Project - Maverick - 1996 Seca II XJ600

[ride92]

I still can't believe that this actually happened!!! Last week I was pretty much down and out with a nasty cold, in between napping and watching our little one I was browsing Craigslist and came across a guy selling his 1996 XJ600 with an asking price of $800. The listing stated that the bike had been sitting for a bout a year and a half since he laid it down on the right side and that he just needed the thing gone from his recently divorced wife's house before the snow started to fall since he couldn't keep it in the garage any longer. If anything it sounded like he was a motivated seller. He didn't have any pictures posted with the listed so out of curiosity I emailed him and asked for some pictures. He got back to me with in a few hours and I was pleasantly surprise at the shape of the bike!!! The wheels started turning in my head about what this could maybe mean. I thought to my self that it could maybe be a good project and since I knew these bike pretty well already I could, most likely, restore this thing. I talked it over with Laura that evening and to my surprise she said if I wanted to pick it up and try and restore it and resell it for a profit that I could.

I went out and looked at it on Friday afternoon and we agreed on a price of $600 as long as I could pick it up within 10 days. I asked my brother to help me pick it up in his truck since the bike wasn't running. On Sunday we loaded it up, the guy signed over the title and I brought home a 1996 Yamaha XJ00!!!

For $600 here is what I ended up with:








Complete with awesome "Top Gun" decals! He gave me an extra set of decals for the thing.


It went down, the guy said lightly, on the right side. You can see the broken rear turn signal. I can fix that!




It's going to need a new chain and sprockets. The guy had a new un-opened chain and sprocket set he gave me!!!


The Right side peg broke off in the spill. Easy Fix


The only real rash I can see from the spill other then a few scratches on the exhaust.


Maybe the most troubling is the apparent oil leak around the valve cover gasket. It could just be oil from the forks flung back since the seals are shot and looks like they leaked oil. I'll investigate when I do the valve shim adjustment.


Going to need some new paint on the handle bars and top triple.


Other then what you see I think I'm going to need to replace the clutch cable, there's a bit of rust showing on cable near the clutch cover and it will need some new throttle cables since the ones on there barely move. I know I'm going to have to remove the carbs and give them a good cleaning, empty the fuel tank and replace the oil. It'll also need a new battery if I can't recharge the one on there, seller said it was about 2 years old. He also said the petcock was rebuild before he stopped riding it and it was stored.

Now don't go expecting any crazy fast updates to this thread. The stipulation on buying this bike was that I would get a few projects done inside the house before getting to work on this thing. There's nothing like the prospect of getting to wrench on a new to me motorcycle to get the master bedroom finally painted!!!