Hello all. First a word about me. I just purchased a 82 xj750 maxim. It has some minor cosmetic stuff to fix (it got hit and knocked over in a parking lot) but my big concern is that it has been sitting since 2001 in a garage. Now this is my first motorcycle and it will be a great pleasure to work on it. I am fairly mechanicaly inclined ( i.e. I fix whatever I can on my car that doesn't involve an engine hoist or a 5 ton lift) but anyway onto my question;
What would you do in my situation? I already have a new set of plugs, oil filter, new battery, and some Seafoam and Deep Creep ready to go. (see I have already been reading the forums:) What would you guys do to get this bike in a ready to run situation? I am going to try and break it all the way down this winter and start from scratch.. but I would like to get a few months of riding in before that!
anyway thanks in advance for any help!
p.s. I have been looking for a carb rebuild kit and all that I can find say they do one carb... now will I need 4 of these? or does it mena it will do the whole bike? feel free to point and laugh.:)
A bike that's been sitting a while typically needs: Carbs cleaned, fresh gas, battery, fresh oil and oil filter, and some general lubing. . . but you already knew that.
You may not need carb rebuild kits. Most of the time you can salvage even badly oxidized carb parts. You won't know until you open them up and have a look. It's a pretty simple (but time consuming) job to clean them up.
Aside from that - change the oil, put in new gas and fire it up.
As long as the brakes are working well and have pad life, and the cables aren't frayed than you'll most likely be good to go! Good luck.
Great info! Thanks for the reply.
When you mentioned lubing, what on these bikes need the most attention? (my Haynes manual is in the mail and I am sending for a copy of the XJCD in the morning and I am relying completely on these forums for the next couple of days!)
I usually would check out all this stuff before I even thought about getting a bike... but you know.... right place at the right time, couldn't pass up a good deal syndrome....
I'm in a similar situation with my 83 XJ650; just about ready to go now.
I wanted to mention brakes - the friction material was coming away from the metal part of a rear shoe on mine, but I didn't notice it right away, someone else pointed it out.
Of course you would check brakes anyway, so, to get the rear wheel off, undo brake linkage, and small nut on right side that holds lower arm to drum. (You don't need to remove the bell crank from the splined shaft.) Undo castle nut on left side of the axle, whereupon the axle can be drifted out from left to right. The wheel will then come out and the rest will be obvious.
Jim