Newbie and new (old) sled checking in. With pic.

V

vmax84

New member
Joined
Aug 6, 2014
Messages
23
Location
Mid Michigan
Kinda getting the bug and have had a few Yamaha's thru the years. Snoscoots, Snosports, old Vmax 540's (still have one), Ovation, Vmax4.

Anyway, wanted to say hi and show what I picked up last weekend. 1981 SS440 with 800 miles on it, one owner. Starting to go thru it......polishing the tunnel, tearing the rear and front end apart soon, etc.

Runs nice and the guy I bought it from seemed pretty cool. Gave him $600 for it. He probably would have taken less, but the machine is so nice I didn't care about trying to haggle him.

Question: Do I need to worry about the crank seals on these 440's?

Pic of how it looks before i started to clean it up. If the pic will work.

 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome.Is that SS440 a 78 year sled or close to that.When I had my 78 440 Exciter and my cousin had a 78 SS440..we had a lot of fun..but he could never beat me in a race..ever.Nice looking sled for sure..
 
bluemonster1 said:
Hi and welcome.Is that SS440 a 78 year sled or close to that.When I had my 78 440 Exciter and my cousin had a 78 SS440..we had a lot of fun..but he could never beat me in a race..ever.Nice looking sled for sure..
Click to expand...

1st year for ss440 was 80 it was red. his is a 81
 
Slowly getting a few minutes here and there to clean up the 440 (polished the right side of the tunnel over the last couple days). Am wondering if I should take it to my dealer in town (am on good terms with them) and have him check the crank seals. Would hate to burn the thing down on account of that, especially since the sled only shows 800 miles.

As for the Vmax, it was last rode in 1985 (I kid you not) and shows about 750 miles on it. Bought it from the original owner years ago down in Chicago for $350. It was in the back of his shop covered up. He said he was riding it and it just quit. I pulled the engine out and found out the stator plate (for some reason, don't know why) was broken and there was a gouge in one of the cylinders where the circlip came out and ran up and down the cylinder. I have rebuilt the engine.......just need to drop it back in.





Pic of my old 1989 Toyota 4Runner.......it has never been in the salt.
 
I would do the crank seals no matter what better to be safe .........the sled is a 82 ...81 SS440's still had the plastic trunk ...that is one nice vmax and SS440
 
I own and have run several SS440's all 1981. My first and still my favorite ride. I would definitely do the crank seals. The engines are pretty much bullet proof but I have found with the large single butterfly Kehin carb the 81 SS' do not have a lot of tolerance for a lean fuel mixture in the mid-range. They also suck up belt material through the airbox because of the the close proximity of the intake hole to the secondary clutch. Even with relatively low use I find the carbs have to be cleaned regularly or the pilot air jets will clog. I have a few spare air boxes so I have gutted one for this winter and installed a K&N filter inside. I'll see if I can get the jetting right when the snow flies.

I still have the full shop manual for the 1980 SS440D and the 1981 SS440E supplement if you need any technical or tune up information on this sled.
 
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