Hola Amigos,
I recently purchased my first bike, an '81 XS400 back in October. The seller had purchased it from another dude that had cafe'd the bike out (frame mod, seat, stripped down some of the wiring/signals/electric start/fenders/pod filters.)
The seller had dropped the price in half from $1500 to $800 since the bike wouldn't start and he didn't know what was wrong with it. I negotiated him down to $700, since I couldn't test ride it and was taking his word that it had been running 2 months prior.
As far as the seller knew, the kickstart was broken (e-start had been cut out but starter motor was still in the bike.) He mentioned being able to jump the starter from the battery but hadn't done it in a while. I'm a pretty handy guy and have worked on cars before, so I figured it would be a pretty simple fix.
I got the bike back to my work from a friend with a pickup and the next day and tried to bump start it, thinking that would be the most logical way to kick it over. The bike almost kicked a few times and I ended up throwing a trickle charger on the battery, since it seemed weak. I let it charge over the weekend and was able to kick it over after a few tries! However, I did notice that the kickstart never sprung back into start position or sometimes you'd only get like half a kick on it.
So, the bike was at least running and I felt like I made out like a bandit, since it only seemed like a weak battery had been the only issue. The bike was running a little rough but I had expected that since it had been sitting for 2 months or so. The right side was running kinda weak and backfired in the carb a few times. I pulled the plugs and saw that the right side was a little oil fouled but not terribly bad. The plugs in it were upgraded from the stock setup, it was running BPR7EIX Iridium vs the BP7ES.
I tried running stock plugs at first but the bike would only run at normal idle with the choke wide open, instead of screaming. I swapped in some new Iridium plugs and the bike ran a little better than before, now backfiring a little out the right side exhaust. I still have to take the right side carb apart and give it a good cleaning, since it seems very sticky and any hesitation comes from that side.
I ordered a used kickstart off eBay before I popped the case open, thinking that maybe the spring was messed up or some teeth were chewed up on the original. Last weekend I opened it up and found the dreaded "broken journal" that I've been reading about on here. Needless to say, I was super bummed out. I forgot to mention that the e-start motor is also dead on the bike…
I wasn't able to find the bits of broken journal, which was concerning. I also rode the bike in the parking lot at work for about an hour before I knew about the journal issue. Here's to hoping that the transmission doesn't detonate!
This past Monday I was able to pick up a donor XS400 for $50 off Clist. At this point, I'm kind of at a cross-roads with what to pull from each bike. The donor bike only has 7500 miles and has been sitting for like 3 years. My other bike has like 43000 on the clock and journal bits floating around in it. The logical solution seems to be to just swap engines but if I find the journal pieces, I might just leave the engine be for at least a season.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll post up more pictures as this mess progresses.
http://instagram.com/p/urHbwNomeo/?modal=true (video of the bike idling)
I recently purchased my first bike, an '81 XS400 back in October. The seller had purchased it from another dude that had cafe'd the bike out (frame mod, seat, stripped down some of the wiring/signals/electric start/fenders/pod filters.)
The seller had dropped the price in half from $1500 to $800 since the bike wouldn't start and he didn't know what was wrong with it. I negotiated him down to $700, since I couldn't test ride it and was taking his word that it had been running 2 months prior.
As far as the seller knew, the kickstart was broken (e-start had been cut out but starter motor was still in the bike.) He mentioned being able to jump the starter from the battery but hadn't done it in a while. I'm a pretty handy guy and have worked on cars before, so I figured it would be a pretty simple fix.
I got the bike back to my work from a friend with a pickup and the next day and tried to bump start it, thinking that would be the most logical way to kick it over. The bike almost kicked a few times and I ended up throwing a trickle charger on the battery, since it seemed weak. I let it charge over the weekend and was able to kick it over after a few tries! However, I did notice that the kickstart never sprung back into start position or sometimes you'd only get like half a kick on it.
So, the bike was at least running and I felt like I made out like a bandit, since it only seemed like a weak battery had been the only issue. The bike was running a little rough but I had expected that since it had been sitting for 2 months or so. The right side was running kinda weak and backfired in the carb a few times. I pulled the plugs and saw that the right side was a little oil fouled but not terribly bad. The plugs in it were upgraded from the stock setup, it was running BPR7EIX Iridium vs the BP7ES.
I tried running stock plugs at first but the bike would only run at normal idle with the choke wide open, instead of screaming. I swapped in some new Iridium plugs and the bike ran a little better than before, now backfiring a little out the right side exhaust. I still have to take the right side carb apart and give it a good cleaning, since it seems very sticky and any hesitation comes from that side.
I ordered a used kickstart off eBay before I popped the case open, thinking that maybe the spring was messed up or some teeth were chewed up on the original. Last weekend I opened it up and found the dreaded "broken journal" that I've been reading about on here. Needless to say, I was super bummed out. I forgot to mention that the e-start motor is also dead on the bike…
I wasn't able to find the bits of broken journal, which was concerning. I also rode the bike in the parking lot at work for about an hour before I knew about the journal issue. Here's to hoping that the transmission doesn't detonate!
This past Monday I was able to pick up a donor XS400 for $50 off Clist. At this point, I'm kind of at a cross-roads with what to pull from each bike. The donor bike only has 7500 miles and has been sitting for like 3 years. My other bike has like 43000 on the clock and journal bits floating around in it. The logical solution seems to be to just swap engines but if I find the journal pieces, I might just leave the engine be for at least a season.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll post up more pictures as this mess progresses.
http://instagram.com/p/urHbwNomeo/?modal=true (video of the bike idling)
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Swap the motor and clean both the carbs
When the carbs are cleaned and adjusted sync them with a manometer. Get a set of uni filters for it. The emgo or pleated ones are crap and will not work/tune as well.
