New guy
XS400 Member
Greetings all. First of all I just want to say how great this site is. I have been checking it out for a while and I am really stoked to have all this info at my finger tips. Thanks to everyone that offered me advice so far, it is appreciated. Hopefully as I go through this bike I can keep you guys informed of my progress and pick your brains as needed for things I can't figure out. Its pretty cool to have so many experts checking in all the time and willing to help guys with their bikes. I will try to figure things out for myself with the search and past posts so I don't bombard you guys with noob questions all the time. So once again thanks in advance to everyone who has some ideas for me.
A little background. I bought this bike two weeks ago and had intentions of turning it into a tracker style but now I think I will just clean it up as best I can and get some collector plates for it. Its growing on me as stock bike. This is the style I have in mind for a later date. This bike speaks to me! Its saying "say good-bye to your licence bro!".
My bike is a 79 xs 400-2f-sport. I know this because it is written in the manual. Well, the half manual actually. My manual is up to page 18, the start of chapter 3. The rest is missing so I will try to track one down. If someone has one lying around and wants to get rid of it let me know.
I put a vid up of me starting it for the first time so here it is again. Its 6 min long and not really that exciting so watch it if you want. I have pulled the carbs off for a cleaning now so the next vid will hopefully be me starting the bike and it purring along.
Here is my garage. It looks a lot like my kitchen.
This is my first time trying to clean a set of carbs so I am looking forward to learning how it all goes together. There has been a few things right off the bat that are causing me some concern. First of all there is no choke lever. If anyone has a good photo of how the choke lever looks and sits on the bike maybe post one up for me. I tried looking for one but can't find a close up of it.
Second concern is I snapped of one of the bolts holding on the bracket. The other three were a nightmare to get out as well so it was pretty stressfull but I got them out. Not sure if they were loktited in there or just old age. I am trying to take it easy taking everything apart to avoid breaking anything else. Im not even going to try to get that bolt end out! Will have to make due with the one bolt holding it together.
So here I am with taking things apart. So far so good except I am trying to take the floats off and they are giving me a hard time. I watched bcware's carb tutorial and I am pretty confident I will be able to get them out and back together and working. Thanks to bcware for posting that carb vid, its awesome, even if it looks like it was filmed with a banana! Thanks bcware.
Thats about it for now. Going to town on this carb and see how it goes. Hopefully I will have it figured out to tackle the second one with less time watching the computer for tips. Its supposed to piss rain all weekend here in beautiful British Columbia so I have lots of time to work on the bike. My goals for the weekend. Peace.
Andrew
-Get carbs cleaned and back on.
-install fuel line filter I bought
-change fork oil(manual says 10w/30 motor oil?)
-clean chain. How much rust is too much for a chain?
-lube all cables
-drink beer and watch hockey
A little background. I bought this bike two weeks ago and had intentions of turning it into a tracker style but now I think I will just clean it up as best I can and get some collector plates for it. Its growing on me as stock bike. This is the style I have in mind for a later date. This bike speaks to me! Its saying "say good-bye to your licence bro!".
My bike is a 79 xs 400-2f-sport. I know this because it is written in the manual. Well, the half manual actually. My manual is up to page 18, the start of chapter 3. The rest is missing so I will try to track one down. If someone has one lying around and wants to get rid of it let me know.
I put a vid up of me starting it for the first time so here it is again. Its 6 min long and not really that exciting so watch it if you want. I have pulled the carbs off for a cleaning now so the next vid will hopefully be me starting the bike and it purring along.
Here is my garage. It looks a lot like my kitchen.
This is my first time trying to clean a set of carbs so I am looking forward to learning how it all goes together. There has been a few things right off the bat that are causing me some concern. First of all there is no choke lever. If anyone has a good photo of how the choke lever looks and sits on the bike maybe post one up for me. I tried looking for one but can't find a close up of it.
Second concern is I snapped of one of the bolts holding on the bracket. The other three were a nightmare to get out as well so it was pretty stressfull but I got them out. Not sure if they were loktited in there or just old age. I am trying to take it easy taking everything apart to avoid breaking anything else. Im not even going to try to get that bolt end out! Will have to make due with the one bolt holding it together.
So here I am with taking things apart. So far so good except I am trying to take the floats off and they are giving me a hard time. I watched bcware's carb tutorial and I am pretty confident I will be able to get them out and back together and working. Thanks to bcware for posting that carb vid, its awesome, even if it looks like it was filmed with a banana! Thanks bcware.
Thats about it for now. Going to town on this carb and see how it goes. Hopefully I will have it figured out to tackle the second one with less time watching the computer for tips. Its supposed to piss rain all weekend here in beautiful British Columbia so I have lots of time to work on the bike. My goals for the weekend. Peace.
Andrew
-Get carbs cleaned and back on.
-install fuel line filter I bought
-change fork oil(manual says 10w/30 motor oil?)
-clean chain. How much rust is too much for a chain?
-lube all cables
-drink beer and watch hockey