1982 XJ550 Maxim rebuild

Keep it up! Brings back memories, I went through all the same stuff. Took me two years to rebuild everything but I ended up with a solid reliable bike. And I will again.

 

Electrical continues. Headlight buffed up great. Replaced the missing orange insert for stop/run toggle. Flashers on LH circuit work, not on right. Horn works, tail and plate lights are fine. Paint on the signal control assembly did not cure to my liking. Going to disassemble it all again, strip and recoat. Once the paint cures new stickers for all OE modules will be ordered from chacal. The starter button may have to be replaced. I plastic welded a set of retaining nubs where the "brim" broke off. Works for final engine testing at this point. I still have a rear shock to disassemble and buff and balance the rear wheel assembly.

 

Electrical is coming together. Battery that was sold to me is about 1" too tall to fit in the box, gotta buy yet another battery. All signals work with the cluster indicator. Starting circuit lights up the oil light but still can't get the solenoid to click. The engine ignition relay works fine. Had to replace leads on one of the bulb holders and re-solder another due to corrosion. Just need some lens gaskets and a lens screw to finish the signals. Two of the fuse clips broke and one is not springy enough to keep good contact causing heating. Looks like I may be pulling and rebuilding the fuse block now.

 

for safety sake, replace that big battery with a 2A charger

 

That's only connected sometimes for voltage levels since I have stuff left on for a while in the garage while I'm testing. The small battery gets charged off the bike.

 

Can someone verify which harness segment the oil switch is on for the 550 maxim? I have hooked up everything except the coils and oil switch. I do not see another female bullet connector with a brown wire anywhere. I get the oil light on the cluster when the start button is pressed but still can not activate the starter solenoid. I thought it was wired directly into the brown on the power regulator but it does not exit as a bullet connector. I have 3 unconnected housings and no additional parts for them.

 

oil switch wire is a ground wire .it hooks to the oil level switch and when your low on oil the switch closes making the oil light come on. it should not prevent you from starting bike.
it does run from under bike and up rear of motor.
I will go look for where it connects into harness

 

oil switch looks like a white wire sheathed in a black tube by its self runs up back of motor to behind tool tray. it connects to a black/red wire single connector . it is located on the branch of the wire harness that goes to battery( large red insulation). near a white connector with 2 wires one of the wires is green in the 2 position connector. you should see a black/red wire or 2 in the diode block connector

 

I got it sorted out. Oil light still won't go out, though, even if I use a ground. Switch tests fine. I'm missing the starter interrupt relay under the tank. I also am not exactly sure where the mounting tab is for it since the headlight relay and cancellor are already mounted and there are no free tabs. Anyway, if I jump R/W across it the solenoid clicks. Neutral and brake circuits all work so I just gotta fix the last relay and get the engine done.

 

look at the diode block

oil switch should read open when tested and closed when you drain oil
.
diode and resistor are in diode block. circled diode connects to L/W wire of the solenoid and makes ground when starter button is pushed
R/W wire above oil light connects to run/kill switch

when oil goes low oil level switch closes making ground turning on light B/R wire connects the switch to diode block.

is light on when oil switch is disconnected from connector at harness?

Starter/Ignition cut-off relay (no color): front of coil rear mounting bracket.

 

wiring diagram

 

Caliper is done. Ordered an OE pad kit for it. One of the pads has cracked and eroded material. I'll juice it up this weekend and see what leaks.
The pressure seal was super tight but after some encouragement it slid right in. The dust seal was a major PITA to install with it rolling or pinching the wiper ribs. Overall, that piston rebuild kit from eBay sold by Power House is very nice and complete. Good quality parts and shipping was faster than expected, even via mail.

 

Ya good call on the old pucks, they looked in bad shape. Looks good with new parts hope nothing leaks and you are good to go.

 

One is OK but the other is trashed. I am going to check the spare disc I have and get it turned if there is enough metal. The one on there now is OK but has a few ridges I can feel. Best to turn one of them down when the new pads come in so it wears in evenly.

 

That is one of way of doing it, looks good for what you used.

