Could someone help a brother out?

Is there anyone in this forum who could service my bike for me? I just feel like I’m not getting anywhere with it and it’s just making me frustrated and mad. I’d be willing to pay. I’m in the southern Missouri area. I just don’t know what to do with it. I really like the bike but I simply don’t have the knowledge or equipment to do it myself.
Here are the immediate things I notice.

1: Cyl 3 doesn’t seem to be firing. I know for sure it’s got good spark, around 130 for compression, and the carbs seem to work as they should other than needing tuned. I have a feeling it may be a valve issue. I recently did a valve job and replaced all the shims, but I feel it may be further than im willing to go myself. And it just runs extremely poorly. Although I’m no expert

2: 2nd gear doesn’t catch properly. It makes an awful rattling sound and often makes the shifter get stuck. I pulled the left side cover off to inspect, but found nothing immediately wrong. I’m uncomfortable splitting the case myself, nor do I have the tools to do so.

3: The starter clutch seems to be going out as well. I get a crunchy grinding sound sometimes when I hit the starter. I figured maybe as well replace that if you have to slip the case to fix the transmission anyway.

Like I said, these are the things I notice. All I want is for it to run properly so it can go another 40 years without having to be messed with.

If there’s anyone here than can help me out that won’t charge me an arm and a leg, please let me know. There nothing else I can do at this point to make it any better without having any service manuals or anything.

 

C'mon @Donglord , you can do it!

If I can do it, just about anybody can do it - unless you've never turned a wrench of any sort before.

I was pretty apprehensive about digging in at first too. My secret weapon was that I bought a couple parts bikes and so I had some junk engines I could tear down for "practice".

There are plenty of resources available, especially this forum. To get started, I would look at @Jetfixers https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/dreaded-starter-clutch-replacement.130190/. Also @Mezzmo has some great youtube videos going through an XJ engine (actually building one from several, but still very helpful - especially the assembly).

Just out of curiosity, what exactly did you do for valve job? Did you remove the head and lap the valves and all that?

Having said all that, if your engine and all the required parts showed up at my doorstep, I would do it. Now that I have done a few XJ engines and actually made them run better than they did before I enjoy tearing into them.

I think the biggest pain in the rear now is the removal and install in the bike - once it's out and sitting on the bench it's easy! To be fair, I also now have a carefully curated collection of spares, which is helpful in a bind (no, it's not a hoard of garbage, its a curated collection of spare parts).

 

Convince my wife.

 

That's exactly what you have to say: "it's not a hoard of garbage, it is a carefully curated collection of valuable spare parts". Can't argue with that!

 

@Dan Gardner I just did a measurement for clearances and replaced the shims accordingly. Didn’t even pop the head off, just the valve cover. The biggest issue is that I have the maxim x “genesis” 5 valve water cooled engine. It’s much harder to find the proper guides for this one. Also if I had the proper space for a project of that scale, I wouldn’t mind trying to take it on myself. I just lack the tools, proper space, guides, and knowledge for me to want to tear into it. I have no where to set all the pieces when disassembled. That said, I do have a parts bike for it and using the spare engine would be good practice. Im sure if I had the tools and space it would be a fun winter project. But I just simply lack the resources. Also I just wouldn’t even know where to begin with the transmission.

 

I’m basically working out of a 10x12 storage shed in the dirt. So anything requiring a bench is simply not possible for me right now. I plan on getting a better shop in the future, but I just bought my first house in April and I’m still getting things figured out. I’d honestly love it if I could find a motorcycle repair “mentor” of sorts. Cause I really want to learn how to be a “fixer” rather than a “parts replacer”