Service bike-help

[Hemi20]

I just bought a 82 Maxim that has been sitting in my neighbors barn for atleast six years and has not been moved/started ect. I dont have much experience with motorcycle repair/maintence and was wondering the things I will have to do to it toget it running again and maybe if you know an approx. cost. I know that I will have to bleed the brakes, change spark plugs, battery?, and clean it up obviously. But im not sure what else might need to be done. I know that if I take it to a repair shop and give it to them they will charge me a arm and a leg but I also dont want my brakes locking up at 60 mph because I didnt look at the brakes carefully. ANy suggestions? prices? ect. what can I do? Thanks for any help!!

82 Yamaha Maxim
10,500 Miles
Two owners decently kept
4cyl i think

[Jerry]

Not a short answer to this one. Some people have been lucky, new battery / fresh fuel and off and running. In most cases, you will need:

New tires. Old rubber deteriorates even when not on the road. Tires over 5 years old should be replaced regardless of how they look.
New battery.
New oil / filter.
Check / change gear lube in rear and middle gear box.
Examine the fuse block, a known weak point. Fuse "fingers" deteriorate over time, causing poor or intermittent contact. New fuse blocks are almost always needed.
New brake pads. Like rubber, brake pad linings can deteriorate and when subjected to heat of use again will wear / fail rapidly.
Change brake fluid. Old fluid attracts moisture, causing problems in wheel and master cylinders.
Quite often the pressure release hole (spooge hole) in either or both the front and rear master cylinders will plug after a few times of use after sitting for a long time. Rebuild of the master cylinders is the best cure - along with fresh fluid - for this problem.
Carb maintenance...depending on if the bike was stored with old gas in the tank. In many cases the carbs need to be removed and cleaned, as the old gas turns into a varnish that gums up the inner workings of the carbs.
Replace the air filter. On the XJ this means getting a factory OEM filter; no aftermarket filers were made by Fram, K&N, or others.

Once the bike is runing there are other checks to be made: adjust the cam chain, clutch cable, and valve adjustment. In addition, a fairly common transmission problem - 1st or 2nd gear skip - may be present. This happens in an estimated 15 - 20 percent of the XS - XJ line, as well as other Yamahas of the period. Much information on this repair elswhere on this site. You can also check the front forks for seal condition, rear shocks (which are air-adjustable, as are the front forks) to see if they hold air.

Budget...always a sore spot. I would recommend setting aside $500 - $700 to get the bike into reliable riding condition, more if you have to farm out the work to a shop. You are looking at 2 tires, battery, brake linings, master cylinder rebuild kits, air filter, fuse block replacement, shop manual, basic tools such as circuit and continuity tester in addition to basic hand tools. Don't over look the cost of getting a clear title and registration, which I include in the figure above.

You may get lucky and need little of the above stuff, but on the other hand, if you have a transmission problem, warped brake rotors, rusty gas tank, or other less-frequent problems, the cost of getting the XJ on the road will be higher. You just don't know until you get started or do a thorough examination of the bike. You will get stories from both end of the spectrum, from the "I just put gas in it" to "this thing is a money pit". You will probably bee somewhere in the middle.

Most of us who keep these old bikes on the road do so because we do our own wrenching, appreciate what these bikes can do, and enjoy keeping the old iron on the road. One wife suggested we have rallies just to prove to each other that we can keep these bikes running! In short, you have to either have a lot of patience and willingness to do your own work, (most shop won't touch anything this old, or be of much help in other ways) use the resources of this site to solve problems you come across, and use eBay or other sources to find bits and pieces you need. If you are not willing to sink the time and effort into getting that XJ on the road, take the $700 and put it toward something that is in running condition. Howerver, if you stick to the XJ, you will get a lot of enjoyment from your ownership of it. In my opinion, the time / money / effort is worth it.

[Hemi20]

Wow, was expecting that detailed of an answer but awsome thank you very much! Well im ganna begin to work on it so we shall see......

