Philly Riders

I am in West Deptford, about 20 minutes south into NJ from Center City. I've got an 81 Midnight Maxim 650, and have been slowly repairing/restoring mine myself. It's my daily commute vehicle, so I'm planning on a restoration and some aftermarket add-ons down the road, but I'm down to meet with people to ride. I do have winter riding gear, so road conditions and weather permitting, I'm available on weekends.

 

lets make this happen
SOON
Its gonna be like 60 on thursday!
i just rebuilt my carbs and am having trouble getting her started (somehow not getting enough fuel) but when i do, it'll be my DD

 

You may not have gotten the enrichment jet in the bottom of the bowls clean enough to get fuel into them. That'll cause your hard start.

 

I ended up just needed to properly gap my plugs, turn the idle mixture screws out one more turn and it fired up.

But i am in desperate need of a sync. Does anyone around the area have the tool?

 

You can make one for about $4.

You need a yard stick, duct tape, clear tube to fit your vacuum ports, and some ATF.

Make a long U shape at the middle of the tube, tape it to the yard stick and the legs up each side.


Put ATF in the tube so it's about half up the yard stick.

Synch 1-2, 3-4 then 2-3.

The best part about ATF is it's easy to see and if your carbs are way off and suck some in it'll just smoke out the exhaust no worries.

There's also the baby bottle method, the single gauge method, etc. All can be found on this site.

Make sure you get it good and warm before all your fine tuning or you'll just do it again.

 

are you saying ATF like automatic trans fluid?

 

Yes. Automatic transmission fluid. You can use water, oil or whatever works as well. If water gets sucked into your engine it'll be bad news. ATF will just burn off.

 

first question - i understand 1-2 and maybe 4 but how do you adjust #3? Doesnt that hose need to go to the gas tank in order to pull gas from the petcock?

Second question - Murphy's law went into effect and i have developed a leak around my oil filter housing. I am left with 2 choices:
1. go get a fram filter with an O-ring and live with the stripped bolt head
2. Spend $60 on a spin-on oil filter adapter

what do you think?

 

#3 is adjusted by the main idle control knob. That's why you make 1 match 2 then 3 match 4 then 2 match 3.

You can remove the vacuum line from #3 and set your petcock to PRI and fuel will flow. Or use and auxillary tank.

There's a third option. Chacal sells replacement bolts for the filter housing. I think they are cheaper than the spin on adapter. One has a larger head.

 

thanks for the super fast response!

Okay i think i will just get the O-ring for now and replace the bolt in a month or so for the next oil change

I have got to get this bike on the road, i am going bonkers sitting in my cage everyday

 

Alright, got everything "fixed", i need to do a final sync today with the YICS port blocked and hopefully that will help it start sooner.

I am hoping that I dont have to pull all the bowls and clean them out again.

This is getting old fast.

 

does anyone have a colortune around philly? I can get it started and ride to you if you are within 100miles.

after my rebuild the bike takes like 8-10 tries to get it started and thats a maybe... I think I am going to have to pull it and make 10000% sure those enrichment tubes are spotless.

 

i just wanted to say thank you for all the advice guys. I still need to find a color tune and get it all dialed in. And I still have the issue where every once in awhile the solinoid stays engaged and makes the starter run till the battery dies.

But other then that, she runs!

Video of her running

 

nealskj I have a good bit of experience working on my bike that I could pass on to you plus we could go for a ride sometime. No colortune or carb syncs but I have been through a few cleanings with good results.

 

Well, I still have not been able to hook up with any other XJ riders, and I want to do it this year dagnammit.

Anyway...Its still a little miserable out, and I need to replace my headlight relay. I have every intention of being on the roads by April 1st. Going to have my local shop do a tune-up and oil change this week so I'll be ready with time to spare.

Maybe if we can get a few of us to commit to a few dates this spring/summer we can finally get a few XJ group rides in this year. It should be fun, in theory, hahaha

Any takers? How about one of these dates:
4/9/2011
4/17/2011
4/24/2011

Take care

Mark

 

I could probably do the 4/24. Pending on the weather. I try not to ride in the rain. I'm booked the other days.

Of course the bike is burried in the back of my shop so when I dig it out I'll see how it runs.

 

weather permitting of course. Though I just ordered my frogg toggs so there is no stopping me now

Let me know via message or post if your bike is good to go when you dig it out. I was shocked to find mine running like a champ when I dug it out last weekend. Just need to have some minor maintenance done (knock on wood) and I'm good to go.

Well, thats two for 04/24. Any others willing to commit?

 

Pabstblueribbon - I want to go but at the moment my front wheels locked so I need to do a through cleaning of the Master Cylinder. Let me get back to you in a week or so on the 4/24 ride

 

Sounds good to me! I set a reminder to checkin with everyone on 4/1
Then we can pick a meeting place and of course a ride route!

 

well..if anyone is interested for the 24th pm me....
if I don't get any I'll just be forced to ride alone, no hard feelings though