I found a stray to bring home...

[trbig]

Introducing....

My new project. At some point to slowly become a Midnight Maxim...








I heard about it down in Austin. I called up Webbcraft (Keoki) to ask if he'd check it out for me. The sidecover you see missing is there with it.. just taken off to put a battery in it. Everything is there.. and owner said the engine had been rebuilt recently. Now most people .. that would sound good.. but it made me cringe a bit. He was asking $450.. but immediately dropped to $400 just talking to him the first time. Keoki took a bunch of pics to send to me. I was hoping to get it down to $300-350.. it wasn't nearly as ready to go as the guy had led me to believe. Keoki went and did a compression check today and got really low readings on two of the cylinders, nearly nonexistant on another.. and 150 on #1. I talked to the guy again and he said he'd take $250. I'm hoping it's just the valves not shimmed right.. but for that price, it doesn't really matter.

So now Keoki has it sitting in his garage waiting for me to go pick it up. He has been an amazing guy through this and I couldn't have done it without him. I just need to go get it before he decides it looks really good at his place... I'm thinking about keeping the white walled tire on it so I can cruise through the 'hood... I also innitially saw the front rotors and thought.. "Oh no.. he's got the wrong one on the right side.." But then it was OK since they have the wrong one on the left side too! lol.


Tod

[John]

That looks like a nice piece. Good find. You gonna stop by here when you you pick it up, so we can check the shims, and get it fired off?

[bikerphil]

Sweeet, nice find! Looks complete.

[DGXSER]

Very Nice lookin bike!! Hope it is just the valves, but like you said, at that price, you can afford to rebuild the engine.

Reminds me of a Dodge truck I bought some years ago, engine had been freshly rebuilt or so I was told by the PO. I never could get 7&8 over half compression. Also found an envelope substituted in for the fuel pump gasket, had not evne cut the envelope to fit, just shoved the level through it and it only covered the top 2/3 of the flange. Never look at one at night!!!

This looks like it is in MUCH better shape!! Nice find!

[trbig]

John,

Yeah, I had planned to stop by. I was told I may be disowned if I didn't. lol. But... I'm just going to take it home and tear into it.. probably take the head off, mic the cylinders, and try to see what I am going to be dealing with. Then pull the motor and split the cases. I've had too many problems with the crank bearings in multiple motors, so I want to plastigauge those.. then Dremmel the gears while I'm in there. The odometer is only showing @ 20k miles.. so I'm wondering why they were in there anyway.

Carbs are leaking and will need a going through.. and the brakes are gone. The front brake goes all the way to the handle with no resistance and the rear brake pedal goes all the way down without resistance also.

I have a running bike.. so I can take my time and look this one over good. Then if my wife ever gets her settlement from her wreck... the midnight transformation will begin.

[webbcraft2150]

You and John now can claim to having "stolen" bikes. Geez, at $260 bucks, you should be hauled off in handcuffs.

(I am trying my best to leave it alone.)

[trbig]

Well... Since we haven't had a chance to run the VIN numbers yet.. that may be a truer statement than you meant! lol.

Tod

[madmax-im]

Geez thats cheap

You guys and your cheap buysGood luck with turning it into a Midnight Maxim clone.

[Jerry]

Nice find! Good luck with it. My XJ doesn't look that nice after 8 years of ownership!

[Poprock]

Nice looking bike, Tod. Lots of possibilities there. If you do as good a job "Midnighting" that one as that guy on eBay, you'll have a nice bike when you're done. Hang some bags on that one and point it toward the PNW. We got some nice mostly bear-free roads up here.

[Bigfoot]

Looks to be in better shape than mine when I got it. Almost better shape than mine is now. I have also been thinking about going with a midnight special scheme on mine this winter with a little bit of difference. Black and silver instead of black and gold.

[John]

Harry

That would make it a Twilite Maxim.

[Bigfoot]

That would be fine with me. I think it would look pretty good and I wouldn't have to find a souce for gold chrome or settle for gold paint. Maybe I could find someone that could paint the "Twilight Maxim" on the sidecovers.

[nubee]

Sweet!!!! TRBIG

When you tear into it, take us along too (translation: lots of pictures)

PWEEEEESE!!! WITH SUGAR ON TOP.

[trbig]

So I got the bike home. It looked much better in the pics than the real thing.. lol. BUT, still more than worth the money. It had low compression on 3 cylinders.. # 1-4 in order were something like 150, 10-15, 50, 50. It was supposed to have been "Rebuilt" recently. Not knowing exactly what that entailed and hoping valve adjustment had something to do with the compression numbers, I looked in a spark plug hole with a light and could see 3H5 on the piston. I was halfway hoping to see Wiseco! lol. (OK.. they don't print that on their pistons.. but still.) So... stock pistons.

I took off the valve cover and did a shim check. Terrible as hoped.

Intake 1-4.... 0, 0, 0, 0! I say zero because my smallest shim is .04mm. and it wouldn't go. (That's right Pro.. hard for you to understand metric stuff on a metric bike.. but deal with it! )

Exhaust 1-4... .08, .23, 0, .15

So.. how in the world #1 could get a 150 on compression.. who knows. I am going to take the head off for a couple reasons. One, with a zero reading and because I take the cams out to swap shims, there may be a need to pull them out more than once. Being up against the cam, there's no way of knowing how thick a shim it will actually need. I'll just do this adjustment on the bench and get them in spec before I install it. Reason two, I want to MIC the cylinders to see what's going on a bit better. Maybe they did an OEM rebuild with a one or two over? There's only 20k showing on the bike, so wondering why it needed a rebuild.

On a side note I thought was kinda cool.. My other XJ is serial # 500. This one is #588 with matching motor numbers. Pretty close together..

Let you know more when I do.

Tod