1982 XJ550 Maxim rebuild/restore

Hello everyone, Im in the process of restoring a 1982 XJ550 Maxim. A little about the bike. I was on my way bake to Idaho from Minneapolis riding my FJR1300 when I cam across a CB550 in a small town in SouthDakota sitting on the side of the road with a for sale sign. I contacted the owner and made a deal. A few days later he calls and says his neighbor has a XJ550 he wants to sell and would I be interested. Since Im partial to Yamaha's I said sure. So I had the two bikes shipped back to Idaho several months later. That was two summers ago. I have been collecting parts for the XJ in the meantime. The XJ550 took the backseat while I finished with the CB550 and also a Z1 900 which I completed last winter. So the XJ550 is getting the treatment this year along with another Z1 900.
I have to give a shoutout to Len at XJ4ever.com who has supplied me with quite a few parts that were hard to find. I will post some photos of the project as I go. Here is a photo of the CB550 and the XJ550 apart. Both bikes were encrusted with the fine South Dakota dust from their travels down the dirt roads. I have been cleaning endlessly.



and the 73 Z1900 which was restored with the CB550 last winter

 

Beautiful bikes! I had a 75 Z1 years ago, miss that one. There have been a few total restorations on here, and you'll find plenty of knowledge and leads on parts as well. Welcome to the site!

My last resto 650:

 

Your bike looks nice, interesting color.

 

One of the first things I did was clean the tank and get it painted. The tank was in good shape as it was a running bike, not sure how safe it was because the brakes hardly worked. It was painted in the original silver/grey. Its been sitting here for a year at least so it should be very well set up.

 

The frame and bits recently came back from the p0wdercoaters, so I spent some time putting a few things together. Picked up a pretty good used seat a while back on e-bay. The didn't have the rear rail. I found this one at the local recycle shop. They seem to one pretty rare.

 

Been doing some polishing and painting of the covers

 

wow, nice work.
Do you clear coat the aluminum after polishing?

 

Looking great! Definitely following this thread. Brings back memories, I need to get started on my next two.

 

awesome! keep the pics coming.
Is there a pic of what you started with?

 

I dont clear coat, just wipe it down once in a while with a Terry cloth maybe some mothers once in a while. This XS2 was done 12 years ago and the covers still look great. They dont get ridden in the rain much so that helps.

 

Only have the very first picture in this thread and this one. Quite dirty and greasy. You can see the lock stop was all bent for some reason.Had to get the torch out (not the propane you see) and straighten before powder coat. And the typical 40 years of chain lube accumulation.

 

Of course the rear lock box was all banged up with the lock missing. I cleaned up the plastic box and ordered a lock set from eBay that said it would fit the XJ550. Ya right. I knew from the photo that there would be some (a lot) of modifications to make it work but in the end it is just fine. I looked for a long time for a cheap OEM one on eBay but nothing came up until I finished this set up.





Also just received some new hoses from Len at xj4ever.com.

 

Worked on the engine a bit, got it striped down and prepped the upper case for now. Cobbled together a engine stand from some I had laying around from other projects. The cases will be blasted to remove the silver paint that is all yellowed/scratched/flaking, you name it. It will be left this wayI was thinking of painting it black but decided on saving the time and money. Im also in the process of restoring a 73 Z1900 which has a black engine so thats enough painting. I blast using two grades of SS media then the final cleaning is with 0000 steel wool which gives me a satisfactory finish, almost as good as vapor blasting without the cost. The lower engine will receive a new cam chain, cam chain guides front and rear and seals. The rear guide was purchased through Len at xj4ever.com. Len told me I may have purchased the last rear cam chain guide in the world. Some parts for the XJ550 seem to be in short supply

 

You are doing great work.

 

Regarding chain guides: Yikes!!! Now what?

 

I had the same issue with rear chain guide on a Suzuki GS1100 I restored. Found a place in the UK that made them for the 8 valve engines. I really hate putting 40 year old brittle parts back in but if nothing is available I guess thats what has to be done.

