85 Maxim x chop

So I have had my xj since around '10 and had the engine go on me. It locked up at about 45 mph and so I need to do a full breakdown. I didn't go over the engine with a fine tooth comb enough with the po's tomfoolery and now I get to pay the consequences.

Regardless, I've been building bikes in the mean time, with the x gathering dust and excuses in my garage, and so when I moved this year, I finally made myself break this bike down and begin making it truly my own.

PURISTS BEWARE. I found this picture and it served as an inspiration to me



So here I was at the start



I bought a couple mikuni vm34's and will be building an intake out of steel or brass

Aaaaand then the sawzall happened



I'm still considering swapping driveshafts to stretch the back end, but I'm not convinced yet.

 

I'm curious about the VM34's. Am I understanding you right, that you are planning to do a twin carb conversion with your own custom intakes? I've been thinking about that for my X-based bike as well and it will be interesting to see how it works out for you. In theory it should be a great mod but fabricating those intakes won't be easy. I look forward to seeing you do it.

 

@Quixote yes that is my plan. I'm actually going to be copying Orange-n-black's design from his 700 he did. (Hope he doesn't mind). It's 1.5 square tube capped and welded the two and one inlets with the intake offset. I k ow that makes no sense whatsoever how I said it but he did this.
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/index.php?threads/orange-n-blacks-700.26691/page-6
I also at least for the time being am swapping over to a 750 motor... The mounts I think may be the same, if not easily fabbed, and I am sacrificing availability and price of parts and gaskets for a little torque. Power seems pretty identical, and I got a 750 motor for $125 with perfect compression.
(Now if only I can hold off from hitting post till I'm done typing)

 

Little updates. I picked up some big tubing from my local custom shop for a decent deal, 12 feet of 1.5 in .120 wall, for $50. Because if it's worth killin, it's worth over killin. Regardless, I also decided on making it a single backbone, and adding in extra structural supports. So now I'm gonna plug weld the o.e. Center backbone to my tubing and run that to a bottom support, drop the legs that go to the rear axle plates 3-4 inches for a little drop seat action. This is becoming more and more my style as we go. Little mix of old and new school.



Oh, I've also committed to this 750 swap, so if there are 'x' parts anybody needs, I'm not gonna rebuild this motor in the near future so let me know and I can hook you up. I have an ad in the for sale section but it doesn't list engine parts.
So I know this isn't a shaft frame but this is kind of what I was taking about with the drop seat idea. I'll be attaching it much closer to the backbone top and attacking the backbone bottom to a full cross support but still.



Oh, I suppise it's worth mentioning I am doing a true hard tail with this so I will be completely removing the swingarm, I'm just leaving it currently in lieu of building a jig, as I am a fan of doing things the hard and cheap way lol.