Just picked up an '81 xj550 maxim

new chain time even o ring chains are 40$ or less

 

Alright so I finally got the master link off. It took some persuasion but it popped off. The chain looks like it's okay, just rusty. I've got jug of Varsol to soak it in.

Also, I drained the engine oil. The drain plug had 1 very small metal flake but was otherwise clean. No water in the oil either.

Oh, and I pulled the engine. Tomorrow I'll strip the rest of the wiring, airbox, swingarm and shock, and the forks + gauges + headlight.

 

So I got it down to bare frame today. Hardest part was finding all the ball bearings that fell out of the neck of the fork. That was fun...




The only thing I couldn't get off the bike was the swingarm. I took the nut off on the right side but I couldn't get the shaft out. I also noticed a small piece of metal, kind of rounded on the left side the swingarm attached to the other end of the shaft. What is this piece? Looks like it could be the edge of a bushing maybe?

According to the shop manual I should tap the shaft out with a long rod but it didn't budge. I may not have been hitting it hard enough though. We shall see.

 

Hey I've got a question for those of you that would know.

I'm looking at this speedo/tach set from dime city cycles: http://www.dimecitycycles.com/2-5-chrome-w-black-face-mini-kph-speedo-w-trip-tach-kit-1-5-ratio.html

I know the tach ratio is correct, but the speedo ratio is weird. It says "*The speedometer ratio is 60kmh = 1400RPM, illuminated example is only to show the back-lighting and my not reflect the actual gauge."

Will this work on my xj550? And is 12mm the correct thread size for the speedo cable?

 

Long shaft: that shaft is your swing arm shaft. It's probably seized up--- you're gonna have to work at it -- kroil, heat, fuss around, etc.... til you get it out.

Your carbs.... umm, here's why it didn't run right: it wasn't good fuel in the bowls (except some in bowl 3----

Green, Green, my World is Green......


Additionally
-all four floats were waaay to low
-ONLY carb 3 could have gotten any gas...carbs 1, 2, 4 fuelvalve needles are so stuck I can't pull them out
- carb 4 has a broken float tower
-3 out of 4 main just completed clogged shut
- 3 emulsion tubes green a clogged
-only one fuel valve moved....can you guess which carb worked a little?



Can you spot what's missing?



Also, the bowls are on the wrong carbs--- bowl 1,2 are one carbs 3, 4... and vice versa

But after that's all said, they're at the hospital and they will be ok after surgery...

I got the bent butterfly out, too----

 

Wow those look awful. Thanks for the photos Dave! Appreciate the help and I know you'll get them where they need to be. The previous owner told me he did some carb work but from what you told me on the phone and these photos I'm thinking he didn't know what he was doing.

I'll be picking up a compression tester this week and will do a test and let you know what I get asap. No stores near me have any in stock so I had to order it online, hopefully it arrives in decent time. Just gotta figure out a way to crank the motor while its out of the frame lol.

 

Can you spot what's missing?

broken float pedestal

 

Oh and I got the swingarm out. That shaft was really stuck in there, and I ended up mangling the threaded end. Took 3 of us and a good hour and a half to get it out, a lot of kroil and a ton of heat.

I'll have to find a replacement. I tried re-threading the shaft with my tap and die set but that was a no go, not enough metal left.

 

typical......don't feel bad.

well, there's that.....but that's not missing---unfortunately, that's PRESENT.

 

Now, I'm no Mikuni expert, but isn't there supposed to be an idle speed screw on the rack right-about where the hole in the heatshield is?

 

Ding ding ding!!! And the winner is -------drumroll, please.............K-Moe!!

 

Frank,

I'm looking at your pics from when you brought the bike home----that grab bar has been quite hacked! I do have a NOS one........I'll take a pic

 

So this may be a silly question but I want to do a compression test and my motor is out of the frame. Frame totally stripped.

Can I still do it or does everything need to go back in? How do I do it?

 

Strap it to a bench. Keep it in neutral. Hook up half the battery. Touch the other side when you're ready, or wire up a "temporary switch". Wall Light switch works well.....

 

Hm okay I didn't realize it was so simple. Thanks!

 

[/URL][/IMG] fuse box, thought you might like to see my fuse box upgrade.

 

Newfrank, they're gonna be just fine. I even got all four of the drain screws out

Here's a sneak peek.



Dave F

 

That looks really sharp! I was thinking of going that route or with a blade-style fuse box. Haven't decided yet.

Oh wow they already look fantastic! Nice work Dave. I'm looking forward to seeing them finished, they'll be great.