 

I looked for a low-profile ATM spade to spade pad but couldn't find one. ATM may have worked but most were 12V+ post to single fuse spade terminal. The harness needs to be set up as individual fuse circuits so I just grabbed a bulk bag of these inline ATM holders and had all of about $5 in the setup. Easy to move around if needed for fuse replacement, will lay flat. Extra moisture resistance with the caps.

Front brake is juiced up and holds solid now with the piston rebuild done. Checked the rotor again and the disc surface feels fine so I'm going with it as-is. Used a Mighty-Vac bleeder but still ended up making a huge mess. . Eventually I'll swap stainless lines, but the rubber lines feel solid for now. Still gotta buy 4 ring packs and potentially another head gasket so, the lines can wait.

 

I normally go with these as they are cheap and normally you can hide them away in the same place.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...MI-IHauc6l4wIVwlcNCh2ShASQEAQYASABEgKRWPD_BwE

 

I've used those on other projects, they're OK if your push terminals a good quality. I also have used ones that have built-in open circuit LEDs for each fuse. The in-line holders gave me more freedom to use the existing wiring without damaging it. If I decide to restore the OEM fuse box I still can. I may do that later with LP-ATM or ATM sockets, keeping the OEM labels and fuse cover.

 

Seat cover pulled off, foam and pan is in great condition. Cover is split at the passenger riser panel. Double-stitch sewn back together as best as I could(my fingers gave up end of the second run). Reinforced with some new vinyl and some 3M yellow contact glue to take stretch tension off the stitches.

 

add some extra foam or a carpet pad if you can squeeze it in your butt will thank you

 

I have some old jute pad but I will have to see how the cover edges are. The tail is already torn but the sides are OK. Worst case I can sew a staple strip on. I have some scraps of thin vinyl that could work for that.

 

First 24-hour soak. LOTS (35+ years) of dirt came out of the pores. It is soft and pliable now, no longer brittle. Feels like worn leather. Another 24-hour soak in Armor All, hot wash and then I will apply lanolin or conditioner 2 or 3 times. As it dries it returns to a consistent black color. The brown is temporary.

 

The second soak helped pull a little more dirt. Feels about the same so I don't think it's going to get any better. A hot olive oil bath may help but it's not worth the cost, it's soft enough for a seat. Sprayed on some fluid film after a hot rinse and scrubbed it with paper towels. More dirt came out, lots of shine coming back. Removed excess goop and let it rest overnight. Will see what's there tonight. Hopefully it didn't eat the vinyl.

 

wasn't there something years ago about armor-all making dashboards crack? i never cared being a lemon pledge guy

 

The water cleaner and silicone in AA is OK for reviving vinyl and cleaning periodically. The plasticizers in vinyl (oils in the polymer matrix) migrate out over time, especially with long UV and heat exposure. The silicone will replace some of them but it will come back out of the pores and make the thermoplastic even more brittle as it pulls original plasticizers out with it. If you were to apply it weekly on a vinyl surface you would expedite the "drying" of the plastic by replacing the original oils with AA silicone. It's shiny for sure, but if it's shiny then it's on the surface not in the plastic helping with pliability. In my case, I'm using it to clean the pores out, remove oxidized polymers from the surface and allow me to get another oil back in where the silicone has penetrated during the soak. Once the surface is sealed off, the silicone that made it deep in the material won't come back out. It will get stiff again, no way to avoid that it's old material. If you want long-life and soft material you need to buy new or replace it with leather, which you can revive over and over for a lifetime.

 

Buffed out and reinstalled with some jute padding.

 

Wow well done.

 

I could reproduce the factory pad for this seat but am unsure how much demand there would be for it to cover the master mold cost. There is a soft pvc foam insert under the circle embossing which would be tricky to replace and potentially expensive. I could probably reproduce the pan too, in urethane resin.

 

My main PC crapped out. Spent 4 days trying to get something back together from all the parts around and recover data. Back online and got all vids and pics back.

Got a set of used pistons with rings in for 50 bux. They look good and include pins. Bores are near stock so I should have no issues with them. Going to try to get the head re-installed tonight.

