Hello!
My name is Doug and I am from Dallas. I recently (4 weeks ago) purchased a 1993 Seca Project bike off of craigslist. It was listed at $700 but I worked the guy down to $440 delivered. The bike was missing its front headlight and gauge cluster, it appeared the previous owner (who traded it to the guy I bought it from) was in the process of converting it to a naked/streetfighter style. I sold my Ducati Monster last summer and am a big fan of this style, which is why the bike appealed to me so much. Th price was right, too, but once it got to the mechanic it became obvious that I would have to throw some money in this thing in order for it to get up to par.
I am a fairly decent mechanic, although working on motorcycles, especially inline 4s, is fairly new to me. I had a local shop check out the bike and replace most every worn out part. I spent $1600 at the shop on:
New Chain
New Front and Rear Sprockets
New Front and Rear Brakes
New Fork Seals
New Tires
He also went through each of the carbs, which was probably the biggest expense, at least labor-wise. After that the bike was in pretty much perfect condition, minus having no headlight or gauges.
I then bought the dominator style dual headlights, with a smoke windscreen. Picked up a Vapor gauge for a good price on eBay as well. eBay seems to be a great source for parts, and on Tuesday I plan to finish up shopping for parts by purchasing:
Clipon handlbars
New grips with integrated turn signals
Full Cortech Saddlebags (tank, tail, both sides)
Neon underlighting
Red Rim Tape
Full Gear (yamaha jacket, pants, boots, helmet)
With that I should be about done, hopefully. The bike took a spill right after I got home from the mechanic (she was WAY faster than I had ever expected) and sustained some damage:
The Handlebars were bent pretty bad, will be replacing with clipons
The lower oil crankcase had cracked, she was spitting out oil 10 feet from the side of the bike. Right now I have repaired it with JB Weld, which significantly reduced the oil "spray" down to a "drop...drop" leak. I am going over my options with this, hoping that some "Quick Steel" type putty will do a better job of sealing the case. My only other option seems to be pulling the engine and full-on replacing the case, although this is something I really don't want to do.
I am also considering replacing the tank, mine is pretty rusted as it is. I am either going to "kreem" it with that tank sealer stuff or source another tank. After taking the tank and fuel pump, petcock apart and not being able to get it put back together correctly, I ordered a new fuel pump and a petcock rebuild kit. Look out for a post from me in the troubleshooting section requesting a walk-through with pics describing exactly how the fuel and vacuum lines get setup. I have seen a few descriptions that seem to contradict each other and I have tried almost every combination (although my fuel pump/petcock may have inadvertently taken a crap).
I hope to be a contributing member to this forum and hope to own this bike for a long time. I have put alot of work and time into it and really am enjoying tinkering on her. I still haven't been able to take her for a real ride yet, and really look forward to that day. This looks like a great forum and I plan to make it my home. Thanks in advance for all the help that you guys will provide, I have lurked for awhile and it seems this is the best resource on the net for us XJ600 owners.
:kudos:
Doug
