What did you do to your Yamaha today?

In a hasty decision that I will no doubt regret tomorrow, I picked up another 82 750 Maxim project. I'm probably only four or five more bikes away from having enough pieces to make one function. Just on the 750 project alone I have 5 sets of carbs, 4 complete motors, 3 bikes, 2 Ataris and a partridge in a pear tree. I'd probably settle for one uncracked headlight bucket.

 

Nice!! I don't see a problem.

 

I took a very short ride with a very sore foot. I'm a week out from the original injury. If you're over 50, please take care when stepping off of your front porch. The ankle that you save may be your own.

 

I've had a bad right ankle since my senior year of high school( I'm 52 now). If it gets any bit of a wayward twist I scream like a little girl. Sprained it badly in grade 12, was on crutches for close to 2 months. Doc said I would have been better off if i would have broke it instead.

 

Roast644 i have a bucket if you want it pm me.

 

That’s about how my right hand is. Though it works fine, it’ll hurt and cramp horribly the longer that I use it. Injuries are stupid.

 

Same. Over 50, who knows when it heals. When it gets cold I can still feel last year's sprain from where I stepped off the garage steps to quickly.

 

Worked on the latest junk....errr....project bike. Swapped in my rebuilt set of carbs, did valve shims, cleaned up a bunch of electrical and then from the other pile of parts, exchanged the entire exhaust, master cylinder and the swing arm and rear wheel assembly. Been riding it around the pasture. I'll put on my rebuilt set of forks and calipers next and then it might be ready to test on the road.

 

OUCH, I play Ice hockey and I'm 57, nearly all my injuries (multiple Doc visits per year) are from that. I'm going to have to stop before I'm 60. Rotator cuff/SLAP tear last year, sprained hand right now but when I ride I can't feel it much. I guess its vibration therapy.

Rode the XJ Maxim during lunch today while working from home. I have put some miles on it after fixing fuel flow issues so ready to hook up the vacuum line back up to the petcock so I can run it at the ON setting instead of the PRI setting.

 

After a couple days of brutal labor I finally have one of the 750s on the road. I put on the rear end and front forks from my other rebuild project which had new tires also. Even a few fresh pieces of gorilla tape on the seat seams. Runs great. Probably a little more carb tuning to do for the off idle transition, but no complaints about the power.

 

I got my '81 XJ650 Maxim "running" but only on 3 cylinders. Got deep into the electricals after I checked the carbs for the 4th time. Found out that, not my PO, but the PO's PO swapped the resistors in the caps with metal rods, 11k ohm from cap and wire to cap and wire. My PO had put non resistive plugs in.................ooops. Now I know why it can barley idle and was misfiring like mad hahaha. At least finding BPR7ES is much easier than the standard BP7ES.

 

A bunch of time tinkering on the 750 carbs. Found a couple issues. Improvement, but still some hiccups below 2000 rpm. Finished the day putting a new clutch in the same bike and a brief ride in the rain to test it out.

 

Blacked out my bars and installed a new petcock. Still need to hook up the lines and chopa bit off the end of the petcock lever so it wont hit against the bottom of the tank.

And there must have been a defective section on the shrink tubing I used on the bars, as the one small spot on the rh side didnt shrink properly. I'm just gonna tell ppl I just covered up a huge rust bubble on the bars, lol

 

I moved my XJ650 in the garage this weekend in order to make more room for the 1978 XS650 project I just started. There is alot of crud on it that so far I test cleaned and it looks really good underneath (engine panels, chrome etc). custom paint is in good shape too, some scratches but I may end up restoring to its original condition (paint tank, side panels and get a stock seat)
The bike needs nearly the same work I did to the XJ last winter plus some different ones. (hopefully I don't get the speedo scream of death on this one)
I already got carbs rebuilt and started the bike up last friday (not needing carb start).
Unfortunately the Rotor on the alternator was burnt up and battery was not charging.
Moved things around to more room to work around the bike and spread out tools
Already stripped front and rear brake Calipers and Master cylinders.

Bike was acquired on a trade with some gun parts that were collecting dust so it is basically just costing me the parts and time.

Things are going REALLY fast on this one cause of all I learned from the XJ650, extra tools I purchased and all the great Help I got from this forum!!!!

