Tell-On-Yourself Thread

serious tell-on-myself confession

I've been advising other riders to do loads of maintenance (like valve clearance adjustments, carb sync, replacing plug caps n wires and stuff), but I still need to do these things on my own XS as well... Just haven't had the time to get around to it yet, and I've been riding with stuff that's likely to break down at any moment...
 
Lou Ranger said:
If some of us are willing to ride our bikes and place them in photos of exotic places, I thought maybe some of us would be self-assured enough to be willing to share "Stupid Me" :doh: Motorcycle Moments. Maybe not. :shrug:
The other day I thought I would be doing a thread asking the Forum for help with a failing battery. It may yet come to that after what "Stupid Me" has done.

A week before, I got distracted and flooded it a bit cold starting and noticed the battery was weaker by the time it started. After the ride I plugged in my 2 amp charger with the computer chip which is supposed to diminish and stop the charge when it gets full. The next day the yellow light was still on. Didn't think anything of it and went riding. Stopped and started numerous times that day and so I plugged it in again. 2 days later, the yellow light is still on and the battery compartment was quite warm. Didn't repeat with the charger but the next day, I had to jump start it to go riding. After half and hour at the coffee shop it started up again, but barely. After another 10 minute stop, it wouldn't turn over and I had to push start it to get home.

Thinking I would need a new battery, I removed it today and noticed it had no water in it. :wtf:
All 6 cells showed nothing. I've filled it up and will test it to see if it will work for a while with water in it - maybe through the rest of the warm weather until I can find a cheap price. I just hate to shop with a deadline hanging over me.
:stupid:
Click to expand...

If the cells were that dry, and you add too much water, it will probably not come back to life. Try emptying the water and filling it with new acid. Too much water dilutes the acid to the point of killing its effectiveness in the cells.
 
MrYeats said:
If the cells were that dry, and you add too much water, it will probably not come back to life. Try emptying the water and filling it with new acid. Too much water dilutes the acid to the point of killing its effectiveness in the cells.
Click to expand...
I actually thought of that, but was afraid to come on the Forum and ask where one could buy a litre of battery acid .. :p
To fill you in, it came back enough to last through the season - including a long ride on Dec 19th - and into the spring this year. Then, even full of liquid, it fully died and has gone to battery heaven.
 
Okay, so I have been having some oil leaks. I have to check my oil every two days or so. Friday evening, I was doing a output seal replacement (successful) After buttoning up the project, I was still curious of the leak? I was coating the left side lower bike stuff, (Kick Stands, Inside the drive sprocket compartment, Oil was getting in there. So Since a week earlier I had just clean the compartment, and (failed putting on the previous output seal) the back side of the compartment panel, it has all those chambers for lack of a better term. I put on 100 miles onto the bike. The oil had pooled near the opening, under where the chain comes in, and out. Soo what was my problem? The oil pressure sending unit. It was on, it signaled it had oil pressure, It was hanging on by the wire tension of the yellow wire, and it was super loose. Not finger tight or anything. I know when I put it on, a year or so ago, I had read somewhere that over torque-ing is really bad. So I guess I figured it was tight enough.

Now to compare the differences of output seal failure, the Clutch rod is the easiest way to see the build up. I figure the oil was spraying onto the sprocket, and then being flung all over the case. With the rusting chain, sending rust dust all over everything, allowed the visable build up of oil deposits on the clutchrod. If you zoom into the clutchrod, you can see where its still moist, then notice the spray pattern, it doesn't fill the space closest to the sprocket. (not as interesting). When the pics of the Red dust oil covered pics. I didn't oil my chain. So the first red oil covered pics where first of July, It is recommended to get a new chain, (I will) I have started oiling the chain since then. I figured it was less than a year travel time/use on it. bought it new previous to Aug of last year. (I have been Licensed for a year now!!! :bike: ) (I have been working on the bike for 3 years now! :banghead: ) I have still put on 4,000 miles in that year of driving time!

Lesson learned, Find the specs for torque, use them, I still haven't found the torque specs, yet!!!

full

This pic was before cleaning it out. Doesn't not show any signs of leaks from visible seals.:thumbsup:
full

:wink2:

Pic with the green grass was taken with only 100miles driven between replacing the output seals, (end of July, maybe Aug 1st.)
 

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This might be a dumb question but curious how do the oil sending units work on our bikes.Do they send a signal when theres low oil pressure and or low oil?I never noticed my light coming on before.
 
arfstrom said:
... Find the specs for torque, use them, I still haven't found the torque specs, yet!!! ...
Click to expand...
The service manual for the dohc Seca on here is much more extensive than the sohc owners' manual. While the design is different, I would venture to say that if you followed the torque specs in it, you wouldn't go too far wrong.
There's a table for general torque specs (page 298) and in each section where it describes a repair or an assembly procedure, it gives the specific torque specs for each bolt.
 
