Phase one is complete!

HALLOLUYA! I have finished the basic dismantling of my Maxim, I bought a cherry picker at Harbor Freight, assembled the thing, and after dealing with the only bolt on the whole bike to give me a hard time (front lower right engine mount), I had to use pliers and a hammer to get it out, then the engine lifted up and removed from the right side. Hay Hay! the airbox is out of the frame!
I got the rest of the frame stripped down, took the steering head apart, ball bearings flew all over the place as there was very little of the original grease left, picked them up with a magnet, going to replace them with tapered roller bearings. The swing arm came apart easily.

Put the engine on one of those little furniture dollies that HF sells, works perfectly. I found that the problem bolt was bent, that's why it was stubborn. Next, well I gotta move into my new pad daddio. Then I'll turn my attention to getting all those parts looking good and overhauling the parts that need that, like the master cylinder and the calipers.

I forgot to take my camera with me today so I'll get some pics out later, I did flip my frame over to get a better look at the freeze crack, took a wire wheel to the area, turns out there was no crack in the area of the kick stand. I got a nasty surprise when I flipped the frame back upright, a good cups worth of water came gushing out of an opening in the frame.

I think I'm going to dread putting the engine back into my beautifully repainted frame, but that's many, many months from now. I think I'm going to wrap it up like a mummy with duct tape where ever I suspect the engine will hit. Pardon me while I pat myself on the back. This is the first time I have pulled an engine out of a motorcycle, and I did it without any assistance from anyone, not even my lady helped(except she did help me assemble the CP.) So I hope you all will understand the pride I am feeling about what I have accomplished. I say this mainly so the inexperienced out there can know that with determination, and lots of careful thought, they to can do what I did, provided they have the proper place and the right tools to do the task at hand. The proper place: a shed, a shack, a garage, just not in the open; the proper tools: Metric socket set, various screw drivers, ball peen hammer, pry bar(s), feeler gauges, various punches, chiesels, box and open end wrenches, also get a set of socket driven allen wrenches. There are a lot of other tools I didn't mention, but this is one of the most important, a torque wrench. I'm done now.

 

Congrats on the tear down.
Make sure you have an assembly manual, and plenty of notes for putting it all back together!

After everything is painted, and you are ready to reinstall the motor. Wrap the frame in cardboard leaving the mounting areas open. Then lay the engine on some rugs/blankets/boxes/etc..., and lower the frame over it. Once the mounting bolts are started. You can lift the frame upright with the motor installed, and tighten it all down.

Ghost

 

Great!

I'm all green with envy. Hope your build goods well.

Looking forward to all the stages/pics .

 

Re: Torque wrenches:

You really need two: one for the really light stuff, an inch-pound micrometer type; and one for the heavier stuff with around a 10~100 ft/lb range.

I have and can recommend the K-D Tools 3459 (in/lb) and 3460 (ft/lb.) Also highly recommended: K-D Tools' 2274 metric feeler gauge set.

 

Thanks for the advice, Ghost but I think I'm going to have a jig made like the one pictured in the topic of "homemade XJ tools". Thank you, Fitz, I have to buy new ones as I sold the ones I used to have. I didn't think I'd ever mechanic again when I lost my herd to a b**tard land lord. Funny how fate seems to intervene. Sorry for not providing a link, I don't know how to do it.

Hey Parts, I have kin in Phoenix, and I plan to make a ride down there after I get'er back together, I'm ok with a meet up when I get in your neck of the woods.

 

Here are a couple of pics from the tear down.

 

wait, are you saying that there was no crack in the frame afterall?

 

Howdy Maybe, There was a suspicion of an additional crack near the kick stand pivot point, but after I wire wheeled the area, no crack was found.

A freeze crack is between the kick stand and the kick stand safety switch mount. In another thread regarding cracks in frames one of the other XJer's said that the kick stand pivot is where you could find cracks, and from the pic I posted, he thought I had a crack. I'll get a pic of the area all cleaned up for you guys later.

 

Here's an update for anyone who's interested, I am still waiting for HUD to get off their duff and close the deal on the double-wide, so I'm in LIMBO.

Because I'm not employed, (not that I care to be) I have time to do a few small tasks on the Maxim, today I separated the carbs that the bike came with and are they a mess; none of the slides, slide.

They are really gummed up and the hat screws are all way too tight, the butterfly shafts are all gummed up as well. I did take the bowls off some weeks ago, #4 was full of water, #'s 1&2 have float valves that are stuck shut, which kept the water out of those bowls. I have a different set of carbs I bought off Ebay to put back on, they came to me very clean and passed the "clunk test".

On a happier note, I did some cleaning of the exhaust system and found the collector, while being very rusty, was in very good condition. I took a ball peen hammer to it and tapped it. It sounded very solid.

And I removed the center stand and spring, one last thing to do before the frame goes out for welding and a paint job and that is to remove the rear brake switch. There are some other things I can do while I wait for my new place, I took the swing arm off as a unit, the final drive and the wheel are still attached. I guess I'll take that apart tomorrow. All in all, I think I've done a good job, but I have just done the EASY part, I'm sure it'll be quite a challenge when the HARD part comes...RE-ASSEMBLY.

 

Here is a long over due status report on my restoration project; I have been in my new home now for about 3 months and I have my workshop organized, but it's not perfect; I don't have an air compressor, work bench or a descent vise, but I'm making due with a fairly strong table, it supports the engine at least.

I have opened up the engine and I am very happy about what I found... very little wear! the clutch plates appear to be ok, the clutch "steels" show no wear at all. The clutch basket and hub are equally untouched by wear.

Granted, the bike doesn't have that many miles on the clock, about 19K, but that's still a fair amount of use.

I pulled the oil pan off, other than some black residue, nothing of concern there, not even much on the magnet on the drain plug. And the whole interior of the engine is remarkably clean.

I did find a bunch of crap behind the right crank cover, there was no gasket and water had gotten in there and made quite a bit of a powdery residue which I had to brush out with my Dremel brushes. There was no such problem on the other side as there was a gasket.

Oh, I have to make a correction, at the top of the page I said that this was the first time I ever removed a motorcycle engine; I'm sorry, I forgot that I did remove the engine from my R90s. As we age we forget things. I'm not taking any chances with this project, I have labeled all of my parts containers, especially the pill bottles that I have put my fasteners in.

I will get some pics up later. Later, Steve

 

Good luck with your build! I am at exactly the same stage as you and with about the same amount of resources.

I guess I should really start a thread as well.

 

glad you're still chuggin' alog and all is going well! keep it up and feed us some pics!!