My toasty winter project

As suggested in my original thread, I'm starting a new one in here. Got an XJ from a friend that's been burned badly (the bike, not the friend).

Here's some pics I snapped from my cell phone while stripping it down. Finally got all the wires/electric parts/cables/UBO's off just before it started raining.





Ignore the toys. My wife threw them out earlier in the day and they hadn't made their way to the garbage bin yet.

 

did we ever determine what model this is?

 

Going off the frame number (4H7-103692) it's an XJ650-H Maxim. It's dark and wet outside right now, so I'll have to wait until morning to check the engine size.

 

Single front disc.

Shaft drive.

Not a YICS engine.

XJ650G or XJ650H. 80 or 81 650 Maxim.

 

holy crap man... good luck with that one!!

 

Its toast

 

Put a bullet in her and bury it.

 

May I suggest a "flame" paint scheme!? You are a braver man than I to take on such a big project. I would personally take Gamuru's advice (though I might just conserve the bullet). But I am also not real patient. Good luck!

 

Maybe this'll help. Contact SHAGS81 and buy his bike for $200. He is next door to you in California. Did you know that the engine has to come out of the frame to correctly install the airbox? 25 year old wire harnesses can crack and break during removal and installation.

just hit the "easy" button

 

Next door? He's half the country away.

I've already got the engine out and the frame is almost bare now. I just lack the swing arm/driveshaft assembly.

As far as the wiring harness goes... cracking an break isn't a problem for it anymore.

 

Dude that thing is in bad shape! Are you seriously going to try to fix it? The motor needs to be opened up I'm sure the fire melted or dried the internal seals...

 

Yes, if all else fails, it'll be a learning experience for me. And a complete engine overhaul is in the plan.

 

It should be a fun project... I'm going to be detailing when she comes apart for paint later this month. Good luck and take pictures! I want to see pics of the progress.

 

well if you really carry this through, it will be amazing to see the end product of a running bike.

 

I've been taking pics with my cell phone, but at $0.99 per multimeida message it'll get quite expensive to keep transferring them. So I'll need to get a data cable or a digital camera pretty quickly.

 

digital camera should be budgeted in for the project.

 

budget? what's that?

 

well in that case... buy buy buy!!!

 

I really meant that in ther other sense. Getting this bike kinda threw any budgets out the window. I'll definately order a digital camera on payday though. It'll make things in project a lot easier to track.

 

what provider do you use ryan? i found that i can email myself picture messeges and it doesnt cost me anything extra. does that work for you?

 

Cingu.. err AT&T. I'll check into it to make sure though.


EDIT: Oh wow, MMS messages have gone down to $0.25 each. But I see nothing about emailing myself yet.

 

Tested out the rectifier to see if it was worth salvaging and it failed. I didn't think it would work because the plastic holder was slightly melted on the rectifiers side. I hope the TCI unit didn't get hurt though. Any way to test that without another running bike?

 

Gots pics

These first three were taken about mid-day yesterday.

 

These were taken this morning. I've done nearly zero work on it today, so everything is what was done last night before it got too dark to see.




As you can see my supervisor has claim this spot to place his observation post. You can see the motor covered up in the background.

And the work I did do today. I messed with the carbs a bit trying to clean them up and evaluate their repairability. Here's the engine side of them.

 

The best way ... the easiest way ... the bottom-line way to test the Ignitor is to pull it and test it in another bike.

Nothing is easier!

How much you want for the little red chair?

 

You need to pull the hats off the carbs and have a look at the diaphragms. If those got damaged your parts bill just went up a bunch.

 

Already did. Nos. 1 3 and 4 look okay. They soft and flexible with holes ir cracking. However, No. 2 (the one the was leaking and where the fire started) feel kind brittle. It's flexible still and there are not any hole, but the rubber doesn't feel right and tiny particles of it come off on my fingers when I rub it.

 

I wouldn't trust any of them. I would replace EVERY rubber part on those carbs. They are just too touchy and you will spend a buttload of time chasing demons in the future if you don't fully rebuild them.

 

Good point. Keep the advice coming (yes I know, it's a foolish affair so that not flavor of advice )

Quick question. I was planning on sandblasting the frame and then repainting it. My dad said that wasn't a good idea because the metal in the frame is so thin that the sand would tear it up pretty badly. Should I drop that idea and just hand sand everything?

 

I don't think a light sandblasting will hurt anything. Just go easy and don't stay in one spot. Keep it moving....change direction away from the frame, don't stop and start while on the frame. If you are really worried about blasting the frame or the welds away, use walnut shells or some other softer abrasive in the blaster.

 

Don't "Sandblast" ... "Bead-Blast" and "Media-blast"

Use a bag of Beads to blast the Frame. They don't score the surface and remove the paint down to bare metal without harming anything.

You can Blast the Engine clean with a softer Media ... like Walnut Shell.
It will strip-off the fire damage and refinish the Aluminum quite nicely.

