reassembly of my 82 650 starts tomorrow

I am so happy.After 111 attempts to get the last tappet back in i did today. I went and bought a gasket scraper, will strt tomorrow morning.I worked all night, am too tired right now. On the cams, I have the timing mark on either cam lined up with the mark on the cam bearings, snugged up so the cams cant rotate.Nothing torqued right now.It appears the cams can go only 1 direction.Of course the intake goes on the carb/intake side and the exhaust cam goes on the exhaust side.Those hex sections sure come in handy. The hex sections are inline with number 2 carb intake boot. 2 being second from left if sitting on the bike.

I have an unopened set of engine rebuild gaskets i got from chacal. I am not going to replace the cylinder base gasket, I have done that before.It is for one very difficult to get the cylinder block off and then back on trying to manage all the rings, cam chain guides, etc.I can do it but i really want to get this done. I will have to redo everything if it starts leaking.But the bike motor and bike itself is very clean and no crusted oil on the motor or rear pumpkin or anywhere else is seen. I will take the carbs that have sat for 3 months and give them a cleaning somewhat.I am hoping take off the float bowls, clean that out good,spray carb cleaner up in the jets orifices, bench synch with a paperclip and bolt them back on. I bought a por15 kit for the tank but really it looks good inside. I have never heard this engine run,I am going on what the former idiot rider said.The original owner said the bike ran great but he had no idea what it might be like now since the other guy owned it for awhile. So I am not going fullcourt press on this till I know I have something worth spending more money on.I spent hundreds with chacal, but the parts look great, lets hope all this is worth it.Once i get it together hopefully it will start and run,even crummy will be somewhat encouraging.I am not even going to put on the exhausts till I know the engine runs. Once that is proven all the nuts bolts brackets,mufflers etc will go back on.I still havent found a right side cover. But if the motor is no good that doesnt matter.I have a very expensive parts bike.There is an zj750 here for 1500 but most those parts wont intrchange.I found another 81 xj650 maxim that looks good, he wants 1800,About 800 too much in my opinion.And it is 334 miles away. The yeah it runs great turns into what a piece of crap when you drive there often times. I need some luck right now.

 

In my manual on the cylinder head drawing it shows 8 damping blocks.What are those? I dont think my my box of parts has those. Are those mandatory?

 

Are they the rubber dampers that are wedged between the fins on the block? You don't need them if you are only trying to get the engine to run. They can be put in later if needed.

 

Those are tension wedges, they prevent the head fins from "ringing" at certain rpm's. There are 8 in the top of the head (between spark plug holes area) and 10-14 smaller ones along each side of the head fins.

 

I am going a different way now.I have been so perplexed at the money pit status of this bike.Most of the expense are because the boxes of parts I got were incomplete, many things missing, causing me hundreds of dollars for replacements.My bad.Chacal/len/xj4ever is the key reason anyone would want to keep one of these bikes in regard to repair or restoration. Many great old bikes have no support and finding parts is difficult,imposible, and always expensive. My bike is now going to become a parts bike.I found one yesterday that has a great engine,overall looks good,needs some things.if I had a second person with me I could have ridden it home.$1000. I have 1100 in my current bike and its still disassembled.But I learned how these engines are put together.Good engine design. The $90- of electrical parts I am stuck with.The used nuts and bolts i bought from chacal i am stuck with.The unopened gasket rebuild set I will keep and hopefully never use.

His tires were 13 years old.Mine are new.He is missing both sidecovers.I have one.Still need the right one.His has no headlight, no signals.Mine has all of those.His has the mufflers off.I have the mufflers.It looks like they are welded to the exhaust.I hope i can remove them because i sure wont run a bike with no back pressure.Total I will have more in the 2 bikes than the bike will ever be worth.But its still cheaper than harley payments.Plus I learned the mechanics of these bikes. And for my old out of shape 68 year old body handling one of these will be much easier than my goldwings or ventures.

If anyone needs parts for an 82 maxim 650 I have them now.