Hello everyone! I found one! Well it actually found me...

Greetings from upstate NY.

I recently had returned from some time in Canada (I was kind of kicked out due to an immigration SNAFU, won't be able to return until late fall at least, long story) and started looking for work in my old stomping grounds. I was chatting with my brother about how I missed riding since I had no time nor money in Canada to fiddle with a bike and how terrible commuting would be with my Suburban 14mpg local gas guzzler and he had a novel idea...

He tells me a few years back he bought a '80 Maxim-I 650 for a project and rode it for a summer, then he parked it and hasn't touched it for the past 2 years. He said I was welcome to fool around with it and see if it's worth saving, and if I agreed I could bring it back to life he would take $200 for it. So he dropped it off at my place a few days ago.

It has a tick over 17k miles, a weather-checked front tire, ok treaded rear. It has a full dress kit which had a huge fairing on the front (by a company called Kutter? I believe) solid saddle boxes with rails and huge tailbox that doubles as a passenger backrest. It's dirty, crusty (some surface rust on frame and headers) but he says when it ran it purred... no valvetrain noise, good clutch, smooth gearbox. Although it has never been dumped, my brother admitted to letting it fall over way too many times (teenage kids messing with it). So the windscreen is gone and fairing is trashed really. I'm really liking the boxes in the back though I might repaint them.

I always wanted a rat-type Mad-Max style bike and this might just cut it. I'll see how it runs 1st. Yesterday I went over it and I know its going to need a tank, caliper rebuild, master rebuild, lights rewire. I know it is not seized but I'm not going to turn it over without fresh oil, carb clean and a fuel filter on the line. Will need rear brakes also. I don't even want to clean it it looks awesome dirty haha! but eventually it will need sanding and paint (flat black yeah!) so save it from corrosion. I'll put up some pics in a day or 2.

The only thing I could ask for now, would anyone have a link to a pdf version or a repair manual? I will have to buy a hardcopy at some point but I would like a manual to skim through on my PC so I know what to look for as I'm tearing it down. Web and torrent searches lead me to dead or shady ad links. Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated!

Love the site guys, wealth of information! especially like the tutorial on the single vac gauge carb syncing! Great stuff!

 

There is a PDF link around here somewhere. Until someone links that I'll provide the supplement that has been compiled here.

The Information Overload Hour

 

Welcome to the camp.
Try this, http://www.xjcd.org/Service_Manuals
I have not heard of an"I" .
Think you need 5 posts before posting pics.
Have you read this?
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/the-information-overload-hour.27544/

 

thanks for the links. Believe it or not the 1st thing I did when joining is read through all the links in k-moe's sig

I'll get a pic up soon but the side covers actually read MAXIM-I

Stump! Does your bike seriously have 50,000 miles on it???

 

Yes, can't remember wrote it down somewhere- I have put 15k(?) on her.
I was lucky, the PO was good at changing fluids and riding her regularly - even after his main ride was a Harley

 

Is it a Canadian bike or US ? We had the "Maxim I" here it was first year thing

 

Sieg..... Get in contact with me. I'm near Utica. Also, pay attention to posts on the upcoming Central New York Carb Clinic (CNYCC#10)...... 2 months away.

Dave

 

THEY kicked you out?!? Lol

 

Well, they wouldn't let me in. I've lived there over 10 years and my 1st app for permanent residency expired when I had problems renewing my US passport. Had been "visiting" the past year or so getting ready to reapply... when suddenly the last time I tried crossing they referred me to an immigration officer who decided to punish me for "taking too long to achieve a status" by determining I did not show "enough of a tie to country of citizenship to abide by the terms and not overstay the time alotted by visitor status". I come from 6 hours south of the border, I'm not a criminal from Guatemala FFS.

So my "punishment" is exclusion from Canada until I can show proof that my wife has reapplied to sponsor me. That proof won't be available for at least another 3 months, as that's about how long it will take to start processing the app and she will receive a receipt that says as much. So I am effectively split from my family for that duration. Way to go Canada, like we couldn't do that from inside the country.

I have never received even a speeding ticket while in Canada. Yet the entire face of Montreal has been forever altered by immigrants from the middle-east. I've about had it with that socialist nightmare up there, no offense to you Canadians, but I have learned the hard way of the fundamental differences between our societies and when I regain entry I think I'm everyone stateside so they can't pull this crap on me again.

