What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Aligned front wheel/forks
Adjusted headlight
Checked all lights
Tomorrow.... Vermont state safety inspection

 

Filled front brake reservoir, cleaned engine to identify oil leak (I did, holy crap! Leak in the bottom of the case draining directly onto the exhaust and burning up without hitting the ground!), ran it with a full oil load after replacing what was lost (more than I'd like to admit), cleaned air filter, found loose battery cables causing intermittent ignition failures at stoplights.

 

Got in a new Hella Halogen conversion kit, $8.99 incl. shipping from ebay. Installed in the time it took to take the headlight apart and put it on again. I'm gonna have to leave earlier tomorrow morning so I can test it out!

Also, I've been having some electrical gremlins with my turn signal, the right side doesn't seem to pass enough voltage to close the flasher. Went through all the connections, cleaned the switch (and figured out how it worked in the process), and finally got it to work by rearranging the bulbs...seems the 1156LL's dont' want to work in my right side. The problem comes and goes, maybe now it will go for a lot longer.

 

A few days ago, the day the site went down, I upgraded the fuse box. Went quick and painless. Very easy upgrade. I suggest everyone do it!

 

Cleaned up the 900 frame, chased the threaded holes, taped and masked a few things, nearly ready to blast, won't fit in my cabinet so I'm sending it out, lots of good shops nearby who do a good job. Just wondering which particular brand of gloss black I'm going to use, I like the Dulux baked enamel finishes and they are easy to maintain so I'm thinking that's the go.

 

Ordered almost 400$ worth of stuff from ebay and amazon .... getting excited for june 24th and showing my wife how much fun riding truly is

 

last weekend bolted on some 40mm ammo cans and went for a ride over the cascades. noted poor handling due to too much weight too far back. in Leavenworth had a yard sale and put as much weight as I could stuff into my tankbag, moved any remaining heavy-ish stuff forward in the cans and stuffed clothing etc in place aft. Brought handling back to decent.
THIS weekend, fabbed some new mounting hardware, popped a new hole or three in the cans and moved them about 7" forward. Loaded them intentionally poorly, carrying weight in the cans as far BACK as it would go and went for a spin through some local twisties. Handles ok so it should be real good with just a scrap of care taken when loading. Also noted bottom of right side can gets mighty warm from exhaust so "hard" items will live there. Wrenches and the like. Packed for touring I imagine my wool shirt and cookware will go in that side too.
They hold a TON, don't weigh a heck of a lot empty, are AIR TIGHT, and make an awesome strap down point for addition gear (tent, bedroll).

On the agenda is to put on some flushmount blinkers on the outside corners of the cans, mount accommodations for padlocks and maybe some additional luggage hooks. then take the whole business apart and rattle can them black to match my rattle can bike, or maybe rattle can the bike OD green, haven't decided.

MIGHT have to relocate one more time. The first time I was trying to maintain passenger accommodation. That went out the window when I realized cargo weight OR a passenger were acceptable but not both. Now it's too close to tell by eye whether once I get deep and hard into a corner if my pegs scrape (ok) or if I catch a corner of the can (not ok).

Definitely putting the tourer in my "rat tourer"

 

Changed the oil and got the carbs back on the Turbo and fired it up. Smoked like a Cheech and Chong movie for about 10 min then cleared up. The turbo likes to ooze a little oil from the seals if it sits too long. Not worth the cost of replacement IMHO. Next step is to finish repairing all the cracks in the body work and repaint. Then it's off to the local shop for sale.

 

Replaced the 29 year old rear brake shoes on my Maxim (Thanks OldBikerDude and son!), and ordered a bunch of parts from Len! We're gonna dig in again this weekend (replacing carb to head manifolds, checking valve clearances, carb sync and tune, petcock rebuild all in the near future).

 

Hey Militant Buddhist, that's some serious load you are designing for there ... how big are the guns you are planning to bolt to the handlebars ? My idea of "touring pack" is a change of undies and a toothbrush, oh plus the girlfriend's suitcase, which when I think about it, maybe I should be getting that sidecar ...

 

Militant Buddhist, some pics of your bike would be great. Sound like something I was trying to do, .cept I could not get the 20MM cans north of the border.

