1981 XJ650 Midnight Maxim Restore - (Picture Heavy)

Oh yeah.....you're never done. As a matter of fact, now that you got it to this point----you're just about to BEGIN!!!!! LOL

DaveF

 

Haha it is absolutely true. Today alone I found more small dents in the tank I want to fill and re-finish. Also had my clear coat on the tank run so the left side of the tank needs some clean up work.

Also gotta touch up my final drive paint. Accidentally missed a pizza slice shaped section and only got a LIGHT coat of paint on it.

OH and I almost forgot finishing my gold detail work. Both side body panels, the final drive and drum brake cover, and touching up the badges on the tank with some FRESH paint.

So yes, just starting is WAY too accurate of an assessment of the situation!

 

Ahhh carbs. Gotta tear mine apart again and check the o-rings and clean her out again. Re bench sync and start over with the mixture screws.

Glad to see your bike is pretty much done this was a cool thread to watch progress and learn from as well. Perfect timing too ha.

 

Sweet John! I stumbled across this and ended up reading almost the whole thing. Funny because when you LOOK at the bike originally it almost looks like just a few things have to be done and it will be up and running (I imagine those were your thoughts during purchase). Seems like once you dug in you just kept going. Well worth it though. Thanks for the positive remarks. Sweet job.

 

Go John Go -- keep up the good work

 

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words and support. With where the bike is she needs very little aside from a vacuum sync and colortune - both of which will wait until I have the opportunity to order a vacuum gauge set. So here is what is happening in the coming weeks:

Waiting on a cell phone handlebars mount to arrive this week. Will mount it and be using the phone for GPS on a few summers trips.
Forming saddle bag supports to keep my soft bags from rubbing my rear suspension. I will be sure to get pictures and a walkthrough up here when I do them. Debating a bolt on option or welding something to my sissy bar. Chances are I will mount the sissy bar on the bike while traveling for the sake of having a more stable and larger support system.
Painting the gold on the wheels.
Replacing my rear tire. I had a leak plugged but can't really enjoy the bike with the plugged tire.

On a related note I am looking for someone to ride up from Philly / South Jersey area to the Carb Clinic in NY in June. It's about a 5 hour ride from my location and I plan on leaving that Friday around noon for NY and coming back Sunday between noon and 3pm. Also planning on camping in a tent so I'd like to know who else will be doing the same.

More to come later. Putting Money aside for school puts a bit of a damper on my ability to do work on the bike.

 

Real nice writeup John!!
Sounds like you got those carbs really close to make you so happy.
I use a sync stick with mercury tubes and found that they work good for me. I have a mechanich friend who uses the one with the metal bars to sync carbs.....
To each their own I say.
I'd love to see a picture of the finished bike.
I will try to get a picture posted of the brackets I built for my soft bags, right now I am on night shift and will get a pic Thursday if I can remember.
If I forget you can PM me and I will do it.
NICE!!! Bike !!

 

Thanks for reminding me! I did take a few pictures the day I finished my gold trim work, and I have a picture of the bike as it stands today. I meant to upload them a week or two ago, but then I went for a ride and you all know how that can be!

So as I mentioned in my last post, I did get a flat tire a few weeks back on my rear tire, about half an inch off of the center line. I called around for tire prices and unfortunately cannot afford the $180 for the new tire mounted, so I had to go the route of a plug until I can afford to put the new tire on.

While I had the rear wheel off for a plug, I decided it was a good time to finish up my gold accent work on the body panels, brake drum cover, and final drive. I pulled the parts off when we had that awesome 70 degree weather last week, pulled out the work table and started taping and painting. I did gold then some touch-up black followed by a clear coat to really bring it all together.

Here are the parts drying:


Sorry about the blurriness in the second image. I guess my camera decided that my brake drum cover wasn't important enough to be in focus. A quick humorous side note, in the 20 minutes I left the clear coat to dry, a rather bold spider decided to form a web between my brake drum cover and supporting rod. I came out to bring the parts in for the night and discovered the little fellow. (No I didn't kill him, however I did have to scare him off and destroy the work he did on his web).