I will look it up soon. Thanks

The threads that talked about switching to a read-able guage, The pressure went up over 100psi (if I remember right) which surprised the early adoptors. I believe, as soon as it senses pressure, it signals the red light to the off position. But if you think of it, as soon as its empty it will signal a low oil situation, and then its too late, your bike will have locked up, unless you don't drive it like you stole it. (sorry I tend to drive that way! :bike: )
 
Screw'ed myself with that Starter kit from Amazon for $15 bucks. Felt positive that the kit was the right one, even with the engine specific # (4R4) on the kit. I didn't know there were 2 kits available. I needed the kit for the 80 G. I was adamant that I could get this work, I took a dremel grinder, and hack saw, and nope I couldn't get it to work. So If I could have admitted that earlier on Sunday, So now my bike is Kick only. reset my pilots jets to 2 turns, and balanced it. Test drove it to 80ish. Traffic was too thick for a monday everyones returning back home traffic. Now I am looking at ebay for a starter, ($40 to 100)
 
I am still new to motorbikes so go easy on this one guys -

I just got the bike and it started- kick and electric - great the night i picked it up. I was happy, charged the batter and set off on starting my 'new bike checks'. The next day I tried starting it again and got nothing... I kicked and got it to turn but nothing else. I plugged it back in to the charger and after a while fired the start button and it turned but nothing... I started to panic. After a while of racking my brain i fixed the issue.. and guess what ?

I had low fuel in the tank and was not setting the petcock to 'reserve' ugh... I just then learned what 'reserve fuel' actually meant.

Felt like an idiot but my saving grace was the fact that after much failure my gf came out to console me and i thought "Maybe if i switch this to RES it will work" so i asked my gf to hit the start button this time, and it worked lol So now she thinks she has the 'magic motorcycle touch" to fix things haha It made her super happy, so win-win!
 
A Lesson on frugality...

I have been trying to get my bike in running condition for a couple months now. 90% has been carb work and it is still leaking. XSChris gave me the idea to check my butterfly seals to see if the leak was there (because I boiled my carbs without removing them:doh:) Loe and behold they were bad (or at least what was left of them). Mikesxs had them for $11 + shipping. As you probably nkow shipping is also about $11 which seems extreme for my couple of seals I needed. So I headed on down to Harbor freight and picked up some generic O-rings for $7. I put them on and they seemed to fit okay.

So I went to take the bike to work yesterday morning. Got about 3/4 mile down the road and it stalled. So I stopped kicked it started again and I could actually hear the air leak now. Guess the O-rings didn't work after all. Time to take it back home and get the car. So I turned it around, and as soon as I hit the gas and let off the clutch, it immediately shot to red line rpm and the front tire cam right up off the ground. Next thing I know, I'm looking at the sky and my bike is sliding happily down the road on its side, gas tank and headlight heading off in another direction.

Now I have a skinned knee (and pride), about $100 worth of cosmetic damage, and I still need new butterfly seals.:doh:

Moral: Just spend the money and do it right!
 
hold on... you did a wheelie??? that's awesome! :D I didn't even know that was possible on these bikes

good luck on the recovery of both the bike and your knee... Second moral: ATGATT (all the gear, all the time: wear motorcycle-specific helmet, pants, jacket, boots, and gloves)
 
This was with a 94 YZ250 I used to own.

I had just finished rebuilding the top end as compression was a bit low and it needed new rings. I was so excited to go ride it and I was used to the air cooled bikes I had before that I just fired it up in the garage without thinking to put coolant in it. I then took it out and did a few laps around the yard for break in, and it started to feel down on power. I pulled it back into the garage and messed with the carb a bit and it wouldn't do anything. It eventually locked up. I didn't realize what I had done until coolant was suspiciously absent from the lines when I went to pull the motor. :doh:
 
OK ill give in and admit......kick started my 80 xs400 and it started fine, took off down the road and it was running like crap, pulled over gave it some gas, it was trying......then i heard a pop pop pop, looked down and i figured out when i kicked started it my boot caught the spark plug wire and ripped it out of the boot. did a quick roadside repair and nursed it home....ooppss...
 
how long are your spark plug wires? :eek:

That reminds me of a break down I had some years ago.I drove 100 km to see a friend. About 500 m from his house I had to stop at a traffic light and the engine died. I wondered and when I looked to the right engine side, I found the spark plug wire hanging down. Including the boot and spark plug:banghead:
I tried to screw it back to its place but there was almost nothing of the windings left. Maybe half of a turn. I was able to start the engine again, drive the last meters and park the bike in the yard like nothing had happened:D

But I had to ask for a lift on a trailer for my way home...
 

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