So for the time being I'm stuck in one of our rentals down here, which is now a liability, looking for some temporary work while I make my way out of this bureaucratic mess.

Hopefully time with the bike will cheer me up

 

<\Biting tongue>

Hope your situation works out. Let's talk bikes!
So I did check - I have actually put on 19k.

So with your rat-bike idea, please consider retaining the factory airbox, it makes tuning the bike for optimum performance ALOT easier.

 

I really miss my garage and tools at home But for now I'll have to deal with storage, dirt floor and limited tools - like being a teenager all over again.

So here she is! I know it looks like junk, but if I confirm she's a good runner I'm sure I could recondition her to a usable summer ride. I think. Airbox and filter show a good amount of blow-by. Worst corrosion is on the headers, I see that I'll need headlight hardware to get that mounted and working again. Some tail signals also, all those boxes are probably going in the trash.

Lower you can see that god-awful fairing off, my brother told me that tape deck actually still worked when he was riding it hahaha.

 

Here's a rear view before rest of the fiberglass boxes come off. Other actually had a CB antenna on it. Pic of side cover detailing that MAXIM-I emblem. Forks are squishy as hell and show a little leaking on left. Brake fluid res is filled with the nastiest brown fluid I have ever seen.

I don't know about those bent-up ape hangers either

Still need to get those carbs off, clean out tank and petcock, get a fuel filter on it and fresh oil to hear it run. Hopefully blow-by is shitty oil, not shitty rings

 

There's a bike under there!

 

That residue in the arbox is more likely a telltale of an overfilled sump. Either overfilled with oil by someone who didn't know better, or by gas leaking past the float needles and filling the sump with gas.
Excessive blowby at 17,000 miles would be highly unusual.

Sell the touring kit of you don't want it. They come in handy for those of us who take long trips in stupid weather conditions.

 

Is that an ATV case on the back!?! Ha ha.

 

I know! it's enormous! Far big enough to overload it and make the bike way too top heavy!

 

SHE'S A RUNNER!

(parental warning: explicit language follows)

Took off carbs and removed the float bowls, sprayed out all the orifices and venturis (venturii?) verified sliders were mobile an diaphragms were functioning.

Reassembled and remounted them.

OMFG no wonder why people go to pods - damn the engineer that came up with that airbox design holy f**k. F**K! The longest part of the whole job was reattaching those g*ddamned stupid f**king tubes from the airbox holy s**t. F**k him.

But... primed carbs, hooked it up to my truck's battery, choke on and it fired on the 3rd or so revolution! Warmed up on choke and it actually idled just over 1k rpms with choke off. Firing fine on all four and once warm valvetrain was super quiet. Revved really nice! Ran so good I raped an ape. Or, uh, an ape raped my bike. Something like that.

Well, now I know it will move. Now I have to get it to stop. Brakes next.


Oh yeah, big public thanks to Dave! Swapped out grungy cop dress kit for all the original pieces to make it a normal XJ again! Thanks man!

 

My pleasure, glad to help. Fun hangin' with you for the afternoon, too

Here's where I get to say, "I TOLD YA SO"....... See......I told you your bike would be good

Glad I had the parts you need, too.

btw< the secret to the boots.....warm them up with a heat gun.

 

An American complaining about restrictive canadian immigration policies? If this weren't a motorcycle forum...
But since it is, so I will comment on that. I love your enthusiasm for your new bike. Like a kid at Christmas, very infectious! With Dave on your side, you will be good in no time.

 

.....and less than an hour away---- lol

 

Nice to know that warming up the boots is very helpful! I wasn't looking forward to the hassle of installing the original air box because of those darn intake boots. Again thanks dave

 

Finally some

Finally nice to see someone with some miles on their bike.
I bought my XJ700X four years ago as my first bike and it had 44,000 now it has 65,000 so I have put on 21,000.
Also just finished the upper rebuild of my motor from the rings up. Looking forward to putting on as many miles as possible.

 

Put 3,500 on my XJ650J last August (picked it up late July) and am hoping to put about 10,000 miles on her over 30-40 days this summer. Working on making sure everything is 100% ready to go over the next month while wrapping up in school, then taking off. Hoping to start a thread of all the places my girlfriend and I cover from May-July, will be nice to show (or remind) these bikes are tanks and can be extensively toured on with a little will-power.