 

The cylinder o-rings got squished in a few spots on the first rebuild. Clipped them to fit and secured them with some ultra grey so they won't fall out when I install the head.


The "used" pistons are in better shape the cleaned up original ones. Rings look good as-is so going to re-assemble and do another compression test.
Looking around for a couple wider clamps for ring compressing. Going to do middle two first.

 

Nice posting with good pics thanks....You did measure the new/used rings to make sure they were still in spec?

 

I did not remove them. I had hose clamp failure again and bent 2 lower compression rings once again. If the piston tilts even a small amount the hose clamp slips and the ring pokes out beyond the jug lip. Tapping the head down damages the ringland and bends the ring. At this point I'm done with the bike build. I'm going to do a parts inventory and see if part-out $ will recover a decent % of what I've spent.

 

IMO your fingers are the best ring clamps.

Don't stop just because you're frustrated. Let it sit for a while and come back to her.

 

I tried the finger squeeze first and ruined 2 pistons just like I did with the clamps. I can't afford to buy more engine components. I am going to have to recoup at this point.

 

I am going to be parting out what I know is working on the bike. The rest is getting trashed. If anyone wants a specific part PM me and I will let you know price and shipping. I hope to have a list of parts later this weekend.

 

My wife told me to leave it for a bit. I guess she wants to ride the bike too. *sigh* I hate these f'n pistons.

 

Well they seem to be holding compression without cams installed at this point. Hopefully I don't have to do this again. If I do, I may use it for a boat anchor.

 

I am really impressed with the seat and how it turned out. I feel your pain with having to do rings twice. Everything looks clean and well done.

did you do any water proofing to the foam or vinyl?

 

Thanks. No, the vinyl will be water proof after it's oiled well over several months. I would not seal up the pores of the base form with anything since it would encourage mold and fungus growth that will destroy it. If it's physically broken down it needs to be replaced. The base and pan on the seat I refinished was in great shape. I just needed to soften the vinyl back up and fix the tears. I may pick up another one off eBay and do a refresh on it as a spare or to sell. That and metal finishing work is much less stressful than the engine rebuild work.

 

I used closed cell foam for my seat. .5 inch camping sleeping pad or yoga mat, .5in carpet foam and with an open cell foam for the final wrapping then another thin pad that's sewed into the leather. since the closed cell retains the water and mold I wrapped the foam with 6mil plastic that will sit between the leather and foam. I did this because the foam started to get musty and smelled like mold. I didnt see it but you can smell it. what chemical are you using the seal the vinyl.

I havent rode the bike yet with the plastic, but I am expecting the seat to retain more heat and give me swap butt

 

The plastic should be open on at least one side (or have holes) to avoid moisture retention. I will probably use refined coconut oil as a buffing oil and keep doing it until it saturates all the way through. You can use any any wax really, just keep in mind that it will oxidize over time and turn into powder.

 

Second oil soak. It absorbs in nicely, no residue.

 

Got timing sorted out with the cams and chain tensioner. Will need shims for sure. 150psi on all but one at 130psi. Atleast it is holding high compression now. Going to recheck lobe clearance tomorrow and get a list of shims. Once more around the cam caps and I will be moving towards reinstall and first fire-up.

 

Well, the head is back off again. Exhaust valve bent when I was trying to pull a shim out. Lost my lifter lock so was going to do it the cheap way. Another one is on order. I swear this bike really does not want to run again.

 

Waiting on new donut seals for the cylinder block. Both leaked during oiling and compression re-testing.

 

Gotta get a few shims. Odd thing is #3 is on spec but barely pushing 100psi. The others are 120 to 135 and shims are a bit off. Maybe 3 will come up with some cycles on it.

 

Are you checking new piston and rings on a new build? All things need to seat inside the cylinders with some run time. I am hoping you used some oil in the cylinders when you rebuild it and now you are spinning the engine?

 

Old pistons and rings. Don't really care at this point if they are holding compression. I'm about done with it.
Everything had Amsoil assembly lube applied. I poured a little T-Rod 30w in each cylinder and on the cam lobes.