will be done .. if you don't want to do that strip it down & send piccies and the same appraisal will be done. Regards Jim

Hmmm, you replaced the oil filter I do hope you got it the right way round !! it is possible to fit the filter either way, if backwards serious engine damage may occur (weather it bled out or not). just ensure the filter is the correct way round .. but I guess that the clutch & g/box have not been lubed and there will be quite a few parts that need replacing Regards Jim

Hi Michelle, I also worked for a Yamaha agent, in the UK, thro the 70's & 80's so I am only clued up on UK spec bikes, putting a global slant on it I did the following research :- Model Year(s) Code XS 650 78-81 1U3 XS 650 A 74 447 XS 650 B 75 ? XS 650 C 76 584 XS 650 D 77 1U3 XS 650 E 78 2F0 XS 650 E 78 2G6 XS 650 F 79 ? XS 650 F 79 ? XS 650 H XS 650 SE 79-81 3L1,4G7,5E6 XS 650 SF 79 ? XS 650 SG 80 3U6 XS 650 SG 79 3W6 XS 650 SH 81 5A9 XS 650 SPEC XS 650 TX 72 ? XS 650 Xs1 69 256 XS 650 XS1 XS 650 XS1F 69-70 ? XS 650 XS2 72 306 XS 650? 341 from this reference the SE is shown as 3L1, 4G7 & 5E6, In the UK the 1979 model's parts book ( the last year of books as 1980 saw the introduction of fiche) was coloured blue (blue for four stroke , yellow for 2 stroke, road and some other colours for 2 stroke off road (orange or red seems to ring a bell) and green or olive for the V series bikes, and was marked XS650S. If you worked at a Yamaha Dealer in that time frame 76~89 perhaps we met at the loads of seminars that Mitsui ran at the time, with my position in the dealership I had to do service,parts & sales seminars, and perhaps we could reminisce about the staff at Mitsui ! Regards Jim

Hi Michelle, I cannot find a ref on the net to a 4E4 Xs650S or SE the code I found where 3L1,4G7,5E6 but if you have a better reference could you send a link to it ... Just checked the copy of the V5 doc for my XS650S (I've copied every single bike I've owned and that shows a 3L1 number Regards Jim

Ok the 79 S was much closer to the XS650 as it had the metal side panels, hinge up seat, slightly different carbs. Cosmetic changes to the clocks (different warning lights) the S modal was finished in black (with a light gold metal flake) had special on the side panals with a tacky US flag underneath) the SE was finished in a maroon colour and had US custom on the side panels. I always felt that the S was a slightly better bike but the SE sold in much bigger numbers than the S but only had a short production life. Regards Jim

As it's going concern perhaps you could up the ante a bit from the £200 I first mentioned it will depend on how much resto work is needed ( I have just done an FS1 cost to buy £140, restoration cost is sat at about £500 and I still have not finished) without seeing it, it is difficult to value £400 maybe in order ... The modal you are looking at is an XS650S and not SE and from memory the modal code is 3L1. As this modal is more rare than the SE version you may find a fully restored one is worth a bit of money have a look at this one on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-XS650se_W0QQi...A1%7C240%3A1318. £870 at the moment and not in original colours Regards Jim

Does the motor turn over ? if not you could be in for some big expense which will refelct in its price. Is the bike the black one with the tubular steel grab rail & steel side panels or does it have plastic side panels & a chunky alloy grab rail ? If it is the modal with the steel bits it could be worth more than the other modal as it was only around for 6 ~ 8 months before it was replaced with the plastic/alloy modal. I had one new in 1979 and managed close to 90k on it before I swaped it for a slightly bigger bike (XS850) big mistake should have kept the 650, in that time I put 2 cam chains in, lots of starter clutches, a few sets of genny brushes and that was about it ... It's value is up to you but I guess as a non runner (and without seeing it) I would guess £100 ~ £200 but its up to you Regards Jim

Hi Brandon, the side switch does not allow the bike to pull off with the side stand down by killing the ign circut i.e when the bike is put into gear with the side stand down the bike stops, but if it goes wrong it may stop the ign wether the bike is in N or not. you can test for this by putting an ohm meter across the connections , you should have a circut whith the stand in one position and open circut in the other Regards Jim

Hi There, I forgot to add I passed a few faults but they were all down to driving big stuff all the time and the bad habits set in !!!! but it's in the bag ! Regards Jim

well u could do what most R1 owners do buy a new one and end up in an it may work out cheaper than putting a hacksaw to the frame but I guess not ... I'm now to old to run a sports bike, the old man divi thing is fast enuf but I did talk to a younger guy who had a Honda Ciddie Boy Racer (CBR) 1000 today who admited the bike was to quick and on top of that he couldn't handle the hydraulic clutch it was on or off (his idea of running up to 120 in second sounds a bit bizzare to me) but what ever each to there own ! Regards JIm

Don't you mean Crapi ...... sorry my time with the 3.0 Crapi was a bad one ! Regards Jim

Hi Pete, I would guess that the bike dont need that much choke if the bike is a late 80's early 90's TZR but on reading the post it idles it idles with the button in the out position & not the in position ? To set the idle up do the following :- 1) Run the engine until warm (dont worry about the choke position) 2) insure the choke it off (pushed in) 3) Adjust the idle via the throttle stop screw until the tacho reads 1,250rpm 4) screw in the mix screw and back it out 1.5 turns (the engine may stall at this point) 5) if the engine does not respond or idle very well at this point disassemble the carb and clean it out & retry I guess you have done the normal checks of compression, Spark plug & exhaust system (TZR has CDI fixed ignition, so there is no need to check this, unless you have a misfire.). I know it sounds silly but could you be using the choke the wrong way round ? Regards Jim

I guess you could hacksaw the frame out !!!! Regards Jim

I guess April 1st will have a good bearing on this Regards Jim

Hi There, the damper has a 27mm nut correct Yamaha part no, for the tool is, 90890 01388, this it a nut that fits into a tee bar but I guess a 27mm nut attached to a long enough tee bar will do the job from what I can see. Yamaha themselves did not fit timpkin taper bearings in the steering head but from a quick search on ebay there are conversions to buy. My Divi 900 is now 11 years old (well younger than yours) and to date no service work has been required to the steering head assy. If the head is 'lumpy' you could try just slackening it a bit but if this then puts lateral play into the head you may just have to strip the head assy out fit new balls & rotate the races so that any dents in the races are towards the rear of the headset. If you have lateral play in the forks just adjust the steering head until the play has gone. Yamaha recomend every 12,000km to adjust the steering head and a strip down, clean & regrease at 24,000 km so you may find your bike just needs its correct service rather than replacement. The repairs mentioned above will be cheaper & ,may be less time consuming than fitting a taper bearing set for no real gain over the oem setup. Regards Jim