danisawesome
XS400 Addict
(How's that for a descriptive title?)
Alright, I have some questions for you XS masters. Sorry for the wall of text, but any help is appreciated! Also, I don't have my bike at my apartment, or even in the same state as me, so some of these questions I could solve myself but I just don't have my bike to tinker on at the moment!
1. Starting with my tank, it is a tiny bit rusty (already threw some diesel and screws/nuts in there previously) and has been tinting my gas orange. I plan on using some Metal Rescue on it to get rid of the rest of the rust. Should I use some sort of sealer or should I be ok as long as I'm riding and keeping fresh gas in the tank?
2. I'm also going to be pulling my carbs off and going through them again because I'm having problems getting the bike started when it's cold, and also sometimes when it has warmed up and been run. Is there anything I should really be wary of given my tank's rust issues? I only ran about 200 miles before the season was done here and added an inline filter about halfway through.
3. Before adjusting my valves, my mixture was spot on and it would start pretty easily. After adjusting them (the bike is at 9k miles and never had them adjusted) the plugs were reading rich. I got the left side back into an acceptable color by adjusting the pilot screw, but the right side refuses to get dialed in. The exhaust valves on that side are also a little noisy, but I've checked them multiple times and they are definitely in clearance. I'm wondering if that has something to do with my starting issues. Should I be checking the valves again or looking into tuning my carbs once more? Currently I'm running pod filters with 142.5 mains, 42.5 pilots, and I can't recall my pilot screw settings (was 2.5 out initially, now it's something like 2 on the left and 1 on the right or something).
4. I also noticed some surging while maintaining constant throttle at around 3-5k RPMs. I built a manometer and the carbs are synced, so I'm kind of at a loss as to what the cause could be. Do I need to raise the jet needle? I have the non-adjustable one, but I read you can use a stack of washers instead of that big plastic spacer to raise the needle up, but does this richen the mixture?
5. I don't like how low the back suspension has the seat sitting and would like it maybe .5"-1" higher in the rear. The dampening on the rear shocks is on the lowest setting, so would raising that make the rear sag less?
6. I'm preparing to order a chunk of items from MikesXS and on the list is a non-vacuum petcock. Is this the one that will fit our bikes (minus the lever hitting the tank) http://www.mikesxs.net/product/20-0019.html
Alright, I think that is all of the questions I have for the moment! Thanks for any and all help guys!
Alright, I have some questions for you XS masters. Sorry for the wall of text, but any help is appreciated! Also, I don't have my bike at my apartment, or even in the same state as me, so some of these questions I could solve myself but I just don't have my bike to tinker on at the moment!
1. Starting with my tank, it is a tiny bit rusty (already threw some diesel and screws/nuts in there previously) and has been tinting my gas orange. I plan on using some Metal Rescue on it to get rid of the rest of the rust. Should I use some sort of sealer or should I be ok as long as I'm riding and keeping fresh gas in the tank?
2. I'm also going to be pulling my carbs off and going through them again because I'm having problems getting the bike started when it's cold, and also sometimes when it has warmed up and been run. Is there anything I should really be wary of given my tank's rust issues? I only ran about 200 miles before the season was done here and added an inline filter about halfway through.
3. Before adjusting my valves, my mixture was spot on and it would start pretty easily. After adjusting them (the bike is at 9k miles and never had them adjusted) the plugs were reading rich. I got the left side back into an acceptable color by adjusting the pilot screw, but the right side refuses to get dialed in. The exhaust valves on that side are also a little noisy, but I've checked them multiple times and they are definitely in clearance. I'm wondering if that has something to do with my starting issues. Should I be checking the valves again or looking into tuning my carbs once more? Currently I'm running pod filters with 142.5 mains, 42.5 pilots, and I can't recall my pilot screw settings (was 2.5 out initially, now it's something like 2 on the left and 1 on the right or something).
4. I also noticed some surging while maintaining constant throttle at around 3-5k RPMs. I built a manometer and the carbs are synced, so I'm kind of at a loss as to what the cause could be. Do I need to raise the jet needle? I have the non-adjustable one, but I read you can use a stack of washers instead of that big plastic spacer to raise the needle up, but does this richen the mixture?
5. I don't like how low the back suspension has the seat sitting and would like it maybe .5"-1" higher in the rear. The dampening on the rear shocks is on the lowest setting, so would raising that make the rear sag less?
6. I'm preparing to order a chunk of items from MikesXS and on the list is a non-vacuum petcock. Is this the one that will fit our bikes (minus the lever hitting the tank) http://www.mikesxs.net/product/20-0019.html
Alright, I think that is all of the questions I have for the moment! Thanks for any and all help guys!