1982 Yamaha XJ650 Maxim from United States of America - Comments

I have owned an 81 650 Maxim for about 9 years now. I have had others during that time, but the Maxim is my favorite. As for the person who was "rapping it up" at 50000 rpm, not even close. Your redline is about 10,000 rpms. I have found 4500-5000 to be kind of a dead spot. Real power is made above 6000 rpm. Hang on though. Watch out for speed wobbles at 100+. I have owned hot rodded cb750's and they are not even close. You should be able to surprise anything other than a newish sportbike.

I owned an XJ650RJ for several years, and put lots of miles and work into it while I owned it. I hated to get rid of it, but didn't have any place to keep it anymore. Anyway, I'll attempt to answer some of the questions I've read on here.

The gas tanks on these bikes were notorious for rust. If your tank isn't coated on the inside, coat it. It will save you lots of head aches later with cylinders not firing, poor performance, carb cleaning etc.

Check the corners before wasting your money on a tank. Especially if one has been sitting. I've seen a lot of tanks look great on the outside, but still have rotten corners.

NGK makes spark plug boot replacements for when the old boots start grounding out, no need to replace the whole coil unless the coil itself is bad.

An oil leak on the top of the motor shouldn't be that bad. If I remember correctly, there were four half-moon plugs in the cylinder head at the ends of the camshafts, and are accessible by taking the valve cover off. You might start with them.

If you go deeper into the motor, have a good repair manual. The timing, although marked fairly well, can be tricky without guidance. Getting the cams, gears, chain, and tensioners all lined up to put the bolts in can be tedious. I recommend a second set of hands.

A bike that has been sitting for a while can have carbon flakes in the cylinders, causing poor valve seal. I noticed a big difference in performance after I did a valve job to fix this.

Also, I remember when I first started riding this bike, I shifted it like a car (3000-4000) RPMs, and constantly would be left by CX500s, CB750s etc. Then I learned to shift about 8000-9000 RPMs, and I never had that problem again! That bike went from a kitten to a tiger just by changing my riding style.

Also, for you guys looking for stock exhaust, I never found any either except for $800 from Yamaha. The best I could find in aftermarket was 4 to 1 pipes, but I wanted to keep the twin chrome pipes out the back. So, I decided to make my own mufflers. The headers where they attach to the mufflers are just under 1.5" OD. So, I took two 6.5" pieces of 3" exhaust pipe and made a couple washers for both ends. Welded the two headers from each side into one end of the 3" pipe, and a 1.5" piece of exhaust out the other end. If you 45 the end of that pipe, you can 45 another 1.5" and run it straight into the stock chrome pipes on the back. Get pretty welds on it all, and it looks very good on the bike. Got lots of complements on the sound, and performance was great.

The only issue I had after I made those mufflers was leaning. You can't lean quite as far, but enough for most riders needs. My headers were rusty. So, I painted them and the new mufflers flat black up to the chrome side pipes. Krylon BBQ high heat black matches the flat black on the motor perfectly.

Also, if I ran across good deals on electrical parts, I'd snatch them up. I noticed a lot of the plastic in the electrical system componets got very brittle with age, and new ones are very expensive. $22 for a new start button (no spring or housing) from Yamaha, and if you get in a position where you need to change fuses, the fuse holders will snap without much pressure at all. Be careful with them.

Hope that bit of remembering helped some of you.

I just bought an 82 XJ650 for $300, but one cylinder is not firing. Also, it is hard to start cold and does not like to idle unless the choke is on. I've cleaned the carb twice, checked the gas lines, and spark plugs and wires. The tank is very rusty inside. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

I'm looking at getting a Maxim 650... it'd be my first bike.

I want to check the oil. Maybe a dumb question, but how to I check it? Whereabouts on the engine would it be? I have a car, but can't think where I'd look on the Maxim.

Hey guys, love this forum. I didn't know anybody actually likes these bikes. I got a 81 Maxim 650, FOR FREE; this guy was bringing it to my shop that I work at to drop it off for our junk guy that comes once a week to pick up "scrap metal".

I just asked him if he wanted to give it to me instead of throwing it away like it was garbage. I had the title and keys in my hand a week later. I got it to start with some starting fluid the day I got the key. No luck running on gas just yet. I finally got it to my house today after it had been sitting at my shop for a month. I can't wait to ride it; from what I've read on here it sounds like fun. This will be my first street bike. I have grown up on dirt bikes. I am sure I will love riding this bike.

I've owned a 1980 XJ650 Maxim for about two months now. I bought it from the second owner, who barely put 200 miles on it in a year, and kept it in the garage. The original owner must have really loved the bike, took excellent care of it and rode it a lot (it has 45K miles). I paid $1000 for it after looking it over very carefully.

Personally, I'd rather have a vehicle that has been driven and maintained and cared for than one that sat for years (especially motorcycles!). No end to the trouble this "new" crappy gasoline (ethanol) will do to a fuel system just sitting.

Anyway, I replaced the front and rear brakes and front rotor, but other than that, this is a fantastic bike with an extremely classic look.

It's also a good bike for a medium to smaller person (like me), but is still big enough to have some power and speed with a "big" bike look.

