Introducing Myself-New '82 XJ550 Owner

Hello, all.

Brand new to the forum as of today.
Recently acquired an '82 XJ550 Maxim.
Bought the bike off Craigslist for, what I believe to be, a sweet deal.
This is my first motorcycle ever and I actually had never even been on one before purchasing the bike 2 weeks ago. I had recently been promoted at work and moved about 18 miles further from my normal cummute. I ended up buying a scooter/moped to get me there and back to save on gas. After a few weeks of that business, I decided I enjoyed the feel of being on a motorized vehicle but needed more, being a car enthusiast. I began researching motorcycles and after seeing many [having a friend test drive them for me] I came across this '82 Yamaha.

She had 16,900 original miles {17,100 now}.
A lot of different aspects of the bike were changed out as you can see from the pictures. {will upload more later if there is a demand for it}. The only really original thing is the motor/trans. Mostly everthing else was swapped out for cafe racer/street fighter styled parts.

Since acquiring the bike, I taught myself how to ride it within a half hour of having it home. I have re-painted a lot of peices/ re-did some electrical/ ordered a new headlight/ installed some exhaust wrap/ new front pegs and rear pegs. The bike is really coming together visually and I am basically in love with it. It fires every single push and the choke doesn't really need to be adjusted before or after a start-up. The bike runs excellent. Very quick and shifts flawlessly. It has a few cosmetic flaws like a broken needle on the speedo gauge and a dent in the gas tank.
But those are things that can/will be repaired through time.
I acquired my Class M license last week [permit, obviously] and am really excited to get the bike registered and road-ready.

I am in Southeast Wisconsin, so if anybody reading this knows a bunch about these bikes feel free to chime in! Like I said, I am brand new and don't really know anything yet. I am a fast learner and will teach myself as I go along.

Thanks!

 

Welcome to the funhouse!!

Some things you NEED to do:

First, get your rear fender on... Or else you'll get brown-stripe syndrome.

Check rear brakes for delamination
Check valve clearances
Thoroughly clean and sync carbs

There's a lot more to do to make it safe and reliable but there's also plenty of people here to guide you through it. ASK, READ, LISTEN, Learn, then DO. ( holy cow, starting to sound like Yoda am I.

There's a number of Xj members in Wisconsin so you probably have someone in your "backyard" already.

Dave

 

Nice. What part of Wisconsin?

 

definitely post more pictures. check master cylinder, and brake system. Its a good idea to replace the brake lines even if they look ok.

welcome

 

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

I didn't mention that the bike was owned by what you guys would probably consider a "guru". The bike was very well taken care of, mechanically. The carbs were done, fork seals, boots, plugs, wires, and brakes. The bike has stainless steel brake lines...etc.

The bike was in prime riding condition when purchased. It just needed some TLC cosmetically since the guy dumped it once. The turn signal bracket was bent, the left signal didn't work, and the tank dented.

I have been diligently working on the bike and replacing things here and there, tweaking some things he had done and have been riding it quite frequently. Took it out this morning after a fresh exhaust install. The bike came with no exhaust. Just the headers down to the collector and the bike was open collector. I tossed some 17" cafe racer style baffled tubes on there and it quieted the bike down a bit and gave it a better tone. Loving it!

I will post up some more pictures tomorrow. My lady is doing some sort of triathalon and I have all day to take the bike down to our local beach and snap pics, maybe a vid.

Biggs, I am in Kenosha/Racine WI.
About 2 hours from you.
I have been to Appleton quite a bit over the years. I have friends there.

The only thing I am currently battling with [maybe you guys can help me out] is I installed a new headlight this morning. The one that came on the bike was spray painted with like 5 coats of paint and the only light output was from this rectangle the previous owner taped off. It looked awful.
So on Friday, an '82 Maxim headlight came in [ebay]. Almost mint and harness included. I swapped out the old headlight for the new one, and now the headlight wont turn on no matter what. I went and re-installed the old headlight, and nothing. Neither work now. Maybe I somehow popped a fuse? [Just realized that while typing this lol] I will check that later after work.

Anybody from the Kenosha/Racine area?

"New" headlight vs. Old headlight

 

Heya, Welcome!

Not entirely sure about the 550 (bigfitz52 will know for sure), but assuming its like my 650, the headlight is powered by a relay under the left side cover.

Normal behavior goes like this -- Once the engine fires the relay switch is closed and the headlight comes on. After you kill the engine, the relay stays engaged and the head light remains on until you turn the key to the off position, disengaging the relay.

I had similar issues with my headlight when I first got my 650 and I found my relay was (at least partially) cooked. Before I located a replacement relay, I wired in a bypass switch between the relay's +12v terminal and the headlight. This allowed me to power the headlamp with the switch -- if you do this, be careful not to leave the switch on and kill your battery.


Some things to try... (probably forgetting something, xj wizards please chime in too)

-- check all connectors for corrosion, continuity and any voltage drop. Fix these issues first as they are most likely key to resolving your issue.

-- Check and clean the hi-lo headlamp switch and verify good continuity across all wires in each position

-- test your new headlamp directly on a 12v battery to verify function.

-- test your headlight relay coil for continuity.

-- fire your engine and verify you are seeing +12v on the relay terminal leading to the head lamp.

--if you see +12v at the relay, recheck voltage at the headlamp plug itself.

--if no voltage at the relay (with engine running), replace the relay or consider a bypass switch

-- if you get +12v all the way up to the headlamp plug, but the lamp still wont light up, go back to step 1

If you get that far and still nothing it may be time to replace any questionable wiring / connectors as years of corrosion are the likely culprit.

In this photo you can see my head lamp relay, and the bypass wire I installed, which is both zip-tied and soldered to the +12v terminal on the relay plug.



In the end I replaced my headlight relay and also ended up swapping the stock head lamp for a H4 halogen kit like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-CRYSTAL-CLEAR ... 6289?rt=nc

Others have opted for an LED headlight, but I haven't done the research there, and cant comment more specifically.

Good luck

 

Thanks man!
I will definitely be doing some research tonight when I get home [at work] to see if I can get it working.

I am thinking it is just a fuse. The previous owner installed all LED lights on the bike [front turn signals, rear brake light and rear turn signals] and when he did so, he re-did all of the wiring and fuses and tossed them all in a dedicated area. Shouldn't be too hard to see if a fuse popped. My reasoning for it being the fuse is because I accidentally plugged in the headlight connector to the wrong connector [2 alike] and didnt realize it quickly. So that connector could have been a higher power source causing the headlight fuse to blow. My first stop at least before further troubleshooting.

 

Well, I fixed the headlight issue. Turned out just be a blown fuse.
So excited to ride tomorrow! I'll snap some recent pics and maybe do a video.