XJ 400

Hey guys, new to the board, may be sticking around for a while depending on the outcome.

I may have found a Maxim XJ400, a friend has one in his basemenet, wasn't sure of the model, but thinks it's a Maxim.

Is this the forgotted XJ? There seems to be very little info outside basic specs.
I noticed the XJCD starts with the 550, as do any shop/repair manuals I've sound so far. Checking resources in case I decide to pick this up.

Anyone have any info/resources they can pass along?

Thanks

 

I believe both the Maxim and Seca 400 are referred to as XS's.

 

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I think you guys are right, the 400's were XS's not XJ's, I had one too, great bike

 

Thanks guys,

I guess the references I saw to the XJ400 were typos or just bad info.
The quest for XS info starts now heh,

 

Looking around the net sees the bike described as both an XS and an XJ, so I guess you'd really need some Yamaha literature from the year to know for sure. I know that there is an XJ400 inline 4, but it is a sleeved down version of the XJ550 engine, which was never sold in North America.

I guess the 400 is an XS, like the 1100 is an XJ. I know the XS nnyxmfan is referring to, and it is an older SOHC design used in the XS400 and the 400 Special, which is a contemporary design to the XS650. The newer, more angular lines of the Seca 400 engine would indicate, to me at least, that it should have been called an XJ anyway.


Edit: Looks like it's official. It's an XS.

XS400 Manual on Ebay

 

After getting the XS info, I poked around some more...
There are 4 or 5 different XS400 , Maxim, Seca, Heritage and a couple more...

Noticed the Haynes manual mentions the heritage for 82 but not the maxim or seca, A ref manual could yet be a pain to locate

hopefully they stuck pretty close in engine designs.

Looks like it may be a pretty sweet bike for the price, good project, clean her up and get her ready for late spring early summer.
I'm 99% sure I'm going to grab it.
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

 

The XS400, 400 Special and 400 Heritage Special use an older SOHC engine. The 400 Maxim and Seca 400's use a later DOHC engine. If you saw them side by side you'd see they are completely different motors, so make sure you don't get a manual for the older machines.

Having said that, many Haynes manuals combine many different years of bike into one manual, so you might find such a combined manual for sale somewhere.

 

There WAS an XJ400 in addition to the twin cylinder XS400 Maxim and XS400 Seca you guys are familiar with.

It was a true XJ with 4 cylinders, based on the 550 motor and frame. It came in a standard version (similar to the Seca) and a "Special" version that was closer to a Maxim. There was even a 1983 liquid-cooled version that resembled the later FZ series.

If you guys don't remember them it's because they were Japanese home-market only models. Why the heck Yamaha went to the expense of selling twins over here when they had those cool XJ models rolling off the line at home is beyond me. Maybe they were just dumping the stock of left-over XS bits on North America instead of throwing them back into the blast furnace.

There are a few pictures and one parts fiche on the XJCD with these models, however stuff for the Home market models is really hard to come by so there's no manuals, etc. Yet.

 

More digging and searching produced somre more results.
The XJ400 also seems to have been released in the UK and possibly elsewhere in Europe.

MacMcMacmac nailed it on the SOHC and DOHC versions.
In addition to that was the Maxim used a 5 speed tranny the Seca a 6.

I may have located a service manual for the 82 Seca and Maxim specifically, will let you know.

 

Hey again,

Thought I'd let ya know I located an actual 82 Maxim/Seca shop manual and picked it up. It's for the DOHC models. Should be grabbing the bike in a few weeks when I get a bonus cheque from work. Thanks again to everyone that helped steer me in the right direction in my info quest.
I'll post up something in the Other Motorcycles section once I get it and start working.

 

Dartmouth - nice.

I did ride an XS 400 a few times... SOHC... it was a bit on the slow side, but I wonder how the XJ 400 will be.

IMHO the 400cc is the best sportbike sized engine ever made... if the xj400 is as sporty an engine as the 550/650 it maybe a lot of fun.

With a good tune you should get some pretty good mpgs as well.

Woot.

 

Hey woot
It is an XS, but the DOHC model..
Once I get it up and running maybe we can met up for a coffee or something and you can check it out.

 

Sounds good - I'm on a minute away via the waverly road... (on the cbr)

 

Wow, you're really close... I'm in Woodlawn

 

Very nice. You're almost right on one of my favorite loops.

I ride from my house, along the Waverly road, to the 7, head out towards Musq. Hbr, hit the 357 and go cross country to the back of the airport. Then head back in on the other part of the Waverly road.

Nice little loop...

There are a couple of other riders on this board in our area - that I fully intended on meeting up with last summer. Perhaps we can meet up and go for a ride this summer.

 

Sounds good. Hopefully I get get this machine back on it's feet quickly and without too much pain. I'm itching to get it here so I can start working on it.

Almost time to tune up my current ride , an 84 Honda scooter, looks a little funny, but damn good on gas