So after giving the parts a day to dry, I put them back on the bike, fresh gear oil in the final drive, and reassembled my rear end. Back on the bike and looking good right about the time it started to get cold again. Between cold weather and work, I only managed to snap one picture of the finished work:

I have to remember to get a few more pictures of the bike in the sun and the right side. I've also got my trunk bag on here. It's perfect for my tinted / nontinted visor, a rain suit, gloves, my lunch for work every day, a towel and some VERY light cargo.

 

SWEET!!!

 

I'm going John ... I live north on 476 (NE extension)

 

You have done an amazing thing with this bike.

 

Looking good. Personally, I would suggest the following:

1. the gold is the wrong color, and should be shiny like gold chrome
2. the black is too shiny
3. Actually, for the gold striping, you can get the replacement decals that stick in the grooves
4. I think the tank badges are supposed to be shiny gold, too.

Dave F

 

Coach, pm sent.

Dave, I know the gold is a darker and far less reflective color than OEM, but that's something I am okay with. Same with the black being more shiny. Who knows, that may change though.
I am glad you mentioned this, because it reminded me of another aspect of the bike I need to paint: the grab bar. I am probably going to do it gold with the black accent stripe, but I haven't decided if I like that more or if I want to polish it up and then do the opposite. I think either would look good.
You made a good point with the tank badges. If you look really closely you can see that the right side badge is silver and the left side badge is faded gold revealing sun yellowed plastic. I haven't yet decided how best to paint the gold on the badges. That is also on the to-do list.

 

Quick photo update while I am on my lunch break.

First off, a TRUE before / after comparison. Before:

After:


And a few more shots:



My filthy wheels that need repainting, and the gold trim work:



The mismatched tank emblems in dire need of paint:



And finally my plugged tire. Yes, I am well aware this needs to be replaced. I just don't have the money right now to replace the tire. Being EXTRA careful riding until I can invest in new rubber:

 

So today I had an opportunity to start to fabricate some rear suspension guards for my saddle bags. The issue I was having is I just had the bags strapped under the seat, resting on the rear suspension. This started to wear out the bags where they rubbed, as seen here:



My original plan was to make some steel supports that would bolt in behind the grab bar that I could put on and take off as needed for long trips. After examining the bike, taking some measurements and weighing my options, I decided to pull out the sissy bar that came with the bike and look into some options using it as a base frame.

Since my trunk bag carries plenty for my day to day riding, I figured it would be reasonable that I would use the saddle bags only on longer trips where I would be carrying significantly more cargo (including a tent, a few days' supplies, etc). Since I plan on going on a few weekend trips using just the bike, I thought it makes more sense to at least make saddle bag supports that would work with the sissy bar to give me storage in the bags and behind me with something solid to strap cargo to.

With an idea in mind and after a few measurements



And some prep work


I was finally able to start welding. The welds aren't pretty, but they are strong. I made sure to weld both sides of the joint between the two pieces of metal. After this was complete, I had to figure out a way to strengthen the fairly flimsy sheet metal. My toughening technique of choice? Bending the steel to give it strength, followed by tempering the metal.

On the left is the 'strengthened' support, the right one is not yet strengthened.

And reverse them for the backside of each.


Before hardening the steel supports into shape, I had to check the fit to make sure they would function properly without interfering with my rear suspension.




Since I was already out in the garage and working on various components of luggage storage, I decided to give my homemade trunk rack a once-over as well. A little off the back and bottom shouldn't compromise structural stability and will look better than these bulky things.


After cutting, grinding, sanding, and smoothing all the edges, it was time for a test fit on the sissy bar. Clearly I haven't tackled the paint yet. That can wait for next weekend.


Unfortunately time flew by and I had to cut my work for the evening short after tempering the supports and getting a protective primer sealer coat on them. Tomorrow when I have a chance to put everything together and on the bike I will get some more pictures up.

Please let me know of any concerns or feedback you have, I appreciate all the input I can get. If there is something I wasn't too clear on let me know so I can share it here.

Thanks again everyone!

