82 Maxim XJ1100 Dark Knight Build

Using a spiral extractor will likely be difficult with the end of the bolt opening being so narrow. Also I assume the pin that was protruding touches something and I do not want to damage that piece correct ?

Plus side my carbs are complete and float levels set by a backyard mechanic who loves these bikes. My o-rings were shot as expected.

 

I think a spiral extractor is what I would try. Maybe take a butane micro torch or heat gun and warm up the case around the broken switch threads and see what happens. If that doesn't work then more precise/surgical methods may need to be employed. Let us know how the extraction goes

 

I should mention I did diagnose that the neutral switch was failed. So wish me luck with the surgery of removing the threads that are left !

 

I would drill it out to the minor diameter ( carefully ) of the thread and pick out the remaining.

 

i know you don't want to hear this but, take the oil pan off. so much easier to get that out, not much chance of screwing something else up and the oil pan probably has goop in it that won't come out with a oil change. ever notice how your nice clean oil is dirty after one ride?

 

I've got the oil drained out of the bike anyway so this really wouldn't be the end of the world. As long as it doesn't involve removing the engine I'm ok with it haha

 

After 28 seconds of surgery I am happy to report the patient is going to make a full recovery after removing the entire object in question!!



I got a #4 size spiral extractor, gave it 10 light taps with a hammer. As soon as I put out my socket on it, to my surprise it spun freely. The thread seems to be stuck pretty good on my extractor for now. But who cares, the bike is making progress again !!!

 

Huzzah! Glad to hear it worked out!

 

Any tips for cutting the exhaust tape? Just got a roll today, gonna do my headers.

Also: Where did you get the black pipe clamps?

 

So for cutting the exhaust tape I have just straight cut flashing shears. You're welcome to borrow them. Cuts the stuff like butter. I found it easiest to cut a straight line and get it clamped. Otherwise every touch it unravels a little more.

As for black pipe clamps for the life of me I hunted and only found steel at Home Depot and lowes. I had to paint those too haha. Every little detail counts ! When I'm completed I will be paining every steel bolt black too. I used tremclad black for the clamps !

 

So there are no neutral switches in Alberta..ugh...looks like I will have to wait.

On the plus side I worked on my electrical tonight, specifically the terror of the headlight bucket. I won't lie I have no idea how I managed to push the wiring out the way enough to mount the light. There is not an ounce of space left for anything else to fit. I wish I took a picture of the wires because I had to hold the headlight in place to get it mounted, but it's on there!!! And it looks mean

I couldn't get the lighting right but I'll get better pictures once I'm done.

Here is the low beam pattern
This thing is super bright and the lights on my signal arms are also leds.

Now I need to make the housing for my computer and speedo mount combination.

 

if that header wrap frays when you cut it, lay a little stripe of wood glue across it, let it setup and cut in the middle of the stripe

 

Genius! I'll definitely do that myself tomorrow.

Oh, be careful here.

Those LED bulbs typically have heat sinks on the back. If they can't sink the heat - and they'll make a fair bit of it - they'll burn out on you.

With that said, it DOES look pretty damn awesome!

 

Serious Update.
Yesterday my neutral switch arrived, so I did what any normal person would do. I took the afternoon off work, rushed home and installed it. I replaced the oil filter and dumped in 3.5L of fresh oil. Mounted my carbs which I also picked up from being beautifully rebuilt.
Then I had to break for dinner before I got too crazy and rushed.
First sign of good for tune was that now my neutral light glows like a beautiful little beacon on my cluster.
Next I mounted my tank got the gas flowing in prime and then went out about starting the bike.
This was my result.



Still some tweaking to be done and some odds and ends to tidy up but I am pumped for how mean this thing sounds. Keep in mind I couldn't turn the choke off and keep it running so its sitting a little high for rpm at idle but you get the idea. I could not be happier with the sound.

 

Also my friend is welding the extra connection from another brake pedal to the inside of mine so it clears my exhaust today. I may be taking it for a short spin around my block later this weekend !!!!

 

And a second one for good measure

 

Nice!! Congratulations man!

 

Ok the only issue I have now is that my white wire originally from the stock tach is not working with my gage. No rpm is registering. Any thoughts on trouble shooting or a different source to pull from ?

 

This is the problem with those gauges, tough to get the RPM's measured. There's three lines to the tach, though, right? White, brown, and black/ground? Have you tried the brown lead?

