First bike, 1982 XJ750 Maxim

Hey everyone, I just bought my very first bike, an 82 XJ750 Maxim. It needs some work and definitely needs some basic maintenance, but I think it'll make a great little project. I plan on restoring it at much as possible. It's missing some panels, the headlight housing is broken, etc, but it's in very good condition mechanically. I'll definitely have a bunch of questions regarding parts and maintenance, as this is my first bike. I picked it up from a dealership for $600, so I figured I can't go wrong. Even if the bike turns out to fall apart on me, it'll still help me learn the mechanics of the bike.

Finally at home


Still at the dealer


It's not registered yet, but I took it around the block and I can already tell that I'm going to love it.

 

Hello and welcome!
Side covers come up on flea-bay on a regular basis.
I've got a good headlight bucket if you are interested.

 

welcome.

Looks like you're also missing a front fender.

 

Hi,
Check out some of my signature posts. I started riding this summer. This is a great site.

Before you do much riding, buy some new cotter pins then take out the rear axle so you can see if the rear brake pad have delaminated (bad). The quick check could be a life saver.

Also installing modern fuse panel is one of the first electrical projects you should do.

Have fun and be safe.

 

I believe you are also missing the fog light under the headlight. I have one you may also need the bracket too. Is there a switch on the right hand control or two hole to screw one to? I think they all had them.

 

Yep, I was trying to figure out what the aux switch did, lol.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll definitely end up getting a front fender and all of the missing panels, but I want to get the bike in better running condition first. I'm slowly compiling a list of things I need for the bike, and it's getting long, but I have plenty of time to get all of this done. I'm hoping to have the bike looking new again by March/April.

 

Lucky for you, someone already replaced the handle bars that many people don't like. (I like the OEM ones).

If you hate the Atari gauge cluster (I like it), there are several posts hear about replacing it.

I know you are going to fix mechanical problems first (and you should), but you could consider installing LED driving/fog lights on the AUX switch if you don't NEED the AUX head light and want 3 point visibility from the front.

I made a semi custom one but found a few nice once on eBay premade. ie: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWAX%3AIT
I mounted mine via the fender bolts. http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=28766.html
I liked the look of the AUX light, but installed a Vetter fairing and "lost" my OEM lights.

 

Do the stuff you need to get and keep your bike running good.

Upgrade the Fuse Panel.
Check the Alternator and Starter Brushes.
Rig the Warning Light with a jumper for Battery Level.

Watch various lists for somebody parting-out a Max.
Stuff like Rear Foot Pegs, Side Covers and the Grab-bar Arch you wait for and hope to win at auction, ... or ... get from a Salvage Yard.

That trail across the Alternator Cover needs to be investigated.

Buying from a Dealer should have got you some-kind of Front Fender off from something that they had that would fit.

Welcome to the Squadron.

 

I looked through a bunch of your write ups and I'll definitely do the fuse panel and I want to do the LED's for the cluster.

As for the light, I was considering trying to swap to a round light, if I could find one that would fit. Either that, or retrofit a Morimoto Mini HID projector into it, because the stock lighting is absolutely pitiful.


Planning on doing all of the basic maintenance this weekend. Oil change, brakes (fluid is either very low or non existent), spark plugs (pitch black :roll: ), spark plug wires, and might try synching the carbs, or atleast trying to figure out the idling issue.

Also, my battery warning light is on. I know the battery I have isn't the greatest, it's maybe 5-6 years old. It holds a charge for a bit, but not forever and I know the charging system works. I hooked up a trickle charger to it, and it immediately said it was full charged, when it wasn't. Is it something as simple as I just need a new battery, or could it be something more complex? I have no clue what the battery warning light is actually warning me about.

 

Many have done the square to round swap. (Look around for posts).

I cheated - I installed a fairing with a 7" round headlight and upgraded to a modern housing/lens/h4 bulb. And yes the square headlight was pitiful and I even had an H4 bulb in it. (Poor reflector design???)

Wow a new owner that wants to keep the atari

 

To be fair, I haven't even seen any of the other clusters. :mrgreen:

I'll most likely stick to the original though.

 

Welcome, carbonaxe!
I am also a new rider/xj750 owner (and will keep the atari )
These folks are an incredible knowledge base, not to mention helpful.

