What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Just filled up tank first of the new year , been driving all day so only went 15 miles new clutch is great no more slipping , bike pulls hit 6k really pulled so well. Put back on the hard bags , had removed then last fall .

 

Hola amigos
Hi. I'm fixing a yamaha xj 750 engine ... the original piston is 65 mm and with the 68 mm piston I have a 1.5 mm cylinder wall is not very thin? Does the cylindrical wall hurt so thin?

 

I added a dab of blue thread lock to the speedometer cable threads at the speedo.
Yesterday I was checking my speed and noticed that I was at a standstill while traveling at 70 mph.
Thankfully the cable hadn't been off for long or the sheath would have melted against the exhaust headers.

 

I ended up painting the donor front rim for the XJ550 rebuild. Will see how well the silicone grease masking worked for the spoke edges tonight. Pulled the starter parts box down and am going to try soaking the seals in the brake/power steering fluid dip for a couple days. they are pliable but dried out. So far, it's worked great for the peg pads, tank rubber and motor bushings.

 

eral schribe would mask your car off with vasoline then paint it

 

Good thing he is not painting any of my stuff

 

Well all things considered it work quite well for my needs.

 

We used to do that shipboard to mask off nameplates on motors, etc.

Worked pretty good for us...

 

Did an oil and filter change. Changed the rear shaft gear oil. Found out the filter hadn't been changed for awhile judging by the rounded off and rusted filter bolt filed it so a socket fits again. While I was warming the bike found a hole in the "crossover box" that shouldn't have been there, the bike was certified when I bought it. Gear oil was dark dark dark, just the fun of buying a 1983 bike in 2019. On the plus side front and rear brakes were good.

 

Pulled the front forks off to put new seals in. Bike is a 82 xj650 maxim that was gifted to a friend. It is all there and runs, just put some 50:1 2-stroke fuel through the plug holes and it kicked over. I watched the video of the English guy doing a set of forks, not quite the same on the outside, is the insides the same? Will I need to use that 19mm bolt trick to remove the inner tube from the lower? I got as far as getting the top cap off and the spacer and the springs out. What suspension fluid that was left looked ugly! She is maybe 120 lbs, any suggestions on fork oil weight?

 

Good day! Bought my first bike ever today, an '82 650 Maxim. Took a bunch of pictures all over so I can check stuff out and run some stuff by the experts here as I get acquainted with my new mechanical beast. Seems like it runs and rides alright, but I want to do a few things before I actually ride it. Install the airbox (Fun job or so I've read 0_O) replace both tires, new brake pads and shoes, I guess that ought to get me going. Maybe take a look at the fork seals and stuff while the front tire is off. Anyway I'll be reading up on stuff around here for a while I'm sure and will probably have lots of questions.

Here's how she looks right now...

 

+1 welcome to the group your bike looks good, good move to reinstall airbox ,a hair dryer and , pulling carbs off , it is a tight fit , but alot less headache than pods.

 

Lashed the valves today, wasn't nearly as much trouble as I was expecting. I didn't bother pulling the tank, I just lifted it up a bit and worked under it. And I didn't pull the side cover to rotate the engine, I just put the bike in 5th and pulled the tire around to move then engine, lol. Also I think I was pretty darned lucky that the bike came with a bag of 3 lash shims which happened to work out perfectly for me and the job didn't cost a cent =)

 

So a few months ago bought a stock exhaust system ,was in really good condition except 2 of the down pipes had rust on them . I cleaned it up with a wire wheel , painted with high heat black , turned out good , not sure how well it will last ,won't know till I mount it on the bike.

 

My Clymer Manual for the XJ550 arrived today so I know what to do tonight (rather than watching YT).

 

Pulled the front tire off, I wanted to get my hands on those front routers. Cleaned all the nasty old grease out of that speedo side bearing. Also cleaned up the speedo hub, got to love all that old grease. Re-packed speedo hub and bearing. Cleaned de-greased the brake pads with Supper clean. Was going to just sand the two front disks...no way, need to be turned, nasty wear marks.