Glass beads will strip-off flaked and pitted Chrome and leave the surface close to prepped for painting or Powder Coating.

 

Ugh, effing rain and final exam means no work today. And it's supposed to get into the 20's-30's throughout the rest of the week so may not be much progress then either.

 

Well, now I need a carburertor. Was dicking around with the no. three carb and broke the damn throttle arm off. :| Maybe I'll start planning an EFI conversion and do away with the carbs all together. Lousy pieces of...

 

After cleaning up some more of the carb units, I'm gonna need a whole new set. The housings are incredibly brittle and pitted, the slides are swollen and won't slide right even after sanding them a bit. I don't think the fire caused this as the one in the best condition was the No. 2 where they fire started.

I'm really considering adaptin an R1 or R6 EFI system to this bike. Anyone know of someone who's done this? The R1 throttle body spacing looks very similar to the carb spacing on the XJ I have. Might take some fiddling to get it to fit though. I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes.

I actually found a guy who took a GSXR throttle body and a MegaSquirt system on his XJ, but he spent $900 to do it. 8O

 

Will 82 XJ750 carbs work on this 81 650?

 

I just spotted your project.

You're going to be real familiar with Arkansas Wings Cycle salvage before this is over.
I don't know if those 750 carbs will fit or not, but I can bring mine over to find out. I've got to pull them off of the four-wheeler soon anyway.
I seriously doubt that the jets will be correct if the bodies do fit.
Likewise, we can check your ignitor on my Bayou and see if it still works.

I don't have a lot left of my XJ for parts, but I do have a bit of knowledge if you want my help. I've got wiring diagrams stored away if you want to build a new wiring loom from scratch, or just get a salvage one from Jayson @ Arkansas wings.

If you're serious about that salvage engine going down the road, yell at me.
I'm just down the street.

 

I think the 750 carbs will fit, however you will need to swap all the jets and possibly the cable hook-ups will be different. You'd be better off getting a set of 650 carbs from eBay or a salvage place like eatatjoz mentioned.

 

Oh wow, you are close to me. Do you own a shop? I would really like to test this ignitor out.

Anyway, I've already ordered another harness for $10 shipped. But I did talked to Jayson and he doesn't really have a lot of stuff that I need.

Oh and I went ahead and ordered the 750 carbs. I have all the jets from the set I busted (still in their places). I'll just have to swap them out one at a time.

 

Not a shop owner, just a tinkerer.
If you give me 'till after the weekend I should have my carbs cleaned and ready to try that ignitor out. I'm putting my Vmax carbs back together as we speak, and I start on the four-wheeler tomorrow.
As far as shops in the immediate area, I recommend Conway Cycle or Al and Ben at the Cycle Shop on McArthur in NLR.

Don't touch those jets until you soak them in a penetrating oil for a couple of days. If they're seized, you could make them worthless with a slight slip of the screwdriver.

 

Oh, and Jayson does have a bunch of stuff that you'll need. He just doesn't know it.
I got the last set of good pick-up coils from him last year, but he still has a bunch of cross over stuff.
You just have to walk the yard.

 

I planned on going up there sometime next week just to see what he had. I've been busy with finals this week and trying to pull a "D" up to a "B" (which I did ), so I havent' focused on this project a whole lot the last couple days. But now that that's over with I'll have plenty of time to tinker.

 

I know he had four or five XJ's this summer, (picked pretty clean from what I could tell) but plenty of parts left. He also had a few Viragos and other 80's bikes that had some of the same parts.
I know for a fact that he had some Maxim tins in decent shape. That un-obtanium side panel wasn't one of them, but the rest were.

School ALWAYS comes first.

 

Especially since I'm almost 30 and just starting. Better late than never I guess.

 

ryan:

I was the oldest freshman at Syracuse U. back in '75. 27 years old, thereabouts.

 

conrats on the d to a b...I can relate, I needed a 9 on my final to pass with a 77% and got a 94 to end up with a 77.93%...whew!

 

Just a quick update:

So far have on it's way:
Alternator stator, brushes and rotor (the last one I don't need).
Rectifier/Regulator,
Wire harness,
Battery box,
Carburators.
Ignition coils,
Gages/Idiot light assembly,
and Tank petcock.

Hopefully, everything will be here by Thursday or Friday. But Monday-Wednesday I have to take my boys to Memphis, so no work until after then. I also found out that the front caliper had no brake pads in them. I'm curious as whether the PO rode with it like that, though it doesn't look like it.

 

You're making fast work of your bonfire bike.
Seems you're gonna have a nice bike in notime.

 

Yeah, but it's gonna hit a speed bump real quick. I just spend my month's disposable income on this project and also some other computer related parts. My wife'll kill me if I spend anymore until next month. But I've got plenty to do until then.

 

Just lock her in the closet with some food and water.... FIX THAT BIKE!

 

That makes it kinda hard to get what I want from her