new user, small troubles

Good morning yall;

I'm matt, from maryland, and i gots my self an 82 maxim 650!! I got it for cheap and have been casualy working on it for a month to get it road worthy.

I'll go into details a little later, but i'm having troubles with the front brakes. It has a 14mm master cylinder and a single disc, single piston front brake. I don't feel like it is stopping hard enough. How well does this setup work? How can i make it work better without a doner front end off a 750 or other dual disc setup? The bike gets up to 60 pretty quick, but takes about half a block to stop.

I have a fresh, clean master cylinder and brand new pads.

I'm worried because i have an 82 GL 1100, 5/8 master, dual disc, dual pot up front. That 700+ lb machine will stop on a dime and give change back.

Current setup on the maxim has the gl master cylinder for testing purposes. The maxim master feels soft all around. Please help so i can send this bike off to a friend and have a new riding buddy

 

WTTC!

Well what do you know, another Marylander.....!! My 650 Turbo has the same quality brakes, actually worse than my H2 which had a rep for horrific brakes! I replaced the stock pads with a set of good quality EBC HH rated pads and roughed them up before installing them, and they still stink. Find a good solution and share it please. I'd love to stop as well as my bike go's!

jeff

 

STAINLESS STEEL LINES.

Single biggest upgrade you can make and gets rid of the standard Yamaha "sponginess."

The original lines should be replaced anyway.

 

Stainless steel lines! Great maintenance! But usually not a problem solver.

Recently, i have found a shop in rockville that makes brake lines in house. I heard they wrer pretty cheap too. I only heard of them after i spent 150 and a week of down time for shipping to have HEL copy the brake lines on my GL.

So now i'll go to this shop called colaiflower (sp) in rockville, have them crimp me up one long line and eliminate the spliter mid way up the fork. This should help some, but i have a feeling that something isn't right in the master or i have air hidden somewhere.

What does it mean when the master cylinder is filled with yellow sponge/crystal things? To answer my own question, it means that i will find it other places than just the master cylinder.

But to my single disc brothers: how do you stop this crazy thing without planning a week in advance?

 

When you say "fresh and clean", did you clean out the relief port in the MC?

It's a very tiny hole next to the hole the fluid flows through in the MC, it needs to be cleaned out with something very very small. I use 2 strands of copper wire from 14ga auto wire.

And actually, the stainless lines do solve a big part of the problem of these bikes not stopping.

 

Put stainless on my 700 and it made a significant difference, it gave it a much better feel and I can now stop it with one finger. Still not the best brakes I have ever used but better for sure.

 

I had a 550 maxim that didn't wnt to stop either. All you can do without changing ALOT of stuff is the stainless line for feel, a good set of slightly aggressive pads, and rebuild the caliper and master cylinder. Either one of those could be slightly plugged up or sticking. Honestly, if you can find one, maybe go ahead and upgrade the whole front to something that had dual discs. Of course, that's twice as much to rebuild...

 

Wanna get really serious about the front brake?
-Rebuild caliper.
-Rebuild master.
-Replace lines with braided stanless.
-upgrade ROTOR to EBC floating rotor.
-use EBC hi-perf pads with the new rotor.

 

Brake lines by the end of the week, ggot it!

Next problem: sometimes the bike will run out of juice, just ease down and stall out after a mile or two. My best guess so far is that it is a fuel/ petcock issue. The bike came with large K&N pods and seems to be jetted to match these and it's 4 to 1 exhaust.

I know that pods breath and lower vaccume pressure. Has anyone had an issue with pods not sucking enough to open the petcock? It doesn't stall out when the petcock is on pri or res. I'm thinking of disableing the petcock and giving it a manual shutoff.

I know i got a grab bag of parts with this little monster and it is far from stock. Damn it's a pain to get her roadworthy.

Topic 3: tires, yall running D404's or elites?

 

"RES" is vacuum operated too; so rule out "lack of vac" as the cause of your petcock issues.

If the valve seat is still in good shape, they can be rebuilt: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=25058.html

Personally, I'm running D404s on one bike and Avon AM26 RoadRiders on the other; both 550 Secas.

 

Matt, have you tried finding a nice straight section of road, starting with a 1/4 tank of fuel, open the cap and go......you may have a blocked vent in the cap. Seems that a lot of them are degrading in the past year or so......

fwiw

jeff

 

Nope, haven't looked for a blocked vent cap yet. There is no hiss when i open the cap, i know my gl has a hiss. The bike hasn't been on the road long enough, sucked down enough gas to show or eliminate a blocked fuel cap.

I think my fuel line may be too long as well. Gotta have a few extra inches for tank off carb fiddleing.

 

Bigfitz52: your brake caliper is on the wrong side! Also you don't have ribs on the back either!?

