1982 XJ550 Maxim rebuild

add some extra foam or a carpet pad if you can squeeze it in your butt will thank you

 

I have some old jute pad but I will have to see how the cover edges are. The tail is already torn but the sides are OK. Worst case I can sew a staple strip on. I have some scraps of thin vinyl that could work for that.

 

First 24-hour soak. LOTS (35+ years) of dirt came out of the pores. It is soft and pliable now, no longer brittle. Feels like worn leather. Another 24-hour soak in Armor All, hot wash and then I will apply lanolin or conditioner 2 or 3 times. As it dries it returns to a consistent black color. The brown is temporary.

 

The second soak helped pull a little more dirt. Feels about the same so I don't think it's going to get any better. A hot olive oil bath may help but it's not worth the cost, it's soft enough for a seat. Sprayed on some fluid film after a hot rinse and scrubbed it with paper towels. More dirt came out, lots of shine coming back. Removed excess goop and let it rest overnight. Will see what's there tonight. Hopefully it didn't eat the vinyl.

 

wasn't there something years ago about armor-all making dashboards crack? i never cared being a lemon pledge guy

 

The water cleaner and silicone in AA is OK for reviving vinyl and cleaning periodically. The plasticizers in vinyl (oils in the polymer matrix) migrate out over time, especially with long UV and heat exposure. The silicone will replace some of them but it will come back out of the pores and make the thermoplastic even more brittle as it pulls original plasticizers out with it. If you were to apply it weekly on a vinyl surface you would expedite the "drying" of the plastic by replacing the original oils with AA silicone. It's shiny for sure, but if it's shiny then it's on the surface not in the plastic helping with pliability. In my case, I'm using it to clean the pores out, remove oxidized polymers from the surface and allow me to get another oil back in where the silicone has penetrated during the soak. Once the surface is sealed off, the silicone that made it deep in the material won't come back out. It will get stiff again, no way to avoid that it's old material. If you want long-life and soft material you need to buy new or replace it with leather, which you can revive over and over for a lifetime.

 

Buffed out and reinstalled with some jute padding.

 

Wow well done.

 

I could reproduce the factory pad for this seat but am unsure how much demand there would be for it to cover the master mold cost. There is a soft pvc foam insert under the circle embossing which would be tricky to replace and potentially expensive. I could probably reproduce the pan too, in urethane resin.

 

My main PC crapped out. Spent 4 days trying to get something back together from all the parts around and recover data. Back online and got all vids and pics back.

Got a set of used pistons with rings in for 50 bux. They look good and include pins. Bores are near stock so I should have no issues with them. Going to try to get the head re-installed tonight.

 

The cylinder o-rings got squished in a few spots on the first rebuild. Clipped them to fit and secured them with some ultra grey so they won't fall out when I install the head.


The "used" pistons are in better shape the cleaned up original ones. Rings look good as-is so going to re-assemble and do another compression test.
Looking around for a couple wider clamps for ring compressing. Going to do middle two first.

 

Nice posting with good pics thanks....You did measure the new/used rings to make sure they were still in spec?

 

I did not remove them. I had hose clamp failure again and bent 2 lower compression rings once again. If the piston tilts even a small amount the hose clamp slips and the ring pokes out beyond the jug lip. Tapping the head down damages the ringland and bends the ring. At this point I'm done with the bike build. I'm going to do a parts inventory and see if part-out $ will recover a decent % of what I've spent.

 

IMO your fingers are the best ring clamps.

Don't stop just because you're frustrated. Let it sit for a while and come back to her.

 

I tried the finger squeeze first and ruined 2 pistons just like I did with the clamps. I can't afford to buy more engine components. I am going to have to recoup at this point.

 

I am going to be parting out what I know is working on the bike. The rest is getting trashed. If anyone wants a specific part PM me and I will let you know price and shipping. I hope to have a list of parts later this weekend.

 

My wife told me to leave it for a bit. I guess she wants to ride the bike too. *sigh* I hate these f'n pistons.

 

Well they seem to be holding compression without cams installed at this point. Hopefully I don't have to do this again. If I do, I may use it for a boat anchor.

 

I am really impressed with the seat and how it turned out. I feel your pain with having to do rings twice. Everything looks clean and well done.

did you do any water proofing to the foam or vinyl?