 

So I did my compression test on my engine. I did two different tests, one without oil in the cylinders and the second test I sprayed some fogging oil to see if it made any difference.

As you can see, cylinders 2 and 3 seem pretty normal, cylinder 4 is a little low but I think it's still within spec but cylinder 1 is low.

Is this something a valve adjustment could change or am I going to have to pull the head and see what's going on?

I think this kind of difference means I'm getting some ring blow-by. Does this mean a rebuild?

 

valve shim check before tear down is the way to go if it is just shims that would be good.
also could just be a stuck/frozen ring you could try some atf/acetone 2:1 mix in the cylinders it would unstick them if that is the problem

 

And here is a link to a member offering up some evidence on that suggestion, so definitely worth a try.

Edit: I should have quoted the entire post from XJ550H, look at the difference the valve adjustment made.

http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threa...sion-on-81-xj650-4k1-seca.111365/#post-560432

 

Okay, I'll try those things, thanks fellas. Appreciate the help.

 

Oh man, some PO's should become comedians... things like this almost crack me up---LOL!!!

So.... the statement from the PO WAS-- "it ran great a couple years ago..."

Uh......rrriiiiiiiiigghht-----it took visegrips and pliers to get the fuel needles outdo the valve bodies...... every hole in the emulsion tubes is plugged-- at least they came out ok.

 

God dang those are nasty. Never take what the PO says at face value; question everything is what I've come to learn lol.

 

I've never seen carbs that were packed with creosote for storage.

 

I think I'm going to impress myself with this rack! LOL

 

I always appreciate an impressive rack.

 

Things look a bit better.....

 

Boy did those clean up nice! Looking good Dave.

 

So I got a small amount of work done on the bike today.

-Cleaned up the grime and dirt from the frame, swingarm, center stand and kick stand

-Removed the old sealant from the tank with MEK and re-sealed with POR15. Not sure how good of a job I did yet, it didn't seem like much came out with the MEK but I'll see tomorrow once its dry. Hopefully it'll work.

-Checked over the front end - going to remove the wheel and maybe shorten the front fender. It's dented though on the top, maybe need to replace that.

-Went through my wiring harness and it is hacked up. Missing wires, missing connectors, etc. I'm going to try and find a replacement harness for a xj550 maxim.

-Handlebar controls (both left and right) are in pretty bad shape. I'm still looking for replacements, either stock or aftermarket.

-The stock gauges are pretty dirty and aren't going to fit the look I want for the bike I don't think. I'm looking at replacing them with these: http://www.dimecitycycles.com/2-5-chrome-w-black-face-mini-kph-speedo-w-trip-tach-kit-1-5-ratio.html

-I received some cheapo RFY shocks from amazon. They look pretty good, I just need to change the upper bushings so that they'll fit over the stock mounts. The stock bushings should fit if I measured properly.

-I also have stainless steel hardware for the engine. After painting the engine I'm going to replace all of the hardware.


Here's what's left to do:

-Check and adjust valve clearances
-Use ATF+Acetone to free try and free the piston rings
-Test compression
-Clean and paint the motor
-Send frame, swingarm, front and rear wheel out for powdercoat
-Paint fork tubes, center stand, kick stand, tank, front fender
-Replace headlight
-Figure out wiring (either build my own wiring harness which I don't want to do, or find a harness from an xj550 maxim)
-Change rear brakes
-Rebuild front forks
-New bearings and bushings all around
-Get the seat re-upholstered
-Once I get the carbs back from hogfiddles, I need to wet set them, running synch them and colortune them. All of which I've never done so that'll be fun

After that I think it's time to reassemble. I know there's a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting to add here but I have an excel spreadsheet going that has everything I've done/bought/need to do, etc.

 

So an update. Waiting on my carbs from @hogfiddles. He's been sending me updates and photos and boy do they look good!

I've also found a new exhaust collector and pipes. These look almost brand new. No rot, minimal rust on the collector and will take to paint super well.

I did the first batch of painting. Something I've never done before. I used Duplicolor automotive rattle can paint; sanded and cleaned all parts, primer, wet sand, paint, wet sand clear coat. The whole process took me a couple weeks. I wasn't happy with the tank the first time around so I sanded it down to paint and did the clear coat on that.

The tank started out real nasty, oxidized and cracked paint. I sanded it down and started there with the primer. The tank itself took probably 7 hours total and it still isn't perfect but I'm happy with it. For my first time doing this kind of painting I think everything turned out pretty damn good!

