A Project for my Wife

[striker85]

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Santa brought my wife a new project...An 81 XS400H

I haven't seen it yet myself but here are the pictures. We are getting it from the original owner who bought it for $1600 in '82. It looks not bad and as I'm told it only needs a carb cleaning but I plan to give a thorough once over...valve check, oil change, clutch adjustment, carb clean and general spec check on all the clearances. Anywho, I picked up a copy of the manual from this site and am excited to get started.

I'm used to Hondas, I ride a CB750. So I'm not a stranger to motorcycles but I am to Yamahas. However it doesn't seem too bad...it has half the carbs and a quarter of the valves! But any specific areas of caution or concern on these bikes?


-Matt

 

[skillzman1]

welcome..nice looking bike....I'm knew to Yamahas myself..so not sure on the quirks...but welcome anyhow!

 

[drewpy]

welcome striker85 simple machines but very rewarding to run and own

 

[Dorzok]

my vacuum petcock was a problem before i blew up the motor. kept popping the vacuum line. starter motor wouldn't engage a lot of the times either. just kept trying to start it until it did. my bike was sorely neglected and poorly maintained and repaired before i got it. i have not torn it apart to find out what happened cuz i bought a new bike when it did and haven't touched it in years.

 

[jayel]

cam chain adjustment before setting valves and timing, in my experiance you'll set the valves once a year and the cam chain every thousand miles, being a 81 you should have the TCI ignition so if it works ok no timing woes .... here's a couple of sites you may find handy


http://www.cmsnl.com/xs400h-1981_model8825/partslist/?q=xs400
http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/yamaha_xs_400_1981.php

 

[cturek]

As with any bike this old, not just our bikes, a common and very dangerous issue is rear brake shoe delamination. I would replace the rear shoes even if they look good. Rear pads are cheap and readily available. Having the rear wheel lock up at speed can be a very unpleasant situation.