GS1100GL, semi custom

 

Its been a busy day of cleaning. Got the lower cases cleaned, blasted along with the oil pan. The lower casting on this bike is very rough. What a pain! I also cleaned the transmission and didn't like the feel of the output bearing so I ordered A new one. However I couldn't get the spacer off that sits between the sprocket and bearing. Frozen solid even with heat and penetrating oil. There is an o-ring in the middle so the penetrating oil had little effect. I ended up cutting (grinding) it off. But before I did that I checked stock. Obsolete ,darn. I found one on eBay that looked to be in pretty good shape so I grabbed it. I suppose I could have made one but I think it was a hardened spacer. Then to make matters worse I had to grind the outer race off the bearings as I could not get that off either. The gear sits right behind the bearing and I didn't want to damage that. It sure was on there tight

 

Do you keep all these bikes or sell and move onto the next? They are beautiful!

 

I have kept most. But sold a few. I plan on selling a few more maybe this year. Its getting hard to find the time to ride them all. Lucky my FJR1300 is in Phoenix. Im running out of room

 

I spent some time cleaning the wheels. This bike had fine grit in every crevice. I cleaned the mag wheels with a tooth brush and a mild cleaner. These 40 year old wheels looked a little dull. I polished the bare aluminum edges and to brighten the black coating I use Mothers back to black which works amazing to bring back that deep black color.



I cleaned the gauges/headlight and got the front end mounted

 

Great collection! The 550 is looking great. Good tip on the back to black, I repainted the wheels but never thought to try that.

 

Cleaned and painted the starter yesterday and waiting for the rebuild kit. I had the armature turned by a friend and I recut the mica. He turned it a little deeper than I wanted but should be fine. Checks out electrically good. It was really full of carbon. At least it didn't look like the last one I rebuilt on the GS1100GL below.

Cleaned and painted XJ550

This starter has an interesting planetary gear set up I have not seen before

 

Its been busy, I have been working on the 73 Z1900 project. Got the rims and other bits back from the platers so laced trued and installed the tires. So now back to the XJ550

I cleaned the electrical harness and corrected a few things the previous owner screwed up. He had bypassed the kickstand switch. I replaced the switch and will be putting it back into the system. These are known to fail but will give it a try. I didn't like the looks of the old fuse box so I replaced it with a new reproduction. I decided to stick with the old type rather than installing a blade type holder. You do have to splice in the new fuse box as the original is hardwired directly to the fuse box. You can see the plug to the left of the new unit.
On to the carbs.

The carbs are in a sorry state. so a complete rebuild is in order. I will be contacting Len at XJ4ever.com for carb parts. I got the carbs disassembled. For you guy who do this when revving the butterfly plates those two small screws can be a problem. Make Sure you have JIS drivers. IF THOSE SCREWS DONT BUDGE STOP BEFORE YOU TOTALY STRIP THE HEAD. My method is take your drill and use a 1/16 drill bit and center it in the head and drill completely through that screw. Now you should be able to loosen that screw as it has released the tension on the threads. It should back out fine if you have not destroyed the head. if you cant get it out go to a 5/64 drill bit and drill through. Th e head should pop out. You may have to wiggle the remaining threads out but they should come out. If the bit was centered your threads will be in good shape.


After some time in the ultrasonic cleaner things are looking better. There was actually sandy grit caught in the main nozzle. I think this bike ran with a very dirty air cleaner or without one.


I forgot to mention the previous owner screwed up a float bowl. I couldn't get one of the drain bolts out as he totally screw the head and I couldn't drill it out so a new left side bowl is on its way.

 

This is what was in the emulsion tube. Fine particulate of sand. I don't know how this bike continued to run. I never tried to start it when it was delivered to me but I guess the guy rode it over to the place where it was picked up from.

 

wow

 

I finished installing the the new output shaft gear and bushing on the outputs aft and looked a little closer at the main shaft.


I found the 6th gear to have some interesting wear. I thought no problem because I have another that looks better.



So I pressed both off and found this on the replacement gear. Yes the teeth are much better but what I thought was grease or dirt build up was actually a gear that was eating into the shaft. Its interesting Yamaha did not put a thrust washer where that gear rides against. It rides directly against that splined surface. Back to the drawing board. As a note I reviewed every gear on eBay and all except one (I 'm waiting for better pictures)had similar wear on those teeth. Of course this is an obsolete gear. I would assume there is some cavitation in that gear set causing that type of wear. I was wondering why the mating gear was so black on the output shaft. Thing must of got plenty hot.

