What did you do with your XS today?

Man it's been a while since I was last here... well to sum up what I did with my 78XS400 since I last posted...I finally got it to run equally well or better than the Hamilton Swiss Watch on my wrist... seriously folks... it's gorgeous. From dead cold I can start it in just a couple kicks. To do this, I first said to heck with the fluid-based manometer I previously used to balance the crabs and bought a gauge-type manometer which comes with adjustable dampers to cut down the wobble and get a perfect reading. Having my carbs exquisitely in sync made a HUGE improvement...I then threw a cherry on top in the form of an electronic ignition module... maybe not necessary but dang...I smile every time I stop at a light and don't have to worry about it dying out at random... had enough of that crap back when I used to live in inner city Chicago - not fond of those days.

So what I NEED to do to my xs...well my rear turn signals/ brake lights are dangerously dim as explained by a friend when we went riding together last year - I'm OK at night but during daylight it's nearly impossible to tell if I'm braking or turning... it's not the bulbs... when I hook them straight to the battery they're way brighter than when I hook them up in the sockets. They otherwise work just fine - turn signals blink fine and they respond to both brake switches... haven't ridden it much at all since I became aware of how bad my lights were.. Last time I looked into it I found myself with nothing but a blank stare and no improvements. For your consideration, my rear lighting consists of twin trailer lights which are dual-filament so they're simultaneously my brake, tail, and turn lights... there's gotta be someone else out there with the same configuration as opposed to the stock one tail/brake and independent turn signals.

Other than that I need to buy a shorter Speedo cable since I lowered the bars with clip-ons... maybe a different Speedo/instrument setup altogether... something more fashionable... last time I posted on this site I was unemployed in between school and finally getting a job... now I have a job... and some money to blow. On a bigger scale I want to buy a small lithium ion battery and clean up my wiring configuration ...it presently leaves much to be desired.

So if anyone has any input on my turn signal woes or a recommendation for battery and/or instrument upgrades it would be sincerely appreciated!

Cheers!
- J
 
Well, I removed the fuel tanks and emptied it of fuel. Then I remembered a story of how some guy did that and the inside of the tank rusted, so I put a little back in. Then I remember that apparently its the ethanol in the fuel that can attract h20 and can do damage, so I emptied it again.
 
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The ol' gal was fitted with new tires, which had not been done in over 25 years!! I did some work over the winter and she's ready to hit the road. Bike has spent the last 25 years mostly in a garage. Aim to change that this year. Started up with first push of the starter button after winter storage. She's completely bone stock and I'm leaving it that way. Would love to find an original exhaust in better shape though.
(Ignore the stained cardboard underneath. It's not from the bike!!)
 
As long as the exhaust is solid without any holes or bad repairs you should be good. It's nice to see a good looking stock bike. You will enjoy it.
 
Replaced the front pads with Vesrah sintered (HH) pads. They are going to take a bit to fully bed in, based on how much effort they require when cold. Cold and wet has been most of my riding the past couple days, so I haven't been able to get the brakes properly hot yet.

Dropped down to a 16T front sprocket from a 17T. I'm now running stock Seca gearing with the Seca engine. The resulting 500 RPM increase has made the bike much more lively.
 
Discovered my poorly mounted reg/rec was pushing my inner fender against the wheel.
Made a bracket to center it on the battery box.
Reinstalled everything only to discover that the standalone regulator pushes against the same fender when it's not pushed out of the way by the reg/rec.
Doesn't hit the wheel anymore. Close enough.
(Yes, I'm running two regs. Haven't had it going long enough to say how well it works.)

Also reinstalled the motor on my XS400SJ and jumpstarted the starter to test compression.
Nearly perfect 150psi on both cylinders.
 

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I took some time and degreased frame and motor. Repaired a couple fuse block issues by replacing it with inline fuses. I sprayed a 3rd coat of paint to the tank. Installed speedo...which was wrong (km/h)...removed speedo! Installed coils.
Placed engine back into frame. Installed rectifier. Put new chain in oil. Waiting on my seat.....
 
