new to xjbikes and motorcycles period!

Hi all, I have posted a few questions and got immediate responses that have been more than helpful. thank you to all for that!

I bought an 83 xj750 Maxim with 13k on it last Sunday. It barely ran and spilled gas out like crazy but figured I would take a chance. Price tag was $900 or best offer. I offered $550 and got it. I had to walk to bike home (only 2 miles or so) and that ended up kind of sucking bad! Oh well.

After coming across this awesome site, I have been able to fix my gas leak in the carbs which resulted in gas getting into the gas and spitting out into the air box resulting in killing my air filter and getting my carbs all dirty again. But, I got it all cleaned out and still wouldn't start.... SO, I once again came back here and got a really good possiblity and I am going to leave work early today to go home and try. Hopefully everthing will be alright soon!

I am excited to ride, have always wanted a bike and like I said, this is my first.

I originally took my bike to a local shop here in MN and got a quote of $500-$1500 to fix the carb issue I described above. Know how much I spent fixing it cause of this site and the original 80's manual? About $15 for some beer, smokes and a chunk of beef jerky. Thanks to all and I am glad you are all here!


Walt

 

First - you need to Get the XJ CD

You'll find all the manuals, tips, tricks, and walk-throughs you could ever ask for on there. And I'm not just saying that 'cuz I was one of the testers....

If you've got (I assume) oil blowing into the airbox, that's usually an indicator that you've lost compression at the rings on one or more of the cylinders. Test for that is to take a compression reading on all the cylinders (if any read zero - you can stop - you found the problem), then squirt a little bit of oil into each of them and do the compression test again. If the compression goes up you've got bad rings on that cylinder.

Other than that - see if anyone's around in Minne/St Paul to have yourself a mini-carb clinic

 

$550 is a really good price for the bike, and for the problems am sure they can be worked out. theres some pretty smart people in here that can help ya.

 

check it out!!! After all my problems, I finally got it started and it is running like a champ! Just got done riding for 5 hours straight and everything is all good! I drove my brother and law has some kind of rocket and I drove that and I swear, my bike has just about as much balls as his.

Here is what I did.

Took out the carbs to attempt to fix the gas leak.
STATUS: success!

The bike then started and ran. Took it out for a spin but oil was shooting out into the air box.

Took out the carbs again and cleaned all the oil out.
Changed the oil/oil filter.
Took 2 days to get it started but then it is running consistantly.

Thanks again to all.

Slowly over the winter I plan on replacing misc parts to assure that the bike lives a long, happy life.

 

I hope you changed the oil to get rid of the old oil with the gas in it.

 

Congratulations for perservering! You must have really wanted that machine to work, you got it fixed yourself! Bet that feels really good too. $1,500 saved, go put it in the college fund for the tyke!