 

I wiped the oil that is slightly leaking from between the bottom fin and my motor onto the stator cover and did some nice Fall riding.

 

Got some new toys to play with...a Gunson Colortune and an actual Yics tool! Still not sure which side of the fence I'm on with the necessity of the Yics, but I suppose since I have one now.... "THOU MUST USETH THE TOOL!!"

The Colortune I've just briefly tried and had difficulty seeing the flame color or change. Probably my eyes. More testing needed...

 

Use it when it's dusk/dark outside, makes it much easier to see.

 

I would still like to find a way to keep the colortune wire from arcing to the deep plug well of an 'X'.

 

Do you use the plastic "periscope" shroud over the plug to shield it? But then again you probably don't have the clearance with the vertical plug orientation versus the angled plugs...

 

Yes, the plastic tube does nothing to prevent sparking, unfortunately.

 

after my gearbox lock-up a month ago, I drained the oil and took off the clutch cover to see if I could see anything horrible, but the clutch drum hides the innards from view, so I am preparing for pulling the motor out. I have seen mention of starter clutch problems - could this lock the engine? Could be stupid question of the week, but as Forrest Gump once said,

 

Made a valve cover gasket for the xj650lj.....

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Good chance the chain guide has broken up , splitting the case will have access to this . Here is what I did get a large wooden palate , put engine on this to keep from marring the engine case. Get several ziplock baggies, a sharpie marker , a large piece of cardboard draw out the shape of the case as you remove each bolt put then through the cardboard to keep each in location . The tools you will need is 10mm and 12mm socket and wrench as well . The clutch basket takes a 30mm socket . Recommend a set of metric allen sockets and a set of torx socket well worth the investment. Blue and red locktight, Yamabond sealant number 4 highly recommended. One caution when you remove the cam tensioner don't rotate engine it can skip time , of course if the chain guide is breaking up this won't matter as cams will need removed . The first engine I did took four days of working on and off , the second engine took two days tear down and reassembled. Take lots of pictures as you go . Cheers

 

Fitting BMW K100 panniers to my XJ.



Just need to cut and paint rail and fit Givi indicators or use the originals.

 

Sandblasted and pressure washed the frame yesterday and got it painted today. Just a rattle can Duplicolor job, but turned out ok. Gloss black with a can of clear coat on top. Tried to blur out the messy shop background on the phone and it made the whole thing look a bit cartoonish.

I considered taking this to a shop for powder coating but figured there was better spots to spend $350 on the bike. But between blast media and spray cans, this isn't exactly free either.

 

Roast, looking good.
I also used colortune but on my XS650 project this weekend. Yes, the spark lighting up masks the flame color but if you look and concentrate on the opposite side of the spark, you can see the flame. I did not even have to move my mixture needle on the XS, it was 3 turns out on both sides even after I adjusted it. 3 turns is where I started. That bike idles awesome.

On the '83 XJ650, I was going to go for a short ride yesterday after work before dark and youth hockey practice. Hit starter the 2nd time and nothing. Wiggle push button, nothing. turn off, on, nothing. Pulled out Volt meter to measure starter coil and no 12V.
went inside cause I knew of the starter thread:
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/how-to-test-your-starter-circuit.7828/

Being an Electrical Engineer, all I needed was that nice simplified schematic. I could hear the cut off relay click on/off when moving the engine cut off switch. I had 12V (to ground) on the red/white wire of the solenoid coil, shorted the blue/white to gnd and starter turned. OK, so its the push button or wires associated with it.
Pulled the headlight off and shorted the ground to blue/white wire inside the harness plug there and again starter turned. So, My push button likely is dirty. Makes sense. That is what I need to do next, pull that apart and inspect then clean it up. could still be a broken wire in the push button housing but odds are I'd say dirty contacts if not both. While I have the headlight off I think I'll pull some connectors apart and clean as well.

 

I will give it another shot at some point. I suppose it is similar to learning to weld where at first you just see a big ball of light and later learn to look through the light at puddle shape, arc direction, etc. My 750 is actually running much better now. I have vac synched a half dozen times and pulled the carbs as many times (new, flexible airbox boots are worth their weight in gold). Through all that I finally found one slide diaphragm was not seated and also vacuum leaks at the boots into the head. They calmed down considerably after that.

