A n00b, his formal intro, and some questions

[bunkbed]

Hello xs400 members! My name is Jon, and this is my first foray into motorcycles.
I picked up this xs400 from my landlord over the weekend. It's a 1980 with ~5000 miles and some neglect. He said he ran it last year on one Carb, and that the rear drum failed and damaged the rearhub assembly.

I haven't been able to set aside time to see if I can get it fired up, so I've been poking around here tolearn as much as I can.
So I have 2 questions:
1. Did all mag wheels from this Gen have disc brakes
&
2. Would it make sense to upgrade to mags and discs instead of repairing the drums w/ spokes setup?
I'd like to get riding as soon as possible, and upgrade while repairing when it makes sense financially.

Anywho nice to meet you and I'm excited to be here.

 

[HoughMade]

I have a '79 with alloys and disks, front and back. However, I have seen a 16" rear alloy wheel with a drum brake. I think it was '81 or '82.

For some reason, a lot of people like the drum brakes and spokes. I think the easier path is to repair what you have since switching to disks means not only new wheels, but master cylinders and calipers front and rear and possibly a different fork and swing arm.

Welcome!

 

[drewpy]

welcome Jon,

here's a little ditty for you..

keep the wheels they are sought after

 

[OliverB]

For '80 & '81, the options were drums front & rear on spoked rims - 18" front, 16" rear - or mags with rear drum and front disc - same sizes as spoked. If you switched to the front disc, you would also need the right fork that has the tabs to mount the caliper or make a bracket of some kind. A good bit of work. As HoughMade said, from '77 to '79 the bike could be had with an 18" rear disc mag but that does entail a good bit of extra parts and replacing the swing arm with one from that era.

As Drewpy said, today the preference is for the old school look and wire wheels. My son's '81 is that way.

Inspect the air filters and blow air through them from the inside out. If they are not breached, keep them unless you go to pods, which means carb re-jetting to accommodate for lean mix as more air passes through pods. Factory filters are about $35 each but are well made and last a long time.

 

[g_raff350]

Welcome to the forum!
My '81 looks just like ur bike, check my pics out. Mine came with the drum/spoke option, and I would think it would be cheaper to fix what ya got, just my 2 cents.

 

[bunkbed]

Thanks for the welcome and suggestions. I had some time to poke around last night after work and was able to make some progress. I pulled the rear wheel and here is what I found:

The damage to the gussets seems trivial IMO. What do you guys think?

Also, I checked the air filters, vacuum and fuel lines for wear and tear. All of the lights and indicators work. Added some fresh gas, and was able to kick start it (with the help of a trickle charger). Both exhaust pipes grew hot, and it seemed to idle around 1400. The revs would kind of hang if I throttled it. I wasn't able to test the motor under load, I ran out of steam. Maybe closer to the weekend. Overall I'm pretty happy.