Questions about the xs500!

[karatekid1194]

I have a good deal lined up for a 1978 xs500e and I was just wondering if anyone on here has any experience with them. I found a few things online and it doesn't sound like they are terribly unreliable, but parts seem hard to come by. The bike I may get has very very low miles and has been sitting in a guy's garage for 10 years and does not currently start, though apparently it did a few years ago, so I am guessing it will need a bit of carb cleaning/work. But, I cannot find a carb rebuild kit anywhere for them and if I get it I want to do some form of cafe project, so exhaust and other parts will inevitably happen.

I also figure that higher flow exhaust will mean larger jets, and I wonder if there are universal jets that may work or if I would need jets specifically for this bike.

Any advice about the xs500 in general would be appreciated! I know this is an xs400 forum, but I figure someone may know something about the 500! Just for reference the bike has about 4000 miles on it and looks to have nearly no rust. The guy's mom rode it for a while and then gave it to him. It has sat ever since. I also am worried about the fuel tank as it has sat dry for at least a couple years. I am hoping it is not rusted, and if it is I wonder how I would be able to find another one!

I can buy it for $400 if I want it.

 

[levdir]

How have you been searching for rebuild kits? If you know the model of carburetor they use you might have success that way. I know the XS400's BS34 carbs are used on multiple bikes from various manufacturers; the best carb tuning guide I found for them was written by a Suzuki forum-goer.

 

[karatekid1194]

Thanks for the info, I don't know the model carbs because I don't own the bike yet. Are the model or part numbers on the carbs usually pretty obvious? I have never really worked on carbs before so I don't have much experience with them other than just taking them out.

 

[OleDoc]

Did a Google search.bs 34 mikuni. There's also an xs500 forum or two

 

[levdir]

Which means that you can get whatever parts you need, rebuild kits/jets/floats/whatever from Mike's XS. One guide I found suggested that the float bowls are a very slightly different shape on the XS500 carbs and you need to trim a little tab from the gasket if it's designed for an XS400 carb but that's about it.

XS400.com's famous refrain is "clean your carbs", so uh...do that. Make sure you remove the butterfly valve seals if you're tearing down to boil or soak them, they often get missed by first-time rebuilders. And then see how it runs, and go from there. If the carbs are original and nothing else has been modified the stock jetting is probably correct, but if it needs adjusting Mikuni makes jets that are compatible with a whole range of their carbs, they're not model specific.

 

[OleDoc]

Jetting is different too

 

[levdir]

Yeah, our jetting standards won't necessarily apply.

 

[karatekid1194]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I wondered if I would be able to go through MikesXS but I thought they might not have anything on the xs500. The bike seems a little rare. And thanks for the advice on the butterfly valves! I will definitely start with a through carb cleaning, especially since it turns out the bike only has 1700 miles on it since 1978! I would think the parts would be fine. Probably just need new gaskets and a good cleaning. I have never torn into carbs before, so I will probably have more questions when I get into them.

 

[karatekid1194]

levdir, I was just looking on BikeBandit and my local Yamaha dealer to see what they had. I didn't know the part number of the carbs, though I have no idea why I didn't try to google search it. (Slaps forehead)