Are seca550 that much different from maxims. Something seemed funny about mine, with the one pivot in the center that lets the caliper swing and the ramped brake pads. I'm much more used to calipers sliding on 2 rails.

 

Seca 550s have their caliper on the right; 550 Max's on the left.

There are at least 5 or 6 different style calipers used across the various model XJ's.

The 550s, the 750 Seca and the 1100's have similar calipers. These calipers slide on a single pin and utilize a separate "holding block;" and are quite different from your caliper.

The 650 Maxim has the pivoting caliper. I don't believe this was used on anything except the 650 Max.

The 750 Maxim has a different style caliper; as does the 650 Seca (different from all of the above.)

Fun, huh?

 

I'll be ordering front end parts baised on my vin from now on.

 

If you deal with XJ4Ever, chacal will ensure he sends you the correct parts.

 

This morning i made a little progress. Got a single ss brake line. Opened up the caliper, cleaned it and put it back together. Nothing looked wrong with it, minor pits in some spots, no signs of leaks. Some gunk behind the seal, all cleaned. The master was cleaned weeks ago, the little hole as well. I cant wait till it is all assembled and see if it works.

 

Did you install NEW SEALS in the caliper? That's quite important...

How about the master, when it was "cleaned?"

The original seals in both units had a two-year recommended lifespan, they need to be replaced regardless of how they "appear."

Don't cut corners on brakes; your life depends on it.

 

All very true, but no new seals on the brakes. I am barely out of the "proof of life" stage of this build. Honestly i had a little sticker shock when my local shop said $60 for the mc rebuild kit. However i have not checked ya'lls in house distributor yet. I'm hoping that either this cleanup i have done works, or will show improvement to the point where i need new seals in both the master and caliper. All this i will know by the time i install the brakes back on. I don't live with the bike, and all the good weather this past week, i've been working or playing, havent gottin round to the bike yet. Pray for clear skys and free schedule tomorrow.

 

The local shop will continue to give you sticker shock. XJ4Ever or other on-line suppliers are usually a much better deal. Got my MC kit for $33. Local Yamaha shop wanted $54 for a stock air filter-I spent $3.50 on some blind spot convex mirrors and walked away.

 

Could yall link me to chacal's store please. I'm having a tough time finding it. Is is only an ebay store? All i get to is his corner of this forum.

I already sent him a pm about parts, just waiting on a reply.

Thanks guys

 

They do everything via PM or E-mail, which helps to keep their costs to a minimum. You'll get a quote shortly.

 

Just click on the top right of this webpage. It is XJ4ever. It says "click here for catalog." if something is not on the list, pm chacal and he will let you know if he has it. The list and prices are a little out of date.

 

Ok, thanks. He pm me a list. I'm looking at it through a smart phone, and now having an anxiety attack from information overload. I'll get back to it later.

Last night i put the brakes back on, and after a tear down cleanout of everything, new pads and ss lines, the brakes seem to bite really good!

For sake of arguement: who has owned their yamaha for 4+ years and rebuilt their brakes twice (as yamaha recomends it every 2 years).

Not calling BS, but if that were the case it would be impossiable to keep any of these bikes on the road. And i got a maxim because their are a lot of them on the road!

 

SOLD!!!

Thankyou all very much for your help, advise, and writeups, wouldn't have happened without you. This past weekend i had fun with the little bike riding it all over. After a 40 mile joy ride/ shake down; the fuse box bit the dust. Total power failure. Spent the afternoon soldering a new unit from radio shack and hit the road again. The brakes aren't that bad after all, the ss line and clean units will make the old, dry rot tires lock up quick.

General reports: lacks torque and all power below 5000 rpm, but gets up and GOs after that. The 4-1 makes a great race bike sound i cant get enough of. Shifts between 7-9 and feels great! I love the sturdy feel of shaft drives. Handle bars look too big to handle the bike at speed, but are very comfortable and i don't find my self riding the tank as much as i thought i would. I thought the bike was small, but it is big enough to fit me, 5'11 all legs.

I traded it for my buddies project. The bike fits him very well, it is his first bike. I hope he gets into it soon. He is very aware that it needs tires, battery, and grips. He is not a natural on it, but he will take his riders class by the end of the week. That should give him all the tools to handle this little joy.

This maxum has been traded for a honda sabre V65. I love my hondas, i love my big bikes.

 

Good luck with the new bike. Hey do us a favour and come back in 6 months with your impressions of the Honda forum! Be honest

 

I've been on the sabmag forum before. I'm aware. Pretty lame. I'll probly spend a lot of time on customfighters. So far i call NGWClub home. An excelent forum specific to gl1000 to gl1200. But very knowlegable in general motorcycles... If you post under the correct heading. Honestly, they gave me as much help as yall did. The difference is i came here to get a specific baseline idea on how these bikes act when running good.