New guy & first post, hello!

Hello everybody, I've been lurking on here for some little while doing research and figured I ought to pipe up.

I've been riding for a couple of years, and finally fell into the right opportunity for a project bike. I was offered a 1982 Maxim 650 for a price I couldn't turn down. The story goes, the PO owned a 650 Midnight in his youth, an ownership experience which ended poorly at a high rate of speed. Years later, he decided he wanted one again, and so bought this bike in 2001 and had it restored to a good, solid, original-ish condition. Took delivery, and there it had sat ever since, under a motorcycle cover, then years later a tarp when that tore, then years later another tarp when that tore... I was told it was on tarp #3 or possibly #4 when I arrived.

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Got it home, rolled it into the garage and put it on the center stand and started my preliminary teardown. Before I go too crazy, I need to know what I've got. My order of operations is to check the tank for rust; check the condition of the carbs; verify the internals are moving smoothly; check the health of the electricals.

Tank looks pretty good actually; a little rust in there, but I was expecting worse:

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So far so good. Got the tank, seat and side covers off. Paint on the frame is in nice shape. A little rough in places. Depending on how things proceed, I may tear it all the way down to the frame for a quick sand, prime and repaint.

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Here I ran into something that confuses me, maybe you guys can help. I wanted to verify the engine wasn't seized. The hardware for the ignition pickup cover was being difficult (see the torch), but I used a little logic and figured if I stuck the bike in first and tried to turn the rear wheel with the plugs out, that should turn the rotating assembly, right? I couldn't get it to do that. Is this some weird function of a shaft-drive bike? I figure it can't be, or else you couldn't bump-start. Maybe this indicates a problem in the drive shaft assembly.....? Ideas? This is my first shafty and my first bike older than I am.

Anyway, I did get the left side cover off and verify the motor turns beautifully. Good news. Next up, carb rack teardown.

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All the tools I usually need for such work. First sign of trouble, the throttle shaft would not turn smoothly. In fact, I could barely get it to move.... inside got worse.

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That looks pretty grim to me. It also smelled like holy Hell. The bowls were still full of.... whatever gas turns into after stewing for a decade. I had been hoping the gas would have vaporized over time, thru the jets and the airbox out to atmosphere and leave me some nice dry bowls that just needed some elbow grease. Everything in here is gummed up and seized....

ALL the floats are seized fast on their pivot pin things. Yummy. I later ran into a post talking about getting these freed up, with lots of caution to BE CAREFUL WITH THE FLOAT TOWERS. DO NOT DAMAGE THE FLOAT TOWERS

Yeah, about that...

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So that's where I stand right now. Mechanically, she looks to be pretty much all there. Paint on the tank is in surprisingly good shape. Needs a fork rebuild and no surprise, needs brakes front and back, brake line, new fluids and new plugs. Before all that can happen though, I need a carb rack so I can verify the health of the coils and run a compression test. Trying to keep myeslf from going crazy quite yet.

This site has been a great resource researching prior to picking up the bike, and continues to be! After I verify everything is there mechanically, I'm thinking I'd like to join the cool crowd with a cafe build. My daily is an FZ1, so I have plenty of comfort and speed. I can afford to take my time on this, do it right, and have something cool for the weekends!

I'd actually be interested to hear what's up with the rear tire locking up....

 

Welcome to the site, and thanks for all the pictures. Guys... like... pictures!

It's good to live vicariously through someone elses nightmares, I mean, projects!! Sorry I can't help with your shaft; online info indicates your bump start a shaft drive just like everything else.

Perhaps a boiling of the carbs would be an appropriate start?

 

Welcome to the forum! This is a great site for info on your Maxim. Lotsa members who know these bikes inside & out and are willing to share their knowledge & experience.
Try an impact driver to remove the stubborn fasteners on the ignition cover.
Get a can of Kroil, too. This stuff works on frozen fasteners when nothing else will. Im unsure about the wheel problem. Wondering if the shoes have delaminated & are locking the wheel. Anyway, you gotta pull off the wheel & check-this is the first thing you look for on these bikes. Hopefully more knowledgable members will chime in here with a better insite as to what may be locking the wheel. Good luck with your project.

 

By putting it in first you may just be fighting the gear ratios and it just needs more force to move than you think it should take. Try putting it in a higher gear and see if everything turns.

 

Thanks for the replies! I've heard the brake shoes are not to be ignored. Next order of business then should be pulling the wheel for inspection. And maybe re-working the fuse box as I've seen suggested elsewhere.

 

Got a little more work done today after work. Day job doesn't allow me much time every day, but I can chip in some progress at least.

Took a punt on a tip I read on Dotheton - which also looks like a pretty cool forum - that the cool kids these days clean their carb racks in a tub of boiling lemon juice cut with water. Hot citric acid solution sounds like a good bet to me.



Big enough for a turkey, not quite big enough for a carb rack though.... the bowls are worst , by a mile, so they were bowls-down for the first half hour. Turns out, getting this much water up to boil on the grill's side burner took a LONG TIME. The nice brown color and the disturbing smells coming off the pan gave me a good indication the process was working though.

After I was happy with it, it looks..... actually, not too bad.



The throttle and choke now move and return freely, which is a step in the right direction. They'll need some more time with carb cleaner and some Q-tips, or something, but this is a lot better looking than before. The heat loosened up the remaining float pins and let me clean up the floats. The plus side of dunking everything, I can confirm the floats are still sealed up.



Before and after on the floats. Not sure what circle of Hell this gunk comes from... the circle reserved for those who neglect bikes I suppose.

Anyway, my hope isn't that I can get this rack back to original condition - it's probably a little beyond that. But, I think I CAN get the tower JB-Weld'd back together long enough to get the bike to a limping idle, enough to test the compression and the ignition.

I'm really not averse to spending money on a carb rack from a runner - I just don't want to spend that money before figuring out if I need a set of rings, a coil and a valve job.....

 

welcome, and ouchhhh, those carbs are looking sad

gettin better though.

pretty sure all that gunk is varnish from the gas.

 

Well, some good news. Compression numbers look good across the board. I found 105psi-110psi on all 4 - which looks a little low, but the engine was stone cold. I was most interested to see them all so close together.

Spark also looked good on all 4 wires. Time to shop for a carb. And maybe replace that crap fusebox. Then, give her a fluid and plug change and see how she runs after a 12 year nap...