Loss of power

Hi. Fairly new to riding and definitely new to maintenance. My particular piece is a 1983 (supposed Midnight) Maxim 750. It's in pretty rough shape in addition to sitting for a year mostly untouched, but it was cheap and i wanted a project. Most of the issues were pretty minor or so I believed; slight oil leak from the valve cover, rusty tank, ganked up fuse panel, and some air/fuel issues I believe caused by a small crack in one of the intake boots, although the previous owner did rebuild the carburetor so I began to wonder if perhaps it wasn't calibrated properly. But other than idling a little high sometimes(3-5k) and sporatic spurts of high rpms, it rode great the few times I rode it point A to point B. I was almost home after a short ride, it was riding fine and all at once it lost almost all power and motor function and died. Sat for a minute and cranked back up and got the back home mostly coasting and puttering along slowly and parked it. Next morning I check it out and it dumped a lot of oil in the airbox and appeared to be leaking additionally from the the heads and possibly other places. Am I looking at blown gaskets or could this be more severe?

 

Sounds like gas has been leaking past float needles. Did oil smell like gas? And all that oil/gas may soak the filter.

 

I did not smell any gas in the oil personally. Been waiting for a more experienced buddy to verify but hasn't had time.

 

I will add, though I did not check the filter.

 

check your oil level if you lost oil you should be low on oil,
put bike on centerstand sand look into the sight glass on the clutch cover.

if bike is on sidestand and the window if full it was eathier over full with oil or your gas has leaked into the oil which will cause loss of power when it gets to a higher level.then blow your motor

 

the oil filter has a bypass for when it is clogged . but wtf you got a bike that has sat for a year and didnt even think to change the oil and filter first? did you check the oil level ? air filter too. sorry just had to say that.

your carbs have issues. time to fix them

 

so start here and put your vin number into the box short vin from motor and long vin from frame
http://www.dissingermoto.com/ this link is in the following thread

TECH TOPIC: Model ID and VIN's

 

and a little light reading
The Information Overload Hour

how to clean and rebuild your carbs
IN THE CHURCH OF CLEAN

what your carbs look like inside
Something New, Something Naked

read this link
SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a look

this page of above thread has a nice photo please disreguard the dark humor about jb weld
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threa...e-bike-owners-please-take-a-look.15874/page-8


some photos are missing but if you go through it you will find some

 

#1 I did change the oil. And yes it is low now.
#2 I did not smell any gas in the oil.
#3 I was saying I did not check to see if the air filter has recently soaked up gas and oil.
I did think to do a lot of things I believed I was supposed to do. Now I am trying to find out what kind of problems I might can anticipate when I break the motor down.

 

do a compression test there are very few things that will force the oil out of the motor via the airbox.

 

What if potentially we overfilled the oil a little bit? I don't believe we did but I suppose that is possible.

 

How much oil did you put in?

 

2.5-3 quarts. With space left in the sight glass. I guess I should add before the last ride the oil seemed normal. When it started acting up the rpm gauge and gauge lights stopped working. I didn't check the oil immediately when I parked it but the next morning it was very low with none on the ground so its safe to assume it was lost on the final stretch home, about a quarter of a mile.

 

The sump holds 2.9 quarts, including what's in the filter housing. Don't add more. The sight glass has lines next to it, cast into the clutch cover. Keep the oil level between the lines when the bike is on the center stand, and you're golden.

It sounds to me like you were checking the oil level with the bike on the side stand, and that's a no-go. There is no way to get a reading on how much oil is in the sump unless the bike is on the center stand, and the oil has been allowed to settle (engine off for at least 5 min). If you added oil because it was low when on the sidestand, then you overfilled the sump, and that's where all the oil came from.

Go though the whole bike, slowly, methodically one system at a time so you can get her running right without chasing your tail all over.

 

Starting with what, motor wise. I kinda expect to at least have to do a top end kit.

 

Inspection first.
Drop the oil that's in her (save it if it's clean), oil her up correctly, degrease the engine, dust it with talc, and run her, looking for leaks. I doubt that you will need to replace any gaskets (except maybe the valve cover gasket and doughnuts).

And read:
The Information Overload Hour

 

Alright thank you