How do I fix this?

Hi All,
Just new here and already needing a little info. I am a long time biker and normally (for the last many years) ride a XS11SF but have recently found an '82 650 Maxim sitting on the side of the road with a for sale sign on it and it followed me home.
This bike has been sitting for some years but that is old stuff to me and I had the carbs out and cleaned and all of the vital fluid replaced, tires replaced, and brakes redone within a couple of days. Bike now runs absolute and am quite happy with it so far. However I have one question that would probably be answered by my shop manual if it was not on back order.
There is on the left fork the air port for adding air to the forks, this appears to be installed incorrectly as if you turn the handelbars to the left, it hits the gas tank. This cannot be correct but for the life of me I cannot see how else it could be installed. The PO was an absolute idiot and I will not go into all of the wierd stuff that I had to fix just to get it running so this may be another of the things that he screwed up, just have to find out how it should look.
Thanx in advance for your help!!

 

You will need to slide the fork leg down to reverse the position of the air valve collar.

You will need to take the front tire off, or at least take the axle nut off and slide the axle thru so the fork leg can come down.

loosen the the allen bolt on the top of the fork, right above the air fitting. Also the 2 bolt that clamp the fork leg below, about inline with the headlight. You may have to remove the brake line as well from the caliper.
Just side the fork leg down in the clamps 2-3 inches. Should be a rubber spacer above the fitting, remover air valve from the fitting, then remover the black collar that the air valve threads into. Just turn the collar over, and the air valve stem will point away from the tank.

Mine has a lug cast into the black collar just opposite of the air valve that hits a stop on the underside of the triple tree. maybe you just need to slide the fork down so you can turn the collar around so it clears the stop.

 

Osage,
Thanks for the quick reply, I had considered that but it looked to me that the lug would interfere with the fit had I turned it over. Will pop it off of there this weekend and turn it over.

Thanks again,

Hoggerus.

 

If you feed it, it'll get the idea that you want to adopt it.

Oops. Too late.

 

Be aware that those are not XJ650 Maxim forks. Likely the whole front end has been switched with another bike. Gotta find out what it is before you order any parts (looks like Seca forks to me).

 

MiCarl,

Thanks much for that piece of insight. What would be the identifying details so I could tell? They well could be Seca forks as the PO also had one of those in his garage that he was trying to get running. Let me know or let me know how much of a picture of what you need to tell me and I will get it up here.

Hoggerus

 

Let's see a photo of the brake calipers. They do tend to be model specific and in some cases, particular to a few years. The air adjusters you have are found on the Seca 750s and if there is only one Schrader valve, they might be off of a Turbo or the 750 J. The adjusters on the top of the tubes look to be the 750 J so that would be my guess.

 

Thanks Robert,
Will get them up yet this evening. Don't know what this guy may have done and will need to as the front brakes are all disconnected and the MC is shot. Have located another MC but may need more info to get other parts.

 

Robert,
Here ya go, if you need more, just let me know.

 

Between the adjuster on top and the caliper/fork stanchion arrangement, you have a 750 J front end my friend. No doubt about it.

 

Robert,
Thanks again for the input! That will be nice to know as I am trying to restore this machine, if not to original at least to absolute servicable condition. I will be needing some parts here and there including some minor things for the forks so this will help very much.
Thanks again all.

 

I think Robert is probably right.

To confirm, when you have the tubes off look for a 3 digit code stamped in the lowers. I'm not sure where it will be as I can't find it on any of the XJs I have in the shop. The code for the XJ750J fork is 15R.

 

The original owner of my Seca 550 installed the air adjust system from a Seca Turbo. The bolt head on the left side also hits the tank.

Unfortunately, it's tight up there and I don't see any way to reroute it, so I picked up rubber nut covers (I'm not sure if that's exactly what they're called, but I just like saying "nut covers") at the hardware store. They do a pretty good job of keeping the tank from getting dented.

 

Are those turn signals really supposed to be bolted to the tube clamps? I thought those holes were for the reflectors - where does the wiring go from the signals?? Through the forks? Is there a convenient hole drilled through the tube?? Looks odd to me -

 

Yes, that is where the turn signals hosuings bolt to on XJ650 Maxims and all XJ750 models (although the "cover"---the chrome hald-circle bracket with the stem---are different between all three models).