The little XJ650 that could - *Update* and a few questions!

First off I would like to introduce myself. I'm a college student who has made the move from modern sports bikes (CBR600) to an older bike that will be bobbed / cafe'd / street trackered.

I recently found 82' XJ650 maxim for sale that had been sitting in a garage for 10 years. For the a couple hundred bucks the guy let me drag this non-running beauty queen back to my house. Now I'm not familiar with bikes. I have cleaned a few carbs on newer bikes and I have done the maintenance on my jeep wrangler. So needless to say this will be an experience for me.

All Her Glory!


Inspiration:


Now my current problem is the electrical is messed up. I took out the battery to replace it, only to find that it wasn't connected to anything. It also seems like there are 2 fuses missing and out of the 8 wires going into the fuse box 4 are fused to themselves (which probably explains why 2 fuses look like they are missing).

Picture of the fuse box area:


Picture of under the right side cover:


So my question is what does a properly wired bike look like under the seat? Or at the very least, how does the battery plug into the system?

Thanks for the help!

 

Re: The little XJ650 that could - Help with Electrical

them black plastic bits on the wiring look like inline fuses.have you opened them up to see if theres a fuse inside?

 

Re: The little XJ650 that could - Help with Electrical

You need a manual.

In the meantime, PM me with your email address and I'll send you the cable routing diagrams for your bike.

And don't be too inspired by that red bike you posted the pic of. It's a pure "trailer queen." The frame has been cut in such a way that it's been horribly weakened in the "backbone" and will likely bend in half the first time anybody hits a set of railroad tracks at anything over 50.

(If it doesn't blow up first; the guy who built it was all proud of the fact that he didn't rejet or re-tune the carbs at all for the pods and pipe. It's gotta be running horribly lean.)

A word of advice: Get your XJ running properly BEFORE you spend a whole bunch of time and effort "customizing" it, lest you paint yourself into a mechanical corner. A bike this old requires quite a bit of "recommissioning" to be safe and reliable; you need to worry about things like brakes and carbs first; cutting and bobbing after. We've had quite a few folks sink all sorts of time and money into a "build" only to discover toward the end that they can't get it to RUN.

I guess it depends on whether or not you want to actually ride it.

 

Re: The little XJ650 that could - Help with Electrical

Getting it to run is my first priority. If it never gets chopped or bobbed or customized, that would be fine. That part will be a slow process.

Thanks for the info so far!

@bigfitz
I have a haynes manual for the bike. I also have the forum with your simplified wiring diagram bookmarked. Do you think it is a good idea just to tear out all the wiring and restart? I just wanted to start with the simplest step first and see if there was a plug I was over looking that the battery wires plugged into.

 

Re: The little XJ650 that could - Help with Electrical

I would get the wiring straight first, be good learning then once you get it all good, you can remove the unneeded

 

Re: The little XJ650 that could - Help with Electrical

When I got my 750 Seca it had a butchered wire harness and I solved every issue for $15 by buying a harness, complete with relays and fusebox off Ebay (in the dead of winter, now).

I planned on pulling the motor to install the airbox and figured that if the wire harness is off the frame, might as well paint it.

Here's some more "inspiration" - -

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... irago.html



A couple of my favorites, along with the "ruined" red bike \/ . (Hey Fitz - 120 Mains, and he sold it for $5,500)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he9LYO8b ... re=related

 

Re: The little XJ650 that could - Help with Electrical

Which only proves again that Barnum was right.

Take a close look at the picture of the yellow bike you posted. It's had the same idiotic frame hack done; simply cutting away the two side rails and capping the stubs. That leaves only the center backbone tube by itself to do the job that was originally done by the THREE original tubes. It's not strong enough for that.

That one is just as likely to bend in the middle as the red one.

 

So, electrical problems solved (for now). Apparently, all she needed was a new battery. Lo / Hi beam, Left and Right signal, starter all working. Currently, the tank and seat are removed. This is where the new problems (I use this relatively loosely) begin.

So the tank appears to have been stored with about 1/8th a tank of gas that has long since evaporated; however, it left a nice ring of rust in the bottom of the tank. I have read up that I can put in pennies or bb's and shake well with soapy water or gasoline to remove this rust, but I worry the objects will get stuck. Also, is this really a necessary step? Can it function properly with a little rust?

Secondly, the petcock filter (?) is in the bottom of the tank I can see it with a flash light. Anyway to get this sucker out? I have already removed the petcock and the gas cap.

Another question: Is the smaller knob supposed to be obstructed? I assume this is the vacuum connection, so I wonder if fluid or air should be able to get through it at all... eitherway air does not pass!

Finally, I was wondering if anyone had a link on how to fit an aftermarket tank on the weird triple frame. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize the integrity of the frame. I'm not really a big fan of the stock Maxim frame.

Thanks for all the help with the electrical. I will keep you posted on my progress. I'm thinking I can get it to run poorly tomorrow. Hopefully I can put up a video.

 

Have to agree with Fitz on the yellow bike. The red one does have a bar running under the backbone but I don't think we'll have to worry about the frame folding up because it's to pretty to ride and get dirty. LOL
Removing the outer tubes of the backbone can be done right with added gussets and a tube running under the center tube. Should be done by someone that knows what they are doing.