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I know I'd seen someone who had addressed the brake hose fit with a file and I came across the thread again. Check out jthiessen's build, post #53, here: http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11791&page=3 for one way to do it.
I've ordered a 90º bend banjo for mine. I'll see how that works and let you know.
Thanks drewpy. There was a vent tube. I took a photo of how it was routed. It seemd correct but I'll make sure to replace it the way it shows in the parts manual.
Received my new tires this week and mounted them up.
This is what the old stock tires looked like. The date codes were from 1975.
New tires and tubes
Kenda Challenger K657's, 100/90/18 front and 110/90/18 rear. Date code September and October 2013.
Both front and back wheels and rubber strips were in great shape, like this
I did replace both rim strips with new ones though.
I'm happy with the finished product. The whole change over took about an hour.
I've mounted the front wheel on the bike and it wobbles a bit so will need some truing and probably balancing. That would explain the cupped ribs on the old tire. The swing arm is off so I don't know about the rear yet. I hope to get at it all this week.
Happily, I find my new rear tire doesn't rub the chain guard (altho I see my R passenger peg is a bit droopy).
Got my new pipes fully installed today and made up a bracket to keep the centre stand from banging on the left pipe. Fashioned the stop from this old iPhone dock/card reader. It's fairly heavy aluminum.
Made the bumper from a hunk of rubber I've been carting around in my Junk Rubber box for at least 30 years. I'm glad I finally found a use for it.
The bracket bolted on the inside of the stock pipe hanger, below the rear foot peg.
It holds the pipe away from the pipe with about an inch clearance. If I find it's too low I can shorten it up.
Here's how the bike's looking from the side
and from the back.
I'm liking the way the pipes look and hope they sound as good.
Last thing to clean up is the tail light housing, then I can move on to getting it running.
While putting my controls on the bars I found I'd overlooked cleaning the left one. It was gummed up and very sluggish.
Some varsol, a bit of white lithium grease and a few minutes later and it was good as new.
I don't have a timing light at home right now so I quickly checked the static timing. Found the points open at different times on each side so I'll have to move the plate to set the left first.
Dumb question: my manual says the points should open at the "LF" mark. It says LF then there is a short line, then a long line, then 2 short lines. Do I want the points to open when the arrow points to the actual LF or to one of the lines? My left points open at the long line and my right points open right at the "RF" mark.
It seems to me the points look OK but maybe someone with experience can tell me what they think of the condition. I've set the gap to .014