I've heard some make it work via inductive pickup - wrap a lead around one of your spark plugs wires a few times. I'd start with 10ish wraps, but dunno how well that will work.

 

My youngest son is over a year and a half old, and he has just started speaking. I know how you feel, hearing your baby's voice for the first time. Long time coming, but well worth the wait!

 

It does not sound as good as the first video, like you have a fouled plug and are running on three cylinders.... intermittent backfiring/popping. You might want to check the plugs after running a bit to see if one is wet and possibly fuel fouled from repeated starts with the choke on.

 

You're not running on all cyls, and the throttle response is very sluggish. Do you still have to keep the enricher on, too?

 

Hey gents,
I put in some more fuel lastnight and voila. All issues you're mentioning are gone. It also idles beautifully with no choke. I think it was a combination of the idle screw being set way too low and needing to nearly flip to reserve hence the fuel starving.

I'm still racking my brain on the rpm not showing up on the gage

 

I have not tried the brown lead but I'm going to keep trying until it works. The gage has been super finicky but worth it for the simplicity in the end.

 

The bike running smoothly

 

Sounds better, sounds like it's responding a whole lot quicker......can't see the throttle to comparesound with motion, but does sound better

 

Ok so today I spent hours and I mean like 6 hours on top of everything I've learned already. Trying to figure out the rpm issue.
I really want my single gage to perform all functions or it's just for looks and that's not my goal.
Is it possible to get one feed wire on the xj1100 into an aftermarket gage like the eBay special I've got ?
Can the signal be taken from a coil either positive or negative side ?
To date my rpm needle has not moved from 0.
I've read online that adding a capacitor and resistor inline with grounding may solve the issue however I am skeptical.
But at this point I am open to any and all suggestions to get an rpm signal to work.
After reading up on the stock tach and dismantling it, its apparent the system is different.
Help please !! Soon it will be time to ride !!!

 

Lots of pages to review but just to verify are you using this gauge?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J77O0OS?tag=viglink18944-20

So how do you have it wired? W/B to power, G to ground, and W to the low side of the coil?

 

Yes that is the gage. I have eliminated the tach specific ground as I grounded the gage elsewhere. The brown wire I have terminated and wrapped as the gage gets its power from another connection. This is where I get confused. So the stock tach had the grey/white white which is joined from the ACG and rectifier, connecting this produces nothing. Where should I be running my signal wire from exactly? What is considered the "low side" of the coil ??
Every other function on the gage works perfectly so its only a matter of rpm signal and where exactly to pull it from.

Thanks in advance!

 

The XJ11 tach uses a voltage signal to read rpm and not a pulsed signal from the coils. That is why your tach does not work.
The "low side" of the coil is the wire that goes to the TCI to trigger the coil. Positive it fed to one side and the other goes to the tci, that is the side the new tach should be connected to and will detect to give you rpm readings.

The red/white wire is the + side of the coil, it feeds each coil. The orange and gray are the - sides of the coils. Hook your tach to either the orange or gray wire from the ignition coil. this will give the new tach a one pulse per revoultion signal.

 

So what if I told you I read that on the weekend and shaved the coating off the orange wire right by the coil and still nothing at the gage? Maybe I'm completely lost but I thought for sure that would solve the issue but it didn't. However maybe I need to power off the gage and restart it with the connection made to ensure continuity. I will keep you gents posted tonight. Thanks for the help!

 

It is possible that the gauge has the power and ground tied internally, however I suspect you need to view the tachometer section of the gauge as a separate assembly. I would also suspect that they would be separate as one portion of the gauge needs a constant power source to maintain setup parameters, and the tachometer can use switched power and only have power when the key is on. Therefore, you will need to connect the power and ground for the tachometer. You could verify with a DMM to see if the wires connect internally and you may need to experiment a bit to see what you need to maintain the setting on the gauge parameters.

 

Yes that gauge needs a constant power (directly from battery) a key on power source and a ground for the basic function. After that each compent (lights, tach, etc) just plug in.

 

So I have constant power right from the battery, a keyed power, which is why the gage only turns on with the key turn and a separate ground wire into the gage itself. However for some reason the tach refuses to budge with any connection I had fed it to date. Seems like something isn't functioning properly and I will troubleshoot again tonight.

