New 82'Maxim XJ550 owner...Repair Assist...

Hello XJ Forum!

Recently I bought a old 82' Yamaha XJ550. Long story short, the carbs were lookin like they needed to be rebuilt since the bike kept cutting out, and the bike shop was going to charge me 1,800$ for the whole kit and caboodle. Of course I denied repairs and gladly would do it myself, honestly I was worried it was something else major. This turned into a fix it up bike very quickly.

1. Rebuilt carbs, new air filter, new oil and filter, new spark plugs, and as I discovered, it needed a fresh battery.

So I went to my local O'Reilly's, got the same model (or so I thought) battery that the front desk got me.
Took the battery home, hooked it up to my bike excited to get it started finally after everything

It made some funky noises and then I saw out of the corner of my eye a spark jump from the starter button to my gas tank (context: my starter button was dissembled at the time because the button was not working so I would ground the button with some copper wire to bypass the button). So I immediately realized I f*** up. The battery was the same model, EXCEPT the polarities were switched (feel free to give me crap honestly, dumb mistake)! I was so upset, went back to the store, traded in the battery and tried everything. Luckily the Neutral light would turn on but nothing, no noise, nada.

I've tried replacing the Diodes, a few relays, and now the bike is turning into a money pit...

If anyone could give me any advice, PLEASE, I'll take anything.

Also I recently discovered this forum, so hopefully I am posting this in the right place, so take it easy on me!

 

Oh dear - expect the tci to be fried, get a used one you know is good. Maybe the rectifier/regulator, but maybe not...
As for other stuff, not sure about the indicator relay on your model, is it manual or self resetting? ie does it have a centre push on the switch to cancel it? If not then it might have survived. The diode packs in the headlight may also be ok, but just disconnect for now. Everything else should be ok.