First bike, 1982 XJ750 Maxim

Finally got to work on the bike outside today and got a good amount of work done.

I pulled all of the valve shims out and figured out which new shims I need to order. I'm not sure why, but I thought that was going to be harder than it was. It takes some time to put the tool on, rotate the crank, pluck it out, etc., but overall, it was a very simple job.

I also finally pulled the back wheel off to check the rear brakes. Correction, I loosened the rear wheel enough to get the brake drum cover to open to see inside and I got my answer. The good news is that the pads weren't delaminated. The bad news is that there weren't really any brakes inside the drum. They were worn down to the point that metal was showing on the bottom portion of the shoes.

I also decided to remove the petcock to make draining the fuel tank easier and I didn't like the result. The RES inlet was filled with rusty, gunky fuel, the seals were in pretty bad condition and the O-ring was dry rotted. The petcock itself is in salvageable condition (according to fitz's write-up), so a rebuild kit will be ordered soon.

Since I did everything I wanted to do this week today, I'm going to completely strip down my tank and prime it tomorrow. Then I'm going to set it aside until it's ready to be painted. I'm getting tired of having to move it around when I want to work on the bike.

 

Finished stripping the paint off my tank, sanded it down, prepped it, primed it and began painting it. My friend had to go to work, so we didn't get to finish it. It still needed time to completely dry before applying the clearcoat. It's a lot brighter than I wanted it, but we used primer and paint that we had lying around, so it didn't cost me anything to repaint the tank. Later on, I'll have my friend who has a paint gun and booth repaint it with a darker red.









Should be finished sometime next week.

 

Installed the new brake shoes today and decided to clean up the brake drum cover and rear wheel. I had some Sonax wheel cleaner left over from when I cleaned the wheels on my car, so I used the rest of it up. I also decided to strip the paint off my valve cover and get that repainted. The original paint was such a mess that it wasn't worth trying to clean up.

Before


After


Used 800 grit sandpaper to clean it up. It still needs a little work, but it's already a huge improvement from what it was. I'll finish it up when I take the rear wheel back off to get a new tire installed.

Before, can't really see the dirt too much on it, it's more noticeable in some of my older pics


During - This stuff turns neon green while it's working and works wonders.


After - All I had to do was rinse the wheel off, no scrubbing or brushing, the Sonax did all the work.


New/Old shoes

 

I can't believe I'm actually getting close to having this bike 'road worthy' within my time frame. The list of 'things to do' is quickly diminishing. I'm missing one of my valve cover bolts, but I have one on the way from Len (who has been the savior of this bike!) so once I get that, I'll be able to fill her up with new oil and start her up! After that, it's just vacuum sync the carbs and replace the tires.



It doesn't even look like the same bike anymore.

I know, my garage is a mess. This bike has been the destruction of my garage. Once it's running and 'finished,' I promise to clean up. :lol:

 

Old thread, but haven't posted in a while and I figured I'd throw an update in here. My bike survived my first year of riding, the winter, and so far it's still running strong (and by strong, I mean barely lol) this year.



The only thing I'm planning on doing from this point with this bike, is installing the projector headlights from the WRX I used to own. All I need to do is create a mount for them and get mini-ballasts since the ones I have now are too big to hide on the bike. It's going to be the dumbest looking thing on the road, but the single 7" headlight is absolutely pathetic.

 

That's nice looking. How does it ride with the bars in a more "cafe" style?