This engine and shaft drive combo is really bullet proof. I would not have a chain drive bike. I highly recommend the XJ650; if you can find a well maintained one for < 1.5K, grab it!

I just bought a 1980 Maxium 659 with 6534 miles on it. It has been stored for many years. The only problem is it picks up a vibration around 4000 rpm. It feels more like it comes from the shaft. Is this normal? If not, what are the fixes?

Thanks.

I just was given a 1982 Yamaha Maxim 650 for Fathers day. Everything I see and read about this bike, I am overly impressed. Any idea where I would be able to find an owners manual or repair manual? I am wanting to do some simple repairs and modifications to the bike.

~Links1573.

Hi. I just bought my 1982 Yamaha Maxim XJ650. Looked it over really well, so I thought. I need to know if there is anyplace where I can find a manual or repair manual. The problem that I'm having is the fork seals are leaking, but they look great! And the engine ran great when I looked at it, but now seems to be bogging down. I've been told that jetting it won't help. Any ideas or techniques to get this fixed?

One of the bike shops around here wants $300 to "soak the carbs", and another $200 to repack the forks. Is this a good deal? I would really appreciate an idea of where to buy the manuals though. I work on cars, not on bikes yet.

Thank you

John

I bought an 82 Maxim 650 two weeks ago. I love it so far, but I was also worried about how it hits 5000 rpm at 60 mph. Has anyone else seen this to be a problem? I see that someone posted that this is normal, but it sounds like it's struggling. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Love this bike, bought with 7900 miles 4 years ago, would not trade for anything but a Vmax. LOVE Yamaha.

Had the same question about the rpms being high at highway speeds, but even at 5000 rpm you are only half way to redline, I think this bike was built to ride this way.

Fun to ride. Does anyone know if there is a upgrade, like a 6th gear, as the motor has enough power to handle it? Just wondering if anyone has heard of anything like this?

I HAVE GREAT NEWS

There is a web site that will show diagrams of this bike, the 1982 Yamaha xj650 Maxim, and many many more bikes.

I stumbled onto it by looking for parts for my 1982 Yamaha XJ650 Maxim. The web page is www.powersedge.com

The steps are simple. If anyone has a problem with it, just email me at lasers_90@yahoo.com for an example.

I was looking up the front forks, and it showed the diagram of every bolt and all the pieces it needs, as well as pricing the parts out as well. Each part that you look at on the diagram is numbered and matches the number in order on the parts list below. I hope this will help some people out.

As my question before, does anyone know a cheap bike shop that does forks? I have a leaking seal on the forks. My post is the first one for

07-12-2007. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

John.

I just got a 1980 XJ650 for $50 yesterday with no seat, and it has been sitting since 1995. Is there anything I should do to the engine before trying to get her running? I know I need to rebuild the carbs and replace the gas tank. At least the last owner drained the oil before letting her sit.

After reading this forum, I can't wait to get her on the road. Thanks for all the wonderful information.

Maintenance is everything with any machine... I would also recommend high test fuel(90+ octane, with lead substitute (it calls for it)) and a tablespoon of marvel mystery oil, and if you want CLEAN carbs use some Berrymans Chem Tool in the tank also. Pick up 4 Iridium spark plugs while you're at it $$$$.

The 82 and 83 XJ650 is the more desirable bike with updates.

And you are correct, this little bike is a naked rice rocket with a little less power curve, but still a wild ride... for those who FREAK OUT after 80MPH I would suggest installing a small steering stabilizer shock.

Stay alive and stay away from the TURBO headaches... LionHeart.

After buying a new Yamaha 1100 Silverado/Custom at the end of last year, I started thinking about my 1982 XJ650J Maxim that had been sitting, collecting dust, for the last 15 years. Sorry to all Yamaha lovers, because believe me I bleed Yamaha blue and have since I was a kid. I will say that I agree with everyone in this forum that feel that this bike was a premier machine for it's time and still is.

I decide to bring it back to life and after rebuilding the carbs (what a mess they were), bleeding the brakes and new rubber she is cruising again. Going to register it this Monday and I have a feeling it will get plenty of time on the road, even over my new cruiser. You can go out and buy a new bike, with all of the flash, but not everyone can own one of Yamaha's finest all around machines even within today's standard.

Any other XJ650/Yamaha owners may be interested to know that in my mission to resurrect my XJ, I found a wealth of OEM/after market sites that carry XJ, and other model Yamaha, parts:

www.partsnmore.com

www.bikebandit.com

www.motogrid.com

You can also find used/new parts on EBAY, but beware because I've found a few parts listed that cost above & beyond what I could find the parts at online. Also compare prices on the sites. On one site for a needle valve assembly (Needle seat, washer and float needle) they wanted $65 for one carburetor, which is the same prices Yamaha will charge you. I found the same Hitachi parts on one of the above sites for $8.32 and the float bowl gaskets for something like 3.32 a piece. Just beware and shop around. You'll be amazed at what you can find just by performing a Google search for XJ650.

One last thing. If you want to view the parts list for your bikes online go to www.yamahamotors.com, click the Star Motors icon. In the horizontal menu on the next page select "Parts & Service". Select "View Parts & Catalogue" from the vertical menu. Well you can figure out the rest. I hope this helps.