What did you do to your Yamaha today?

18$ I would say made in china by the ad
https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-YAMAHA...381628?hash=item1a7acca4fc:g:sMsAAOSwRiFcws67

25$ this is the one I purchased prices drop through the season
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mikuni-Car...419673?hash=item41ebd41799:g:aQYAAOxyTMdTKfYb

you could reuse the stock one maybe fit it with some orings

 

Changed the oil. I'm a bit worried after this since when I drained it only about half a quart came out. I was half expecting to see a pool of oil appear on the floor as I put in my 2-1/2 qts but so far it seems alright. Also rebuilt my fuel petcock. Probably didn't really need to since it seemed to be working correctly after I learned how it was supposed top operate. PO had disconnected and plugged the vacuum line for some reason so maybe it really wasn't working. Also the petcock lever and chrome bezel were both painted up/oversprayed and having it all apart made cleaning it up pretty easy. Looks newish now. Worked on my turn signals and got them working. Right one is complete an installed but I need to splice my wires longer to install the left one. When I got the bike, it had one missing rear turn signal and both rear signals had the wires cut right at the mounting stalks. Got me a couple signals from Ebay and adapted it all together pretty easily. Would have them both complete right now if I hadn't forgotten to bring my soldering iron with me this morning!!

Ooh and also I did some painting. It's not an awesome paint job by any means, but it's a few steps above what it was before. And I wasn't too crazy about that shade of orange either...


Next on the hit list: Replace brake hoses, clean and polish the engine casing and ride it!
Maybe I'll get rid of those grips too. They feel alright but they sure do look out of place!

 

what color is that?
or is it just a hint of orange showing through?

I assume your bike is running. you need to check out the oil level circuits. if you were not seeing a light come on during starting and when running your bulb could be bad or your oil level switch is stuck. could be bad diode block too.
you can run some seafoam in the oil (read can for quanity) before your next oil change. seafoam will/should unstick the switch.

 

changed the oil and filters, lubed the cables, checked out my oil light bulb. the speedo is from an xs650 and has bayonet style bulbs the oil light is hard to see so I have to change over the bulb holders from original speedo to accept thewedge style bulbs so I can see the light. I consider the oil light system a critical part to the bike.

 

I really like that new color, and I'm a fan of orange, so that's saying something!
If you ask me, those trumpet style horns gotta go!

 

It's a metallic brown with I think some grey in it. Can get the number off the can later if you want. There might be a hint of the old orange showing through but I really doubt it. I gave it a good solid wet coat, then about 15 minutes later I did it again.

Thanks for the very good info on the oil light! I agree the oil light is very important and I'l be checking that out before riding. Bet it's just a burnt out bulb, I'll know soon enough. I should have thought to look for that actually... I may be new to bikes but not to engines! I had a '65 Galaxie as my only vehicle from 2010 until 2015 when I bought my Hyundai that you can see in the top pic. Just sold the Galaxie a couple months ago, hated to see it go but I needed the money to invest into my machine shop. Galaxie had almost 500 HP and a 5 speed manual trans with 4.30:1 gears. I sure do miss that thing, it was loads of fun...

 

Yeah maybe. I agree they're ugly but supposedly they're very loud, which is something I might really like on a bike. At the very least, I do need to tidy up the wiring. It's pretty haphazard right now looped around a bunch of stuff. I need to remember to check those things out next time I run the bike for a few minutes. I guess they pump up? Either that or they just plain don't work and in that case they definitely need to come off.

 

Hella SuperTone horns are louder.

 

I had a 65 Galaxie 500 convertible t00 not as nice as that one.

red yellow and orange make brown

 

Not really, it'll still be orange. Red plus yellow is orange, plus orange makes more orange. You'd have to throw some blue in there to get the brown.

*finally, that 30000$ art education is paying off!

 

Color wheel rears it's ugly head! Lol

Well, the story behind the color on my bike is that I found a picture online of another Maxim 650 and I just loved the color. Didn't notice until later that it was called gunmetal. Oh well, that's all very nice but in the meantime I went to the PPG paint place around the corner from my house and showed them the picture on my phone. Now, it was about 5 minutes before closing time on Friday afternoon and I didn't want to hold them up so when they started dragging out the books of color chips my heart sort of sank. So thinking quickly I flipped 3 or 4 pages and spotted one that I thought would do pretty nicely and it was on! By the time the guy in the back had it mixed up and the girl up front hooked me up with the proper reducer and rang me out it was about 5 minutes after closing. I thanked them for hanging out after hours a bit and went on to happily paint my bike - let's call it "hasty brown metallic", lol. Totally not the color I was after but I think it's just as good. Actually it sort of says Maxim to me. Maybe I'll call it "Maxim brown"

 

Its a good fit for the bike

 

It looks similar to Baldwonder's Max in the Showcase, but his is a bit of a matte bronze.