 

This morning I had a chance to put the sissy bar the rest of the way together and on the bike. All the parts came together and I took her down to Ocean City, MD to meet some family for lunch.

Going through some testing to make sure I will be thoroughly prepared for some summer weekend trips, and so far the only faults I have found are with my stamina against highway speed wind at my face. My arms are SORE right now. On a quick side note I did get a little UV burn, not from my ride but from welding the suspension guards last night. Gotta remember to wear long sleeves when welding next time.

With everything together and my saddle bags and trunk bag mounted, I got some pictures of the setup. For longer trips I have plenty of room for additional cargo such as a tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat.


The lighting in these next two pictures kind of sucks, but it's hard to get good lighting behind the saddle bags. The first picture is the suspension guard with the saddle bag resting on it. This is the position the bags sit when riding / loaded. I'm pretty happy with them.


Here I held the saddle bag out some to try and get a better shot. I painted the suspension guard black so it sort of blends in. It is the dark shadow just to the right of the coil under the bag.


My phone mount came in the mail, so that is mounted too. Here it is with my phone in it. It got me down to MD and back - a 300 mile round trip - with complete success.

At this point I think I am going to leave the sissy bar and saddle bags on the bike. Most of my driving is local to work (3.5mi each way) on 45mph roads so I am not concerned about mpg impact. It helps that I can go twice as far on the bike as I can in the car on the same volume of fuel.

 

Hey, I'm not saying you HAVE to do it the way I like.......just my own preference for originality, that's all. YOU do it the way YOU want it!!!!!

For the emblems, consider using gold leaf to restore them. Or, paint them the same gold that you're already using so they match.

Dave

 

Haha I appreciate the input either way when it comes to the paint.

I was thinking about using the same gold for the badges as I did on the other parts. My main problem is the gold engine paint can be tricky to work with. It also doesn't really set until it is baked at 200 degrees F, which the plastic will not hold up to.

Gold leaf may be the best option for them. It would match the tank trim and stand out a bit more, making the tank pop and stand out from the frame. Hey, if it works I may do ALL the badges in gold leaf!

 

An update between riding and the finally warm bike weather we have been having in NJ (I just wish the humidity was a tad lower and the skies a bit clearer).

After reading numerous problems other XJers were having, I discovered the problem to my idle troubles. After having torn my carbs apart, rebuilt them, replaced literally EVERY rubber part minus the diaphragms (which were intact and properly seated), clunk testing them, wet setting float levels, bench and vacuum syncing them, I FINALLY discovered the cause: the vacuum caps on the intake manifolds. Swapped them out with a set of much cleaner, tighter fitting ones and suddenly voila! Success. I must give Xjrider92117 and MercuryMan thanks for their discussion in this thread.

On a related topic, after a week and a half of work with a local welder highly recommended by my cousin, the Windjammer IV and Vetter luggage graciously provided by Zap2504 are installed and working beautifully!

Pictures for your enjoyment:






The bracket provided for the fairing was originally designed to fit a Honda Shadow 750, but thanks to my local welding support we chopped it, modified it, and rebuilt it to fit my 650 Maxim. It is secure and does not vibrate at all up to 70mph tested.

I did end up going back over my steering column and re-torquing my steering column retaining nuts with the aid of a thread locker to prevent slippage.

I was very happy to discover all four tail lights in the luggage are completely functional however the addition of FOUR double-circuit brake/tail light bulbs is causing an excessive load on my electric system. I hooked up the trunk lights but currently only have two bulbs installed (in addition to my stock tail light) until my LED 1157 replacements arrive.

I've also considered switching my turn signals over to LED for the sake of having amber running lights left and right. I don't want to lose my auto-cancel feature and am shy on spare change to replace the entire turn signal circuit with a microcontroller, so this is a project that may have to wait a few months.

All in all, I am VERY pleased with my extra storage and fatigue prevention provided by the fairing/windscreen. I am debating cutting vent holes in the windshield and purchasing a set of vents - another project pending a really good deal or a future surplus of funds.

More to come when the next big addition / modification is completed!

 

Epic, man. Absolutely Epic.