Recent content by Itschrisb

The more I look at it the more i kind of like it actually. But if I change it out I’ll let you know, it’s not cracked or anything. I started taking the forks apart to do the seals and wanted to clean up the lower fork legs. What started as a quick scrubbing turned into a not so quick polishing...

The shaft itself didn’t look that bad and even the original plastic bushings didn’t look bad. I took the bike for a ride yesterday with the new bronze bushings and could immediately tell a difference. I’d recommend replacing them. Yeah I try not to spend much time on the interstate on mine...

I’d take them apart and clean them, set the float height and mixture screws before you order anything.

Sounds like the needle isn’t closing or the float height is too high. Do you have the brass or rubber floats? Have you taken the carbs apart at all?

At this point I’ve put about 350 miles on my xs400 since getting it back up and running. The original swing arm bushings were so bad I could feel the rear end shifting in turns so it was time to replace them with bronze ones. Overall the process was pretty straight forward. I did end up having...

Generally speaking the only thing you need during a rebuild is new float bowl gaskets. Unless the floats and jets are that messed up they rarely need replacing. What’s your carb issue?

I think it’s time I overhaul my toolbox a little and get some motorcycle specific tools. I came from working on cars mostly but now motorcycles have taken priority haha

I’d still suggest pulling the caps off the wires and the wires off the coil and looking at the copper inside the wires. Again visually mine looked fine but once I took them off the wires the copper was corroded and broken down. Are you idle mixture screws exposed? If they aren’t I suggest...

That’s a really trick setup you have there, I’ve only ever measured float height via a caliper with the float bowl off. My XT350 also recommends checking the float height like you’re showing so I’m gunna have to try it out.

On the xs400 I just picked up my plug wires and caps were pretty corroded internally. The caps were barely hanging on once I started messing with them. Might be worth checking those out and cutting back to some fresh copper to see if anything changes. Also have you checked to make sure the...

I had a somewhat similar issue that I chased my tail on for a few days that ended up being a bad ground at the handlebars. My kill switch was also broken internally and was cutting power unless it was in the perfect position. I didn’t realize until I took it all apart. I changed my bars to...

Looks like a solid starting point, that color is beautiful. eBay has a plethora of xs400 parts btw. Good luck with the build!

Threw a new front tire on it and cleaned up the wheel. Then I moved to the carbs which ended up being a huge headache. The carbs themselves cleaned up pretty good, I wish I had taken before photos. I replaced the carb boots and air filters while I had it all apart. After putting it all back...

Hey y’all I figured I’d start a thread to keep track of the progress on this ‘80 XS400 Special I picked up not long ago. Friend of mine had this bike sitting around and he asked me to clean it up and sell it for him. After looking it over I decided I wanted to fix it up for myself instead. This...

Probably a long shot but any chance you still have this?