 

So my weedeater would not run , I could buy a new carb for 10$ why not , showed up today a few modification to the cover put carb on ...and it lives , i like this craftsman weedwacker, has an attachment to start with a drill beats pulling on the cord. While I was in garage pulled the mufflers out the box and cleaned them up a bit . Thought I'd repaint the tip black ...paint crinkled so so so now have to wait for it to dry and start again , debating on pulling the MAC exhaust and mounting the stock exhaust , well might do that tomorrow night.

 

Compare it to the info here and fix all of the mistakes? (all of the manuals have them. I still need to annotate mine).

 

Thanks to this forum, I know better than to trust it blindly. Still, if you're a mechanical ignoramus like me, it's a good way to have a complete overview.

 

So pulled off the MAC exhaust ,mounted the stock exhaust. what a difference , in sound the MAC is not real loud but stock is much quieter ,but it has been raining very heavy so I cant ride we have flooding too View attachment 34720

 

Every good mechanic (and I mean this having been a maintenance tech) owns, reads, and regularly consults the manual for whatever machine they are working on (even if the manual has errors).

 

Fixed the valve shims on cylinder #3. 60psi and leaking still. Looks like the engine is coming back apart. #4 needs a xj550/650 255 shim and I have plenty of 260 and 265s. Anyone wanna swap shims? I have a bunch of buckets too.

 

@hogfiddles runs the airhead shim pool.

 

I will check the other half and figure what I need. I suspect rings are acting up in #3. So much fun.

 

After the coke experiment, I can say, it does work. I soaked for a day, wire-brushed and repeated. After several days, I didn't see any additional improvement. I suspect the coke was worn out!
I also soaked some smaller hardware in white vinegar and that gets rid of any surface rust nicely.
I went after the swing-arm with some sandpaper, but quickly realized I needed a chemical agent to get into the crevices... in welds and elsewhere. I went with Metal Rescue Gel. Here's a picture of the progress. It really does dissolve the rust! Some areas are just pretty metal now.. others are pitted where the rust was worse. In this picture, you can see the area on the right where the welds are all clean and the stamped 4U8 is nice looking now.

I have the rear portions wrapped to keep the gel from drying out. Will check again tomorrow. Once I wipe off the gel, I wire-brush and if it's shiny, I'm done. If it is darker and dull, there is more left.

 

Evapo-Rust is still my fav of all the concoctions on the shelf.

 

Well, at the hour I went to the autoparts store, the one that had Evapo-rust wasn't open... the one across the street didn't have it and so I ended up with Metal-rescue. I did intend to try Evapo-rust originally. Metal-Rescue is non-toxic and all that good stuff, but I still wear gloves and there's a caution against getting it on you.

 

The phosphoric acid in the Coke was doing the work, and you're right, it got saturated. There's not much of it in the mix so it stops reacting pretty quickly.
The Metal Rescue stuff is good for that application. It's certainly nicer to use than Naval Jelly.

 

Put the exhaust system back on today and went through the curing cycles for the paint. I had to weld the collector box in a bunch of spots before any painting. Hope it does me well as I work on the rest of the bike and save up for a new exhaust.
Can anyone tell me if 5000rpm at 100km/h (62mph) is where I should be on a stock 1983 Maxim 750.

 

5k rpm and 62 mph is where you should be +- a few mph

 

Thanks, been awhile since I've rode a 4 cylinder street bike had a 650 back in the day (1987/88) 5000 seems smooth.
My only other bike is a WR250 it's a single with no tachometer. I ride single track in a forest I don't worry much about rpm mostly just trying not to hit trees.

 

As long as you stay below redline, you don't have to worry about RPM on an XJ either.

 

My XJ needs some love so I'm glad the low end of Hwy speed leaves me well short of red line, but I'm loving any little progress towards the bike I see in my head. Now if I only was in the USA for the parts availability you guys have(shipping and exchange add up).

 

I feel your pain, brother. It's frustrating to click a link and see $ instead of € (or £) time and time again. Maybe the Euros/Aussies/whatevers should pool their parts store links and references? Or is there something like that already? Does Chacal ship to the EU, btw?

 

Officially added another to the fleet. The girlfriend isnt happy but oh well. Only live once and I couldn't pass up the deal. No matter what I do I cant seem to get the pic to orient the correct way so I apologize in advance but here it is.

