New guy here with Maxim 750 pics and some customization Q's

Hello all, i just made an account but have been trolling here for the last month or so since i bought my 82 maxim 750. thought i would introduce myself, post up some pics (cause you pretty much have to )and maybe ask a couple questions.
First a little about the bike, she was a second owner with only 17k on her when i bought her. completely flawless when it comes to function. with just some mild pitting on the engin and a couple dents and nicks in the tank. and amazingly enough seemed to have every single factory part that these bikes came with (and most of them are 100% perfect and will be for sale if anyone is inturested )
i am in the middle of the standard bobber conversion, and since this is my first motorcycle im not getting too nuts with it. so far i have chopped the extended frame rails/removed rear trim, stripped just about all bolt on pieces and badges in order to clean it up. as well as the front and rear fenders and blinkers. i re-painted the cylinders where the black had faded with high temp bbq paint and i painted the handlebars and side maxim covers with satin black epoxy that i will eventually be re-doing the entire bike in.

my couple of immediate questions have to do with the compatibility of the xj650 headlight and gauges with the 750, because i want to get away from the square look. but am very green when it comes to wiring. so does anyone know if i were to buy the 650 headlight assembly as well as the gauge assembly off of ebay (or here) if it will be plug and play, or will there be more work to do. and if so does anyone know of a thread that has the conversion layed out?

sadly i dont have the pictures of when i first got it on this computer, only the most recent. let me know what you all think of her so far. and any thoughts on my questions will be appreciated.








UPDATE WITH SOLO SEAT MOUNTING PICS/ INFO





welded a hinge to the sliding piece that came with the seat and to the steel tab that was originally on the bike in the front. ( you can buy these for like 20 bucks but i already had the sliding piece and got a 3 dollar hinge and it was good enough )



used heavy steel to take the main weight of the seat (and me) i weigh 240lbs so i dont trust thin stuff. while we were at it we welded a back piece on just in case i ever felt like adding the springs to the seat, then i would just need to weld little nipples to the rear piece and i would be good to go.

 

I had an 82 750 and IIRC the headlight is controled trough the electronic monitor (atari readout in the middle of the gauges) I don't think it's plug and play but it's not that hard to swap in the 650 lights and gauges (or even the 83 xj750 controls) Several members have done it (but not me)

 

Welcome!!

Nice looking bike!

The 83 maxim 750's also came with round headlights/side markers/gauges so you could look into that was well.

sent you a pm on some things, hit me up!

 

Welcome aboard.

Unfortunately switching to the round style gauges will not by any means be a plug & play deal. That atari holds a computer system that monitors funtions on the bike as I am sure you have noticed with the removal of the turnsignals. There are approx 14-16 wires that you will have to figure out, and terminate properly for the bike to even run. There was a writeup in the modifications section on removing the atari like you want to do.

As long as the headlight bucket bolts up to the mount there should be no real problems with switching to a round style headlight as long as you are using the exsiting wiring.

Speaking of wiring. You will have a spaghetti bowl nightmare of wiring to relocate once you do switch the headlight bucket. Nearly all of the atari wiring harness connections are locate inside of the bucket.

Your best bet is to probably remove the original wiring harness, and save it. Then build a new harness using the sipmlified wiring diagram that has been
posted on the site. Do a search for simplified wiring, and atari. You shoud find the info that you need.

It has been done by several members so take your time, and ask questions.

Now on to the bike. This is just a personal oppinion so do not take anything to seriously. It is just how I see the bike.

From a starting point it looks good, but there are a few little things that detract from the overall feel of the bike.

Starting with the turnsignal mounting stubs on the forks. Those need to find a new home elswhere, but that will also eliminate the mounting for the fork emblem. I am not sure if the 82 XJ650RJ fork cover will fit, but it would clean up the appearance of the lower tree.

The next thing is the side covers. The sharp pointed styling looks awkward with the seat that you are using. If you are planning to hardtail the bike then following the line of the side covers would eliminate this problem. Otherwise I would find something that follows the frame, and seat more closely. I have seen everthing from expanded metal to diamond plate used to make new covers for the sides. Look at the bikes in the build ups, and you can get an idea how to handle this.

The final thing that I see is the front forks. The shiny aluminum lowers gives the bike a stubby unbalanaced feel. Painting them black to match the rest of the bike should take care of that, and not draw so much attention to the front of the bike. Another option would be to rake the front end, and strech it out a bit to give it a bit of a pro street feel.

As I said before. It is just a personal oppinon, and the only thing that matters is how you want the bike to look. Either way. You are in the right place.

Ghost

 

Re: New guy here with Maxim 750 pics and some customization

You guys are awesome. Thank you for the compliments and helpfull suggestions so far. And MiGhost Your suggestions actually made me laugh because if I had a list of intended mods for this bike those exact things would be on there. I'm planning on molding some steel to bridge the gap in the front where it says Yamaha but it will also come up and cover a lot of those wires. Much like I saw on a fellow members silver 1100. Then I will remove those pieces with the little nipples on them. Same thing goes with the side covers, I'm gonna mold some fairly sturdy steel to cover the entire side portion ( not just where the existing maxim covers are) I just painted the old covers as a temporary fix in the meantime. And yep even the forks are gonna be black... I guess it's true what they say about great minds . I'm just trying t tto focus on the large things right now since those things look "all right" for now.