There is plenty to read here, that's for sure. :lol:

 

Hi, and welcome from one new member to another

My '82 xj750 looks quite similar, but yours hasn't suffered quite as much road rash. I think the PO ended up in the bush a few times... Luckily I've managed to find some nice extra parts from one of the forum members who was parting one out, so now all I need is a instrument pod underside cover, and a right-side muffler.

Mine also is in dire need of a decent paint job, and a painstaking wiring overhaul

This is a great forum, and a wonderful resource.

Sure is hard, waiting for Spring....

bd

 

Lol, the atari is one of the reasons why I was drawn to the Maxim. They are damn cool, though your LED backlighting project is on my list.

8)

 

Carbonxe,

If you looked in the classifieds.. I have an 83 750 I'm parting out. I have the front fender, rear pegs, and a few other odds and ends left..

 

Figured I'd throw up a small update. I began taking some stuff off the bike. The tank is getting ready to have the paint stripped and I got the carbs off. I was expecting to see the carbs just full of gunk, but they look they're brand new. I haven't taken them apart at all, just looked inside the throttle plates, so I have no idea how the float needles are, the jets, etc. Also ordered basic maintenance stuff for it, plus, filters, oil, clutch cable (was fraying a bit at the handle), final drive oil, battery, etc.



Since I'll be going on vacation next week, it'll probably be another 2-3 weeks before it runs again.

Also, to solve my lack of aux light problem, I'm switching to a single 7" round headlight.

 

Another quick little update. Gave the bike new plugs and put the carbs back on today. It fired up immediately (with a jump, battery is fried). I started doing an oil change, and decided to pull the clutch cover off because the window had oil caked on it, making it virtually impossible to see the oil level. Then I ran into a small hiccup putting the clutch cover back on...as I was tightening one of the bottom bolts, the bolt decided to just 'push' it's way through the clutch cover, destroying it. I was already planning on ordering a replacement, as the one that was on the bike was pretty beat up, but I was hoping to get some fresh oil into the bike and get it up and running again.

Also ordered the new headlight. I'm hoping it's not as much of a headache as it looks to replace it. The mess of wiring inside the stock headlight doesn't look very friendly.

And I started sanding down my tank so I can repaint it. I found out what color the bike used to be!

 

Actually the mess of wires (assuming all original connectors) is not so bad. Everything connects to the appropriate plug and you are all done. The only exception seems to be the turn signal wires (but that is only a total of 4).

If you are missing the original connectors... Well you could get/make new ones and just have to worry about matching colors.

 

I believe they only came in three colors, black, blue, and a red. The wiring isn't bad but it does take up a lot of room in the headlight. I replaced my headlight but ditched the Atari and rewired everything due to the plugs being so big that my new light didn't have the room for them. Only took about 8 hours to clean it up nice doing it the correct way (no wire nuts) with heat shrink tubing and all solder joints for the new smaller plugs.

 

Can't do anything until I get my clutch cover in, so I decided to start sanding down the tank, to get it ready for a repaint. I was originally planning on repainting it black (it's currently black, but the last person who painted had zero idea what he was doing), but after seeing the original blue color, I'm starting to like it. I don't really want it that bright though, so I'm thinking about doing Midnight Blue.



Here is Midnight Blue just to give people the idea.

 

Looks like you ot a solid start. Good luck and welcome to the site..

Rob

 

Slowly, but surely, it's getting to where I want it to be. It was way too cold and we got almost a foot of snow, so I didn't get the chance to install the new clutch cover. But on a lighter note, I got my new headlight, I sanded down the tank even more and I got my YICS tool in the mail today.





No, the light isn't installed, lol. I just shoved it in there to get a picture. I still need to remove the stock light housing and figure out what to do with all these wires, because they definitely will not fit inside this new light.

 

If you are planning on stripping your tank down to bare metal it is a lot easier to use aircraft paint stripper to do it. Took me about 30 minutes to do mine and that was mostly time waiting for the stripper to do its job.

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong...
The 82 XJ750J's shipped in Black and Red from the factory.

Regardless paint it what ever color YOU want Paint the side panel inserts to match!

I kinda like that dark blue. I went with gloss black since it will be easier to touch up and my bro-in-law has access to some industrial gloss black in bulk at work.

 

I tried it and it wouldn't eat the top coat. I have no clue what the previous owner used to paint the tank, but nothing would eat it. I'm using 60 grit sand paper to chew through it, then switching to 250 grit to clean up the original paint. It's almost like the last owner used bed liner to paint the tank. :evil:

I've seen the side panels in this blue. Unless the tank was painted twice in it's lifetime (possible), I think the blue shown is the original color. As it is right now, it's a coating of terrible rattle can, clearcoat, blue paint, primer, base metal. So if someone did paint it blue, they did it properly...then the following owner ruined it. Who knows lol.

