Introduction, current project, and also engine//electrical issues!

419_MinuteMan

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Hey guys, I've been a lurker on here for a while now, I love all of the builds I see on here and they really inspire me.

So firstly, I'm MinuteMan, I'm 23, and I've only just recently bought my FIRST motorcycle, a 1980 XS400 (see picture 1) with only 3.9k miles on it, for 400 bucks. When I first got the bike it wouldn't run, previous owner was telling me he couldn't get it running so he just stocked it in his garage. Well I took a look at it, realized the petcock was on "res" popped it into full, and it started up fine. After starting it up again the next day I noticed it was revving pretty high, like 5k while idling, high. So I did some sleuthing and a lot of people are saying the fuel mixture is too lean. So I looked at it, noticed a few dry rot cracks on the carb boots, ordered some new ones and got to taking it apart.

So I got the carb off, removed the old boots, but after inspecting them it seemed like they were still... you know... perfect. Just a bit of surface cracks. See picture 2.

Alright, whatever, so it must be something else? Maybe I need to clean my carbs out or something. Well here I am with my carb on my computer desk, and quite frankly it i looks cleaner than the dishes I eat off of.

So I decided to say "screw it" and decided to do other much needed maintenance on this bike. Attempt to degrease the engine, change the oil, new spark plugs... oh wait...
What's this...?

A crack in my engine case? See pictures 3 and 4...
So can this crack be the reason my bike was running lean? I say 'was' for a reason, and I'll explain that below.

So the other thing I've been having issues with is, you guessed it, electrical.
When I got the bike, the headlights would turn on when switched to "On" however the turn signals and (IIRC) the brake lights would not function, also the turn signal indicator//oil//high beams indicators were all not working. Also my Brown Brown 10amp fuse keeps blowing whenever i turn the bike to "on". So I resulted to just take the turn signals off for now, disconnect the brake lights, and start from there. Welllllll apparently my bike didn't like that, because now the electric start won't even work. afdsn;aks :banghead::banghead::banghead:

So I figure it must be a short somewhere? I was inspecting the lines today and I noticed that there was one or two spots where the wire was stripped and the cord COULD potentially make contact with the frame, but it's not resting on it.

I'm not really sure, I'm really new to all of this, so a lot of terms go over my head. I'm really excited to get this thing running, it's been my passion to operate a motorcycle for a very, very long time. I'm just hoping the Guru's and Demigods of this forum will rain down some of that knowledge on me.


I'm also terrible with the formatting here since, you know, I'm new and all.
Also if you actually went through all of this and read it, then props to you.

-419_MinuteMan


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That last picture is really depressing. You can see all the scratches from whoever it was that tried getting in there. :doh:
 
That "crack" looks to be your points cover. Isn't there a place for a bolt to fit there and close it up? I just relpaced mine with hex head bolts. They are 6mm by 30mm long I believe. Maybe a little wider shot would help.

I would replace the carb boots. You don't want air leaks.

Oh, BTW welcome to the forum.
 
That's not a crack, it's just the edge of the TCI cover. It won't have any effect on how well your engine runs but it would be a good idea to get the screw out and replace it so it seats properly.
 
Sorry for my stupid question here, but how do I get that particular screw out? Here is another picture of it from the side. The screw on the left is pretty solid and I'm afraid of stripping it (I've already stripped like 3 screws on this damn thing). The one on the right is is just a round flat screw with no uhhmm... cap? I guess? to get my screwdriver in? I'm looking around and it looks like it's a cap to a screw. Idk, I'll go play with it for now.

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Greatly appreciate the replies! I'm glad I didn't get some junker!
 
There is a brass plug on the right side cover. You need to drill it out to get to the screw behind it.
 
+1 for the electric type, set to the lowest torque setting and go up from there.. Have saved a lot of screw heads
 
Put your Phillips screwdrivers away! Every screw on your bike that you think is a Phillips should have a small dot on the head. This dot indicates the screw is a Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) screw. While it appears to be a Phillips head it is NOT! Get the correct screw drivers or bits, or get used to using a screw extractor...
 
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