Maxim X Rebuild/upgrade thread

Hey everyone. I'm new to the site but I'm a big Maxim fan. I've got almost 3 bikes in parts and am looking to restore one into perfect shape. Any suggestions on upgrades. I've been searching the internet but the only thing I've been able to come across is just to upgrade the coil. Nothing about brakes, cooling, carbs etc etc... Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

When it comes to these bikes the possibilities are endless really. What style bike are you looking to build? Are you wanting completely custom, restored with a little extra, restored and chromed? What about your riding style and conditions you will ride in? There are lots of great ideas here and most are very easy to do. Oh and welcome to the site.

 

Well I'm looking to keep it as original as possible but that being said I would like to improve the electrics,brakes and suspension. I am going to be sticking with the stock wheels. Also since the motor needs to be completely rebuilt I'd like to throw the good stuff in rather then just do all stock with a slight overbore.

 

well on the list would be rebuilding your carbs. if you want to keep it stock look at aftermarket shocks and look at chacal's list of supplies he sells. pretty much anythign you need should be there.

 

ah, a max x rebuild, just my thing...
If you are looking to do an oem rebuild, I'd start with the frame, swing arm, center stand and kick stand. Have them powder coated.
Have all the tins repainted by a good shop (man, it is pricey, but worth it)
There is a good starting point.
Next, I'm rebuilding the top end...rehone the cylinders, and do a valve job.
Replace all the gaskets, replace all the coolant o rings etc. It's expensive, but again, worth it.
Do what you will with the engine as far as polishing/powdercoating is concerned. Next would be to start the build...get a rolling chassis. Brakes...you can get a good master cylinder off of flebay for like $75 or so. Brake lines, unless they are perfect (good luck) go get some decent braided or kevlar ones. Calipers...rebuild them...easy and inexpensive.
Check all your electrical connections. Clean and dilectric grease them.
Test your stator. New tires, batteries. Recover seats...rebuild carbs. Get good airbox and 5 valve covers (much easier said than done.)
I have some extras, they aren't great (tabs are broken) but it's a start.
Exhaust, I'm still finishing mine and finding better parts. Again, I have some parts, and willing to give some up for a little bit of nothing.
dyna coils, easy to do, about 150 or so..really easy if everyting is apart.
water wetter or similar coolant.
oil filter conversion kit from chacal. so cool.
Fork seals and fluid...maybe springs?

 

i still need to do the shocks....dang it! I've got over 3500 into my build, and she is a gooooood looking/running machine. Shocks go from around 150-400 depending

 

Well so far I've got the bike completely stripped (Chassis) Planing on getting my stock wheels off to the refinishers asap. Will be ordering up new wheel bearings, dampners and tires. Not sure what to do about the brakes. I've got 3 sets of rotors that seem fairly good (No grooves, no warps) Do I just get em polished? Is there a replacement upgrade off something else that will increase the performance? Same deal with the calipers? Better to rebuild stock or is there a better one out there I can just bolt on of an R6 or something. Planing on SS lines throughout. Thanks for the feedback. Going to be a long term build top to bottom and I'm just at the start now.

 

There are some options depending on how much you wanna spend.

Front brakes: make sure you have a good master cylinder, clean the calipers and grooves.
SS braided brake lines are the best improvement.
I have done a "shade tree" resurfacing of my rotors with decent results. The pads are the important part. The stock set up will give you plenty of braking IMO. The stock 700 had dual discs with much better stopping than a single disk.
With stock rotors, aftermarket pads and good brake lines mine will lock up the front wheel as fast as I ask it to.
Fitz has some floating EBC rotors on his 550 that look and perform awesome but they are not available for the 700.
You can get these EBC rotors http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0464632355 but I just couldn't justify the cost.

I did spring for the expensive air shocks and LOVE them. I think I paid about $350 from Len.
http://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll16 ... ropped.jpg

There isn't much you can easily do to the engine to juice performance. many have tried PODS and exhaust changes but they are difficult to tune if you don't have a dyno and multiple sets of jets and then still change the power band quite a bit.
What is your compression at?...has it been sitting long? and how many miles?