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/showcase/baldwonders-maxim.28/

 

Of the two bike pics I like the metallic brown the best, that is just me. I see that pic also has some aftermarket muffler on it. Could you tell me the name of that muffler, I would like to get that replacement for some rusted mufflers I have.

 

Sorry I haven't got a clue what they are. I have the shorties that came on the bike as shown in the orange pic and the longer ones I'm using now were included in the miscellaneous pile of stuff that came along with the bike. The shorties are a bit louder but not crazy loud. I could send you the shorties if you want, just have to see if it's even worth the shipping charges. PM me your zip code if you want me to check it out.

 

Okay FINALLY got an evening in the 70's helped wife cook dinner . Went out hopped on bike and took off 5 miles away go to pull up to stop sign pull in clutch and no resistance and bike dies . First thought cable snapped , I replaced clutch a couple of weeks ago ....the cable end came out of the lever on the clutch cover, but it was still loose , lucky for me I'm very familiar with shifting without the clutch . Made it home looked at the tang was not bent over enough , and when I did clutch I did not tighten down jamb nut on the cable. By the time I finished sun was going down so got to go to bed get up at 3am .

 

Topped off the brake fluid. Front was a little low, rear reservoir was bone dry. Bled the rear. Going to monitor for a leak in the coming days. Fork seals are on the agenda for tomorrow.

 

Had a new seat pad fabbed for the Trunk-box on my 750 SECA. Can’t wait to get it installed!

 

Stripping my XJ 900f for an overhaul . New alternator chain guide, starter clutch components and alternator chain. So far so good, but got a bit to do yet.

 

Installed a gasket on one muffler that was leaking after I tried to reuse a metal one I had. The dealer assured me that this was the proper gasket even though it was fiber and looked nothing like the last one "Yamaha has updated them." Well fit the pipe from the collector box fine but was too small for a good fit to the muffler. Broke one wrap off the old metal gasket put that in the muffler side and then on over the new gasket on the collector box and no more leak. Took it for a test ride and found out that reserve is a good thing stalled at the side of the road 20min from home out of gas but reserve saved me.

 

Got creative making a new positive battery cable for the midnight maxim. It will be hidden by the side cover anyway.

 

It looks cool. If it wasn't an intermittent high-current usage I'd be concerned about heat. Several small conductors can potentially have much more resistance than a single larger conductor.

 

there is a proper way to use multi wires IIRC it takes 3 wires of 1 size to go up to next guage.

3 x 18 =16
3 x 14 =12



battery wire is 6 ga

 

That's not entirely true. The surface area is not the same due to the 3 paths being isolated from one another. Electrons travel across the strands of wire, not inside it. When you twist 3 bare stranded wires together you increase the overall surface area of the full path compared to 3 separate ones. Twisting the ends together is not the same. Think of a 4-lane highway with merging traffic and shifting lanes. Then consider 4 one-lane roads with medians. One road will always be faster than another due to slow drivers (resistance in the stranding).

 

I just installed my stainless brake lines and bled the brakes. I haven't ridden yet but it feels pretty nice and firm through the lever. Seems to stop the bike quick when I'm walking it in the shop so that's a huge improvement already, lol. I'm not sure the reservoir is properly full though. Do you just fill it as much as you can with the bike on the center stand and the front wheel straight? Or turned to one side, or pull the MC off the handlebar so you can get it level or what? I do have aftermarket handlebars, not sure how much different they are from the stockers as far as the MC is concerned...

Went out and bought a helmet and riding jacket last night so I'll be ready to start putting around as soon as my new health insurance begins. I promised my mom I wouldn't ride until I had health insurance. I was kind of thinking I'd do that anyway but since she asked, well sure. I'll do that.

 

I know it is not an exact thing or rule .It is dependant on many factors. I would not recommend it for a starter wire due to the wide range of amps that can be drawn.


https://www.wirebarn.com/Combined-Wire-Gauge-Calculator_ep_42.html

3 at 10 ga =5 ga by calculator

 

I just got home from my first real ride of season ,only went 25 miles but put a big smile on my face . Almost put 100 miles on last fill up , temp supposed to fall back down into 50s , but this weekend might hit 80 , will see if I can take off for some real distance.

 

Health Insurance is the best tool to carry
I had a slight accident on My bike. heath insurance paid 250K and it cost me 3k out of pocket

 

And it's now an IRS managed federal requirement thanks to ACA. Don't get me started on health care...

 

I figure I got back every penny and then some for all the years I carried health insurance. I win.

If I did not have insurance they would have parted me out.

 

But you could have bought yourself back with a salvage title at auction............

 

Of course 2 nice days and today downpour ,came home and adjusted shift linkage , was getting difficult to get neutral, much better now.

 

Haha, I would not have enough residual value to justify the auction block in that case. Scrap yard..

