New Rider

Hey everyone!

Just picked up this 1982 xj650 maxim for $300 last night. I am excited because I have wanted a bike for a long and always love a good project. PO said it wouldn’t really run but did start. He cranked it over for me and I bought it right there knowing the engine was free. Got in the garage looking around, put jumpers on from the car (with it off), hit with a shot of starter fluid and it fired right up. Initial startup was something like 5K rpm. Adjusted down to around 2 and it idled fairly decent. It has air pods and I think that is one source of the problem. Again today I was able to get it to fire up with a little help from the car. After that though if I was messing with the idle screw and killed it, it would fire back up without the jump. Figured out the choke cable is shot.
Tires are dry rot and brakes are mostly non-existent. A couple small wiring things and general cosmetic cleanup is the only other negatives.

Have tires and brakes on the way.

Should I pull pods and reinstall a stock airbox? In a couple months I will be moving from California to Colorado. By Chacal’s writeup the stock jets would be perfect for this setup at that altitude and i do like the look.

Can anybody diagnose the engine tick and what i should do?

Did I make a bad buy? What other maintenance should I nail down before I ride it?

 

Some tick is normal but a valve adjustment should be done. Finding stock airbox is easy, installation not so much.
step 1 remove engine....

 

Is reinstalling really that tough?

 

Its ..tricky', certainly at a minimum carbs (obviously) boots, inlet rubbers, at the engine block have to be removed....if you heat up the airbox plastic, that helps....it's not that it's SO difficult but with 38? year old brittle plastic.......breaks occur easily

That tick sounds fine......better to have SOME valve noise than none (no clearances), and anyway if you are used to modern water/aircooled engine, the 80's XJ's sound noisy!!

( Try a Zed 900...or Zed 1000 from the late 70's if you can find one, now THEY are noisy buggers !!)

 

He included the stock box and boots with the bike, so I will mess around and see if its worth it. Or maybe when I take out the carbs for a rebuild.

I'm not really used to any type of bike since this is my first one. Just wanted to make sure it was something that needed to be taken care. Newbie problems...

 

This might help with the old boots and some of the old rubber.
http://v4musclebike.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13477

As for the airbox, get it nice and warm and a little bendy or playable, that will really help. Take your time don't hit it but use steady force by hand or some good long tools or levers. Wood or some type of pry bar could help. The carbs really like to have the stock air box in place as they are continuous velocity (CV) carbs. The air box on that bike was made for those CV carbs so do try to get it back in there. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

may need to remove upper motor mount and front lower bolt and losen back bolt to tilt motor forward

 

I haven't had to do this thankfully as mine still had the airbox... but being lazy and liking to invent... anyone ever try to cut the airbox, then install and bolt together with some plates, screws, and a little sealant?

It works in my head....

 

Maybe a large-ish 3D printer, you could easily? make a 2 piece, pretty airtight set?

 

you can submerse it in a bucket of hot water to get it a little softer and use a hairdrier to heat as you go.

 

Yea that makes sense. I will probably wait until I get to CO and see how the altitude changes everything. Saw the one video on here, anyone have luck with velocity stacks? The seem longer and only open on the end.

https://www.dimecitycycles.com/vint...-lightweight-50mm-velocity-stack-12-6652.html

I think these would look pretty nice. I’m a new rider so missing a small amount of performance for looks isn’t a killer to me.

My biggest goal right now is to get it to start cold without starting fluid.

 

that could be the enrichment wells are plugged in the carb bowls or the enrichment tube n bottom of carbs.
you may want to look into new ignition coils.

velocity stacks offer no filtration and would suck in dirt
when carbs are tuned properly , mixture screws and synced bike will start easier too.

 

If it starts pretty well after warming up, couldnt I rule out ignition coils?

 

maybe weak battery

O2 + heat + fuel = fire your bike is a set of systems that come together to run the bike

electric gives you heat
air system gives you O2
tank, carbs give you fuel

 

Yea that’s why I am pretty confident it is fuel related between the pods, dirty carbs, and a rusty tank. The battery is probably weak as well. It could be ignition as well but I plan to start with fuel and then plugs then coils if need be.

 

put battery on a battery tender
then see if it fires right up when cold.

does bike start when you release the button or before that?

also try hitting prime for a few seconds before starting.

 

When i release the start button? Which button? It takes it a couple seconds to start

 

the starter button if bike starts when button is released it is pointing to a voltage problem

bike should start when starter button is pushed in then released, if it is starting when you give up and release button it is because releasing button causes a voltage spike

 

Oh ok. No its more of restricted fuel cough, sputter until it gets enough to start. Which takes a minute sometimes draining the battery. I think if i get the tank clean and the carbs clean it would start.

 

put an inline filter in your fuel line