 

Well I found A pretty good gear from a Radian transmission. I also decided to replace the large bearing. So the new gear has been pressed on along with the bearing. Now the only thing holding me up to close the cases are the rubber cushions on the primary shaft. Hopefully they will arrive next week.


I also received my carb parts from XJ4ever.com. Everything was very well marked. The new diaphragms went on good along with all the other parts. I did have on problem with one of the new choke plungers. A new one will be on its way so I can complete the carb bank. Of course I will need to bench set the carbs and check the fuel height before mounting but they are all clean. I may take the bowls off and polish them but they are pretty much tucked up in there and cant see much of them.
I plan on running a MAC 4 into 1 so I was thinking of going up one size on the main and pilot jet to start. These bikes were on the lean side anyway so we will try the larger jets first.
If anyone has run the MAC pipes let me know what you ran for jets.

 

Those are perfectly cromulent carbs

 

While waiting on a few engine parts and my head work to be completed I decided to get the cylinder block and cam chain adjuster painted.

 

Lookin' good Louis!

What type of solvent/cleaner are you using in the ultrasonic?

 

I have been using a general cleaner from Sharpertek they recommend for carbs. I clean anything I can fit in the ultrasonic. Beats using the solvent on the smaller items
https://www.sharpertek.com/12decacl.html

 

Well I just heard from Len at XJ4ever.com and the last of my transmission parts have arrived and are on the way to me. Im running out of things to take care of which is a relief. I decided to mount the tank badges I received a long time ago from xj4ever.com. They mounted up nicely with just the smallest of modification to the screw locations. Thanks to my partner who lets me keep precious things in our guest bedroom. Reminds me of the days I used to store girders/springers and all sorts of motorcycle stuff in my apartment bedroom back in the 70's.


I found these 550 maxim emblems on eBay after searching for months with no luck. Then one day there they were. These are cast from some type of metal with 3 location pins rather than the stock plastic ones with adhesive so I will wait to mount them when the bike is complete and the covers are in the proper position . These were not cheap but are very well made in Australia. haven't seen any since.

 

This is a bike I started to build when I was 17-18 shortly after getting my motorcycle license. Been working on bikes ever since. It had gone through several changes and this was the final version after 3-4 years. The engine was a 71 CB750. I took my mothers car to a larger Honda dealer to see if I could buy just an engine. Well they had several almost new bikes sitting there but no engine. What did I know I was just a kid excited to build a chopper. Well I managed to talk them into selling me just the engine. So about 2 hours later I loaded that engine in the back seat of the family car which was still dripping oil all over the place. Those were the days. I was working at a custom shop part time so I did have some discount on parts. I was also working several other jobs to support that habit.


I was in the military by then and purchased my first Z1 900 In SanDiego in addition to the bike above. Had it painted after it was stolen and crashed off the naval base. That paint job cost me $99 back then. I rode that Z1 back to Minneapolis with another friend on his Z1. We did that trip from SanDiego to Minneapolis is 36 hours in October of 75. He fell asleep in Iowa about 2 am and lucky the edge rumble strips woke him up. Just thought you might like the stories

 

Great pics and story!

 

Its been a little slow so I decided to bleed the front brakes today. I have brakes. The master cylinder was rebuilt along with the caliper. I got new hoses from XJ4ever.com.




Another area I have been trying to improve is the piston / cylinder problem without spending a lot of money. I honed my bores as much as we could using my original pistons and the clearances are just a tad more than what I would have wanted. Now I could have purchased new liners and have them bored and honed to my pistons but again a little more than what I want to pay. Also I could have purchased 4th oversize pistons and rings plus bore and hone but again$$$$. I would but new stock pistons but you cannot find them. Only ones available are 4th over. along with rings. There is one in the UK but I need two. I had one original piston that measures 2.2415 which gives me .003 clearance which I marginal as the manual states .0039 as the max, the other 3 were smaller which gets me over .004, not good.I would like to be .001-.0015. My first thought was maybe I could find a cylinder block with better bores. I checked 3 locally and they were all pretty much identical to what I have. I started to look for pistons and I found 3 locally and to my surprise 2 measured 2.2443
and 2.243. Stock should be 2.244. So that gives me 2 that will have clearance of .0015 or less. I also ordered 2 pistons from eBay and found another that gives me .003 clearance. So this is what I have now
There are a few on eBay that I'm trying to get them to give me accurate measurements but I'm not holding my breath. If I have to I will run those two at .003 and be done with it. So if anyone has a few XJ550 pistons laying around let me know. I sure would like to tighten up the clearance on the other two bores.

