Yamaha XT 600 personalization
 

Hey there!

My name is Tadas and I'm from Lithuania. I got my XT 600 last spring and I fell in love with it.

The frame and all other parts had rust, scrapes, etc., engine had some corrosion too. So for the whole year I wanted to make it nice again.
I was hoping for all the work on it to go quicker, but as always, it takes more than you expect.

First things I did to it were usual maintenance: changed air/oil filters and oil. Then I got this sweet carbon fiber exhaust. The difference in power compared to stock was huge. And, if I remember correctly, the carbon fiber exhaust weighs 0.5kg, and stock 5.5kg (or 7.5kg?).
Yamaha XT 600 3TB with Carbon Fiber Yoshimura Exhaust - YouTube

Then, after driving for a few times at night I got disappointed about the lighting of a regular halogen bulb (Philips) and I decided to get a Bi-Xenon kit for it. Improvement was immense!
Yamaha XT 600 3TB Bi Xenon Conversion 55W 6000K - YouTube

September last year I got Acerbis gas tank. My original gas tank had it's left fairing missing, and the tank itself was pretty small. Acerbis tank was pretty sun-faded and spray painted black, to this spring I had to scrape all the paint and brittle plastic (~1mm thick) off and sand it to perfection.

As I was disassembling the bike I found a power limiter: a thin sheet metal plate with smaller hole on the right side between cylinder and carburetor's rubber fitting. So that went to trash! The rubbers themselves were in very poor condition so I ordered new ones.

I've done the exhaust header modification as one guy on Youtube did:
YAMAHA 600 XT modif - YouTube

New brake pads also will be fitted.

As will new wiring harness, because old one was so bad that I threw it away. Some wires were too tight, some were too loose, some were connected by a person who doesn't know who is he doing. It was a total mess, looked like a spiderweb.

As the bike itself is 1993, the engine is newer, 1997, and in 1993 bike there's no connections for the starter motor and switches. I was preparing for that: bought another throttle housing that is separate from ignition switch, and bought a 2009 Yamaha R6 ignition switch/starter switch assembly. Looks awesome, not outdated like original XT600E switch. Also bought a clutch switch for that.

After disassembly I sandblasted almost all metal parts, sprayed on epoxy primer, following by black paint.

The engine (not including the cylinder and header) got also sandblasted, coat of epoxy primer, silver metallic paint and clear-coat.

Plastics were covered in primer for plastics, now awaiting good weather to cover in primer them again after filler/sanding, and paint it in dark metallic green. Dark metallic green will go on all plastic parts + front forks.

I'm anxious to see how it looks at the end. Hope that will be in next two weeks.

Hey there!

Glad to see you came here! :thumbup1:
As you can see there is a lot of information here on the forum!


So, what made you replace the engine for a 1997 model?


If you could post some pictures of your rebuild It would be awesome!



Vando beer

I bought the bike like that, it was already replaced in Germany (where it was imported from). I was thinking that the engine was 1995, but then before sandblasting I found the date (1997) scraped in the paint at the place there rear swingarm's axle go through the engine, so I suppose it's 1997, but I'd be glad to verify it by engine number.
As far as I know the old engine had some electrical failure and no one bothered to fix it and just swapped the engines.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I was uploading when I made the topic, but after I got error I hadn't got the time to upload them again, so I'll do that now :innocent:

Hey!

Nice pictures! :)

I wish the painter who painted mine would go stick his paint gun up his arse for the job he did on my bike XT... :censored:


From pictures, the engine you have is from either a XT600 (ténere) OR just the Left hand side engine cover from a Ténere engine...but I don't know if the engine cover compatible with the XT600E's so it's probably the whole engine :)

Maybe that electrical problem it had was the stator and they just bought and replaced the LHS engine cover?

here is a picture from google for a XT600Z (ténere), look at the engine cover:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/98/dsc05232h.jpg

I do all the work myself, so only person I could blame is me, haha!

Nope, they had swapped the engine.
But I admit I am a bit puzzled over the engine.

1. The bike itself was not supposed to have a starter. No starter button, no wiring for it, and the bike is too early for starter.
2. The engine number begins with 3TB.
3. The engine has both kick-starter and electric starter.
4. As far as I know if you replace LHS engine cover for 1993 engine you still won't be able to fit electric starter.
5. The XT600K engine has the engine cover just like mine does, so it can be not only from Ténere.
6. Why there was 1997 scraped in the engine's paint? Not a real proof, but... I know 1997 model is a bit different.

Late update:

five days ago painted plastics black
three days ago painted them (+ front fork) dark metallic green color bier in the pictures the color is a bit lighter, actually it's deeper green, changing into almost black at a bend.

Today was the first day of assembly. And here's the progress.

