Maxim X no electricals

Its a Max X I picked up a week ago and put back together after minor cleaning of carbs etc. now with the charger/jump start machine I dont even get headlight on. Its got good fuses and all else is fine. I just cant get anything to light up. In fact its acting like battery isn't even taking charge from the jump start/charger. Cos taking off the terminal clips dont make any sparks. battery got dead and has a open in it ??? but then wont the bike take the electricity from the charger. Thanks in advance.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Welcome to the forum, I'm glad you have joined us. A broken ground lead will cause the issues you refer too. Had it happen on my 81 Max. You may also check out the terminals on your battery connections and solenoid for corrosion. In sufficent quantity, it will also cause your issues.

 

Good idea Robert. You could confirm this by measuring the voltage on the battery. If it is about 12 volts, then what Robert said is most likely true. Did the previous owner tell you that he/she had this problem? If not, it may be likely that you blew a fuse.

One time, I blew a fuse, but the filament blew in kind of a weird spot, so that it wasn't visible at first. I used a continuity test to confirm that it was the fuse.

 

OK I will try both today.
However I wanted to ask ... a completely dead battery may take a few (5+ mins) before it will light up ... will it ??
That might be my problem if it will, cos I hook it up and expected instant power ... not really much ... but I wanted to see lights on the POS I busted 4 days of knuckles on ... :x ...
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Instant voltage supply will be contingent upon how much your trying to pump into the "dead" battery. If your running 1 or 2 amp, you'll be there a while. 10 to 20 amps maybe 10 minutes. Your POS is just trying to tell you something, don't take it too hard. A new battery may be just what you need. How long did your POS sit before you happend upon it? If it was more than a few months, the plate sulphadation may have claimed the battery already, necessitating its replacement before happiness can be found. I would use a jump starter to see if the bike will run first (I have a 1-10-50 amp charger from Sears. I would run the 1 amp to charge or condition a battery, the 10 if I needed the battery up quickly and the 50 for jump starting, switching back to the 1 amp setting immediately after the bike starts running so as to not burn out the electrical system).

 

My old battery sat for 5 years dry when I charged it up. I used the Battery Mate (I think that is what it is called). I think it uses something like a 5amp "re"charge, and then around a .5-1amp float charge.

I had to charge it overnight both on the old batt and the new battery.

My guess would be that you have a bad battery, blown fuse, ground, or if you have done a lot of work, that you forgot to reconnect a connection. Maybe the master relay is bad, but it is more likely one of the above.

 

The thing sat as per Prev owner about 9-10 months. the battery as per prev prev owner (the last person to see it alive) does hold charge ... OK that was a year ago.
Yea battery prolly dead. but why didn't the bike take juice right off the thing as if there was no battery, and the thing didn't even spark when I did terminal scratch test.
OK I'll know today. Thanks y'all, off to wrench I go.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

When a battery has been fully drained its usually no good or never holds a good charge again.

New batteries can be had @ Wal Mart for under $30...

 

Its alive ...
OK bad battery, read .84 volts. With charger hooked up and set to 60 amps, still read .85. After 2 hours with charger on 60 it read .91 volts. Its cooked I'll say ...
In any case, I yanked the sealed battery off the vulcan 750 hooked it up and dropped it in and in under 3 mins its was screaming like a banshee ...
Rode it a bit ... but no air filter, a coil that was held in with 1 bolt, tires that were on backwards and other assorted crap like darkness etc pulled the plug on the fun.
BTW this make a hell of a lot more power than the air cooled one ... how much more any one know precisely ??? Feels like its got the torque of my virago 1100 and more rpm and power while weighing less than the 1100 ... a lot less and a lot shorter nose to tail too ...
OH yea fan wants to stay on ... all the time, turn the key and fan is on ... I un plugged it so now I got no fan at all but ... how do I get it to not run when off ... My eliminator did that, and I disconnected the sodium switch on the radiator filler cap fitting. Where is that corresponding one in this. Bottom left of radiator ???
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Hurray!!! Now that it's pulse is found, get down to the details and really make her scream! Good on ya Srinath!

 

Yes its was feeling good ...
Now I dont know what the valves are like, but I can hear them just about off idle just barely ... now with 20 of them we cant tell if one is tight or too loose ... however what is the interval to adjust it ... and how hard is it ... are they tiny and are the shim under buckets ... Or are they threaded ... 10,5 redline should be threaded ... but you never know.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

They're bucket type lifters, I can't remember if the X has the shim on top of the bucket (like standard XJ's), or underneath the bucket on top of the valve. Hopefully one of the Max-Xers will chime in. I know there was at least one that adjusted his valves recently.

As far as horsepower, from what I remember the X was only rated at 10-15 hp more than the 750, but everyone I've heard that has ridden one raves about the power.

 

10-15hp is a pretty significant percent increase... from ~70 to ~80-85... which if I do the math properly could work out to as much as 20% more power. Never ridden an X but I can say that a 50% increase in power is certainly fun - and 100% is damn near insane.

To quote H.S. Thompson's Song of the Sausage Creature from Cycle World March 1995 ( http://www.latexnet.org/~csmith/sausage.html )

 

10-15 hp ... and the maxim made 70 ... OK I may have a maxim that a few ponies short. I'd have swore it was closer to 50-55.
Anyway the max X in fact seems to also be lighter, mine has progressive springs in it making it lower and still a decent handling bike and overall very impressive.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

The less power the 750 had the bigger a percent 10-15 additional ponies is... I could be wrong on the 70hp figure - I just flung that out as a starting point. Maybe 70hp from the crank and 55 real world hp. I don't honestly know for certain.

 

Well if a maxim was 70, and I have one that barely breaks 55 and a Max X was 80-85 (10-15 over the max) and mine is in that range ... we are talking now an eye popping difference ... That was where I was going ...
In any case I have a strong max X even if its measured by the very short yard stick supplied to me by the maxim ... :lol: ...
Cool.
Srinath.

 

I did the valve shims on my X recently. Do you have the manual? It was okay on the explenation. The only big thing is you are going to either make your own feeler gauges, or buy a set from yamaha for $50. The space between the cam caps is so small, that no regular set will fit in.

I bought some Craftsman, and then cut them to be skinnier. It was a pain.

Also! Noone will have the shims. They are not really shims, but look like miniature buckets, that actually sit cupped on top of the valve stem! They are called valve pads. I had to mail order them from Zannotti motor (Thanks to a recommendation from this site) for $5 each (50% off price!), and they come from Japan! So, it took two months to get them!

The clearance is supposed to be adjusted around 28K miles. I did mine at 34K, they had never been done before. All of my valves had zero clearance! I had to do it more than once... It was pretty difficult.

I ended up grinding down the original shims so that I could get a clearance measurement, and then ordering the final shim size. Do NOT run the bike for long if you put ground down shims in, it wears into the lifters pretty quickly.

If you need any help, just let me know.

 

OK that sounds good. Mine are prolly good till 28K, they are all nice and clacky ... as in I hear them just faintly off idle, and I can hear all of them at this point I believe.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

I was actually just checking Bikez.com, and they have the Maxim 750 rated at 82hp! Crank HP, of course. The 650 is rated at 71hp, of course, all according to bikez.com, which could or could not be correct. I'm almost sure I remember seeing the hp rating of the Max-X being in the upper 80 range, maybe 89?

 

I dunno, that some optimistic dudes. GS 500's barely broke the 39 mark, modded (pipe and filter and jetting with dyno) made 44 max. They had them at 50 some time back - stock. So I guess they have a 22% conversion error ??? I dunno.
Cool.
Srinath.