1lowdiesel
XS400 Addict
So saturday i decide to take a ride and find a car show i saw a flyer for. It was about a 40mi ride one way. So off i go, got a full take of fuel and i'm crusing along, after riding out to the area where i thought the show was i can't manage to find it. So i start heading back, i turn onto the "highway" and start to get on it, bike feels sluggish. I pull the clutch in and it shuts off, Great! Pull off to the side of the road and start checking things out, finally get it fired back up about 2-3 min later. So i take back off again, get about 200yds down the road the back tire locks up doing about 40, SHIT! I clutch it and coast to the side where I find that I managed to run the bike out of oil and lock the motor up. The bike would smoke a bit on the top end and i never even thought to check it before i went. So i'm 30mi from home and had to walk the bike 7mi to a gas station where i waited on my buddy to come pick me up.
OH well lesson learned the hard way. I will be sure to now check the oil once a week seeing how i ride most every day.
Now the bike is sitting in my yard with 2 cylinders full of penetrating oil and 10w30 hoping that in a few days it'll free itself up.
Now the good news. I had a lead on a bike, but was putting it off till i could get some more money up, unfortunatley with my new found stupidity on the other bike i needed to get something else going.
Found the bike on here and decided to take the 2.5hr drive up to get it yesterday.
View attachment 9224
I was happy to see the bike was in decent shape, however the wiring needed the most attention. Unfortunately, as i dug deeper into the bike i found more and more things that the guy that owned the bike before the guy i got it from didn't have a clue what he was doing. Wires tapped into places they shouldn't be, ear broken off on carb that holds the cable end, wrong screws x threaded in the starter switch assembly and a few other wonders.
After screwing with the wiring for 20 min or so i decided to just pull the harness off the other bike and use that.
I'm not bige on paint but i decided that while i had the thing apart i might as well paint the motor and get a little creative. I wire wheel'd the cases and painted the motor with high temp semi gloss, then sanded down the fins on the head with 80 grit.
Decided to paint the wheels black as well just cause i'm not a big fan of chrome.
Got the bike into the garage at about 8 to start cutting it up. Got the seat area done and braced and made new shock mounts. Got the wiring in and hooked up but i'm having a weak spark issue i need to get figured out. Made new handle bars and rewired my headlight to come on with the ignition rather than the switch. Finally got fed up trying to figure the spark thing out and went inside about 1:40am.
Gonna get some more pics later cause i know everyone love pics.
OH well lesson learned the hard way. I will be sure to now check the oil once a week seeing how i ride most every day.
Now the bike is sitting in my yard with 2 cylinders full of penetrating oil and 10w30 hoping that in a few days it'll free itself up.
Now the good news. I had a lead on a bike, but was putting it off till i could get some more money up, unfortunatley with my new found stupidity on the other bike i needed to get something else going.
Found the bike on here and decided to take the 2.5hr drive up to get it yesterday.
View attachment 9224
I was happy to see the bike was in decent shape, however the wiring needed the most attention. Unfortunately, as i dug deeper into the bike i found more and more things that the guy that owned the bike before the guy i got it from didn't have a clue what he was doing. Wires tapped into places they shouldn't be, ear broken off on carb that holds the cable end, wrong screws x threaded in the starter switch assembly and a few other wonders.
After screwing with the wiring for 20 min or so i decided to just pull the harness off the other bike and use that.
I'm not bige on paint but i decided that while i had the thing apart i might as well paint the motor and get a little creative. I wire wheel'd the cases and painted the motor with high temp semi gloss, then sanded down the fins on the head with 80 grit.
Decided to paint the wheels black as well just cause i'm not a big fan of chrome.
Got the bike into the garage at about 8 to start cutting it up. Got the seat area done and braced and made new shock mounts. Got the wiring in and hooked up but i'm having a weak spark issue i need to get figured out. Made new handle bars and rewired my headlight to come on with the ignition rather than the switch. Finally got fed up trying to figure the spark thing out and went inside about 1:40am.
Gonna get some more pics later cause i know everyone love pics.