Very pleasantly surprised

Howdy folks! First time poster here. I picked up a 1982 XJ550 Maxim about a month ago as a winter project bike. The bike wasn't running and was in pretty bad shape. It only had 14,000 miles on it so I was hoping the drive train was still in good shape. My plan was to get it running over the winter and then sell it in the spring as a starter bike. Little did I suspect what a treasure I'd found. I've found lots of great information here on rebuilding carbs, cleaning the starter and things like that. With your help I managed to get it running last weekend and I've been riding it every day since Sunday. What really surprised me was how much power this little 550 has! I mean when you let the thing wind out a bit, it really screams. I've got two other bikes, a Shadow 1100 and a XS850 triple and I think this little 550 would put both of them to shame up to about 60mph. I also love the way it handles. I'm on the down hill side of 50 so my back isn't what it used to be and the seating position is just about perfect for me. I'm still having trouble with it not starting (cleaning the starter helped the cold starts but not when it's warm) so I'm going to check the coils and clean all the connections. Now my biggest problem is figuring out how to tell the wife I'm probably going to keep it. Thanks for all your help!

Happy Trails!

sanoke

 

Wow, we must have been separated at birth! My story is almost exactly the same as yours: bought the bike to fix and sell, got it running, fell in love with the sexy little bugger, having second thoughts about selling. The only difference is that mine is an 81 Seca 550.

I'm also having problems with starting. Once it's started, it's fine except for a little hesitation at low rpms.

Here's what I would recommend, and this is assuming you haven't done any of these things already...

Check the alternator brushes. Mine were way below spec and I suspect that's the cause of my starting problem right there.

Sync the carbs (using a home-made manometer is fine, worked for me)

Check the valve clearances. I need 5 new shims, and you probably need at least a couple.

Colortune if you have one or have a spare 50-odd bucks burning a hole in your pocket.

I hope this helps...and let us know how you do with breaking the news to the wife. I'm probably going to have to do the same. :?

 

Thanks for the good advice. These are all things I'm planning to do. Just haven't got to them yet. I'll let you know how it goes with the wife.

 

The only thing that I see missed here is to check the fuses, corrosion/resistance in the fuse holder WILL cause weak spark when cranking. Change out stock holders to a newer style (there are many posts with links, if you search), and try again. It was night and day for me.

 

Oh yeah, forgot about that. PO did that already (one thing he did right) so I didn't even think about it. I'm gonna check mine anyways, though. Might be some invisible crud in there.

 

First of all, welcome to the forum! Always good to see new members (esp. those in and around my age bracket!) I bought my Seca '81 550 from my brother as a "reintroduction" to street riding after a long layoff, with the intention of moving up to a bigger bike after a few years. I did move up. But I fell in love with the Seca and won't part with it. Like many older bikes, it possesses a "soul", character that seems missing from many of the new machines. Hope you can post some pix of your bike, love to see 'em!

One other thing you might check; look over the carb spigots (the rubber boots between the head and the carbs) for cracks. They almost always are. The cracks almost always don't penetrate, but's it's something to keep an eye on.

 

I totaly replaced my fuse box with inline fuses, it wasnt hard to. No corrosion now.

As for the 550, my brother in law has one and he loves it. They are good weelie bikes. If you like that kind of thing.

 

Here's a pic:


Yes, my carb spigots were badly cracked so I picked up a new set on ebay and put them on when I rebuilt the carbs. I've also replaced the fuse block so next I'm going to clean all the connections.

Thanks for the advice!

 

Nice bike! And what a beautiful backdrop! Too cool!