The Marauder. 1982 Yamaha 750 Maxim

I was not going to do this but I have reconsidered a suggestion from K-Moe.

I have a 1982 750 Maxim I have named The Marauder.

The name comes from a comic book called Team America. Between that one and Ghost Rider they both heavily influenced me into motorcycles at a young age.



Anyways.

I was asked to start a thread to "prove" the longevity of my motorcycle.

I am the second owner. The original owner told me he had turned the odometer over once already. If that is not true its hard to say but I have personally turned it over twice.
It will be hard to "prove" anything here but will post what I can.

Last summer my speedo cable broke. I have posted a pic below of the kilometers showing when it broke and another from the phone app I am using temporarily until I can install a new speedo.





I used to put on a ton of K's when I commuted to work. 240 km a day.
Unlike many that only ride on the weekends my bike goes Monday to Friday.
Rain or shine and even light snow.
Hardly ever driven on a weekend.

One other piece of "evidence" I can provide is this, my measurment of the valves when I replaced my valve cover gasket.



Will post more later when I have time.

Oh and might as well post a pic of the beautifully refurbished valve cover itself.

 

Ok here is a little more.
Did oil change and plugs this afternoon.



A little bit of thick oil on the drainplug magnet but no metal.

While I had the plugs out I did a quick compression test.

CYLINDER #1

CYLINDER #2

CYLINDER #3

CYLINDER #4

So thats 120 PSI on #1,2 &4. 125 PSI on #3.

 

Thank you for starting this thread so we can all have polite discussion.

So you are the second owner.
Do you have the original owner's logbook, or anything to show that the valves were never adjusted while in his ownership?

The claim that the engine is in running condition after so many miles is not in dispute.
What is in dispute is the claim that the valves have never been adjusted in all that time. The number of kilometers ridden between adjustments does increase over time, so it is quite possible that you have never needed to make adjustments, but the prior prior owner would have done several during the first 100,000 km.


It's good to see that much compression with all those miles. She's not far off from what I'd expect to see at 150,000 miles.

XJ650 and XJ750 air-cooled engines:
Minimum: 128 psi
Standard: 156 psi
Maximum: 171 psi
Max. variance between lowest and highest: 14 psi

 

If you do the initial, 5K, or even 10k adjustments, and change your oil/filter at least every.....3-4K, no more, you can put astonishing mileages on these motahs...without needing further adjustments, but I'll bet those valves, HAVE been adjusted, at least once, maybe twice in the first 80K miles!

Just for reference, I despatched (couriered, in the UK) almost exclusively XJ's, of all kinds, from 1988-'99.....one of my 750's covered 240K..still running, driveshaft was clunky on takeup, the other 2 650's did 120K, and 140K, respectively....but DID have to split one motah for the dreaded? primary chain rubber guide breakup...(locked up the shifter fork) , and my 750 Maxim, American import did 95K, from new, in 91, when she was teased out of her crate, to 97, when I sold her for a Suzuki.....BIG mistake!!

 

how long did you run those spark plugs?

 

I have owned the bike since 1987 and I can tell you they have never been checked let alone adjusted since 1987.
At that time the bike would have only been 5 years old. I never made any claim or statement of what maintenance the original owner undertook. I did state he told me he turned the odometer over once, thats all.
Even if the original owners statement was false, again I state that I have personally put over 200 000 km on the bike. So if one follows the common beliefs here then they should be well out of adjustment in that time.....and they are not.


As for the plugs I dont actually remember the last time I changed them but I would guess 5-8 years ago.

 

Thats a LONG time, for plugs!

I once ( cut a long story short) 'forgot' to change the plugs in my XJ650 courier bike.......some 50,000 miles later, her fuel mileage went to shit, and she was hard to start.....thats when i remembered......and when I pulled them, the top electrode was thinner than a cats whisker!!

 

No. Not a common belief, but a testable truth.
That valves need periodic adjustment (particularly during their early service life) is a well established fact, otherwise there would be no provision for adjustment. Every part that a manufacturer can omit from a product is as good as cash-in-hand. Yamaha ( and every other engine manufacture) could easily score a few extra million dollars in profit per-year if they didn't need to have parts (shims, pads, hydraulic tappets, or screws and locknuts) to adjust the valve clearances as the valve seats recede into the head.

A more modern engine going for that long without adjustment I'd not question (my wifes 2007 Toyota (head by Yamaha) calls for the first valve clearance check at 60,000 miles, and it has shims over buckets). There have been huge strides made in materials engineering over the past 30 years. As far as our classic engines go, I'll continue to recommend that everyone stick with Yamaha's published maintenance schedule.

Your bike is indeed an exception. Enjoy it for that.

 

Hi @Craig B

Nice job on the valve cover!

You had attributed the longevity to your use of synthetic oil. Many people on this forum have experienced clutch slippage when using synthetic. Have you experienced anything similar or had to change your clutch? What oil are you using specifically?

 

I have absolutely no trouble believing the longevity of the plugs--the plugs in all of my rides have been in at least 5 years,some longer......except one plug--which I replaced 2 summers ago

 

Thanks.
I never said its longevity was exclusively do to synthetic oil.
Only suggested that, as well as being from "The school of dont fix whats not broken", as possible contibuting factors. Thinking now I should probably add. "Not driving the Piss out of it all the time."
As for the clutch slippage? Never happend to me.
I have used various brands of oil over the years but currently this is what I am using.

 

I agree with you on that account. I worked for Toyota back in the 90's.
The V6 engines had a huge head gasket issues and a campain to replace them. We would check the valve clearances when doing that job and never had any (or extremely few) of those out of adjustment either.

 

I've used dino oil, in the past.....al there was in the 80's, and with regular...REGULAR oil/filter changes, XJ's, and other marques can go past 150K miles.......

 

AMSOIL has been JASO MA compliant for about 10 years.

 

I've NEVER experienced clutch slippage either, on my Yamahas, Kawasaki's, Triumphs, even when using 'cheap' supermarket car oil.....if you change it regularly..even a cheap, non synthetic oil will offer (should offer) some protection, of course, I'm talking about 2K miles between changes, before it has a chance to be beaten up by the bikes transmission gears!!

 

Clutch slippage bcam a problem wheen synthetics became popular, and were being formulated to eek out additional fuel mileage. The friction modifiers did cause wet clutch slippage on many bikes. That has become much less common as more synthetics have become available that are specifically made for motorcycles.

 

So today I decided to drive through a few clouds of Shad Flies.......




It was Awesome. (said with sarcasm).

 

We had three motorcyclists wreck two years ago because those things gathered in record numbers over a bridge nearby and kicked the bucket forming a coating 3" thick. Apparently they don't do much for traction.

 

Are you referring to the Wrights Ferry Bridge? I remember the news saying they cleared the bridge of dead flys with a snow plow!

 

That's the one! Yeah, it was pretty wild. Apparently it's a good sign though, the river is getting healthier.

 

Was doing an experimental carb cleaning. (Didnt work out) and thought I would record the sound of my 4 pipe straight exhaust.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/giarc_dranrab/35366650706/in/dateposted-public/