thielb's 82 Maxim restoration

[thielb]

Gunna be one sick looking maxim!

 

[thielb]

plastic wasn't behaving quite as nicely but its comin along slowly. Back to school unfortunately so who knows when ill see the project next. Cant wait to get it done and back on the road!

 

[thielb]

So I've been looking for a rebuild kit for the front caliper on the maxim and I am not finding anything anywhere that specifies a fit for xs400 maxim. Has anyone rebuilt a maxim caliper and would you be able to point me in the right direction? It's a long shot but are the calipers used on the 82 SOHC xs400s by any chance the same as the maxim calipers? Because everyone seems to make kits for those...

 

[thielb]

Reading the manual on steering head adjustment, it says to use a steering nut wrench. There is definitely looseness that needs to be taken care of but I know I dont have a steering nut specific wrench. Unless of course, there's one in the factory supplied tool kit? I wont be home by the bike for sometime so I cant check for myself right now. Any maxim guys know if that wrench is in the original tool kit?

 

[16VGTIDave]

Chances are good that the bearings or their races are shot. All Balls Racing has a set of tapered roller bearings That are very rugged and smooth. It is a bit of a chore to change the races, but it is well worth the effort.

Some auto parts stores have adjustable ring nut wrenches that can substitute for the factory tool. One jaw is curved with a hook on the end, and the other adjustable jaw is usually a small curve. The factory shock wrench may work. Or just wrap a rag around the ring nut and use a pair of large adjustable pliers. The factory torque spec is only 18 ft-lb which is easy to accomplish.

 

[thielb]

Thanks Dave. The rag and pliers sounds good enough to me. If I get in there and tighten everything down better and there's still play, that would be the indicator for new bearings yea?

 

[16VGTIDave]

I'd suggest inspecting the bearings. My guess is that you will find lots of rust and little grease. You don't want to be riding with shot steering bearings...

 

[thielb]

would any maxim guys be able to get me the diameter of the fork tubes and upper opening of the lower fork unit? I'm away from my bike for a bit still. thanks all

 

[xschris]

The fork tubes should be 35mm.

 

[thielb]

alright, pretty good day for the maxim. Rebuilt the front caliper all clean and greased up now. Was working poorly throughout the riding season and seized completely after sitting since november. Let me tell ya, the inside of that thing was terrible, i doubt it was ever touched up before by the looks of it. Will get it back on the bike soon and hopefully confirm that the rebuild was a success. The forks were also taken care of this weekend. Or one I should say. Needed 18oz for the two forks and i only bought a single 16oz bottle so the second one will have to wait a week. Both forks were cleaned and polished though. For not having any tools, I'm very pleased with the shine. Just used some good ol mothers mag polish and shop rags. Tried the new fork boots on as well and they fit perfectly, I highly recommend them to anyone looking to get a set for their maxim forks (Daystar 58, $15 on amazon). Changing the fork oil is an interesting one-man job. Managed to do it with a little ingenuity though, worked out in the end. The oil that came out was terrible, there was some terrible sludge going on, just look at the picture! Refilled with some 20w for that stiffer ride im looking for.

Making progress clear coat starts tomorrow!

 

[bcware]

Mm, chocolate milk shakes!

Good job. The boots look nice too!

 

[briansal]

Great job on the paint

 

[ken56]

I got mine from my local Yamaha dealer. Mine is a 83 Maxim. Yamaha part # 4x8-w0057-00. I think it was around $60 for piston and seal. Seal only was $20 but I went for the full kit. I also had a sticky brake problem and it turned out to be a master cylinder issue. Plugged splooge hole. Hope this helps.

 

[thielb]

thanks guys!
And ken, thanks for the part number. I'm hoping my recent tear down and clean will suffice but if not, I'll definitely bite on the seal+piston. Nice to finally hear that someone else worked on a maxim caliper

 

[thielb]

Coming across a few hicups in the last finishing touches of apint and clear work so thats going to take a bit longer to finish now. The rebuilt caliper is back on the bike and after bleeding new fluid through, it's working much better. Still not perfect though so I may still buy the new piston and seals in the future. When opening the reservoir to start bleeding, the phillips slots actually snapped out of the head. So I ran to the hardware store, found nearly identical screws and an extractor. This was my first time using an extractor bit and it went great! Got it right out, couldn't be happier. Got the forks back on the bike as well. Not as stiff as I would've liked but the heavier oil seems to have helped a little at least. New drag bar is on with grips and bar-end mirrors. The spider grips feel fantastic and the mirrors are also much better, I can actually see something besides my arm now. Had to reroute some cables with the bars but besides that, everything went smooth. New blinkers are on as well. I checked the resistance of both old and new blinkers individually to make sure that the load would be similar and they were nearly identical. However, when putting the battery in and hitting the blinkers, I just get solid lights instead of flashing. Would working in a 0 degree Fahrenheit shop have anything to do with that or am i looking at a little more of an issue? The blinkers were working fine when i put it away but i never tested the old ones again before i took them off. Have a good one fellas

 

[briansal]

I am interested to find out about your signal issue as well. I went with similar signals and I haven't completed all the connections yet when I hold the wires together they light up but do not flash. I was hoping that would work itself out when all connections were complete.

 

[bcware]

What kind of bulb is used in the replacement signals? I say get an aftermarket flasher and be done with it. This was a constant head ache for me until I made the switch.

 

[thielb]

same incandescent style as the original blinkers, just different size. Which is why i bought them because i figured I could do a direct swap and the original flasher would suffice. I see so many people trying to chase down blinker issues i may just get a new one though. I usually see discussion for LED blinker swaps though so I'm not sure if I could look at the same flashers...need to do some homework on this. BC, did you swap with LEDs and howd you decide which flasher would do the trick?

 

[bcware]

If they are smaller bulbs they probably pull less wattage and that is your issue. Very few aftermarket signals use the giant car-sized bulbs the originals do (which is why they're hard to see during bright daylight).

I have shortened oem replicas (dot approved) I bought from MikesXS for a pretty penny. I have an aftermarket tail light and leds in my aftermarket speedo/tach, so I am definitely way lower on wattage.

I bought a flasher from the local autoparts store and farted around with it until I got it to work. My SOHC is going to be different, but perhaps this thread will help. These flashers should work work any type of bulb, LED or small incandescent.

I am pretty sure this is THE turn signal flasher thread on this forum

 

[thielb]

hm. well since the flasher relay in the maxim is in a pretty shitty place to get at, I think ill try and just splice in minimal resistance to get the current flasher working correctly. Perhaps not the most efficient way to go about it but as long as the blinkers blink, thats all i need at this point. thanks for the help bc