So my list of things to do in the next week or two is as follows;
Install new clutch cover
Add oil
Finish sanding down the tank
Spray tank with primer
Install YICS eliminator (I know some of you guys dislike this idea, but it's a much easier and cheaper route than tuning the YICS)
Tune carbs and fix idle
Change final gear oil
Install new headlight

With all that, the bike should be running properly and ready to go.

Once all that is done, THEN I can move on to painting things, swapping bulbs for LEDs, re-wiring fuse panel, etc.

 

Looks like a sweet ride! Where abouts are you located?

 

I'm from New Jersey.

One of the connectors inside the stock headlight seems to be impossible to disconnect. :evil: Worst case scenario for that, cut the wires and solder them back together. But I test fit the new headlight, plugged it in and turned it on. It works!

 

Put a flap wheel on your grinder. It will make quick work of that nasty top coat on the tank. Not too much pressure or staying in one place though. You don't want to make a hole in the tank itself.

 

Almost finished sanding down the tank. Just need to finish up the edges and around the filler cap. Also installed the new clutch cover and filled up my new battery with acid and fully charged it. I'll be able to add oil and start up the bike tomorrow. I still need new hose clamps, new fuel filter, fuel line, and vacuum line (tank to carb) before I can start tuning it though.

New clutch cover installed, in MUCH better condition than the one that was on the bike. I need to swap out the oil sump cover though, it'll really improve the look of the bike.


Still haven't finished removing the stock headlight, so it's just dangling there lol.




It's just primer.

 

Spent all day working on the bike today and got quite a lot done. Pulled the carbs off the bike to do a full tear down. Cleaned them inside and out, need to sync them tomorrow after I get a few more things. Also finally installed the new battery and fixed my front brake switch wiring problem.





Hopefully cleaning and syncing the carbs will cure my idle problem, or I'm hoping it was due to a vacuum leak (definitely had a vacuum leak).

 

Finally got the stock headlight off and installed the new one.



I can't wait til it gets warmer out, working in a cold garage sucks.

Also bench sync'd the carbs today.

 

never realized it with the rectangle headlight the instrument pod is huge

 

Put the carbs back on the bike today and it took me a while to get it started back up. Found out that it wasn't getting fuel (new fuel filter was the culprit). After I pulled the filter off, the bike fired up right away and the RPM jumped straight to 5000RPM. I initially thought it was the problem I had before, but then I realized that I just bench sync'd the carbs and the idle wasn't set yet so I fired it back up and adjusted the idle down some. It was idling fine at around 1300RPM, but it sputtered a little so I tried to give it a little gas and it just died, then it wouldn't start back up. Turns out I ran out of fuel. The tank barely had any left in it, so I guess between warming up and revving for 3 minutes and filling the float bowls back up, it ran out.

Since I ran out of fuel, I didn't get the chance to make sure my erratic idle was gone. I also didn't get the chance to vacuum sync it.

Before filling it with gas, I'm going to clean out the tank. I've been waiting until the bike ran out of gas to fill it up with mineral spirits to try to pull some of the corrosion off the walls of the tank.

 

That's a good idea hopefully you didn't get anything in the carbs

 

What do you mean? What would get in the carbs?

 

I like the round headlight, though I understand why many dump the atari at the same time now...

 

Yeah, the atari is killing me, but I just can't see myself switching to the round gauge cluster, especially after seeing the price of some of them. I think the only way I would switch, is if I could trade clusters.

 

Why don't you get a little bikini faring, take the eye right off it

 

Not a fan of fairings, I like the bare, open look. It's one of the reasons why I'm not getting a front fairing for it.

 

I'd consider that if I ever tired of my Windjammer AND switched to round.

 

you said you were going to clean out the tank . You said you pulled the fuel filter off thinking that it was the problem. Reading between the lines. Now i gather you put your old filter back on. The sediment i was talking about very fine just before you run out of gas Now you see why i said it was a good idea and hopefully you did not get any in the carbs

 

Carbon.., GET SOMETHING on that front fork!! A brace, fender, SOMETHING!!