 

Well a few days ago I got my new starter clutch dampers from Len at XJ4ever.com. Those dampers were really hard and loose so the new ones should improve the shock load. Got the transmission installed along with the crank.


I like to do a few trial runs with the lower case before I seal it up. I check the transmission to make sure it shifts through all the gears. I did this before I installed the crank. Everything works to my liking. One problem I had was the shifting forks were flopping all over the place, it was difficult to align all three so they slid into their proper places, so I came up with a solution to make it a bit easier fitting the lower case once you have the sealant in place. You just have to pull the rod once the fingers are in place and then snip the rubber bands. I forgot( a lot of things going on during the assembly process) and the rod got bent a bit on the gear. It did come out with a bit of persuasion. I used an aluminum welding rod which was very pliable.


I like to use Loctite 518 sealant when doing cases. Its an anaerobic solution which cures in the absence of air so you have plenty of time to get those cases together. I have used all the others, Hondabond, Yamabond, Suzibond and while they all work well I always felt like I needed to rush because that stuff start to cure and get a skin as sone as it is squeezed from the tube. So the cases are together and the crank spins freely with an ample amount of assembly lube in all the critical places. I like to use CRC Moly assembly paste.

Im waiting on a clutch holding tool to tighten the nut on the starter shaft and the clutch shaft. I thought I had ordered that tool but I forgot that both of those nut were pretty loose when I took it apart and of course none of the other EBC clutch wrenches I have will work with this engine. I don't like those finger tools so I ordered one.
So on to the cylinders. I have one bore which is .0005 to tight so I need to hone that.

 

I decided to install the lower unit. Now I could have just lifted this engine on to the platform that I use to install my Z1900 engines but its easy to pull your back muscles. The Z1 is quite a bit heavier. Its a one man show and I don't need to be scratching up the frames. Hear is my sequence
I load the engine on the scissor jack in the low position

Then I slide it on the the platform which is slightly higher than the lower frame

Then I move the jack to the center and slide the engine over on to it


Then I can lower it in a controlled manner without scratching the new powder coat.


I temporary installed the covers . I had to remove starter also before I slid it into the frame. On this engine you have to remember to install the air box before the engine. I couldn't figure out how to get that air box out before the engine. Now I have a week to wait until I can do anymore. I guess I could clean up the bit of case sealant a bit.
I forgot to mention I replaced all the insulator rubbers for the engine mounts. I purchased those from XJ4ever.com. The originals were pretty hard and crusty. On my 85 Venture Royal it had similar mounts but most guys switched over to solid mounts that were available as an aftermarket item. On that bike those mounts were pretty much toast after a few years. I was tempted to make solid mounts for this bike but decided not to.

 

Man that is nice looking!

 

Geez, that looks nice! Now I know where all the patience and attention to detail is that I don't have.....you got it all! Nicely job, Sir!

 

Great work and love the engine stand.

 

After checking a few more pistons, which were all about the same size I decided to go with what I have. Cylinder 2 and 3 have about .003 clearance and 1 And 4 have .0015 clearance. So on with the block. I like to use these Honda ring compressors. On most engines you can just move the compressor to the outside pistons without much trouble. On this engine I used then for the center but was able to lower the block slowly down onto the outside pistons and let the chamfer compress them. Im also a big fan of using heavy duty cylinder studs. I was surprised to see that XJ4ever.com offered these to replace the OEM studs that are prone to stretch. On all of my builds I have changed the studs. APE supplies most of them but not for this engine.




The head is on its way back so I should be able to complete the engine next week

 

Super clean work, looks great. Thanks for keeping a good pic account of your process. Motivates a few of us (me) to do better.

 

Those are nice ring compressors.......

 

Yes those ring compressors make it easy for one person to put the block on. I have several sizes that allow me to do most engines with the exception of some very large bores.