 

NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING!!!!!
Was supposed to be doing a "Simple" renovation on my Mother-in-laws house, it's 61 years old. However, I'm finding that as I fix one thing another shows up. Sometimes I don't get out of there 'til 10 at night, and there sits my poor old Maxim X, in pieces waiting for my attention.
Kudos to all of you that can get your bikes on the road, but for me, my summer project looks like it's going to be a winter project.
Sorry if I sound like a downer, but I had to vent somewhwere and I consider all the guys on XJ Bikes my extended family.
It still looks like this.

 

Finally got the stainless lines up front.

 

Took the bowls off the carb. Looked at the 20 years of sludge. Sighed and walked back into the house. Practice some more of that Zen motorcycle maintenance

 

Eight of these babies make for a happy Andrew

Since the stem seals finally decided to show up, they are installed and the valves are ready to go back in. The head will be done tonight!

Well, except for my valve clearances which are going to have drastically changed. Oh well, one step closer....

 

Reworked petcock and added an inline filter.
Also, Installed the new clutch cable.

 

About to pull apart the ac generator and see how it looks.

 

Cleaned the handle bar switches. Now the turn signals and start button work. I was very glad it was that simple. I was gearing myself up for a game of whack a mole trying to chase down a problem in the wiring. Still need to find out why the head light does not come on. That does worry me. The pos had it jury rigged with wire to a switch duct taped to the handlebars.

 

Got any pictures of how you routed the fuel filter?

 

I want my bike to run solely on like 8 wires...there has to be a way to simply wire it all up. The P.O. had made my harness near the battery end a war zone and to make matters worse I have no idea what goes where and for what purpose since most of the wires were cut then reconnected with a different wire than the original. No need for a key on my bike! It's been wired up so that I flip a switch and all the lights come on, then all I need to do is hit the start button and she fires up. Oh man next time I buy a bike I know what to look for.

 

Finally installed new chain, sprockets and rear shoes.....
Much smoother now... also found a 15T a sprocket in there instead of the stock 16....

ealrier this week re solder a connection on the start switch after loosing my headlight
That one had me scratching my head for a while, as it happened a day or 2 after had the left side controls open to clean up my horn switch, started thinking I pinched a wire....
Manuals really do save you a lot of time , I'd probably still be looking if I didn't have mine

 

what did i do for my yamaha today? I bought her =p

XJ650 (Maxim 650) , first bike.

Began cleaning. Its got a lot of rust on the exhaust/shocks and minor rust all around so im replacing the shocks/exhaust and putting rust remover on the minor spots tomorrow.

I cleaned it well today with water and windex, and added on a windshield

 

Quick cell shot Max...

 

Thanks anyway man, it's just that I tried putting one on my bike years ago and all I ended up doing was starving the carbs for fuel. Ended up on the side of the road on the way to Dover for the 13th rally and can still remember ripping it out and pitching it into a farmers field!!!! :x :x

 

Oh yeah... Sheez..!
I'll try to get a shot of it bro. Nothin' just real techy here
on my part for sure. Maaaan, Yeah I dunno how you kept
from bitin' the damn thing in half, Ya' know. To be honest,
I had already bought one maybe a month ago right. Couldn't
find it to save my backside..? Loosin' my mind man - errr
them blonde moments are hauntin' again... :roll: Rrrrreal
shiny little ol' gal at the counter at O'reilly's, But... Damgit!

 

Rode the guts out of her just like yesterday!

 

POS stored the bike next to someone spray painting.
Removed over spray today and to my amazement it does not look to bad for sitting in a barn for years.

 

Installed the correct, stock air filter, and turned the pilot screw in a bit...it was running a bit rich...

 

went outside early this morning to start her up, and battery was too weak to start , i havnt touched her in about a week and set's outside in the heat of ohio, and i think i had accidently turned the sterring lock to far and turned on the parking light, and let the battery drain down. so now i gotta run home to grab my charger and pull the battery and let her charge a couple days to get a full charge.

 

Stopped to get gas and couldn't get her started. Had to use a screwdriver to make contact on the starter solenoid. She just clicked when I push the button...Any suggestions?

 

bad contacts in the swtich? seems to be common with the srping in the electric swtich on the bars.

 

If it started with a screwdriver sounds like a bad solenoid. All a solenoid does is connect the two posts when electricity is applied to it's internal coil. They can be rebuilt but your better off buying one from Len.

