1st Gen V-Max My restored Vmax

[Stephan]

VMax Year

1996

I bought my Vmax in 2015 and commenced a nut and bolt restoration which is documented in great detail here: Yamaha Vmax 1200 restoration by Stephan Morris
She now lives happily in my garage with my 2nd Gen VMAX, XS1100, FJR1300 and XJ900.

 

[desert_max]

Nice saga. Nice results. And four crooked souvenirs!

 

[02GF74]

I see you are a fan of Yamaha - BTW great write up - I read throught it again, first time I came across it was when I was looking to buy one.

2 comments; re brake lever hole bush; I'm pretty sure my brake lever has one already fitted and possibly is factory fitted but the hole in my clutch lever was ovalised. I drilled it out to 10 mm and fitted a split bush that is coated for lubrication (an off the shelf part with correct diameter and width - note some folks fit a needle bearing but that requires using an M6 bolt.

secondly removing brake calliper pistons. If you have a compressor, then cable tying 3 piston downs allow removing t he 4 th one - repeat this for each piston; if compressor cannot push them out, then using brake fluid push by a brake lever will do it - either remove the master from the bike or maybe a mountain bike brake leve could be made to fit - would haver saved damaging the pistons although I suspect they were badly corroded so would have been unusable.

 

[Stephan]

Yes I am a Yamaha fan!

I am sure that your clutch lever is fine now. It is always pleasing to modify a worn part to something better than original instead of fitting another part that will also wear out.

Thanks for the tips on the brake caliper pistons. When I stripped the 6 piston calipers on my Gen 2 I used both those tricks! As you say the ones in my Gen 1 were not too good anyway.