Hello from a cheesehead

Hello.

I'm a new comer to XJ bikes. I just purchased a 82 Maxim J 650 with 16k turns on the odometer. My buddy whom I brought my maxim from linked me here, and I've already used some of the tips I've found. The maxim has a new cafe racer windshield on it, new fork seals and a few other minor things (starter brushes, new back tire, etc)

 

Pics please!

 

Welcome Janitor! Glad you joined us, we have a lot to share. Come on in and look around, share some of your experiences and knowledge.

 

Welcome aboard! This is a great site, glad to have you.

 

At last ...

We've been needing a Janitor for some time.

How's that bike running?
What does it need?

 

Cheesehead???...uhmmm...GO BEARS!!!! :lol:

 

Not much really. It starts rough, but I figure if I get a spare weekend, I want to tear the carbs off and give them a good cleaning. Get it all synced up too. It needs a new tire on the front, and maybe a caliper re-build and clean too.

 

Rough or stubborn starting is usually the Jets that are at the Bottom of the Fuel Bowl that feed the little separate reservoir for the Starter Jets.

Make sure that you can blow cleaner through that little hole in the bottom of the Bowl and that the Siphon Tubes that get inserted doen into those wells are cleaned and probed.

That's the Top-end supply for starting ... right there!

 

hey rick,
I was wondering where you'd been lurking. I think I'm having starter clutch issues with the 81 XJ650H Maxim. The bike had been giving me all kinds of headaches after a mini-van driving moron made a right turn into me about 3 weeks ago. I was fine but the bike began to behaving badly afterwards. A friend straightened the triple clamp that got thrown out of what but then the bike wouldn't start off the button, the coils had gone bad and the bike was misfiring like mad.
I cleaned the carbs, put in new plugs, a new battery, used but tested coils and cables and caps. Finally, I got the bike running well again. It starts like a champ off the button. But once in a while I get a grouching/grinding kind of noise from the starter area.
The first time I heard that noise, I was overcome with a sense of dread and two awful words loomed up before me - starter clutch.
So I read the old post in this forum from Aug 06 about changing the starter clutch without splitting the cases and man, it sounds daunting. I could hardly sleep that night and started having nightmares about microscopic parts fall into deep black metallic wells.
But I figure I'll give it a shot if it IS the feared starter clutch. How can I tell if it's truly toast and needs to be fixed?
thx,
baz

 

I'd pull the starter and lube the Planet Gears before I started worrying about Starter Clutch.

Easy enough to do.
Clean-out all the old dried-up grease.
Lube everything good with a Synthetic waterproof grease.

See if that don't quiet things down some.

(Do you have my piece on Lapping-in Valves and replacing Valve seals? If so email it to me,)