 

Well I got my head back and ready to mount but first its wise to check the factory TDC marks. I did not move them but if you did you need to double check. The best way is with a degree wheel but a dial indicator will work. It will get you within a degree or so which is good enough for a stock engine.



So on with the head. I double checked the stud heights to make sure the nuts won't hit the top of the acorn. Im still waiting on my copper washers before I can torque it down. I cleaned up the buckets and gathered all the other nuts /bolts for the header, intake manifolds and cam chain adjuster.



One other thing I did was fit the clutch cable. IOt turned out to be a bit long for some reason so I had to shorten it. We used to do a lot of custom cabled back in the 70's but we had a solder pot and all the correct ferrule's and barrels. I decided to make my own barrel for the clutch lever by finding a 8mm shoulder bolt and cutting it to length. I drilled a hole the same diameter as the wire and then used a drill bit about twice as large and drilled about half way into the barrel. I inserted the wire and flared out the ends so it filled the larger hole and soldered it up. It's important not to have flux saturate the wire so you dont have solder wick to far down past the barrel. This will cause the wire to snap just beyond the barrel. So far so good

 

Well I got my copper gaskets so I can torque the head and install the cams and chain adjuster and set valve clearance.

So now I can install the pipes. I went with the MAC 4 into 1 pipes. It would have been nice to keep the originals but they we're pretty beat up.


I had to build a bracket for the pipes. I was supposed to get one but pretty sure it was not in the box. They are normally pretty lousy so I made my own out of 1 x 1/4 stock had around.


Once I got the valves adjusted it was time to fill with oil and install the cover. The valve adjustment was interesting. I purchased a Motion Controls tool that worked ok on the exhaust side but I had trouble on the intake for some reason. I decided to use the zip tie method which worked well.

I have the battery on its way along with the YICS blocking tool which will be purchased from Xj4ever.com. The bike is getting close to start once I check the float level.

 

Well while waiting for the battery I decided to make the center stand stop since I have the 4 into 1 pipes. I dont like the stops they use that hang from the left side bracket. I decided to use the mount for the original collector right behind the engine. This is what I came up with

and mounted. You can barely see it. Much better.

 

Well the battery came in so I decided to check the wiring. This bike was butchered. I cleaned up all the splices and detours that the PO made. Houston we have problems. I blew the main fuse after checking the ignition circuit. I traced the problem to the side stand relay. I am not sure what's going on so maybe someone can chime in. First of all wire color does not make any sense on the plug compared to the factory diagram. The other problem is the 12v red/wh wire for the coil is wired across the contacts on the relay directly to ground which is why the fuse was blowing. The relay does work and the contacts do open but the plug is wired wrong. Here is the plug. I dont know why this plug has the org and Gray wires. The color codes are correct for the switch and tracing to the clutch switch makes sense as does the ground. I also have an open coil on the starting circuit cut off relay.


When I ohm out the org and gray I get continuity at the orange and gray at the coils? Im stumped at the moment. Why would they be connected to the contacts. My head hurts.

 

Orange and gray wires are for the ignition coils, that plug goes to the TCI.

The "blue" relay is the "kickstand-must-be-up" safety relay:

Sidestand (kickstand) Relay:

Location:
- on all XJ550 models: left side, onto a welded bracket just behind the rear frame cross tube.

Identification:
- small metal (original) or plastic (replacement) "cube" relay, inked 4U8-00, 4U8-01, or 4U8-02 on the top face.
- has a blue paint mark or blue locking tab shroud on the bottom of it.
- normally closed; does not have an internal diode.
- plugs into a connector shell which has the following set of wires going to it:

Harness connector wire colors:
- on all XJ550, all 1982-84 XJ650, XJ700, XJ750 models, all XJ900, and XJ1100 models:
* Red wire with white tracer stripe
* Black wire with white tracer stripe
* Blue wire with yellow tracer stripe
* solid Black wire

 

Well that makes sense. I will take a look at that. Those plugs were sitting in just the right (make that wrong) location and I did not check the color code on that one plug at the TCI, but it is extremely obvious now that I read your post . I must be losing it in my old age as electrical control issues were a big part of my commercial HVAC career.

I read through all of your info on the electrical system last night and I must say there is a huge amount of info there. So I was thinking what the heck that plug just doesn't make sense.