 

Well the button has always worked perfectly. I had this problem previously, but simply moving the kickstand safety switch i ended up getting it to work. How do I eliminate the safety features all-together? (Clutch, Kickstand, etc.) I'm not sure where that switch is located. I'd rather eliminate that before going ahead with the new solenoid. Thanks for the quick replies! Maybe I should post this in another thread as to not clutter this one? Any posts after this I will put on a new thread. Thanks guys!

 

I believe you just unplug the kickstand switch.

 

Spent the afternoon fighting with the bolts to replace the carb joints.

Bike 1:

Me: 0

Try again tomorrow

 

Changed the fork oil from 10w to 20w. Smoother ride.

 

Got mine tag'ed and titled for the road, tomorrow night or thursday will be my first open road expereience, im ready to ride

 

I get off work, go to start my bike and itl turn, but won't start. Tried a little ether and still nothing. Turned out the ignition fuse blew. Had my girlfriend bring my meter to work and i tracked down a short somewhere near the kill switch.

Got her back home with some sunlight to spare.

 

Added sportster mufflers...well, almost done. Gotta go get them welded in place now! Sooooo much quieter!

 

Ordered custom designed reflective + black print decals.

Tank 4
Fairing 4
Side covers 4
Saddlebags & trunk 5

Pics and vendor review eventually.

 

just put 30 miles on her , first trip out, had a blast and everything worked good

 

Scraping off the po's idea of art work on the tank.
Might paint it tomorrow

 

Been push-starting the thing for the last week, bought new battery, worried about finding and installing brushes.

Come to find out that starter gunk was causing it. Needless to say it fires like a champ now.

Couldn't have done it without this site and XJCD.

 

Started Maintenance.

Front Master Kit.
Ordering Stainless Brake Lines
New Rear Shoes
New Rear Tire -- Got a deal on a Dunlop D404 ... 84-Bucks; delivered.
New Grips
Signal Light Stems

 

installed a new bulb in the 82 Seca's 9" bucket. New fuse box. New battery. Wired in indicators in the custom mini speedo.
Got rid of a lot of extra wires.
New clip on bars.
My nose is getting closer to the front tire all of the time!

 

Rebuilt the petcock, thanks for the tutorial.
Stripped the old paint off the gas tank. Someone had a funny idea of art.

 

Checked valve clearance and broke off an ignition cover screw. Here's hoping for a successful ez-out.

 

Son repainted the tank. Looks brand new and removed the rust from inside the tank

Found treasures inside the tank, Spring and washer. Consider everything else on this bike. Nothing surprises me.

 

Hooked up a Trail Tech Vapor computer yesterday, got it calibrated and set up today and took it on a 50 mile test run. I wasn't sure what the differences were between models so I accidentally ended up getting one for an ATV, wasn't a problem though, as I made it all work except for the temp sensor which isn't a big deal to me at the moment, but I'll find a solution to that later.

Got nothing but good things to say about it though, this thing works fantastic, the speed is at least 99% accurate from the tests I've done, whereas my stock speedo was extremely far off starting at 25mph and getting progressively worse to the point where I'm actually going about 60% faster than what it shows. RPM sensor is nice, but a little jumpy, when my stock one shows 1100rpm steady, the Vapor system will jump between 850rpm to 1380rpm but atm it's just coiled around one of my spark plug wires, I'll be wiring it up to the coil directly tomorrow.

It works in sunlight perfectly fine, however the screen does reflect the sun so it's impossible to view while the sun is directly behind you, granted I can't see my stock speedo in those situations either.

I'm keeping the stock gauges on there, and have mounted this directly in the center of the handle bars and right under the stock gauges. I just hope it doesn't get stolen seeing as I live in an apartment and lack a garage! I read all over the internet about people worrying about it getting stolen since the backlight stays on for 20 minutes after you shut off the bike, well that's only true if you wire it directly to the battery, I have mine wired to the headlight so when the bike is flipped on, the Vapor unit goes out of low power mode and turns on, when you turn the key off, the unit's backlight immediately shuts off and after a few minutes will go into low power mode(turns off sensors and displays a clock).

Anyway, thanks to Carvall for his thread and answering all my Q's about it, and if anyone is interested in how it looks on the bike, I can take a pic of it.

 

Removed cams last night in preparation for pulling the head tonight. Scary and exciting all in one package!