Sentimental 1982 XJ650 Maxim Rebuild

My uncle bought an '82 XJ650J Maxim brand new. My cousin got a hold of it and tore it apart, ripping out the exhaust baffles and doing who the hell knows what to the air box and carbs until it (not surprisingly) stopped running.

After giving the non-running bike to my dad in the early '90's it sat for close to 25 years and my dad started getting rid of parts of it a little at a time.

I finally got the motivation to ride and asked for it 2 years ago. All that was left was the frame, wheels, two bald/rotten tires, handlebars, and engine that was not seized.

Thanks to this site I was able to digest, learn, and read enough to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, as money allowed, starting 2 years ago, only needing to post questions twice because you have all done such an amazing job documenting and solutioning so many items before I even ran into them myself.

I am now an attending member of the Church of Clean and pay my tithe. I cannot express enough to anyone reading this to follow ALL advice of starting with valve adjustments and CLEAN your carbs THOROUGHLY without taking shortcuts!
You will be pissed at yourself for the amount of wasted time spent not having cleaned the carbs correctly the first time. I am still working through my self-resentment. Thank God for the 12 Steps!

I wish I had taken pics of the full process but wanted to thank every contributor here, especially K-Moe and Chacal for the most knowledgeable and experienced feedback I have ever heard. From all of this I now have a smooth operating 35 year old bike with sentimental attachment much more valuable than the money spent.

I learned a ton, had fun doing it, and am confident in being able to accomplish any future work. I am sure that the bike will misbehave in the future (maybe even next week) and I will need to ask questions. I am thankful this forum is around for that.

The bike as I inherited it (the '82 xj550 Maxim tail in the pic is not part of this story):




The bike today with a tank from an XJ750 (tank only interfered with how far I could turn the handlebars when I had a windshield on it):



Next project: Replace the fork oil and fork seals and paint the valve cover.

 

Impressive!

 

Nice work! I also have an '82 650 Maxim in almost the same color, just a bit darker red. I need to make mine that clean on of these days

 

Beautiful work. It must have been tough getting it all back together. How has it been running since?

 

Awwwww, the warm fuzzies

Seriously, though--- great job bringing it back !

 

Beautiful job of restoring.

 

Wow! Nice job of putting it all back together.

 

It has been running fantastic since I rebuilt the carbs. The rubber butterfly seals and vacuum line from Carb 3 to the tank were old and causing a vacuum leak.
Now it starts like a champ even when it is cold(er) outside and idles as one would expect and hope.

Sad Caveat. I was run off the road the very next day after getting it tuned beautifully. Luckily I went off the road into a soft sandy area near an off-ramp. only injury was a sprained wrist/hand. I was still able to ride it home with twisted forks and no right-hand turn signal. Replaced the broken turn signal and replaced the fork seals while untwisting the forks, now it is happy and resting in the garage for the winter.

These bikes are seemingly indestructible!

 

Glad you and bike are okay! That sucks! Good looking bike too.

 

Glad you are ok. I was driving my car this morning and some idiot in a SUV tried to turn in front of me from the side street. Laid on horn before he looked UP!!!! Frickin cell phone distractions are creating real hazards.

 

This is a great story. You really stuck with a big challenge. Glad you are OK after getting dumped. Bike looks great!

 

Oh, sorry to hear that man. Glad you're ok! Sounds like you got her back in shape fast