Working on the XJ 550 lump

[Jayneflakes]

and taking it Oh so seriously.

When we bought the lump it came with two broken exhaust studs. Both had been badly bodged by inept welders trying to weld nuts on to the ends. So along comes Carol and I and we try to sort them out. The first just unscrewed when Carol put her special stud extracting spanner thing on it.



The second had broken off almost flush with the casting and required gentle drilling out.



All work gratefully undertaken!



In truth we mocked this pic up once we had finished, started with a tiny drill bit and worked up until the old stud just crumbled and then we chased the threads with a tap and fitted a new stud.

Got a few more things to sort out with this engine before we fit it into the XJ400 frame, such as valve check, fit an oil cooler and then fill it up with lovely new oil.



Fixing thirty year old lumps is so much fun!

Thanks to my lovely Carol for doing the hard bits and teaching me how to do them!

[Sid Squid]

Those engines are good and strong, one of the most vilely abused and uncared for bikes I've ever known was a 130,000 mile XJ550. It just kept going and going, considering the abuse it recieved it must be one of the best engineered motors ever.
That particular bike also demonstrated that the YICS system has no discernable effect, when it was brought to me for one of it's extremely few services, I went to put the blanking tool in place to balance the carbs only to find one was already in there and had been for some 30,000 or so miles! The owner noticed precisely no difference in the way it ran with or without the blanking tool in place.

[Jayneflakes]

I have had a busy weekend.


Ready for the new Stainless Exhaust studs.


Nearly there, almost ready to ride.


The final checks before the first test ride.

The 550 lump is in place and once connected up to all of the bits it needed like exhaust and electrics, it started first time. Running is very sweet, although it was noisy at first because on of the pipes was blowing, but once it was tightened up, she ran sweet.

First test ride this evening and she was OK, although I think that the carbs from the 400 are not quite man enough for the job, so a new set will have to be considered. The new engine though is lovely and pulls pretty well.

We have still not opened up the other engine yet, the fact that the crank wont turn tells us that something is a bit knackered in there. Nice to know that the Reg/Rec is fine, when the bike went bang it was suggested that this could be a possible cause, but all was sweet this evening.

bloody good work, proper spannering going on there lol.

[Jayneflakes]

Thank you Bluefishman, I really enjoyed working on the old XJ and did some tings that at first made no sense, but I now understand. Checking valve clearance was something I did not get at first, but when it clicked, it became rather simple, so I feel a lot more confident about working on my precious SV now.

Next job for the XJ is to think about a new bank of carbs, she runs on at the moment for around town, but for anything like motorway work she is a little asthmatic.

[timwilky]

you post you have used stainless for the exhaust studs.

Personally I wouldn't recommend it. It is far too brittle a material for this purpose. Maybe I am too old fashioned but my personal opinion is mild steel with brass nuts.

You will have galvanic corrosion anyway which will bind the studs in casing. However you may find the studs fracture if you attempt to remove them despite them looking pristine.

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by timwilky

you post you have used stainless for the exhaust studs.

Personally I wouldn't recommend it. It is far too brittle a material for this purpose. Maybe I am too old fashioned but my personal opinion is mild steel with brass nuts.

You will have galvanic corrosion anyway which will bind the studs in casing. However you may find the studs fracture if you attempt to remove them despite them looking pristine.

Thank you for your your input Tim, this is something that we discussed with two specials builders, one here in Weston and one in Bristol.

The first one recommended coating the studs with lots of copper grease, he said that although the grease would burn off, it would leave enough material behind that it would protect the stud from corrosion.

The second said that the studs should be put in with lots of thread lock because Copper grease would not work.

Both seemed to think that stainless exhaust studs were a good idea though and one of them said that he used them on his own bike which is now twenty years old and is still fine. Special builder number two does not use stainless on his own bike, it is a stealth fighter bike and it has more titanium than a naked Terminator! Sadly we could not stretch to the amount he pays for custom made titanium exhaust studs!

It was certainly something that we discussed, especially since the original studs were so badly corroded and two had been broken off. Drilling them out was a pain of a job because some bodger had welded nuts to them which broke off on the first turn.

[Geodude]

Nice one Jayne, looks like lots of spannering fun was had. I should really learn more myself. I have changed clutch, stripped carbs and changed rear suspension and subframe on the sv but always shied away from the engine, im a scenic artist with girly hands not a mechanic Might get hold of a goosed sv engine for a fiddle with. Keep up the good work Jayne n Carol

You and Carol need some left handed drill its if you're going to fettle 30 year old bikes.

Good work, hope the new carbs sort the fuelling out.