All that aside, @Sieg great to see someone keeping another XJ on the road. Post some update pics with progression as you move forward.

 

pics coming in a few days just been busy with the new job.

 

well I guess it's been been a few days... really simple tape off and high-temp matte black. Hides all the defects. Now just some fiberglass wrap on the headers...maybe on the handlebars and grab bar... it seems.. TOO black. almost 700 miles on it so far this summer, what a nice ride for $350! Still desperately need exhaust, its more patches than original now.

 

Glad that you got her were you want her, keep riding and enjoy. As for the exhaust, do you know anyone with a welder? From the pics I can't see the leaks you are talking about, are they under the bike?

 

Yeah, from then cross-pipe back, mostly rot-through from condensation sitting in the bottom the exhaust. The bike sat in barn-like storage most of its life. I have a combination of hi-temp epoxy and 3M stovepipe tape keeping it quiet for now, just the cross-pipe gets bombarded by road debris so it must be repaired weekly. I will not have access to my welder until I get back to Canada later this year.

 

Good to hear it the Maxim worked out for you!

They're pretty resilient machines when all is said and done. My 750 Maxim has some 80k on it that I know of, speedometer pickup was borked when I bought it, and I put about a thousand km on it before getting it working reliably again. Still, my engine has a very noticable cam tick, but pulls damn hard and will top 180kph and sounds awesome when it does it.

And yeah... Even in the following years, that airbox is bloody frustrating. I swear, they assemble the frame and weld it together with the airbox in place, attach carbs, THEN add the engine. I've got one stuck in a frame with an engine - I already removed the carbs, and even without the carbs, I haven't figured out how to get the airbox out of the frame!

 

Hehehe. Borked! Bork bork bork! Insert Swedish Chef video now.

 

My top end is a bit ticky at only 17k miles but from what I've always experienced bucket and shim lifters are supposed to tick! Hydraulic lifters are pretty quiet. If your bucket lifters are quiet your are probably scoring your cam lobes!

I'm still on a bench tune and this bike screams all the way to redline. Pulls real strong from 6k-9.5k rpm I'm hella impressed! Could just imagine an actual full carb sync! I think I may be accidentally close. I timed two 0-60 runs at 5.1 and 4.9 seconds. I'm 6' and 250lbs! It's pretty wicked to feel the forks extend nearly to the stops on full throttle 1st-3rd gear pulls, these bikes are sleepers for today for sure. Definite mid 12sec 1/4mile over 100mph mile machines. Hahahahaha I paid 200 f#@%ing dollars for it.

Mine's a little buzzy at 55mph, smooths out just under and just over... bad engineering? An overdrive would be so nice on this bike. Although in regular cruising there's no need to downshift... just twist the throttle.

No one ever brags that these bikes hit 60mph in 2nd gear WUT?!

 

Yeah. I commonly race guys on modern standard/"retro" bikes, and I really don't think they see it coming. It's a surprisingly fast bike with a great power plant.

Mines very much "80's bike" looking, typically filthy and what I've done in terms of windshield, mods and such is totally custom and certainly not done by anyone remotely competent or with any money...

But when you handily walk the guy on his new, shiny Harley Street Rod thingie... Well, roughly the same weight (!), more torque, more horsepower, it's not really fair. Still, it's fun.

Mines pretty smooth right through, but I added rubber dampers when I swapped from the hideous stock multipart buckhorn bars to the Daytona bars I have now - it's the least vibrating bike I've owned.


I definitely wish for an overdrive gear though. I tend to ride at 140kph for prolonged periods, and it'd be nice to bring down the RPM's and save some gas. She's thirsty when wound up!

 

That could be camshaft endplay. These engines do that.

 

you could also fill the bars with caulking I am not sure which kind but there is a few replys to threads about this also Royal enfield grips to reduce vibration

you may be able to put a seca rim on the bike and go to an 18" tire instead of the 16. higher top end lower your rpms.

