Hello 'XS400ers' Here is me and what I have.

[ANUBIXS400]

Hi there. I live on Van Island BC and I seem to be unable to resist driving past a dusty/rusty/dirty old beast of a bike like the one I picked up last summer. Its a 1978 xs400f (imagine that on this site) and it has the L20 serial number.

I have looked through some of the posts on this forum before and you guys have some awesome information! Also seems like a great community so I decided after looking at a few of the tech posts I would sign up and hopefully detail some of my project, which could possibly help others or just be fun to see me swear at some metal and get utterly confused!

Ive had a project before and just ended up restoring it with what I had available at the time which I felt pleased with but it might not be that impressive to others. It was messing around with those bikes that gave me the most knowledge and practical experience.

With the 78 xs400 I have now I would like to mod it into one of those tracker style bikes if I can. Im going to try and do this fairly methodically and hope to get it done without too many golden coins.

Picked up from a random yard sale down the road one sunday from a rather peculiar lady with a very confusing story about the bike which I'm not even going to get into.

I haven't started her because the carb is incomplete (without floats for some reason) and I need to get a trickle charger for a battery to try it. Also a bit of problem...There are no flipping keys! Im sure i could hotwire it but I need to sort that out....Anyway thats probably stuff for other posts.

Ill get some pics up soon. I will also try and get them the right way around!

 

[xschris]

Welcome to the forum If the build date is 77 it's a 78-E if the build date is 78 then it's a 79-F Does the bike have a title?

 

[ANUBIXS400]

Thanks for that, yes I have the papers for the bike some rather old ones but not the original insurance documents and it just says its a 1978. There is no specific information on the document its all just insurance info. So I believe its a 79-F then?

 

[xschris]

On the neck tag it will have a build date on it. That is what I was referring to.

 

[iamunique127]

Welcome to the forum.

The easiest way to get your photos the right way around is to always hold your phone horizontally when you take a picture, like a TV or movie screen. There is data built into the photo by the phone to keep them horizontal. Alternately you can flip them in photo software on your computer.

 

[ANUBIXS400]

Thanks Chris

So I got to the bike today and took a pic (horizontally, thanks for the tip) of the neck tag but I found there to be quite a lot missing but it does have the 2L0 serial number, which should indicate which year it is.

Im pretty new to this so apologies if I'm being rather slow. I had a walk around the bike today trying to inspect as much as I can or know about to try and make an initial list of things that need to be done. I think this bike is in quite a sorry state and is going to need an a lot of TLC.

Ive decided to start with the brakes for now while I wait for a carb I purchased off the ebay. I removed the rear easily but I'm stuck with how to remove the front stop switch assembly. Ill keep playing with it and see if There is just a plastic flap I need to push in or something.


Here are some pics of the rear master cylinder and the rod, this thing was a real mess but I had at it for a while with brake cleaner and a brass brush bit. It came out ok and the rod cleaned up but had quite a lot of pitting around it.

 

[xschris]

This was posted from a member a while back. So if the first number is a 0 it's a 78 if it is a 1 it's a 79.

Okay, I figured out the bike is 1978 XS400E. The vin is 2L0-0097XX. 1978s start at 2L0-000101 and 1979s start at 2L0-100101. I found this information in the Genuine Yamaha manual I was lucky enough to receive with the bike.

 

[ANUBIXS400]

Its a 78 then. Thanks for that! Great to know as i will be ordering some new parts real soon.

I took the front brake off this morning and its quite a mess in there looks like the cylinder is stuck, doh. I prayed it with some wd40 and I'm gonna leave it and see if i can get some heat on it tomorrow if I can find me blow torch.

the pics are of the rod for the rear master cylinder and the front brake assembly(what a mess!) It might be that brakes funeral tomorrow.

 

[Wolfe_11B]

Just be warned, if you use a torch on the piston, the rubber seal will melt and it creates quite a mess. Be prepared to have a lot of cleaning up to do. But looking at the caliper, you have a lot of cleaning up any way

As bad as that rust looks, I would try the compressed air or grease trick first. The pressure created can pop stuff out easily.

 

[iamunique127]

Also try soaking it with brake cleaner

 

[ANUBIXS400]

Thanks a lot guys, I have been spraying it with some WD40 for the last couple of days, not the best but its what I had with me. I also wanted to try with the compressor but I cannot find my rubber nozzle anywhere so I will just assemble the brake again and try with brake fluid. Ill give it a blast with the brake cleaner also and get back with the results!


I have also started stripping the bike down so I can clean everything up and hopefully get it started. I took the front wheel off and started stripping the electrical to check all the individual components I can see that there are a lot more hours on this ahead of me!


here is another pic of the bike:

 

[ANUBIXS400]

Finally got the cylinder out and also got to check the back calliper too, which is working. I will still take it apart and clean everything up though.

Thanks again for the advise, much appreciated


Now its the electrical! I want to check all the electrics because I tried to start the bike the other day but I didn't get anything just a brake light. Im having to hotwire it because I don't have the keys for the bike, which sucks but Ill have to deal with that later. thinking I will de pin the ignition barrel.

So I hot wired by connecting all three wires together and I rigged up another battery I have which has been on a maintenance charge for a few days. I couldn't connect it straight to the battery because it doesn't fit in the battery box so I ran some wire for the battery terminals to the positive and negative terminals on the bike. I was wondering if this would be a problem because the wire could not handle the current? but the bike didn't do anything so Im going to check all the components.