How to best remove the engine in a Maxim-X?

For anybody that's removed an engine from a maxim-X, what is the easiest way to do that?

When checking the shims in my X today I find that some are compressed enough it's going to be a lengthy process to get proper readings, much less get the right shims in there. Rather than wait for everything to get completed so I can ride And maybe take many weeks to finalize, I'd rather just exchange engines with one that I have as a spare. I'll do the shim job during the winter when I don't have any hurries. If I just exchange the problem engine with the good one, I can be back to riding in the same week.

The only way I've ever seen to remove an engine easily was to lay the bike on its side and drop the engine that way, To reinstall you do the reverse to put it back in. I've seen it done with the XJ1100 I'm sure it would work fine with the Maxim-X which is much lighter. However, the right side of the X breaks away but I'm not sure how to use that for my advantage in changing engines, if anyone has done this and knows how to make this easier, I'd love to know how to best use it. I may have to do this by myself so any tricks that will help me will really help.

Thanks.

 

You have to unbolt the right side of the frame to pull the engine out. I'm not sure that will work with the bike on it's side as the engine HAS to come out from the right.
Are the valve clearances on the spare engine in spec?

 

Yes they are, I bought it from a friend who did that before putting it up for sale. I figured I'd be better off doing the shim replacement with the engine out of the bike and since I plan on keeping the X, a turnkey 2nd engine seemed to make sense. I just didn't expect to be re-shimming so soon with the original engine. But who knows, maybe the PO ran around with no speedo attached for a long time?

Don't have any kids and most of my friends who can lift aren't close-by so I'm trying to figure out the dynamics of what needs to be done so I can prepare any stands or whatever to make the engine slide in. The spare engine is on one of those Harbor freight roller frames so it's easy to move in the garage. I may need to make a frame that is the same height as the bottom of the engine so I can slide it out & onto that frame. then it'll be easier to move around with a dolly. Getting the 2nd engine up from roller frame to the right height to slide in is going to be more of a hassle.

Not sure how the engine comes out on the right, it still might be useful to lay the bike down to remove the engine if I undo the bolts/R. frame and then hold the engine in place with come-alongs to keep it in position while laying it down. Release the come alongs and the engine stays on the ground on it's right side.

Maybe that's not such a good idea...

Details, details

 

Here is a recent link on pulling the motor non-x. I am still confused on how skiprrdog managed it, but he sure made it sound easy.

http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/pulling-the-motor.61294/#post-454220

 

We are just about to do the valves on my X. What do you mean by "compressed enough"?

We have a shim bucket tool on the way, should be here Tuesday. We have measured all the clearances but were going to extract and verify all the existing shims before calculating and ordering replacements. It's a slow, methodical process to be sure but are there gotchas waiting for us that I'm not aware of?


We will need a full set of exhaust shims as somebody adjusted them incorrectly previously.

 

If you have a Maxim-X, The watercooled version, you can't use the shim tool to remove the shims. The shim tool is only useful on the airhead XJ's because they have shim over bucket. On the water cooled engine, the shims are under the bucket and you cannot access them with the tool. To adjust these shims requires first measuring the gap on all 20 valves. If any gaps are to large or too small, you need to replace the shim. What you have to do with this engine is remove the camshaft, pull out the buckets and the shim is under the bucket, in between the bucket and the end of the valve. You measure the thickness to be sure that it represents accurately the number on the side of the shim. Assuming it is correct, then you use the chart to find the proper thickness to give you the correct gap and then put those correct shims in their proper places. When you have done that with all of the shims, then you reinstall the cams in their proper locations.

The problem I am running into and the problem you may encounter is that the gap is to tight to measure with my feeler gauge (The "compressed enough"), my gauge goes down to .004 MM and that's not enough. That means I have to remove the cam and replace the shim with a thinner shim, reinstall the cam and then measure the gap so that I can find out what shim I need to use for the proper shim thickness.

In my case, all of the exhaust are too tight, the gap is too small so I need to replace all of those. I have yet to measure cylinder three but The intake on one and two were also too tight And number four, all three were too tight to measure. If I had a box of shims of varying sizes, it wouldn't be a problem because I could just replace them and do the job all in one day but this is going to take quite a while and I would rather just put the 2nd engine in right now and do the shim exchange during the winter, maybe even removing the head and having the valves lapped at a machine shop and then do the shims after that.

 

iX, Also: make a list of what shims you used to get the valves in spec, that way at the next valve check you can check clearances and figure out what shims you need to swap or buy without having park the machine until the new shims come in.

 

Good idea. All the shims are on the bench at this point so it's a good opportunity to get them all catalogued.

BTW how often should one check valves on these beasts?

Luckily we didn't have any at zero clearance and have feelers at .0015, .002, .003, .004 etc. We did end up removing them from the fan and cutting and filing them down to be narrow enough to fit into the gaps, but I bought the set for $6 for the purpose so it's an easy sacrifice.

 

Valve checks for the Maxim X are to be done every 26,050 miles.