My 1978 XS400 Chopper

[VinceMeal]

Hello everyone new here and new to these bikes, but not bikes in general, I picked this bike up today with plans on making a hardtail chopper eventually. I'm on a chopper forum but will hopefully get more help here if I need it.

Anyway the bike has been sitting since 84 and has around 2K miles, the carbs are dirty, it's not getting spark, no brakes, needs a battery and I'd like to get spoked wheels somehow but I got it for a good price.

I plan on getting it running before tearing it down to the frame so I took the carbs apart and started to clean them for a starting point. Next I'll figure out the spark problem.

Here she is!

 

[xschris]

Welcome! Very nice stock early xs. Any of the stock parts you pull off list in the classified section of the forum as they are not easy to find in good shape and people will want them to restore their bikes.

 

[VinceMeal]

Thank you! I like the bike in its stock form as well but I've got a vision and I think I'll go through with it. I'll be sure to list them when I get everything taken off, gotta get it running first!

 

[VinceMeal]

I started cleaning the carburetors and did some polishing on the bowls and caps, and I added some pod filters to them.

 

[xschris]

Your gonna want to ditch those filters or send them back! These type carbs operate very poor with them. If you must have pods, use the black foam uni type on the end of the stock rubber H shaped intake pipe. Or for best overall performance keep the stock setup. Trust me. I have five of these bikes for 22 years used every setup, tried every kind pod even K&Ns' designed for these bikes back in the 70's. The OEM setup will work the best overall. Same goes for the exhaust.

 

[VinceMeal]

Your gonna want to ditch those filters or send them back! These type carbs operate very poor with them. If you must have pods, use the black foam uni type on the end of the stock rubber H shaped intake pipe.

I dont think I can use the stock H and still have the look I was going for, but I will probably switch to the foam Uni filters though.

I got the bike running though so I'm getting closer to chopping it. I need to get some new carb floats since mine are all bent up.

Does anyone know of a cleaner coil setup? Or something smaller that would be easier to hide?

 

[VinceMeal]

I have a idle mixture screw broke off in one of my carburetors but I just noticed that the previous owner has scratched up and bored out the hole so even if I do get the tip of the needle out I dont think its gonna run right. So I'm thinking of ordering 2 Mikuni Vm28's or should I attempt to run the stock carbs?