 

Don't know if Chacal ships to EU but just drop him a quick message a I'm sure he will let you know. I'm in Canada our $ sucks right now so the rebuild is going to be slow and steady. Might have to look for a donor bike.

 

chacal ships world wide

 

Replaced my rear tire and checked the rear brake. I was going to replace the brake shoes but the ones I got aren't even close to fitting inside the brake drum. Fortunately the old shoes looked perfectly serviceable with plenty of lining on them and no sign of delamination. I've never done a tire before and that thing just about kicked my butt! It was super easy getting the wheel off the bike but that tire... MAN! Also it was a lot stiffer than I expected. After I got the wheel on the floor I pulled the core out of the valve stem but NO air came out. I thought that seemed weird, so I drilled a big hole in the sidewall to be double sure and there was definitely no pressure. So I played for quite a while at breaking the bead before I finally got it. The darn thing had ancient green slime inside and appeared to have been glued to the wheel! I must have poured a gallon of sweat on the floor before the tire was actually off, but I got it! The wheel was covered in crud, so I taped a bag over the driveshaft spline and gave the wheel a good wire brushing. Is it common for them to look like this?




New tire went on a lot easier than the old one came off! I just took a little Dawn dish soap I had handy and smeared it all over the bead. Seemed to help a whole bunch...

I hope to do the front tomorrow. Maybe that one will go a little easier!

 

Good to know but there's still import duties and such to consider. OTOH, at least I'd be sure I'd be getting the right parts for my make and model.

 

Bought a key blank for the bike $18.25 after taxes then $5 to have it cut at the local hardware store?!?! But at least I got to ride the 20min each way in full sunshine and 8C° weather,good day

 

I've found more new OE parts in NL and UK than in the US with the Exception of Chacal. CMS NL has a lot of various OE bike parts, check them out.

 

guy on ebay cuts keys from the code

 

there is a thread you use duct tape and the tire just about drops onto the rim

 

You can use the big HVAC zip ties too and they're easier to remove. For the tires I just installed, I had no issues with some soapy water, and 2 tire spoons. It seated immediately and held air. Seems to me the bead would be a bit more problematic to seat when you squish it that much in a few spots.

 

After a temporary rewire of the factory fuse box, followed by a really dumb move on my part, I am happy to report that I have heard my 750 midnight roar to life for the first time. Yes it still needs a multitude of things done before it's ready to ride, safety items, carbs, etc, but with an auxiliary fuel tank and battery it started up. Now onto getting it roadworthy. Also found a titled 81 frame locally I'm hoping to pick up to be able to make one complete titled runner from it and the 82 parts bike I have. Both 650's and I should have a complete harness or two plus the hard parts to make it work.

 

Been riding almost every day this week. Thanks again for this forum~! Bought my bike for$500 and with the help of many on here have a beautiful running bike for about a grand total. Most fun I've had for the money in a long time.

 

Nice! Sounds like you've done really well. I searched Craigslist for a while before I bought my '82 Maxim for $800. Looks like I'll be into mine for around $1200 total by the time I have it completely roadworthy. Feels like I'm alright at that price too since I've continued to search Craigs and really haven't found anything under about $1500 that runs, has recent tires and brakes etc and a CLEAR TITLE! Man, I can't believe how many bikes are for sale with no title! Makes it a complete non-starter for me.

As for my project:
I changed my front tire last night. Wasn't that bad of a job, took maybe 20 minutes. Unlike the rear, the bead broke easily when I put a clamp on the tire and it pried off easily with the tire irons. Going on wasn't a problem with either tire. I greased them up with a little Dawn dish soap and pried them on without much trouble. I suspect most of my problems with the rear tire came from the green slime that had probably been in there for decades and had more or less glued the tire to the rim.

Looking forward to making major progress this weekend and actually riding next week!

 

Got 3 of 4 carbs back together last night. New shaft seals, plate screws and clean jets. #4 has paint curing. The middle fuel T has shrunk so soaking it for a couple days and see if it will spring back. If not, yet another part to hold up what little progress I can make right now. Meh.

 

replace it

 

Budget says soak it..