new 82 xj550 maxim owner

hi all,

new to bikes and recently bought an 82 xj550 maxim as a starter. stumbled across this site and it looks like a good place to check out. i've been having trouble off and on with it and am looking for some advice. i'll describe my newest issue and a little general background.

yesterday i was riding and near the end of the ride it started dying when i would give it throttle. it would accelerate some and then nothing, accelerate again then nothing. first i thought i might be running out of gas. i switched to the reserve as i pulled over and it stalled and i could get it started again. fortunately i was only a couple blocks from home. right before this started the gear pedal seemed to not be locking in when i tried to shift - maybe i was imaging that though or it was just not accelerating at that moment when i was trying to shift. when i try and start it tuns over fine, but doesn't catch. it also seems to be turning over louder than before, almost with a vibrating or fast low rattle.
anyway i had been having trouble starting it since i had bought it until recently when it started getting warmer. a little starter fluid would usually get it going. i charged the battery and checked the plugs. soon realized the choke cable was frayed and thought that might have soemthing to do with the bad starting (no choke when cold). had that replaced and had the same problem until it started getting warmer and it would start on its own. friend thinks the carburetor might be gummed up somewhere - i forget which parts he suggested it might be. i know very little about maintenance anyway and don't know if i could tackle that. i'd really like to learn more about maintenace/repair but am relatively on my own in this (despite my one friend whos pretty busy and doesn't live near by).
any feedback, or general thoughts on bikes would be appreciated, or even drop a line about something other than bikes!

nathan in trenton, nj

 

Welcome Nathan;
I'm not real good with the carb stuff, but if you get the xjcd ver4 coming out soon, it has all sorts of good info about all aspects of these bikes. It will also have the owners manual and service manual. You can find a link on how to order in the links section. Best $10.00 I've spent in a while.
Here's a link that gives all sorts of learning material.

http://www.dansmc.com/mc_repaircourse.htm

It does sound carb related though.
Good luck and post some pics in the photo gallery

Someone will be along soon to give some advice on your problem, much more knowedgeable than I.

 

Welcome nayonline, this forum is probably the best source of help with your bike. You won't find a better bunch of people.

For starters I would suggest a good carb cleaning. Don't just spray carb cleaner in the intakes. You'll need to take them off of the bike open them up and really clean them good. There are a lot of little tiny pasages inside there that can get clogged up. You'll find all kinds of posts on how to do this in the archives. That is probably the best place to start, especially if the bike has sat for more than a couple of months. I know that my xj750 wouldn't even start when I bought it. After a good carb cleaning she fired right up.

With a little patience and a few hand tools you are fully capable of getting you maxim back on the road.

 

Sounds like you ran out of gas. Try unscrewing the drain screws in the bottom of each carb to see if it's getting fuel. If none have any gas in them then you need to start looking at the petcock. Put it on PRI which should allow gas to flow without the engine running.

If you get gas flowing on PRI then check the vacuum hose from the manifold to the petcock to check it hasn't come off.

If these basics are all in order then a carb clean may be required.

I've never fully cleaned my carbs ever. I don't think it is really neccesary unless the bike sits for more than six months. Yes, I've had hard staring problems but all has been fixed by other means.

Small amounts of injector cleaner in a full tank and a 100 mile ride to put most of the tank full through helped immensely. I add a bit of cleaner in every fourth tank to keep things in tip top shape.

That and a good carb sync has seen all my starting problems disappear.

 

Nayonline it may be some rust in your fuel tank clogging up your fuel cock ass’y and not allowing gas to get to the fuel lines. Right now I am in the process of doing a basic cleaning of the carbs. While doing this I drained the XJ’s gas into one of those red gas tanks and discovered some rust chips in there that may have caused problems down the road. Any way you may want to look into doing a carb cleaning and check out the inside of the gas tank while your at it. It sounds harder than it is but is really easy after doing some reading up on the subject.

 

thanks a lot all -
i'm pretty sure the carbs could use some kind of work, whether they were the cause of the problem the other day or not. i guess i was thinking that might have something to do with fuel delivery. i think i might check that first. i'm new to all of this though so this could be interesting - wish me luck ...

 

hi again -
on the suggestion of a friend i ended up putting a bottle of gumout in the tank and filling it up. if i remember correctly he said something about the inside of some older tanks rusting, which can clog fuel lines/intakes. he also thought there was a sealer on the inside of my tank which might be old and and flaking.

anyway i also sprayed some carb cleaner on the carbs and it started on its own - no starter fluid, which is needed sometime - and i went for a short ride. i needed to give it choke and throttle to get it going buts its been like that since i've had it (couple months). i still have a feeling the carbs might be a little gunked up. and i'm nervous about riding too far as the last two times before this last ride the bike started stalling/dying as i gave it throttle and then stalled completely and wouldn't start. its low on oil so i need to change or add some.

on a different note - any folks in jersey or eastern pa?

Nathan

 

Try Seafoam it's great stuff. I bought mine at Advance auto parts.
But it still sounds like a fuel delivery problem or carb related.