I was surprised that I made it through three pages of a thread without someone yelling at you<LOL-just teasing> to do it. All the paint and headlight discussion if fine but if you continue to ride with out some sort of support for your front wheel, bad things are going to happen.

I keep picturing in my mind, you saddling up with your sweetheart and fully loading the machine. Then up on a secondary road you are going around 50mph and you enter a turn where the combination of weight and speed load the front wheel and since it has no support, it begins to wobble....first it's slow and low in frequency then........oh cr*p!

Just trust me, your bike will ride SO much better with some support close to the axle.

jeff

BTW- very nice bike and I like what you're doing with it.....

 

Thanks for the heads up, I wasn't aware that it had such structural importance. 8O I guess that's yet another piece I need to pick up (saw a few on eBay already) and another piece I need to paint. Like I said before, this is my first bike, so I'm a total noob at these things.

And a very tiny update, despite it being about 15 degrees outside, I wanted to check out the valve cover. I was scared that the bolts wouldn't snap loose or something would go wrong, but I was able to break 4 of them loose (the only 4 accessible without removing the tank), so that was a sigh of relief.

As much as I'm dreading doing the valve, at least I'll be able to clean the top of the engine much more thoroughly with the cover off and out of the way.

 

Don't dread doing the valves, just be sure to write down the intake and exh for each cylinder and write down all your measurements and you'll be fine. Also, be careful that you don't mix and match Imperial and Meteric measurements....it's easy to do, especially if you only have a imperial feeler guage.

Cover the valaves with a clean cloth once you get the cover off to prevent anything untowardly dropping in there.

You'll be fine and if you do get stuck, the guys in here will help you out.

jeff

 

I have a wacky idea about cramming a 7" round headlight bucket into a rectangular plastic container. The idea is it keeps the "boxy" look while still using a better round headlight.

When I installed my fairing I needed a place to put all the wires normally inside the headlight. I fabricated this "bucket" from a $2 plastic container. I notched 4 holes in the back for all the wires and my speedo cable. (White paint first outer layer, then coated in black to make seeing wires inside easier).

With a slightly larger (but similar width) container, you could cut a round hole into the cover, push the light housing through and tighten the bolts thru the plastic box and the round housing. EDIT: If you wanted to be real creative, get some SQUARE short stem rear turn signals and use them as the headlight ear bolts. Then everything would be together and boxy.

You would have a round light coming out of a square-ish box to keep the "look" of the square front end and atari. You would also have more room for wires if some housings are smaller.

You may not do this but I probably would if I stop using my fairing (and/or if its ever off again for repaint/repair).

If done right it could look very nice (or less nice for rat type of project).





Just some food for thought as I sit bored at my computer.

EDIT 2: Not the prettiest Photoshop prototyping, but you might get the idea. It may not be as pretty as I imagine in my head, but it would be boxy...

 

I've done full engine teardowns and rebuilds before, but it was on new motors. The thing I'm dreading, is exposing the internals on a near 30 year old motor. I know with the proper precautions it'll be fine, it's just one of those things that I didn't want to have to get involved with when I bought the bike.

If it's not too cold tomorrow, I'll probably pull the cover off and begin the process. I'm guessing it's going to take me a while to finish all of it because I'll have to order the shims and a new gasket. I guess I can check the rear brake pads for delamination while the bike is inoperable. I was very close to buying new pads the other day, but I figured I should check them out first before I jump the gun. I have a feeling the original ones are going to be in there though.

 

Got my front fender in today. It's in better condition than I expected it to be in.

 

ARe those risers on your bars and if they are were they stock? I've been looking for some decent risers for a while now. Let me know if you want to get rid of them.

 

They're not the stock bars. The owner before me changed the bars and added risers.

 

Been a while since I've worked on the bike, it's just been too cold to do anything and I haven't had the time. I finally got around to measuring valve clearances and they weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. They're all basically 1 shim size away from being in spec.

Exhaust, starting on the left were .10mm, .09mm, .13mm, .10mm
Intake, starting on the left were .09mm, .07mm, .09mm, .07mm

I just order the bucket holder tool, so once I get that I'll be able to finish that job. Then once that's all said and done, I'll finally be able to vacuum sync the carbs and hopefully get this bike running properly again.

Thursday and Friday are looking like the perfect two days to really put my foot down and get working on the bike. It's supposed to be 55-60 and sunny. So far on the agenda for those days, finish shim measurements (pending shim tool), install front fender, finish removing paint from tank, check rear brake pads for delamination, and fix my clutch cable.