 

...or an Ontario health card. I got everything fixed for free (if you can ignore how over 50% of my income goes to taxes each year!)

 

if 50% of your income goes to taxes then you are a rich SOB

taxes are good, they pave the roads we ride on

 

Not in the USA!

No they aren't/don't!

 

Our roads are terrible after winter and is a joke when they "patch" them

 

Not sure how giving away nearly half of my earnings would make me rich... But my numbers weren't exactly accurate: as of 2017, the average Canadian paid over 42% of their earnings in taxes. That includes property, sales, income tax, etc.

 

Just about what I pay to the IRS actually. And I don't get any of the benefits, except that I don't go to jail. Don't get me started!

 

Pulled the carbs off the midnight maxim last night. Planning to strip them down and try out an ultrasonic cleaner this weekend. Then check valve clearances, replace valve cover gasket with grommets, and hopefully get it fired up.

 

Berrymans dip in a heated U/S tank works the best so far for me.

 

Here we are... Just taxes on pay, not property or sales...

 

That's just the income tax bracket. That does not include SS, medical ins deductions and penalties for under/overpayment at the end of the year.

 

Ryen hits the nail on the taxation head.........basically, once you get to the so-called "middle class" level of income, it's about 50%. Ridiculous. And the dirty truth is that income tax is not only illegal according to the so-called Constitution (that's a whole 'nother can of worms.....), it's not necessary----the banks and government can (and do) create all the money needed to do all sorts of things (paving roads, etc. seems to be low on their list of priorities, though.....just sayin'), so there's no need to extract wealth from its own citizens.......that's just an excuse to make people not question things.

Federal income tax started at the same time as the creation of the modern central bank (the "Fed", which is not "Federal" as its name suggests, it's a private company, no different than Walmart or Grub-hub, etc.) and the IRS is also a private company which serves as the confiscation arm of the Fed. The USA operated just fine w/o income tax for most of its existence (until 1913, when the Fed was created); the only other time in its history that income taxes were declared was during the civil war (also called the war of northern aggression).

It also made due without a central bank for most of its existence, because every time a PRIVATE central bank was created, it ended in various forms of catastrophe. A PUBLIC equivalent of a central bank already exists, and has existed from the beginning, it's called the US TREASURY, who can control things (or mess them up) just as easily as a private bank can, the only difference being that a public bank is subject to at least supposed nominal control by the voters (private banks aren't.......you don't get to vote on who leads them, etc.). A private bank exists not for the common good, but for the good (profit) of their owners, that is their one and only responsibility. Or as the grand and glorious father of central banking supposedly once declared:

"I CARE NOT WHAT PUPPET IS PLACED UPON THE THRONE OF ENGLAND TO RULE THE EMPIRE ON WHICH THE SUN NEVER SETS. THE MAN WHO CONTROLS BRITAIN'S MONEY SUPPLY CONTROLS THE BRITISH EMPIRE, AND I CONTROL THE BRITISH MONEY SUPPLY"
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1815


Perhaps he wasn't kidding.........

 

our roads suck year round

 

Nobody likes paying taxes ,but many things are provided for by taxes , roads, federal and state parks, military, EPA,OSHA, FAA,TSA,ICE. and many others that are they all needed, maybe , maybe not so much lol

 

Well, you get something back for SS and medical...
Agreed, with state, property, sales, gas, etc. it's more like 45-50%

Quick funny story... Difference between liberal and a more balanced state. I lived in Massachusetts my whole life and if you filed your taxes late, no matter who owed who, you were penalized, interest accrued, etc.
I moved to Virginia 8 years ago and I could have sworn I mailed my taxes last year but did not. When I figured it out six months later, and they owed me like $400, I called up the State office in a panic. In Massachusetts, my refund would have been gone and I would owe THEM money.

Here, the woman on the phone said "well how much do you owe?". When I explained I was actually getting a refund she said "Oh!, well just send it in... or don't... if we owe you money we don't really care if you are late."

I was floored... Never experienced common sense from a government entity before.

 

Deficit spending, which the USA (and almost all countries) have in abundance, can also be used to pay for all of those things. As can loans (borrowing from others), which again, is in abundance and moving forward at breakneck speeds. Given all that, then why are taxes on income (again, prior to the era of PRIVATE central banks, there were none except for 3 years during the civil war) necessary?

 

^^so that's what we did to our Yamahas today! We paid various taxes on them!

 

Nice weather here today (in the country at the number 1 spot in bar diagram above). So, while I can't ride my bike, I can at least work on it outside. Something that was really rustling my jimmies were the boogerwelds on the sidepanel replacement the PO did (and they were in the way for installing the airbox again), so I tackled that. My shipment from Revival Cycles arrived (new starter solenoid en inverter rectifier), so I'll see if I can mock-up the electrical system on my bench.