Storys about Xj rebuilds or Xj resurrections and cheap finds

Bought my 1988 XJ900T from a wreckers for AUS $1350 in Sept last year. No $100 bikes by the side of the road here. I drive a 1 tonne tray ute for work, so no cost to get it home. It was not a runner, so a bit of a risk.

First was to get the engine running. Got the rusty fuel cap off, and then the seat, which had a broken lock. Put a new battery in it. The electrics were good. The PO had never mucked around with them. Thanks to this site's carb clean out details. Got the carbs cleaned up, and the enrichment passages. Two slides were stuck, and one float stuck. Took off the leaking manifolds and made up new gaskets for them. Very lucky there - all the Allen bolts came off easily. Put the carbs back on and it fired right up. Sometimes I leave the engine for 2 weeks, but it starts right away.

The mufflers have lost their packing, and the right one is damaged, but I got a good complete system from another wreckers. Cleaned up the exhaust header bolts and put anti-sieze on them.

The rear disc was under thickness. Got a good disc from the wreckers, and swapped it out.

Saving up at present to buy a whole heap of bits from Chacal: brakes hoses and cylinder overhaul parts. Also need new rear shocks and tyres.

I'm pulling the forks to bits this weekend to fit new seals. The old ones are leaking. And the fork oil has not been changed for some time. It's black and smells like differential oil, and has contaminated the front brake pads.

 

Re: Storys about Xj rebuilds or Xj resurrections and cheap f

My cousin asked me if I wanted his bike as he hadn't ridden it in 5 years and it was stored in a baby barn the whole time. He just rode it into the barn, shut it off and walked away. My philosophy is that a free thing is a good thing, was put to the test in this case. I have some posted pictures in my gallery which shows the rust, duct taped seat, and broken parts that made up this XJ750. I stored it under my deck for a year before my wife suggested selling my Venture and rebuilding the Maxim-X into a chopper. Done deal and 16 months later (plus many more dollars than I care to remember), it turns a lot of heads around here. Of course many of the Harley folks ridicule my choice for customizing, but I actually had to "build and engineer" my ride, not just bolt shiny stuff on it. this bike and the people on this site rule...as always!

 

My '82 XJ650. Lots of parts in a bucket, had been sitting for ages and tons of rust. It was $150 though on Craigslist and in addition to the $150, I offered the guy a cheap guitar amp to sweeten the deal so I could jump the line on who contacted him about the bike first. Drove up to Cinci, cleaned and cleaned and rebuilt the top end of the motor and she turned out pretty good. Took me about a month and a couple of hundred in parts. Took it out for one last ride of the season and one of the cam sprockets shattered. It was due to my own stupidity in my first engine rebuild. I didn't tighten the sprocket bolts enough. Another engine tear down, but surprisely, no damage other than the sprockets and cam chain.

My latest '81 650 Maxim I picked up in Williamsburg, OH. Listed on CL for $700 and supposedly ran. Went up and did drive it down the block, but she was in really really bad shape. Handled like a dog, had no power, rust all over again and seat in bad shape. Offered the guy $450 and drove it 120 miles home. Cleaned the carbs, changed the oil, filled up the tire and cleaned cleaned cleaned. $0 in parts to get the bike running pretty good, however will be spending money on mostly cosmetic stuff. I am thinking of making this one my daily rider and fixing up the 82 and selling it.

 

Well... My MaximX I've had for years. Bought it off a friend who was going to trade it in when he bought a VMax. He let me have it for what the dealer was offering. I think it was 12 or 15 hundred bucks. But that was back in '91 or '92 when it still had that new bike smell. There have been some subtle changes made to it since. Now it looks like this:



I picked up a "parts" MaximX a couple of summers ago. It's sitting in the garage, waiting. I may one day decide to try to restore it to running condition as I seem to have amassed quite a few spare parts over and above what's attached to the "parts" bike. That was $400. Not cheap, but Xes don't show up often so I was prepared to pay for it. Oh yeah... I brought it home in the back of my Subaru




Then, I picked up a '83 Maxim 750 that someone had taken apart and packed up in boxes. Advertised as free to whoever wanted it. "Pick me! Pick me!!" I started putting that together, but kinda lost interest for a while when I got the engine in and realised I'd have to tackle the wiring next. I know, I know... It's not as scary as it seems. I'll get to it! **Oh yeah... It also came with a Yamaha fairing and a set of Krauser hardcases and topbox!**




Then I got a deal on a '83 XS650 for $200. Took a couple hours to get it running and I have some pretty crazy plans for that one. It'll take a few $$ to do what I wanna do, but I'm patient and I just got a new, better-paying job, so maybe my vision will be realised sooner than expected...



And last, but definitely not least... My recently acquired Seca 900. $450 and only took a few hours to get it running. A few more hours with a Carbtune and Colourune to get it running well. Changed the fork seals and need to put new brake pads on the front and one of the turn signals needs replacing, but it should be ready for a safety inspection next week. I also swapped on some shorter shocks to lower the back end a little. It's not plated yet, but I've run it up and down the street and around the block a few times and so far I'm really impressed with the smooth power this thing has. Can't wait to get it out on the road for real! **Oh yeah... It does have side-covers. I'll post better pics when it's all ready for the road.**

 

I got my bike last March (92 XJ600s SECA II) off of Craigslist. I traded my 90 Celica with 200,000 miles on it (almost completely restored that Celica but was hoping to stretch it on that engine - cracked the head about 6 inches) for the bike. The Celica was worth at least 5000 (b/c of the new radiator, hoses, thermo, master cylinder, slave cylinder, clutch, tranny, springs and shocks, cv joints, motor mounts, stereo, headliner...) but nobody else would have seen it that way, so I traded it for a motorcycle with 37,000 miles on it. Meh.