 

It should be noted that every other function on this gage works perfectly. blinkers, memory, fuel gage, neutral, high beam low beam, backlight. Literally everything works yet the tach function remains at 0 unchanged.

 

Does it sweep left to right and then back to zero when keyed on? If not, it simply might be defective.

 

Alright so I kept thinking about what you guys were saying with where to connect the wire. After I don't know how many failed attempts we have success. I tapped into orange wire way at the back for the pickup coil not the ignition coil.

The bike sounds and looks complete finally. Minus the silly computer mount I need to make.

 

looking pretty tight, man!

 

NICE!

So glad to hear you got that to work! All good to get riding?


Now I can grab one of those safely and get rid of my old, melty, decaying cluster

 

Yes I am insuring and registering today !
As for the gage yes it works, if you want a hand when you;re doing it just let me know as it can be a bit painful at times.

 

So my insurance company says my bike should have a 17 digit vin and all I can find is the 9 or 10 digit one on the front of the frame?? Are they wrong and this is the only one or is it hidden somewhere??

 

There should be a sticker on the center of the frame neck with the VIN#. A partial VIN is also stamped there.
Go here if you only have the partial VIN and it will give you the full 17 digit number
http://www.dissingermoto.com/

 

I've been through this too. They are wrong.

Yamaha had an extension allowing them to continue with the shorty vins longer than with cars, and they also produced a lot of 82 bikes in 1980 and 81.

Show them the frame stamp, it IS the correct VIN and no, you should not have a long one. You'll go through this again come registration time, but when they actually enter the VIN it'll come up and work as it IS a legit VIN.

 

Most insurance agents are simply unaware of how that worked out in the early 80's with motorcycles - and have likely seen 82's with long VIN's as some manufacturers got on the long VIN's faster, and other 82 model year bikes where actually manufactured in 1982.

They may try to convince you you need to contact the Ministry of transportation to get a VIN assigned - you don't. It's $500, and it's totally unnecessary.

It took me a lot of phone calls and running around to confirm this, but it's indeed the case. Have the insurance people insure it with the vin stamped on the right side of the neck (and probably also the right side engine case), as it is. You'll then be able to register it.

 

Here in the US 1980 was the year they converted to 17 digit VIN #s. True there are many bikes made pre 1980. It was common to issue a title for the year it was sold. Entirely possible to have a pre 1980 bike with a 1981 ,2 3, etc title. I have one. My xs11 was manufactured in 1979 but was sold in 1980 so it has a 1980 title and a short VIN#. I don't know the Canada laws but the XJ11 was only made in 1982 . If that bike was made for the US market it will have a 17 digit VIN.

 

All three of my '82 XJ's have short vins, and all three exist in Alberta's registry (though one is marked salvage, of course). It was no problem at all to register, but everyone I spoke to balked at first until I had them just do it - ultimately, the insurance folks don't care if you have "the wrong vin" as it doesn't impact them at all, and the registry folks just punch the VIN into the computer and it either comes up or doesn't - you can't register a bike with an invalid VIN, so if the VIN on the neck works (and all three of mine do, all '82's with short VIN's) you're golden.

It's kind of a pain dealing with the various agents who don't know what they're talking about, but that's just par for the course with 35 year old machines.

 

no problem
https://www.harborfreight.com/36-piece-14-in-steel-letternumber-stamping-set-60671.html

 

Add someone who can add your newly stamped VIN to the registry service's VIN database and you're golden

I get that was a joke, but for the curious:

In Canada, it's all about whether that VIN is in the national database or not. If it's not, you have to either import the vehicle from another country (oh, so much fun) or get it assigned a VIN ($500). All vehicles made for sale in Canada already exist in the database (going back a very long time anyways). This is done when the vehicle is manufactured.

So, stamping only has value if you're stamping a valid pre-existing VIN. This has some applications if you have a garage full of old non-running(but not salvage) bikes and have a flexible moral compass.

I should note that we don't have titles here. Vehicle registration is basically a title, but isn't something you transfer, nor that you can have unless the vehicle is currently insured. Here in Alberta, ownership of a vehicle can be very uncertain

 

That is awesome! I also see why everyone shops there now. Those prices are so cheap its crazy!!!

 

...........i like that phrase
although your name stamped on the frame, under the tank, would make the RCMP's job easy if the bike was stolen
or even better right next to the vin