Replace the steering head bearings while you have it apart (or at least do a close inspection and lube). The 85 / 86s used taper bearings stock so it's not an upgrade but you want them smooth, tight, and lubricated.
Chacal has ALMOST everything you will need. You'll probably want nice new, flexible airbox boots. He also sells new signal light housings that are identical to OEM. I believe he even has them with clear lens and colored bulbs.
I'd like to do LED lights but you need to change the flasher unit and I'm not sure the replacement LED bulbs are perfected and afordable enough yet for me.

I'm very happy with the seat covers I got from B&H
http://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll16 ... =Seat1.jpg
http://www.motorcycleseatcovers.com/index.htm

And a good set of polishing discs and tools to make the aluminum shine like chrome. There are some polishing mad-men on this forum and do a quick search to see some amazing parts you won't believe are 25 years old.
http://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll16 ... ogress.jpg

Len also has a spin on oil filter kit to make oil changes eaier and give you a much better filter at the same time. You can even get the filters in chrome!

This place has some nice tank emblems http://srsigndesign.com/id6.html that are a bit more modern looking that the stock ones and a lot cheaper.

 

I do not know for sure but I was told once that carbs off a FZX700 Fazer bring the Maxim X to life. Was told they had a larger bore carb but can't seem to find proof.

 

Deff doing all the bearings. Cables, seals etc.Those EBC rotors look nice for sure.

Anyone have any experience with Progressive rear shocks? I'm thrown between the 418 and 412's. Pics would be appreciated.

 

The FZ has the same top end with the exception that the cylinders are pitched forward 35 degrees I think.
It uses downdraft 34mm carbs which would never work on the XJ compared to the 33mm carbs on the X

It did make about 10 hp more than the XJ which has to be attributed to the cylinder angle and downdraft carbs (plus tuning) since the displacement and compression ratio is identical.

And, the chain drive 6 speed gives you a different feel.

 

Mike as usual is on it. Now if he could just get out for a ride all would be good

Mike is probably THE guy on the boards for the 700's. Of course his color choice for his current steed leaves a bit to be desired (jk). All said, Mike's Plum is probably THE nicest X I've seen. Makes mine look like a terd, and my X is the 2nd nicest I've seen.

 

Any idea how the dampners are removed from the rear wheel? Can't seem to press em out because the rubber just gives way. Special tool or are they threaded?

 

I believe the rubber cushion is inside of a press-in collar. If you want to remove them, I believe you could press them out by pushing on the outer collar.
Why would you want to remove them?

 

I just put Progressive 412 11" Rear Shocks on mine this summer and cannot believe the difference in the ride. It's tighter and much easier to handle on bumps. they do not bottom out, even with a passenger...something I wasn't able to do with my previous cheap Harley shorty shocks. The mounting was a bit of a challenge though. I had to remove the bushings from the old shocks and use them in the new ones to be able to use the original shock bolts. As well, the right hand shock had to have about 1/8 inch shaved off the lower eye so it would fit in the bracket as it was just a tad too wide. I've had no problems since installing them and have put about 2,000km on the bike since then. no rattles or any strange noises that could indicate problems. The folks at Progressive sent me 3 emails expressing their concern that the shocks would not fit but I told them my bike is heavily customized now and to just ship them. I bought the fully enclosed chrome ones and love the look. If you want more info or pictures, let me know.

 

The Dampners I have now are rotted out a bit. I've got no love for rubber parts that have 25 years of use on them. I will be replacing all rubber on the bike. I was assuming they press out but didn't want to press the collars just in-case they were threaded in. I'll have to find a socket the right diameter and give it a go. Thanks.

The 412's seem pretty affordable too. Think they are listed at like 250ish on-line vs $500 for the 418's. My stocks are in pretty decent shape but it's that year thing again. No way a 25 yr old unit is going to work as good as a new one. Thanks.

 

Got the Dampners out. Was pretty easy once I knew they could be pressed. Ran into a snag on the bearings though. Can they be pressed straight through or do they need to be pulled out?

