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