MrShake's Motorcycle Journey

[MrShake]

Well.... Lets start off with introductions....

My name is Adam. I go by MrShake around here. I'm 29 year old IT professional at a large insurance company. I'm married, no kids (yet), 3 dogs currently (1 resident and 2 fosters), 1 van, 1 truck, 1 motorcycle (YEA). I live in the midwest, infact, in Normal, Illinios. My hobbies are.... wait... why do you care what my hobbies are?

Anywho... This blog will, of course, be about my experience with a motorcycle. Now, I have “owned” a motorcycle for over a year now, but have ridden it only about 3 weeks. The reason will shortly become aparent.

Lets start with what I bought:



And, for your amusement... here I am, looking very white trash on the day it came home



The bike is a 1982 Yamaha Maxim 400, or XS400J. I paid a WHOPPING $150 bucks for it. It had (and as of the time I'm writing this, still has) less than 8000 miles on the OD. This is my FIRST bike, and I was, and still am, excited.

I hope by now your saying to yourself... “WOW, he got a GREAT deal, 150 bucks for a bike!”
Well, there is a caveat... it was not running. Thats right, no vroom vroom. But, being one for a challenge and enjoying projects, I bought it and started.

That, is the beginning. The next few sections will be devoted to the year + I took to rebuild the bike, and then, hopefully, I will be able to start posting of my adventures riding it!!

[MrShake]

Well... at this point, the bike is home, pictures are taken, and now... its time to figure out why it don't run.


I figured the first thing to do was to pull off the seat, side covers, and train the gas from the tank.
Next step on my list was to pull the tank off completely.



and



The battery that came with the bike was shot, so I grabbed the old jumper box and hooked her up to the leads to see what would happen. To my surprise and delight, all the electrics worked. Lights, signals, horn, starter, all of it. So, that was at least 1 thing I didn't much have to worry about.

So I started to dig, and clean further. I figured a garage is the appropriate place to work instead of the gravel driveway, so in it went. I also set up a nice LARGE work area as seen here:



I knew that the bike had been sitting for quite a while, apparently in a barn (due to the manure on and in the tires and on the engine), and that the last owner had had it running “on ether”. So my first task, get those carbs off and inspected/cleaned


Not bad on the outside, and not to bad in the inside, but deffinatly some varnish/gummed old gas. So, I ordered new seals/o-rings and some screws that I borked and waited for them to arrive.

While waiting, I figure, I better check the brakes... so I opened the front brake master cylinder....



So, I set about cleaning that out with lots of Carb and or Brake Cleaner and lots of time. I think I did a pretty good job!!


Still awaiting parts.. I checked a few more things and found...


A Broken throttle cable... gonna have to order one of those.. but lets get the bike running first... what else did I find?



Worn/dirty rear brakes, and..

Yucky, Nasty, Dirty front sprocket and space.

Honestly, I didn't think it was that bad for 150 dollar bike.

Thats it for now, Next will come the fruit of ordered parts and cleanings!

[MrShake]

I've been sooooo bad about updating this... so I'm going to ZOOM through part of it to catch you all up.


Carb Work:




Frame is looking pretty empty:




Woo hoo!! Parts:





YEA TOOLS!!:




Fried Diode:

[MrShake]

Inside the engine:




I'm beginning to see the problem:




Its all becoming clear now:





Bent Valve.. Yuck:




Bought a house mid-rebuild, here is the new workspace in the new garage:

[MrShake]

The rebuild is really reving up now:




BAD THREADS!!! BAD THREADS!!!





Oh Look!! A Friend to help:




The Engine is back in 1 piece!! Its been a while:




Back in the bike:




It almost looks like I'm actually working!!




It Go Fast!




See:




Yep, thats exhaust smoke!!




She runs!!! (yes, I know its blurry)

[MrShake]

Ok, so, if you read all of that, your basically caught up, kinda.


I rode the bike for a few months after that last pic, until october, when I managed to fracture the lobes that hold the sproket on the camshaft. I spent much of winter getting that fixed. Stuck floats a month or so ago started causing the crankcase to fill with gas, and, now, the starter clutch is bad.

Now you ARE caught up.

So, this weekend, I started a new part of the project. Since I have to wait for some tools and parts to arrive to get the bike running again, I thought it would be time to Redneck-Up and repaint the tank, fix dents, rust spots, and generally make the bike LOOK better.

I have decided to try the $50 paint job style paint job. Rustoleum Oil-Based enamel paint and foam rollers. Here is the beginning of this process. I've got some more pics on the camera of the first coat of paint, but here is the paint stripping process:

First Application of Paint Stripper:





Some Paint is being Stubborn:



Looking good, found some old bondo work:

[Wrider]

You squid you! Look at that! No helmet, shorts, t-shirt, what are we gonna do with you!
Looks like it's coming along nicely, bet you're excited!
Wrider

[MrShake]

More than you know!!!


My first few rides were pretty squidly, that being said, She who must be obeyed marched me down to the bike shop and I came home with a helmet. Much less squidly!

[MrShake]

More pics from last night and tonight.

Progress is being made on the Tank Restoration:


Hit the bottom of the tank with flat black rattle paint:




Mix up that paint!




I think my roller has a dry spot:




The key, so I've read, is LOTS of think coats:




The snack of choice for today (well, along with the beer):




Finnishing up the first coat:




Here its after the 2nd coat:







Its coming along well, I think. I'm thinking I need to add more mineral spirits to thin the paint as I noticed some of the bubbles not popping. Tomorrow, more sanding and painting!

Oh, and I got the stator off tonight with my new motion pro tool, now I can't seem to break loose some TORX screws to get closer to that starter clutch!

[storysunfolding]

Torx screws are the devil. Whoever invented them deserves a long slow and painful death. Or really just have his legs placed in a manacle fashioned by slightly over torqued torx screws.

The project looks great! Keep up the work and before you know it you'll have a brand new xs400

I'm looking forward to seeing how the paint job comes out. I'm debating doing the same on my bike so document document document