 

Def no, to the straight through. Ended up buying a blind bearing remover from Princess auto. Pretty easy job to get all the bearings out with. Better then beating them out with a punch for sure.

 

Figured I should post some pics of the build so far. Haven't got very far. Bike is stripped down and I've just stripped the wheels. Having trouble finding someone to refinish the wheels for the $$ I want to pay. Will get there eventually I guess.

 

What paint scheme do you have in mind? Painting rims your self is an easy, cheap option. Just wet sand the area to be painted with some 800 grit sand paper to give the paint something to stick to. If your painting the rough area use a wire buffer or steel wool.

 

Actually sticking with stock. Going to have the rims blasted. Then have the silver bits polished out. Paint the black then try and have somone do a clear over the polished for that factory feel.

 

Don't blast the smooth parts or else you'll have alot of unnecessary polishing if you hadn't already thought of that.

 

Yeah but I would think it would be the easiest way to get the old clear coat off.

 

Easiest way to remove old clear from anything is Aircraft Stripper, available at auto parts stores. Spray/brush on (depending which version you buy) wait, hose off.

I've used it to take old yellowed clear off a lot of car wheels, and my engine covers and forks on this bike...works great, little effort, won't damage or alter the metal under it...

Obviously it eats paint like crazy, so be careful with it.

 

Wow been a long time but finally an update. Not much accomplished but I did get my rims back from paint. I need to polish up the non painted parts again but they look much better then before.

 

Been a long time but finally some progress to post. Just finished my Forks today. I don't have any pics during the process but here is the finished product. I did a full teardown, painted the lowers, buffed the tubes, installed a complete fork kit (Collars, Seals & Dust Caps,) and topped it off with progressive springs and 15w oil. All in all I'm incredibly happy with the finished product.

 

Finally made some more progress. A Rolling Chassis

 

Did you clear the back wheel polished side. I sanded and polished mine was a royal pain but turned out great. I am hoping to finish up mine over the winter its been 3 years in the garage under a sheet but sure looks good just needs a battery and carbs gone thru

 

Don't cause yourself a great deal of grief trying to service and clean the Carbs without JIS Standard Screwdriver set.

Attempting to remove Pilot Mixture Screws and Pilot Fuel Jets from their respective housings with a Screwdriver that does not fit with precision can cause a fierce buzz-kill.

http://www.amazon.com/Hozan-JIS-4-JIS-S ... B00A7WAHTU

 

I just sanded and polished. It'll be a pain to keep it clean but it's all good.

 

Tins on, Chassis assembled.

 

Wow... Looks great.

 

From that distance it is looking really clean and crisp!
Well done, looking forward to more updates.

 

So I got around to rebuilding the petcock and restoring my caliper dustcovers last weekend. Not a lot done but at least it's something lol. Here are the pics.

 

The Dustcovers.

 

Looks awesome so far. How's the engine, or have you gotten into it yet?

 

Looks like a new one, or even better.

 

Haven't got into the engine yet. Trying to get the chassis finished (Part Storage lol)) before I end up with motor bits all over the garage.

 

Had to redo the brakes. Finally got the master cylinder rebuilt and couldn't build pressure. Finally realized my bleeders were on the bottom. Thought I just had the calipers on backwards. Long story short I had swapped the back when I had them split. Changed it all out, new master installed, stainless lines bled and front brakes are done Seem to work better then my Ducati's as far as feel when pushing around the garage.

 

Needed something to putter with for a couple nights so I modified the plug caps by removing the resistor and putting in solid brass cores. Also cleaned everything up.

 

Long time but finally made a little more progress. Got all the parts for the kickstand done and on the bike, finished the thermostat housing and sensors, also had the radiator pressure tested and painted. Coming along slowly.

 

You do nice work. Everything looks good.

Gary H.

 

lol. It's Embarrassing how long this project is taking me but here is a few recent photos. Only a couple of parts left and she will be finished.

 

She is a beauty.

 

Looks awesome! Nice work!

 

Looks really nice.