[jacksf]

Hemi20...where you located? And congrants on the new bike. They are fantastic machines...

[Hemi20]

Im located in/near the metro detroit area, I just also talked to a bike repair shop and said that if the gas tank is not full then more than likely my talk is fairly rusted which requires a new tank or to use a 50$ bottle of anit rust creating a coat. blah.....not fun

[knewsom]

Other solutions abound

there are MANY techniques for getting the rust out of a gas tank. I myself used diet coke followed by a mixture of standard rust remover and diet coke, followed by a good rinsing with my SAE sockets bouncing around while shaking it to high hell and back to knock off the loose bits, followed by ANOTHER rinse, then some WD-40, followed by two gas rinses.

that's just ONE solution, and I resorted to it because I couldn't get my hands on phosphoric acid or citric acid by itself - diet coke has a LOT of the acid in it, enough to slowly turn the rust into iron-phosphide.

In fact, it seems that there are a multitude of solutions to nearly EVERY problem you'll encounter. When I got my bike (towards the end of April), I decided to go over it with a fine-tooth comb, and dilligently fix every problem I encountered all by myself. Now it's near the end of May, and I'm VERY CLOSE to having a rideable bike - all that's left is replacing brake pads on the rear caliper and bleeding the brakes, and she'll be rideable. In fact, she NEEDS a good ride to burn off the carbon that's built up in the cylinder heads, the marvel mysetery oil that I put in the cylinder heads to keep the valves happy while I was workin' on the carbs, wheels, etc.

Prepare yourself for investment, but realize that you'll NEVER spend anywhere CLOSE to what you'd pay for an equivalent newer bike, and that also newer bikes still need to be fixed, but you certainly can't always do it yourself. With the XS and the XJ, you usually can. ...even a person who's NEVER WORKED ON A BIKE can get life back into one of these, I'm proof of that - all I've ever worked on before this is a couple Volkswagens, and the most in-depth thing I ever did was replace my pushrod tube seals (which was a major pain in the you know what).

So congratulations, best of luck, and remember, if it's broke, YOU CAN FIX IT.

-Kris

[Hemi20]

Thanks for the detailed info and support guys, i will let you know my progress for fun and any problems i have so i may become experienced and of help on this forum/site.

Thanks again,

[CUBuffs]

How long?

Hey Knewsom,

How long did you leave the Coke in the tank?

[knewsom]

about 8 hours, but I'd reccomend doing it overnight - probably 12. Since it's phosphoric acid, it's not going to etch your steel at all, so longer really can't hurt.

Also, use DIET cola, not regular... ya don't want any of that sugar sticking around in there at all.

[CUBuffs]

What kind of affect does that have on the petcocks, or do you remove them and temporarily plug the holes?

[knewsom]

I removed them and plugged the holes, along with the gas gauge, cleaning them separately.

If you haven't rebuit your petcocks, I'ds ay do it, becaue I'll need to shortly.

[wingnut]

Snow Bowl

One of the best and cheapest products I’ve found to remove rust and clean old tanks is a common house product you can get at Wal-Mat. Snow bowl. It’s a toilet bowl cleaner, can’t remember if it’s an acid or really strong base. One container of this stuff in a tank with chain and shaken will clean it up real well. Let it sit ½ an hour. Couple of soapy hot water rinses than a kerosene rinse and its good to go. I’ve used it on many a small engine tank with good success. Also used it on any rusted steel part I wanted to clean up. I have seen it affect cheap chrome though and don’t breath the fumes.

[CUBuffs]

Petcocks

I just rebuilt the petcocks yesterday as a matter of fact. I found that you can still get the parts from Bike Bandit and save about $10 per petcock versus buying a kit.

[Hemi20]

Whats a Petcock?

[CUBuffs]

The Petcock is the valve that allows you to shutoff the flow of gas from the tank or to change from "on" to "prime". It is attached at the bottom and rear on both sides of the tank.