jdburke

Thanks for the information. I should have added to my initial post but wanted to keep it as brief as possible. This bike had been sitting for at least the last 8 to 10 years, and probably a lot longer. The previous owner had bought it with visions of fixing it up and then gave up on it. When I got the bike it had 3 sparkplugs broken off in the cylinder head and just to add insult to injury, one of those had an easy out extractor broken off in it. The odometer only shows 11,000 miles, so I'm hoping that the internals and cam and valve train, with the usual exception of gaskets and seals, will be in good shape. The parts diagrams I've seen show only the head gasket sealing the YICS ports, no o-rings are shown or listed in the parts info. I've looked a little bit and so far haven't found a head gasket. One dealer did volunteer that they were out of stock and that Yamaha showed them on backorder. Do you know if the tool to seal off the YICS port to sync the carbs is the same for most all of the YICS motors? I'm asking because as soon as I get done with this one I have another YICS motor (1982 750 Maxim) to start on. Thanks again, John

I'm in the process of bringing a 1981 xj550h Maxim back from the almost dead. I hope someone out there has some YICS experince they'd be willing to share. This one has a huge vaccum/air leak by #4 carb. (it's really screwing with my freshly cleaned BS34 carbs) To properly repair this leak, I'd have to change the head gasket. Has anyone had any luck with any improper (High temp RTV) repairs on this type of leak? Is this a common failure on YICS motors? Lastly, does the YICS have a very great effect on the overall perforance of the bike? If this is a common failure and if I have to pull the head, I'm thinking of fixing this so this failure never occurs again. Or is there a better way to handle this I just don't know about? Thanks in advance for your expertise and experience. John 1981 Yamaha 550 maxim 1978 Kawasaki KZ 1000A2