MmmBoost's '78 XS400 Cafe Project

What mufflers are those?

Great pics, dude. you probably get that a lot but those of us with iPhone pics 100% of the time are super jelly.
 
stuartr said:
What mufflers are those?
Great pics, dude. you probably get that a lot but those of us with iPhone pics 100% of the time are super jelly.
Click to expand...

Thanks Stuart! The mufflers are some Dunstall replicas that the PO picked up at a local bike shop. I'm personally not a fan of the giant chrome things, but they sound good and my budget doesn't include a new exhaust this year. Next year I plan to TIG up a full stainless system with some short reverse cone mufflers.

Progress was pretty slow this weekend since the weather wasn't all that nice and I'm waiting for a bunch of parts to show up. Still waiting on the new headlight, signals, seat, and clipons. I did, however, finally manage to get my fucking rear axle out after several nights and days of hitting it with all my hammers and spraying it will all sorts of chemicals. lol.

This was the point I did a little happy-dance.
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My floor was like a slip'n'slide.
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Pretty sure this axle hasn't seen any grease for YEARS
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Turning a new stainless rod for my rear master cyl linkage
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It's looking less and less like a motorcycle. Progress!
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You may want to disassemble the swing arm bushings for a cleaning and grease.
 
xschris said:
You may want to disassemble the swing arm bushings for a cleaning and grease.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was considering that. I would like to take the swing arm off to clean it up and paint it anyway. There is some paint missing from the swingarm where the chain was lightly rubbing and there's really no easy way to clean everything up well enough to paint without disassembling.
 
It might be a good idea to replace the bushings and seals when you do it. Unless they are very clean and there is no play in it.
 
The weather has been kind of cold and crappy, so progress has been slow. Still waiting on parts to show up so I can start adjusting the wiring harness and cables.

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Started to clean all the oxidation off the engine case. I still haven't decided if I'm going to paint the case or not.
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When I opened up the sprocket cover to disconnect the clutch cable.......omg......so nasty
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That front sprocket looks like it's starting to get hooked. Where you going to replace your chain and sprockets?
 
Lol. You think that's nasty under the sprocket cover?
Don't know where my photos are. My 360 was caked with oil, grease, misc debris, and an amazing amount of some kind of seeds. Was almost no open space between the motor case, sprocket, and cover.


Looks pretty good to me. :thumbsup:
 
xschris said:
That front sprocket looks like it's starting to get hooked. Where you going to replace your chain and sprockets?
Click to expand...
The front sprocket looks alright I think it might just be the angle of the photo. I'm going to run this sprocket for this season. I don't rid much and I have many other places I'd rather spend the money.

BBS360 said:
Lol. You think that's nasty under the sprocket cover?
Don't know where my photos are. My 360 was caked with oil, grease, misc debris, and an amazing amount of some kind of seeds. Was almost no open space between the motor case, sprocket, and cover.
Looks pretty good to me. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

It was still pretty gross. lol.... But yours sounds like it was much worse. I've spend the better part of the weekend cleaning the engine. I ended up pulling the engine this morning because I got sick of standing on my head trying to clean under the engine as well as scrub with the frame in the way. The back/bottom of the engine was pretty cakes with shit. I'm contemplating what to do with the engine.......just clean it up and put it back in.......or have it dry-ice blasted and paint it either part cast aluminum/black or a bunch of it black. I don't want to polish the side covers.....keeping up on polishing maintenance is a nightmare.
 
I can honestly say that I didn't expect that to happen. I had no intentions of yanking the engine out, but I got so sick of smashing my head on the frame trying to clean the engine...

If you're going to get wet, you might as well go swimming.
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so.......many........brushes....... (there were still more on the floor). I need to replace the original harness cover, it's completely inflexible and cracked. Suggestions? Heat shrink tubing? Silicone wrap?
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I also got sick of bending over trying to work on the bike so I build a little stand that I can wheel it around the garage with. I should have done this weeks ago.
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Still a lot of cleaning left to do (read: the worst bit)
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lol.... I'm almost at that point Jeff. I'm tempted to call a local vapor blasting guy and see what their rates are. The engine is like 95% grime free so there blasting should be minimal, but I would like to get that little bit of brown tinge out of the fins/head that is taking me so long.

How are you guys protecting your engines from oxidation after you clean them up? I'm considering painting my engine, but I don't want it to look like a ghetto-spray-paint-special.
 
Ahh......well there you go. Haha. I had originally wanted to paint my engine satin black, but I found myself in "paint everything black" mode. I don't want my whole bike to be black, so I'm trying to be more reserved with the black paint. I'm pretty anti-chrome and always have been, but since painting over chrome is pretty awful, I've decided for the time being a bunch of chrome will end up staying.


If I could find a way to make the engine a really nice satin raw finish and protect it that's probably the way I would go, I've just read a lot of bad things about clear coating an engine. The finishes always seem to yellow.
 
Looks great cleaned up. :thumbsup:

I think the original wiring harness was basically wrapped in electrical tape?
If it's super stiff I'd check the wire insulation inside inside for cracking.
For things like the stator wires you can buy new rubber wire tubes to sleeve over the wires.

I want to say more electrical tape would work, or maybe a self-fusing rubber tape, but you'd never get it apart again and I'm an electrician so the electrical tape suggestion might come to mind too easily....
 
BBS360 said:
I think the original wiring harness was basically wrapped in electrical tape?
If it's super stiff I'd check the wire insulation inside inside for cracking.
For things like the stator wires you can buy new rubber wire tubes to sleeve over the wires.
Click to expand...

The original harnesses running under the sprocket cover are in a PVC-ish tube which is all hard and brittle. I haven't checked the original wires for cracks yet......haven't even taken the old tube off yet. I guess I could always put them in some oversized heatshrink tubing to keep things looking factory. I don't know if I want to wrap them in self-fusing tape because things are pretty tightly jammed in there and I don't think there is room to spare.
 
Yeah, the stator, field coil, neutral sensor, and oil pressure sensor used the rubber sleeves.
They're down for maintenance until tomorrow but you can get replacement sleeve here:
http://www.cycleterminal.com/motorcycle-connectors.html
Just like stock but shiny, new, and flexible. Could put a bit of heat shrink over the ends for an even cleaner look.

Buy one of the the connector terminal removal tools if you do place an order.
Might have to buy sleeve one size larger than necessary if you keep the spade terminals on, in order to fit the terminals through the sleeve. Or you can cut off the old terminals to fit them through a smaller sleeve, but you'd need new connectors and the crimp tool to redo the connectors after.

It can be a struggle getting the old wires out of the brittle tube. Recently redid my field coil and stator....
 
I used VHT high temp ceramic paint which I oven cured as the engine was disassembled. I have to say for now it holds up pretty good (no road but some manipulating and banging around in the shop.)
 
It's been a little while since I've updated here. Progress has been slow to say the least. The weather has NOT been cooperating here. It's been below freezing and we've had 2 big dumps of snow in the past 2 weeks. It's ridiculous. .....my garage isn't heated, so it makes working in there a little miserable right now.

A bunch of parts showed up this week. The seat!!!! Finally! my new bar-end mirrors, my new tires and tubes (and I ordered the wrong tubes....fail). I also got a bunch of parts cut for me to build my rearsets from scratch. Picked up some tubing to build a frame hoop. As soon as the weather turns around I'll be going full-steam ahead.

Picked up some gun-cleaning brushes to help get into some tight spots on the engine
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Despite the snow on the ground I fired up the pressure washer to try and get some more goo off the frame.
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And then this happened.... (again)
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New Bridgestones Spitfires. 110/90-18 on the rear and 100/90-18 for the front.
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