New here,intro and questions

[soundoff]

Hello everyone,I am the proud owner of a 82 xs400se that was given to me by a buddy from work(given for free gotta love that),the bike has been sitting for about 14 years,but my buddy's father did a good job before he left it so a change of oil, plugs and a carb clean was enough to get it started.To be honest I don't really know much about building motorcycles but have learned a lot from this site so thanks to all for posting their experiences.Me I'm a 43 year old guy who's wife thinks that my love of motorcycles is verging on unhealthy,I'm a Brit now living in Canada.I have a ton of questions but will limit this to just two for now.
1-Can't for the life of me get the exhausts to seal properly at the barrels.Could be something to do with the fact that I don't know which way the two pieces of flanged metal go in,now the flanged or folded end is facing in.New gaskets were put in,still blowing like a bastard.
2-Running hotter on one side.Thought it was just to lean cause when I changed over the air filters, the symptoms swapped sides,but today with no filters one side is again a lot hotter.Could it be timing?Long post no pics, sorry and thanks in advance!

 

[chris]

hi soundoff, welcome o the site. Where abouts in The Great White North are you? There are a few of us up here, i'm in vancouver. As for your exhaust question, i believe the folded end is installed toward the outside i.e opposite the headers. And your bike could be running hotter on one side than the for many reasons. First, put back in the air filters as long as they are cleanish. second, stop the exhaust leaks. Then check for air leaks, clean the carb out really well, make sure the air mix screws are set correctly (3.5 turns out) and sync the carbs. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[soundoff]

hey chris ! thanx for repleying , to anwser the first question , im on the other side of the country ( Montreal ) . I dont think i can get my carbs any cleaner , but i will follow your suggestion on the 3.5 turns out and thanks for the heads up on exhaust flangie things.i am really looking forward to getting the yam running right so i can start on improving the looks.

 

[drewpy]

welcome soundoff, I wish I had a £1 for everyone who swore their carbs are clean!

these carbs need a lot of attention to detail. did you strip the carbs down completly? every single oriface clog free inc float bowl galleries?

 

[soundoff]

My head is down, staring at my feet which are uncomfortably shuffling from side to side, standing here all humble. No Mr. Drewpy, I have not completely stripped my carbs. All I have done was to go nuts with carbs cleaner, rags and little pocky things, and when this only brought a slight improvement, I boiled in lemon juice for 20 minutes, followed by another 20 minutes in boiling water. The only reason I assumed the carbs were clean is because I no longer had any starting issue, she goes first kick almost everytime now. So if I manage to get my exhausts to seal properly, would stripping the carbs be my next step? Thanks....

 

[drewpy]

yep, shiny and clean inside as well as out!

you'll notice the difference when you do!

 

[HoughMade]

I had cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned my carbs and boiled them (more like 2 hours in my case), and then I took the emulsion tubes out....which were packed with brown/black schmutz and generally ugly. Also- in my humble opinion, the only way to be sure the idle passages are clear is to actually see the carb cleaner spray out the various holes when sprayed in from above and below....the good carb cleaner feels like it's taking your skin off.

 

[soundoff]

Wow! A couple of technical terms or names that are way above this noob's head. I usually refer to things as ''thingnies'' or ''you know, the thing that spits gaz''. So if at all possible, could you keep the explanations a little more descriptive? Sorry, I feel like I'm asking a lot now...To make up for it, I will try to post a few pics (once I figure how to do that as well...)