Here's some photos:

Primer







After paint and clear coat. Sorry the first photo is too dark

 

Alright so I finally checked my valve clearances. I used the "zip-tie" method from this post: http://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/airhead-valve-adjustment-part-2-the-tool-vs-ziptie-w-pics.29209/ but I used a piece of solid 12ga wire. The whole process was pretty easy actually and I'm glad I learned how to do it.

Clearances are:


For the two that are hard to read, I should have measured them before putting them back in, and I may do that tomorrow just to make sure but I think I have the correct measurements for those two.
Do the shims I've listed for what is needed look right? If they're correct then it looks like I'll need to buy 2x 265 shims, 1x 280 shim, 2x 285 sims and 1x 290 shim.

Another question, the less than 0.038mm shim on the #1 intake side, I don't know what to do there. The smallest feeler gauge I have and can find goes down to 0.038mm / 0.0015" and it won't slide through. I tried pushing it but the thing just bends cause it's so thin. I might have to try again. Advice?

 

You're reading the chart wrong. You are putting thicker shims in, which will close up the clearance. You will be going thinner; e.g. exhaust #1 goes from a 260 to a 255.

AIRHEAD VALVE ADJUSTMENT with Pics

When you have a clearance that's too tight to get a feeler in, the usual practice is to go two sizes thinner then re-check. The other option is to get the thinnest size and measure using that, then you'll have a shim that you can use whenever you come across a zero-clearance situation.


Exhaust:
#1 has 260, needs 255
#2 has 260, needs 250
#3 has 270, needs 265
#4 has 260 (?), needs 250

Intake:
#1 has 275, needs 265 then recheck (or buy a thin shim and check for actual clearance)
#2 has 270(?), needs 265
#3 has 270, in spec
#4 has 265, needs 260

You can swap #1 exhaust into #4 intake, the rest you'll have to get from the shim pool (contact Hogfiddles) or buy (contact Chacal).

 

Okay awesome, I appreciate the help.

I used to excel Shim Calculator, and just assumed it changed the new shim numbers. Didn't notice that they didn't change so thank you.

 

Could you link it so I can check. There are two or three that have been posted to this site, but I've never used any of them.

 

http://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/shim-calculator-excel.46030/

It's the one listed in this thread.

 

Frank , you're putting the wrongs shims in.

I'll try to look at your numbers later when I get home

 

I used your numbers and it duplaced your results, which are incorrect. Delete the file from your computer so you aren't tempted to use it again.

 

Alright, will do. Thanks for the help k-moe.

It's posted in the how-to section. If it's no good then it should be removed.

 

Moderators are discussing just that.

 

Okay so I went back and measured the #1 Exhaust valve shim and the #2 Intake valve shim with a digital caliper. #1 exhaust was good, #2 intake is actually 265 (not 270). #2 intake has a 265 shim and its clearance is 0.102mm so it needs a 260 shim, correct?

Exhaust:
#1 has 260 -> needs 255
#2 has 260 -> needs 250
#3 has 270 -> needs 265
#4 has 260 -> needs 250

Intake:
#1 has 275 -> needs 265
#2 has 265 -> needs 260
#3 has 270 -> needs 270
#4 has 265 -> needs 260

 

Looks good to me.
One thing to keep in mind to help you do the math in your head later on (if you don't have a chart handy); round to the hundredths place. The shims sizes are given in hundredths of a millimeter (265 is 2.65 mm).

Using your #2 intake as an example:

A 0.10 mm (rounded from 0.102) clearance requires adding 0.05 mm to bring it into spec (0.15 mm clearance).

Subtract 0.05 mm from the existing shim (increasing the clearance) to find the new shim. 2.65 mm - 0.05 mm = 2.60 mm, which is the size of the required shim (260).

 

Frank, you only need;

2- 250
1 - 2551

Follow the steps in the pic....

Green first,
Red second,
Black third

 

Thanks for working through that Dave, I appreciate it.

Only needing 3 shims seems pretty good to me!

 

I knew there had to be more shims that could be swapped, but couldn't think it through at the time.

 

So my front fender is dented. I was wondering if the front fender is needed on these bikes? I thought I read somewhere that it acts as a brace for the front forks but I can't seem to find the post so I'm not sure whether or not I'm right.

 

There is a brace inside the fender. It stabilizes the forks. But the fender also acts as a shield for stones and water. If you ride with no fender and come across rain or water on the road… You'll have more water in your face then you can possibly imagine

 

Thanks. Your carbs are looking good!

 

get a bag of sand to rest fender on and bang out the dent