We took the evil twins out to the cottage for a "break-in " ride, varying the load and rev-range to seat the rings and shake out any bugs...
Well....I lower my head in shame...my buddy's scrambler was losing battery power fast...so I looked in the electrical tray, sure enough the connector to the pick-up was disconnected. Did some more digging in the box and...dude where is the other connector?...only to find out that...we hadn't installed the pick-up on the alternator:doh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
So...got on a road trip back to the shop, found the said wire,went back to the cottage and sure enough we were charging his battery...
Everything else went great, engines feel good and compression is awesome, the bikes go like Champs.
Mine has 15T front sprocket and feels like it want to point it's nose up...
We read the plugs and they look pretty good, coffee brown with no carbon or wetness...
We rode pretty hard on gravel roads with pretty harsh potholes and I am happy to report that all welds( including my frame repairs) held up great without as much as paint cracking.
My suspension (front progressive springs and rear R6 shock) felt stiff and solid, handling is amazing...was almost scraping pegs on pavement without a hint of spin out.
Noticed that some bolts(nothing critical) needed torquing down.
Noticed that my rear drum squeals a little..
All that remains is balancing carbs with a manometer and just for fun a compression test to get numbers.
 
Rode over to @uglyduckling's place to help get the bike ready for a trip. Checked the valve clearances, did a leak down test (both cylinders were perfect!), then adjusted the idle mixture and sync'd the carbs. The bike was sounding pretty good! :thumbsup:

Then the bike started to run rough and stalled. The battery was run down to the point it didn't want to run anymore. :wtf: That isn't right, but we'd have to look into it later as we had a bike night to attend. Since we were effectively done tuning, we connected the battery tender to get a bit of a charge back into the battery and started assembling the bike. The tank was flopping around loose and it's bolt was MIA. :thumbsdown: It looked like the rubber bumper that goes across the frame wasn't touching the tank, which allowed the tank to flop side to side on the front and rear mounts. I quickly fabricated a spacer to go between the tank and the rear frame rubber from some soft 1/2" plastic plumbing tubing and found a bolt that would temporarily secure the tank.

We re-installed the seat and were all but done and ready to head off to the bike night when we could smell gas. And saw gas leaking all over, from the back of the tank. :yikes: We quickly removed the tank and found two cracks in a soldered repair that had been done to the rear tank mount years ago. Apparently my spacer, and the wiggling about, had stressed the solder and broke it.

Who solders a structural mount??? :mad: That should have been brazed! :cussing: Regardless, it was my mistake that broke the tank, and now @uglyduckling is stressed out with just over a week before the bike is to be loaded onto a transport truck to go across country for a vacation ride through western Canada. :banghead:

Don't I feel like :poo: for leaving her bike worse than when I arrived. :shootme:
We never did make it to the bike night...
 
sold it today! going to miss this thing..... thank you everyone here for your input, advice, and parts! Never would have made it this far without this forum!

Looking at the new FZ-07. Test drove it a few weeks back, loved it and talk about stopping power compared to the XS!
 
sold it today! going to miss this thing..... thank you everyone here for your input, advice, and parts! Never would have made it this far without this forum!

Looking at the new FZ-07. Test drove it a few weeks back, loved it and talk about stopping power compared to the XS!

Sorry to hear that one.........................

Good luck on your new adventure!
 
It's pretty ratty looking but it ran today for the first time in years.

New exhaust valve guides. All valve seats cut. New pistons and rings.

Had to cut out the cross-pipe and plug the holes. Cross-pipe had rusted through. More rust holes to plug in the mufflers.
Need to cut the handlebars a bit shorter. Brakes, controls, etc.
All just to get it registered in my name.

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It's pretty ratty looking but it ran today for the first time in years.

New exhaust valve guides. All valve seats cut. New pistons and rings.

Had to cut out the cross-pipe and plug the holes. Cross-pipe had rusted through. More rust holes to plug in the mufflers.
Need to cut the handlebars a bit shorter. Brakes, controls, etc.
All just to get it registered in my name.

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I would look for a replacement set of pipes as blocking off the crossover will affect it's performance. These mufflers where designed to have it. I did that for a guys xs650 I was working on and it took a fair amount of performance out of it. It also made for a weird exhaust note.
 
Yeah, I didn't want to but there was no salvaging the pipe.
Plugged for now to reassemble the bike and get it registered.
Might be able to get something welded back in or cut a pipe to fit and find some exhaust clamps to fit.
 
Did all of them come with a crossover?

I have a 80 I think that has one and my 78 didn't have one ? the 812 had cut up exhaust so no way to tell.
 
Dohcs have a crossover also, the stock set-up came with different jetting in each carb because of the airbox configuration and I suppose the crossover on the exhaust would help with balancing exhaust...
But on my build I went with pods on stacks so I had to reset and also my crossover was rusted through.
So I welded it up closed, no loss of performance...quite the contrary.
 
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