Bike in a minivan
This is the tale of the bike I picked up this summer, a 1983 Maxim 400 (XS400K) She had been dropped by the previous owner and wouldn't start, then sat for about 7 years. I got it home in our minivan, the bike and a box of parts. Obvious issues when I picked it up... Some assembly required, knew it didn't run, leaky fork seals.
Bike in a minivan
Here are some pics of the bike when I mocked it up before working on it. Things to note, missing side panel above the battery cover, forks come up through the triple tree about 3.5 inches and the paint....
Before
The saga begins, first order of business was cleaning up the gas tank and carbs and new battery. I took off the tank, drained the old gas, let it dry, then filled it with some clean sharp gravel and shook the crap out of it for a few days. Rinsed it out and let it soak in a molassess solution for a while and worked on other things. The carbs were a mess. Soorry no pics. I had to soak the float valve for a week ot n2 to free them up. cleaned everything up nice, but had one idle jet with a stripped head, clogged solid. Tried a screw extractor to remove it. BAD IDEA!! The brass is so soft it ripped in too deep and expanded it enough to crack the jet tube. After a bit of searching I located another carb body and transferred my parts over to it. While I was at it a petcock rebuild as the gasket was shot.Only to find another idle jet with a stripped head in one, but it was easily cleaned out so I left it alone. These jets are unported so as long as it was clear, it should work. Added in an inline filter and new fuel lines mounted the carbs, connected a temp tank and tried to fire her up. Woohoo!!, after a few tries she starts. Now that I know she runs we can move on.
Now, on to the electrical issues, corroded fuse box, neutral light on in all gears, no turn signals. Going through the manual, electrical diagram and checking the wiring, I found a suspicious splice... missing diode connected to the safety relay.....added a diode and the neutral light works. Replaced the original signal relay with a generic one, now I have turn signals, and can upgrader to LED's later on. The old fusebox was replaced with some weatherproof, inline blade fuse holders, looks like this.
The next job was an oil change, sounds easy right? Well, oil drain bolt, stuck, oil filter bolt, stuck and the head is rounded. A couple of days of being hit with WD-40 loosened up the drain bolt. For the filter, I had to call upon my trusty Dremel and several cutting wheels, by removing the flange on the bolt the pressure was released and I could unscrew it with my fingers. The OEM bolt has a 12mm head, I used an aftermarket bolt by EMGO that has a 17mm head, should be less likely to round off. So there, fresh oil and oil filter is in.
While I'm doing some of the other stuff I begin painting the tank, started out thinking a nice gloss black, but after I had it primed with a black primer I loved the look of it and settled on a flat black finish.
Feeling confident now, I try the job I've been dreading and putting off, the fork seals. Overall it wasn't as bad as I thought. After reaing several tutorials and forum posts on the subject, I grabbed a beer and set to it. One side had a tear in the dust cab and that seal took a long time to free up, but overall, not that hard, as long as you take your time and be patient. Reassembly brought about a new issue...when they lowered the bike by driving the forks up through the tree, they cut a couple of inches of the sidestand, so now it was pretty much useless.
With everything else looking good, I painted the side panels and fenders to match the tank. Drained the solution from the tank, worked ok, not as good as I'd like, but left some residue behind... rinsed with rubbing alcholol. I fabbed up a cover for the battery side using some aluminum facia, a coat hanger and some thin foam. All assembled it looks like this
After
The test ride, fired her up for a maiden voyage down to a nearby parking lot. Went well, but on the way home she started bucking and spitting...limped her home at about 5 mph. Went over he and couldn't see anything obvious, then the problem seemed to go away...added some more gas, in case that was an issue and tried again a few days later. Made it to the corner, stopped, when I tried to pull away it stalled like I hit the kill switch...started her up.... died as soon as I put it in gear. I push it home to diagnose the problem... well no headlight, brake light on, neutral light on in all gears again, will not start everytime, if it does, stalls if you put it in gear. Fuses all check out. Brake light..easy one, the spring for the rear brake switch had popped out and hooked on the lever with enough pressure to engage the light. Neutral light....blown diode, replaced and it worked fine. Anfet a while I could get it to start, and sometimes go into gear...noticed that as I moved the clutch lever, the lights dimmed, even after disconnecting the clutch safety, nothing electrical going on at all, and yet... Some more searchin turned up a loose ground connection above the airbox. After that the rest of the gremlins went away. Almost.... everything worked except I wasn't getting a charge to the battery, checked the generator and brushes, all ok. Regulator/rectifier was toasted at least partially.... Did a bit of searching, found a nice fellow that offered some stuff from his parts bike, got a regulator and a sidestand and a front emblem I was missiung (hides the ugly horn). While I was waiting fo the parts I took the old girl down to get her first MVI in 7 years, passed with no issues. Once I got the new reg installed I have a nice stead 14.6v at 2000rpm. SWEET!
Test ride, revistited. A few runs around the neighborhood, all seems solid.
Did a first commute to work on the bike on a Friday, only issue is a lack of power and
some sputter between 5000-6000 rpm range. On Saturday did a longer run with a buddy from work,
topped off the tank as I went to reserve on my trip home on friday, hoping that was the issue.
During the ride I notice it's still there, in fact I could go WOT at 5000+ and no difference in power.
I was talking on a forum with a guy with a 400 Seca that had the same issue, turned out he had reversed his
main jets when he reassembled. Great...into the carbs I go again. Found several things
1)one main jet at the bottom of the carb bowl
2)some rust sediment at the bottom as well
3)jets were reversed
4)one jet is from a seca
I reversed the jets back to normal, cleaned the bore for the needle piston and reassembled.
WOW!!! it's like a new bike, throttle response is smooth, and she loves to shift between 6000-7000
Newest find, and old Shoei FM2 fairing, was in rough shape, but I cleaned it up and painted it to match the bike. Here's the before and after.
Here's the finished project, well...at least phase one. There will probably be more customizing to come.
**Updates**
New signals and mirrors have been added... here are the shots of the rear signals and fron signals & mirrors
And here a better shot of the mirrors and a closer shot of the tank, which has been repainted with Duplicolor Truck Bed Liner... it is gas resistant and leaves an interesting finish.
And now the ToDo List
New Levers
New Grips
New Brake Line (possible Steel braided)
LEDs for gauges
LEDs for Tail Light
Dual Head light mod and /or custom windscreen
Many thanks go out to all that helped.
RickCoMatic and everyone on XJ Bikes
Everyone on BBO