Got this off my brother in law. Yamaha XTZ750 Super Tenere. It's registered with DVLA as a 1997 bike but is 1992 plated. The clocks are in KMPH so I think it's probably an import down the line somewhere To say it needs some love is maybe an understatement, and whoever did the paint job needs shooting. They never keyed the paint before spraying, it's got that orange peel effect underneath. Horrid! And the seat needs to be done. It also needs new rubber, definately new brakes, maybe a new rear disc, possibly a new pipe (after he drilled holes in the rear of it), it's lumpy, sounds awful, the bars are wrong, the engine needs to come out and get cleaned and painted or anodised, and probably loads more that I have yet to find. The idea behind it is this; I've never been 100% happy with my TDM900. It goes great, and is a very good commuting bike, but I don't feel that it is the bike for me, even though I've had it over 12 months now. If I blow the engine on it, it wouldn't bother me in the least. And herein lies the problem. I'm not normally like that with my bikes. So I thought I'd have this one, do the work to get it mot'd, try it (after changing the bars), and see how it fits. If it doesn't fit, then it'll get renovated and moved on and I'll look for something else. We shall see what time brings.
New rubber ordered. The brakes are a bit strange, instead of both front calipers having the same pads, the front left and rear calipers are the same pads and the front right is slightly different pads Never mind, stripping out the rear caliper tomorrow for a good clean and overhaul. I'll check the front ones afterwards.
Front pads are fine, plenty meat left, just need to strip the calipers out, make sure they work properly and paint them Stripped out the rear caliper, slung it in the shotblaster, (holes bunged up of course), nice and clean, painted and re-built. Voila Ordered new rear pads today, found a set for £5.99 with free postage. Yeah right, I'm gonna put those cheap pads in one of my bikes Ordered the proper EBC ones, organic compound not sintered. Once the front calipers are done I'll start checking the running; It's proper lumpy but probably just bad fuel due to not being used for so long. Hopefully Will check all the lighting as well in the process, then hopefully the new tyres will arrive. Looking quite possible that it'll go for MOT next week sometime.
Busy busy weekend so far. Stripped the front calipers out, and found this: This is caused by condensation build-up, mainly in the master cylinder. This is what happens if you don't service your brakes/fluid/lines on a scheduled basis. I.E. change the brake fluid every 2 years, check the seals and stuff. God knows how long this has been going on. Both front calipers the same. Anyway, all done now; except for waiting for a new pad retaining pin for one of them. Then they can be bled. Changed the bars for a set of Renthal's I'd got on the shelf, the others were the flat type, didn't like them, and in the process of changing everything over the clutch switch decide to give up the ghost, so that got traced and bypassed. Now it starts again Checked over the lights and stuff for the MOT test, found the front brake light switch wasn't working, or one of the tail lights, got new ones on the shelf, working now, making the switch that's mounted in the banjo bolt redundant. Did the same with the side stand switch (scootz) That sorted, moved on to the running. It had a misfire type of thing going on, but not a misfire if you know what I mean. Sounded like a misfire, but more like a spit rather than a pop. Plus a hesitation on initial revving. Got me thinking about the air intake, so off came the filters, nice and clean, rather new in fact: Choked up filters ruled out, checked the plug caps and HT leads, both fine, whipped the plugs out, both relatively new but No1 plug very sooty. Cleaned it, put it back in, idled it for 5 minutes, took the plug out, SOOTY........but no sweep Maybe air/fuel mix screws not set...... Played with the screws, ran better, not so much with the popping now, but still there, and the hesitation is worse than before. Then started to overflow on the left hand carb! Given that it has been standing for a while, thought that the carbs could have varnished up some inside, so off came the carbs. Yeah, they're filthy, so could do with a good clean. You know, sometimes I hate "mechanics" This crap had gotten into the breathing holes inside the carb Small wonder it wouldn't run right. Who the hell uses sealant on a carb bowl FFS!!!! Anyway, stripped them all out, checked the diaphrams for splits, needles for wear, jets for CLEANLINESS Blown all the holes out, bits of sealant flying everywhere, all good now, need to order a couple of float bowl gaskets, I'm guessing these are shot, hence the SEALANT. For what the gaskets cost and the time it takes to get to the carbs and do this, it's a complete no brainer not to stop and replace them if they are leaking. Stupid waste of time. That's as far as I've got yesterday, but off to the garage shortly to get those carbs nice and clean on the outside. Then rebuilt and wait for the new float bowl gaskets to arrive..............unless Tamworth Yamaha have a couple in stock...................where's the phone.....................crap, too early...................................good excuse for a ride out though
I LOVE NEW TYRES Snow and Mud Specials, but also good on the road................apparently And fitted Found this as well: Burnt out connection on the regulator/rectifier. Hopefully may have caught it in time.
inhave the same if not very similar tyre on the front of the gs (tkc 70 rear), works great on gravel and loose mud, and ok ish on snow, not so great on very wet mud though, tends to be a bit vauge and loppy if that makes sense? nice project cant beleive ive missed it before now. im in the uk next month (2nd to 9th) want to take a trip over to peterborough to meet me and my wife? you can come on the XT and let me ride it... (subtle hint there...) and how is it a 92 plate bike registered in 97? thats just confusing! my car was first reg in 2001 but is on an M plate (95?) so it just makes no sense to me
It's an import. 1992 bike reg'd when it got here in 1997. Age related plate. And the clocks are in kmph. It will be mot'd by then i'm sure, so i will be riding it to see how it fits me. Sounds like a plan for a day out to me. Waiting for the new float bowl gaskets to arrive at the moment, then I can re-fit and balance the carbs, see how it runs. Really would like to put pancake air filters on it though instead of these stupid airbox rubbers.