So what I'm gathering is that the headlight should be pretty straightforward. It's the gauges that I'm gonna want to kill myself over, correct? If that's going to be the case, is there any quick bypass to let all the lights work with that damned thing just removed? Then I can just plumb up a cheap speedo and call it good. I would much rather have a tach and dummy lights like the 650 unit would have, but if it's more than cutting or splicing a couple wires I just don't have enough experience to know what was doing.

 

Re: New guy here with Maxim 750 pics and some customization

I have a pair of '82 Maxim 750s that I acquired a couple years ago. One is/was my daily while the other is purely for parts. The daily I reassembled back to stock since when I bought it one of the PO's had blacked out the entire bike, removed the Atari and the blinkers. I've since removed the black from the perfect chrome fenders and most of it from the tank. Surprisingly the tank is actually red and rubbing compound is removing the black right off of it with almost no remnants remaining. I took the Atari from the parts bike and despite having a dim fuel gauge, it still worked. I was able to decipher the wiring by comparing the 2 bikes' bucket nests and installed the Atari on my driver.
Here's what I found out:
The main power runs through the Atari and is split back out to the starter switch and the headlight. All the other wires go from sensors or the blinkers on the bike and aren't exactly necessary. You can, if you follow the wiring and acquire a wiring diagram (recommended), bypass the Atari and run a headlight without just as my bike had been. But, as recommended earlier, I too suggest building a leaner more streamlined harness that is less cumbersome and easier to tuck away since you plan on switching to a different smaller housed light.
I am currently building a new wiring harness myself as I'm planning on making a hybrid cafe racer/street fighter out of mine and the new clubman bars, Hesa headlight, and bullet gauges won't exactly work or look good with a rat's nest hanging out in the middle of it. Hope my input helps.

 

Here are a couple threads to get you headed in the right direction on those guages.

Here's the wiring mods to remove the rectangular instruments

Maxim gauges instead of Seca's? I have the answer for you!

Ghost

 

Re: New guy here with Maxim 750 pics and some customization

Thanks again you guys, every comment has been very helpfull. But I have one more question for you MiGhost. The one link you posted would be for installing the round units instead of mine ( which sounds much easier) while the other one would be for just 86ing the whole piece and subbing the lean harness instead correct? After looking at it all and thinking about it (especially after the rats nest comments) I think it would be a better idea to go with removing the unit and harness and just plumbing up a speedo. But that brings me to my next problem, which is that I have absolutely no knowledge of wiring beyond the most basic splicing and insulating. So me building a complete harness is about as easy as getting rain man to go to Walmart . Does anyone know of anyone that just sells them completed? I swear I'm not just being lazy! Lol im just very unsure of myself on the subject

 

Do you have any details on the shocks you have mounted on this bike?

 

How about some pics of the seat and mount? It looks pretty good and you didnt go for the springer/softtail combo.

 

They are just the factory 750 shocks from what I can tell. I was thinking about adding bare springers instead like a lot of other people do but ended up really liking how beefy they make the rear end look. And in my opinion it needed it, since you can't really put a wider tire on it due to the shaft drive.

 

Thanks. Yea I'll see if I can snap a few for ya. The seat was meant to be a springer but I don't like the open springs look very much. And it made the profile too high for how small the seat is.

 

Oh ok thanks, I was just curious if you bought them from somewhere because I really like the look they give the rear end.

 

i would also be very interested in seein some pics of how you did your solo seat. i really like how clean it looks without the open springs. great looking bike, man. good luck with the rest of your build

 

thank you very much, i appreciate the compliments. theres still a lot to be done on the front half of the bike as well as some finish work on the tail that im actually taking a break right now from. im trying out an idea i had on capping and filling the open frame in the rear where it was cut. next will be filling the holes and re-fitting the factory fender just slightly farther back than the current plastic piece is. followed by figuring out how im going to mount it and welding up a sissy bar. should look pretty unique, i dont think ive seen any custom sissy bars on these ladies.

oh and ps check the post at the top of the page for updates with pics and a little description on how the solo seat was mounted.

 

IMHO looks better with no springs under the seat when you've still got shocks (overkill)...

skillet

 

Great lookin bike,,,what size is the rear tire?

 

Thank you for the kind words, the rear tire is 130/90/16

Also an update for those interested, I have since changed the headlight out for an 8" round one, fabricated some custom side covers, and am now in the process of painting and re installing both the front and rear fenders and said brackets. Also just ordered a mini speedo to replace the Atari! Shees gonna be looking pretty good by the end of the week

 

love it

 

Can't wait to see more pics with your latest improvements!
Very nice.