Good job on your troubleshooting. I printed out wiring diagrams and stuck them under the seat with the registration. Between that and a jumper wire, many problems can be limped home, even for us non-EE's!

 

How are you holding them under the seat? I've been thinking about how to store stuff under my seats of my other bikes w/o them getting away or falling off. I have a tool bag and saddle bags on my XJ up front but I wanted to put some papers under the seat of 2 other bikes that either have nothing or I sometimes pull the saddlebags off. Stuff like a copy of my registration and heck, a wire diagram is a great idea.

 

Just a ziploc sandwich bag laying in the airbox/fuse area on the 550 and the 750 has the little "trunk" that is only accessible with the seat pulled. Is the 650 different? I have added a rear bag on the 550 and have another that I need to modify to fit the 750, so those will become storage only because its more of a pain to remove the seat once it has the straps around it. The 550 also has the rear storage compartment accessible from the back, which is kinda nifty.

 

650 does not have a trunk. I did the sandwich bag screwed down to the top of the filter box at the beginning for my ins card and copy of registration before the bags.
I was thinking to take a packing slip bag from UPS to put on the bottom of the seat.

 

I just use the obvious fairing pockets on my GS. On the XJ9 I tuck them into the toolbag area.
On the XS650 I recently bought a vgc seat which has a document pocket under the seat. Haven't seen one of them in a long time, as they usually fall off or rust away.
In general, I'd look at glueing some Velcro to the seat base and attach a document wallet to that.

 

Pulled apart the start button/kill switch housing and YUCK.
Going to dig further into it when I know I have more dedicated time w/o stopping.

 

Cleaned starter button and it works, but an issue. when pulling apart the kill switch, I lost the little BB that goes into the detent.
Looked all over for it so ordered some new 4mm BBs.
Pick of button before cleaning and then all the parts (minus the BB) after cleaning. I did throw the metal bracket into the ultrasonic after this pic and it cleaned up even more.

 

I got to use that home-made valve cover gasket and did a valve adjust and installed the rebuilt carbs on the 82 XJ650LJ

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I found genuine Yamaha shims that I needed on EBay for $5 each

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Cleaned all the dust and dirt off while the fairing was removed

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I didn't rebuilt the carbs that came on the bike as the PO gave me a receipt where he had paid a local shop almost a grand to do the job. Receipt said they changed out all the brass, so I rebuilt an original set I had that still had the Yamaha brass. I think they turned out pretty good. Stripped bare, cleared all ports with carb cleaner, several ultrasonic baths, and all new rubber parts except for the covers on the enrichment plungers.

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Bench sync must have been pretty good as it fired right up and idled good. Put the upper fairing parts back on and took it for about a 25 mile test ride. Runs great, no oil leaks!

I'm undecided if I'm going to upgrade the fuel pump and regulator, and possibly the coils and wires. Bike doesn't have very many miles on it, but it has been in a collection for 40 years. Love the way it rides and would like to make it a daily rider.

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Got our first week of freezing temps at night here, but the sun was out for a bal...errr...bone chilling ride today.

Spent some time working on a fork rebuild. Then for the evening entertainment, exploded an Atari...

For reference, the little trip meter screw that you'll strip out and have to drill is an M2 x .4

 

4mm ball bearings came in today. 100 to a box on Amazonian.
Now I have 99 spare.
This was the missing BB from the detent on the kill switch for the '83 XJ650 that I lost and could not find.
Put it back together and rode the bike for a short 30 minute ride Saturday evening.