 

Oh yeah - I'm just saying mine ISN'T vibrating at all. Dunno if it's my dampers(I replaced my bars very early in my time with my XJ) or just an unusually non-vibraty motor, though. I figure if it is the dampers, that's a cleaner solution than filling the bars, and those rubber washers cost nickles at home Depot. But that's just me.

i certainly can; hell I've got a mounted Seca rear in my basement and have often considered swapping it just to see. Probably will when my tail light arrives, but I dunno if I have clearance with my hacky led strip tail light right now.

Been thinking of that for a while but mostly out of raw curiosity.

I wonder what the actual OD difference is? Could work out the final gear difference if I knew that. Should give it a measure once I stop being all lazy.

 

Agreeing with the posts about the engine cams being a bit tickie. Mine has had this tick the entire time I have owned her. I thought it would go away when I refurbished the top end - NO still there. Small price to play when you are turning 10,000 rpms throughout 1-4th and she is pulling hard .
I do not do that too often but when I do I run her right up to the rev limiter and she just keeps going!
I absolutely agree with the beliefs that the XJ models are built like tanks for dependability. Keep up on the normal maintenance and other then a irregularity all should be good.

 

I'm going to chime back in on the ticking. Every single engine I have ever owned that had bucket-and-shim operated valves ticked. Every single valve. When properly adjusted, b-and-s lifters tick, its just their nature. Even my old 8v VWs ticked after being shimmed.

As the valve seat wears, the upward travel of the valve increases reducing the clearance between the lobe and the shim, and the happy little ticks will slowly become more subdued until they become almost silent... now that means the shim is in constant contact with the came lobe through its whole revolution. Adjustment is an absolute necessity at this point since that contact creates more heat and heat is the enemy of valvetrain parts.

If neglected at this point your cam lobes, bearings, shims, valve heads, and seats will wear at an accelerated rate and then you will begin hearing more of a nasty tapping sound progressing to almost knock-like when the shim starts slapping the underside of your cam lobe upon closing. At this point you probably need new parts if not a total head rebuild. Not to mention all the increased strain on your cam sprockets and chain. But really, you have to be terribly neglectful and good at ignoring nasty mechanical noises to get to this point.

A lightly ticking bucket and shim head is a happy head.

 

as in the cam jumping up and down in the outer races? Or walking side to side?

 

I think it's walking side to side.
I could be wrong.
I often am.
Usually, when I check my alerts, and hogfiddles or kmoe have quoted my post, that's how I know.

 

Side to side - it's endplay. K-moe has referenced a Yamaha service bulletin about it, as I was pretty concerned too. My bike is REALLY ticky but seems to run just fine regardless and I'm not in the tiniest little bit gentle with it at all.

 

Ticky? Let me tell ya.
This year seems particularly bad for ticks here in the Northwoods, just the other day I seriously pulled 15 ticks off one of our dogs. But here is the weird part - they were all clumped together in a 2" radius. All I can think is that he was running through the tall pasture grass and busted up some weird type of tick party... He came out and I thought he hit one of those plants with the tiny little brown burrs, went to pull them off and the things were crawling.

 

We're having problems with ticks this year too. Loads of them everywhere. Even have to do the tick check after hanging out in the suburban backyard. Equals a lot of patience downs on the wife and from the wife. Maybe we're overdoing it... but I don't mind.
We're also hearing of a lot of people getting bit by the brown recluse spider. Very painful and dangerous... Guy at work was on IV for a week.

 

Gah! *Shudders*

Ticks just freak me right out.

 

Here's the good news - we have experienced sooo many ticks in this new location that my wife no longer screams when she finds one, she does question what their purpose is on this planet.

We live in a good location where it is relatively easy to strip out of your clothes before coming in the house. Hang your clothes over the railing/ back of chair, etc. Come back in an hour or so and look at the high point of where the clothing is - ticks generally climb UP, they climb up to the end of a blade of grass and quest for a victim, they will also climb up your clothes... pick them off and feed them to the chickens or drop them in a small glass with rubbing alcohol in it.

This stuff on your pets works great:
http://www.pethealthandnutritioncenter.com/buck-mountain-botanicals-organic-parasite-dust.html

 

Apparently, auto correct didn't want to hear about me and the wife's "pat downs".

 

They're bad here, too---

I've pulled out 7 so far......normal for me is ZERO. What's even funnier is that ai' ve gotten more ticks than the dogs this summer-----maybe I should put some Frontline between MY shoulder blades