My '76 XS360C Restoration

Are you trying to stick with original replacement parts only? Aftermarket master cylinders are pretty cheap, even new. OEM will cost a lot more if it comes to that.
 
I would do a full dissemble, not just a cleaning. You can leave the motor in if you want; it's easy enough to take out later if there is a problem.

Thanks, bcware. My first thought was "why would I want to do that. The bike is like new with such low mileage" but as I get to each successive part it's looking more and more like it will all come apart, piece by piece as I replace the aged bits.

Like I read someone else say in a different thread, I'll just start listening to you guys the first time. Everything will be so much easier.
 
My main concern is safety. Motorcycles should have all of the major bits inspected and re-tightened periodically. I like to make sure that stuff gets done. It also makes cleaning and restoring much easier.
 
I hear ya. I know some people have trouble with frozen bolts but all of mine are surprisingly not tight. I wouldn't say loose exactly but I certainly haven't had to work hard at undoing anything to date. I was just mentioning that to a buddy the other day and we decided I'd better go over everything at least to the point of making sure torque values are up to spec.
 
Good idea. If you're lucky enough not have any frozen bolts you'll likely have an easy time. The most time-consuming and difficult part of working on mine was hardware that wouldn't come off.
 
Are you trying to stick with original replacement parts only? Aftermarket master cylinders are pretty cheap, even new. OEM will cost a lot more if it comes to that.

I have a rebuild kit for the Master Cylinder so I'm hoping it will be possible to clean it up enough.

These are the old parts.

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and this is what the inside looks like. I'm not sure how clean I will be able to get this.

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I've never worked on one of these before so I'm not sure what best practice is. I'd really like to keep it as stock as possbile now that I've decided to go that way but budget is certainly a consideration.

I should get to this tomorrow so will know more then.
 
You "located" and ultrasonic cleaner? Those are pretty expensive to just find lying around, especially the big ones!
 
Nice little tip if you want to reuse hardware is to use a tumbler. If you are a firearms guy, or have a buddy who or is a firearms guy, or perhaps you are a chrystal/rock/gemstone guy, a tumbler is great for polishing little bits, especially hardware.

I've never tore my xs400 all the way down, but on my other big project, I pulled all the bolts, which were rusted and nasty. Put a squirt of Turtle Wax car polish into the walnut media, tumbled for about 5 minutes to distribute the wax. Then I dropped all the nuts and bolts into the tumbler, let it run over night (probably 12 hours, actually). The next morning, most of the bolts were shiny and almost new looking, and had a nice hard coat of car polish that will help stabilize them against my city's salty fog air.
 
Right on Tombo. Good tip.

We do have a group-shared tumbler in my circle of hunting buddies. It hasn't been used for years since we loaded a lifetime supply of ammo. Now if we can just find it. I'll try my garage first.

Thanks.
 
This shows the cleaning I was able to do with Brake Cleaner, brushes and compressed air. I'm not sure whether the dark areas under the reservoir is dirt or stains so I ran it through the ultrasonic to try to get the dark stuff out.

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And here is after the Master Cylinder spend an hour in the ultrasonic cleaner at 37C with general purpose ultrasonic cleanser and then 40 minutes ultrasonic rinsing in clear water. Finally I dried it with compressed air.

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Although the ultrasonic made it much more sparkly it still didn't clean up the dark areas under the reservoir. I'm hoping those are stains and not packed-in sediment.
 
If that stain won't lift after all that it isn't coming out. That is a great transformation!
 
I still intend to try to reach under the plastic, through the centre holes, and see if I can dislodge anything in those cavities with a thin guitar string (if it will fit). Now to stop at a music store for the tool.
 
I used a very small sewing needle for unclogging the small passages in my mc which seem to work very well.I had some dirt clogging mine up when I was trying to bleed my brakes after rebuilding the master cylinder
 
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