Still waiting on these damn float bowl gaskets As far as I can see, that's all that's needed now, before the obvious running checks and final mot checks before it goes for mot. I HATE WAITING
YAY Float bowl gaskets turned up today, just when I thought I was going to lose a weekend working on it. Fitted those, put the carbs back on, connected hoses and pipes....................forgot to attach the throttle cables first Off it all came again, done right this time. Best of all..............NO LEAKS Balanced the carbs, adjusted the air/fuel mix screws, it seems to prefer 3 turns out rather than the spec 2 turns. Replaced all the fuel lines, need to relocate the fuel pump though. Checked the voltage across the battery again, 13.8 volts at 5000rpm, about 1 volt down on spec, so I'm going to replace the reg/rec before it goes completely. You can see the headlight dim and go bright again when the engine is revved so it's on the way out. Need a new temp sender unit, fuel tap gasket sets, float bowl drain screws and a regulator. The right hand carb has got a little leak around the drain screw, probably not seating right. I'll whip it out tomorrow and have a look............again. Can be done from under the bike so no need to have it all apart again. Apart from that, all the body is back on, exhaust sounds better, although it needs a deeper note for my liking. Should be in for MOT on Tuesday if all goes well.
MOT on Thursday...............works got in the bloody way................again. Every time I make plans.....................
work... hmmm i remember the concept.... remind me what that means again, something about drinking coffee?
Work is people phoning you up, throwing stupid amounts of money at you because they're in the proverbial, then staying for a stupid amount of time to sort it out. Instead of paying yourself a peanut salary for something you really enjoy doing. But as they say, a change is as good as a rest
All passed on the MOT. My bloke actually likes the exhaust note says it sounds nice. Not convinced myself................
So I've run the bike round for a few days, see how it fits. It's got a funny thing in the bends................. Bank round a right hander, it's fine Bank around a left hander.................it sort of wants to steer into it more than you'd like. You can actually feel the bars twitch a little. But just once. Once it's there, nothing else It's like it's running on full nobblies and the front tyre is dropping into the space between them, or imagine going round a bend and dropping into the seam in the tarmac and you get that little twitchy type thing on the bars. I'm having the forks out tomorrow, just to see whats what, strip them out, new oil and stuff. It may just be that. I've also been looking at new colours for it I think it will look really nice in this: It's called BURPLE. And black decals, but not many. Just the Super Tenere, a Yammy tuning fork logo, and the 750 decal Wheels will get blacked, and the engine will get painted to it's factory colour again. Blacked down pipes. Carbon tank pad and knee scratch protectors. That'll be it, no more.
Stripped the forks out, all the bushes/springs/damper/seals all fine. So rebuilt with new 10w oil up to specified levels. Went to put them back in, touched the bars, and instead of running round smoothly, they stopped! There's a bloody 'notch' in the the top bearing, that wasn't there for the MOT. So new top and bottom bearings ordered, they will be here tomorrow. Also ordered new black fork gaiters and front and rear wheel bearings. I can see this thing getting stripped now, instead of a few weeks time
Fitted all the new bearings, steerings a lot better now, no notchyness. Done the wheel bearings and sprocket bearing as well so those will be good for a few years yet. Fitted the new regulator/rectifier, voltage is stable at 13.9 volts. Another problem solved. The old reg/rec got really hot when the bike was just standing idling for 5 minutes, so I think it wouldn't have been long before it would have packed up completely. I'm still not completely happy with the way it takes off. I have to get it to about 3000rpm for a smooth take off, or it seems to die somewhat, then pick up and go. Get the same thing in slow corners if I'm in 2nd gear, like it's bogging a bit and lacking that low down torque until it gets the revs up a little. Also the rear brake is not up to scratch. It works, but not as well as I think it should be. Seem to have to put a lot of pressure on it before you start to feel it biting, and by the time it does, you're on the front brakes harder than you should be. So it looks like the rear master cylinder is going to come out for an overhaul, and probably a new disc as well.
Dunno to be honest scuba, haven't touched the bike for a couple of weeks now, been busy on other stuff. I've re-built the half of the garage, it's sooooo much better now; same ground floor area but a lot higher than before. Which means I can now sort out all the "stuff" properly. Painting the inside white to reflect the light, got to put the electrics in for the sockets and lighting, and I've decided to pipe in the air lines for the tools. I'll buy some of those coiled air hoses to hang from the roof joists so I don't have to drag the line across the floor, then hang them up on a hook when they are not in use. I reckon it'll be christmas or later before it's all sorted properly at this rate. When it's all finished i'll post a couple of before and after shots.