Oh, and the fork seals were changed with new ones, and filled with new oil (the old fork oil was so stinky!).
New carb-cylinder intake rubbers fitted.

While trying to fit the engine to the frame the engine's paint was scratched :crying: anyway, I'm planning to do the engine rebuild someday, and then I'll fix that, but I think it won't be soon, as the engine runs great for now.

The bike is fully assembled during today - the second day of assembly.
The only problem is now, that there's no spark... NO IDEA why.

Is it hard to fry CDI unit or generator? How to check CDI, generator (if possible) and ignition coil? :confused1:

I've spent all day searching for a problem, but unsuccessfully.

All I know now is that the ignition coil doesn't get a positive charge to it, only ground.

Does anyone have a diagram where I could see how a positive (+) charge is coming from battery to ignition coil? I need to see where the circuit is between a positive connector at ignition coil and...? I cannot find it anywhere in wires/connectors! I may (possibly) somehow bypass it if I knew where it should be. It's an 11 wire CDI unit (like diagram attached).

I don't know how to check my CDI, and I would hate to spend 200$ for a new one if I don't really need it...

Positive from battery is connected just as in the diagram attached: one wire goes to ignition key, another to relay-regulator for battery charging, and the positive then comes with all three white wires from relay-regulator to the engine. And I can't find a positive coming from the engine to a CDI. So not sure if it's the CDI or something in the engine...

Do you have Electric start on your bike?
If you do, You've got the wrong wiring diagram!

Plus.. Does your ignition coil have two prongs or only one?

Ignition coil with two prongs + E-start:
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1...fik3tbedit.jpg

The positive is the Orange cable that goes to the TCI (1) to the ignition coil back!!

One more question.. what exactly happens on the bike when you try to start it? do you hear any noises, any clicks anything?


Vando beer

Thanks for a quick reply!

Unfortunately, I do have a right diagram... Yes, the engine has electric starter, but it is not compatible with the wiring and the bike itself (there was no starter button, no clutch switch, no connectors for them in the wiring). Because the engine is newer than the bike.

The CDI (or TCI, whatever it is..) has connectors exactly like in my diagram: two sockets (one with 2 and another with 3 wires) and 6 other wires that are "solo". So 11 wires total coming out of CDI.

CDI connectors matches the engine connectors and the bike was previously running (same engine, same CDI). There might something happened during my attempt to fix the wiring loom that was completely trashed, and now the wiring loom is new, fits perfectly, everything works, except for the damn spark!

Ignition coil has two connections. And I have the positive orange wire. The only thing is that the orange (positive) wire doesn't have any positive charge in it :confused1:

Pic. 1.: ignition coil.
Pic. 2.: three engine connectors (+ blue wire for neutral).
Pic. 3.: CDI connectors.

I'd bite my finger off and say that is surely a Tenere engine you got there..

Do any of the pictures on this site relate to your wiring?
xt wiring diagrams

This is one from Mezo:
http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Emezo/...iagram%201.jpg

Vando ;)

Yes, there's one that matches my wiring. Site Builder
But it's the same as I have posted above. It says "XT600K_91_94_3TB" and mine got it's engine number *3TB-097266*
My CDI has 11 wires, so other diagrams don't match.

So anyway, my wiring fits perfectly, everything works, except for God damn spark! doh
If someone, who has the same wiring in his/her's bike, could check where does the continuity go from orange wire at ignition coil I would highly appreciate it!

On Monday or Tuesday I'll go to see a wiring guru, who deals with all sorts of cars (even Ferrari...) and bikes and hopefully he should be able to tell me what's wrong in just a few minutes. Hopefully... Time moves so slow when you are waiting :funmeterno:

I suspect the CDI. Hopefully I'm wrong and I just need to connect some wire somewhere and that would fix it :(

...check the CDI with a multimeter? set it on continuity and see it it beeps to any of the other terminals. Also, check for voltage drop and switch the multimeter cables from red to black and black to red while doing the same check!

Thanks for the tip!
I was checking but didn't know what to look for, can't believe I didn't think of it before...
Checked all wires coming out of CDI for continuity among them (when CDI is disconnected with all wires). There's continuity between all wires with one wire or another, as it should be I suppose, but EXCEPT for orange wire, that goes to ignition coil as positive charge. So, there's no continuity between orange and any of other cables, no matter if I connect multimeter's red or black connector to orange wire.

So when I attempted to fix the old wiring loom I shortened something out, and the ignition coil heated and "spat" some dark material from inside of a crack in the ignition coil's connectors side, and I suppose it wasn't the only thing that heated up... The orange wire must have heated up too to a degree that it failed inside a CDI unit "frying" it up, and the orange wire lost continuity with the wire it supposed to have.

So if the CDI is unrepairable part, because it is incased in resin, I will have to get another one.

Any suggestions? :(