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1982 XJ550 Maxim rebuild/restore

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by Wayne Passow, Jan 16, 2023.

  1. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    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.
    cyl 1.jpeg
    cyl 2.jpeg
    cyl 3.jpeg
    cyl 4.jpeg
    The head is on its way back so I should be able to complete the engine next week
     
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  2. Timbox

    Timbox Well-Known Member

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

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    Those are nice ring compressors.......
     
  4. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    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.
     
  5. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    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.
    dial indicator.jpeg


    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.

    head.jpeg

    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
     
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  6. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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

    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.
    pipes.jpeg

    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.
    bracket.jpeg

    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. valve cover.jpeg

    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.
     
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  7. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    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
    stop.jpeg
    and mounted. You can barely see it. Much better.
    finished stop.jpeg
     
  8. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    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.
    wire.jpeg

    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.
     
  9. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    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
     
  10. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    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 :D. 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.
     
  11. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    Well lookie here. A plug right where its not supposed to be. How did I miss that? DUH. I also found a very intermittent wire from the kill switch. All controls were cleaned and checked but I did not notice that at the time
    plug.jpeg

    Thank you very much Len. Probably saved me a few hours.
     
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  12. Franz

    Franz Well-Known Member

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    I am sure the blue wire with yellow stripe is for the clutch switch.
     
  13. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    Yes you are correct. That's why I was confused with the plug that was supposed to go to the ignitor.
     
  14. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    Well it has gotten nice enough to check the fuel heights in the carb bowls. I reconfigured my set up that I use for the Z1900 carbs. I took the tubing off my device and came up with a simple solution for these carbs that consists of a brass nipple with two pieces of gas line that will fit inside the bowl drain and the gage tube
    level tube.jpeg

    Here is my set up that I use outside
    bottle set up.jpeg

    and checking the fuel height.
    float height.jpeg

    I had an issue with gas dripping on one of the left barb bowls. I was not able to shut off the flow completely so I would be getting a drip at the drain. Also a couple of pins were mangled on the floats that caused the float to hang up. Another left bowl is on it way along with 4 new float pins. It looks like there was corrosion(holes in the cast body) at the drain which may the problem. The needle valve is pretty snug so further tightening would probably not help, it would just strip the slot or cause additional damage.

    Getting close to resolving all the issues on this bike.
     
  15. Timbox

    Timbox Well-Known Member

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    You do great work. Thanks for keeping up with it and taking the pics as you go. Cool that you put markings on the end tub, first time I have seen that.

    Carbs are always the items that seem to need the most attention to detail and they have to be right. So keep on plugging away at them and have them set up correctly. Hitting the starter button and hearing the engine jump to life will be wonderful.
     
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  16. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    Well I got my replacement float pins from and fitted them to the carbs. I had to clean a couple up as they were a little rough and would not slip through the mounts or the float. So with a bit of careful sanding they fit perfect and no hang ups. I also fitted the new bowl that was leaking. pin n2.jpeg

    On to the electrics. I also fitted the safety relay I found bad and tested the turn signals and start button to make sure my start relay would energize and everything works as it should. But as I was checking things I found another issue which I didn't expect. I decided to cut back the spark plug leads a bit for a better connection to the caps. What the heck might as well check the OHM value of these caps which should be 10k. One was 35K and way out of range. Then I said might as well check the primary of the coils . WTH both coils are open. Now in hind sight I should have been checking these items from the start. When I restore a bike I normally dump the stock coils, points, caps and go with the Dyna S or Dyna 2000 and new caps so it kinda got put on the back burner. Any way I have a set of coils on the way and I have 5k caps on hand so I will run with resistor plugs to make up the difference on the total resistance. I mounted the carbs which was fun as they are a pretty tight fit compared to my Z1900 bikes. I just hope I don't have to remove them many time to get the carbs dialer in. I mounted the new gas petcock and then the tank to see what it will look like. The previous owner had a bad diaphragm on the petcock so he runs a 6-inch length of hose out to the left side of the tank and installed a manual on off valve and then a 12 inch line to the leaking carbs. I didn't think that would look so good.
    tank.jpeg
     
  17. Franz

    Franz Well-Known Member

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    Looks new like it just came out of the dealers.
     
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  18. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    Well this is embarrassing , this morning I removed the coils and thought lets test them again. Last night I cut the ends off and held my meter to the freshly cut off ends and nothing. Well today after installing the caps in the wire ends I shoved my meter in and 11k. Duh!:(. Installed the caps and 21K:D. So off to the dealer to get DR8EA plugs to make up the rest of the required resistance. Then I started to look at the carbs and thought man its going to be hard to install the gas line with a clamp, then I discovered I forgot to install the heat shield on the carb banko_O.
    shield.jpeg

    I think the shield is a good idea so I guess I will be pulling the bank of carbs to install the gas line and the shield. So maybe with some luck we may have lift off tomorrow. While I was rechecking everything I decided to check the pick up coils and they were in the perfect ohm range. So if the TCI is good I will be happy.
     
  19. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    The shield is nice, but, I don't know how much of a benefit it actually provides, and in makes changing the jets (removing the bowls) a real PITA while the carbs are installed, so........think twice about using it! Note it wasn't used on the 550 Seca carbs (nor any others in the XJ/XS series)......
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2023
  20. Wayne Passow

    Wayne Passow Active Member

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    Ya I think it would be a pain to change jets without pulling the bank off the bike. Its really tight in there.. Ill probably put it on and see. It may help if anything starts to leak as It would funnel things to the outside. May also provide a bit of heat shield for the bowls full of gas
     

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