Also worked some more on my '78 XS650.
Riding it in the neighorhood I was having one cylinder go intermittant. i think it was the spark plug as after changing them out with 2 used ones from the '83 XJ, the erraticness seems to have gone away.
I can say the 78 XS650 starts easier and the engine idles nicer, but on the road the '83 XJ650 is WAY smoother. clutch feel is also better. There is something about the 1st gear on the XS, it feels more like a 2nd gear and I have to stay on the clutch longer taking off from a stop. XS also has a little more engine vibe to it. I have not done anything checking points or timing on it though. I've heard that makes a difference
Won't know until I take a longer ride. Just like the XJ, I'm taking the XS in the neighborhood only for a few miles at a time debugging stuff. If I can ride 5 miles in the neighbor hood, I'll take out onto the main roadway. My neighborhood is mostly flat so I can walk bike home if trouble.
Synched the 2 carbs. I made sure to check both gauges on the same carb to verify they had same reading before doing the synch. Made that mistake on the 4 XJ cylinders this spring as 2 gauges were off from each other till I adjusted them.
Darn schrader valve was leaking air overnight. Tubeless Dunlop 404 on a tube mag rim (Yamaha had not made tubeless mag rims for I think 1-2 years). Lip would not seat correctly on the rim so took back to cycle gear yesterday.
Seat came in and waiting on grab rail and front bars to help the transformation of this bike to a near XS650 Standard.
You can see the old bananna seat and the new stock seat here:

 

Ha! I had a similar story, covered the top part of the fork stanchions with bicycle inner tube, ostensibly to give the headlamp brackets some grip, but actually to cover rust pitting, It only lasted a few months, now they looks like hookers stockings.

 

Sad day going to put old yellow away for the winter pulled windshield off and mirrors and put next to the wall fits under shelves . It has been raining and the other day we had about an inch of lake effect snow. Still have to get my magic elixer ready I put in a 50/50 mix of Stabil and Marvel Mystry oil the oil helps in the tank been doing this with every bike I've owned . Does not look like were going to have an indian summer this year so now count down to spring will start.

 

I keep thinking it's time to hunker down for the winter, but today was another "not awful" weather so I took the 750 out for a cruise. The raindrops were getting blurry on the visor by the end though. Got a battery tender pigtail wired in when I got home.

 

Small parts clean and paint day. Working on caliper rebuild and all things front wheel related.

 

Oil change and a shake-down run for the turbo after the carb and valve work. Sunny and 60 degree day here in Ohio.

 

So I got my 750 Maxim on the road about a month ago and put probably 500 miles on it. Rode great, but had a wobble at slow speed that would sort of come and go, but never dissappear. At speed it wasn't an issue, but it was almost embarrassing to drive through town, staggering drunkenly up to stoplights. Those of you that have already been through this are screaming "STEERING BEARINGS!"

I was sure it must be something else...wheel bearings, fork alignment, swing arm bearings, tires, etc. All these things I went through several times, even thinking I'd solved it, but that was wishful thinking. My only thought of steering bearings was being too loose, but I couldn't feel any play. They are a new set of tapered bearings.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night finally convinced the steering bearings were too tight. Maybe I'd just been avoiding tearing back into that deep. Got up early today and got to work. Sure enough....too tight. What a difference a tiny adjustment made. Like a brand new bike. I can take the training wheels off again in town....

 

Polished up the wheels and mounted & balanced some new tires.....

 

Got the 750 out for the first time in a couple weeks or so. It has been giving me an occasional starter clutch rattle, but this time it went full blown box o' rocks. Of course this was mid-trip instead of at home. Finally got it to grab so I didn't have to huff and puff a push start across the parking lot, but looks like this bike is grounded until repaired.

 

Was moving my camp about 150 miles and about half way into the trip my oil pressure light came on, turns out my cam chain tensioner gasket let loose and bled oil all over the front of the cases. Luckily I wasn't more than a couple of miles away from a gas station so I pulled in, grabbed a cup of coffee and let things cool down a bit. Made a new gasket out of a piece of a Graham Cracker box and it held for the rest of the trip, I'll grab some gasket material tomorrow.

 

Starter clutch is not hard to replace since I've done two in half ( The half was helping via phone Mr Seca XJ900 his was cracked) . Winter is best time to do the deed .

 

Yep, I'm glad this popped up for a winter project. Certainly could be worse. I've already got all the parts ready, intended for another motor. 4 spare motors laying around. I need to quit the thinking and start the wrenching.

 

Had bike out for a ride and stalled it at a light (was in 2nd gear). Well, would not start w/o putting into neutral.
At home I could not hear the relay click w/ the clutch in and bike in gear. Going to have to pull the headlight out and look at the switch connections.
I was in there a couple weeks ago when I cleaned the start button and kill switch.

 

Really the only proper way to find out your clutch switch isn't working is to do it at a light with traffic behind you and everybody watching while you frantically do the neutral dance on the shifter