What did you do with your XS today?

Have you thought of checking the connection's for your plug wires? I was kicking and grinding and pushing and kicking only to find my plug wires were poorly connected. After I fixed that it started fine with a huge BANG from the exhaust pipes.
 
Went for a nice ride by the lake:bike:
 

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Woohoo!!! Success I was successful re soldering the connections to my turn signal switch and getting both not just right but right and left turn signals to operate. I really Hate electrical gremlins. I usually offer them to the electrition and pay dearly. But I tackled it my self!!! Then went for a 11 mile ride & ran it out of gas at the end of the driveway. Guess I shoulda stopped at the gas station. Oh well What a hoot to drive it any ways.:D:D:rock:
 
Got the carbs off the bike today. Hopefully I'll get a free evening this week to pick them apart and boil them in some white vinegar.

Also found that there were another 2 bolts missing from the top of the airbox assembly to mount it to the frame. With the 3 bolts that were missing on the right side of the bike when I bought it, it seems that the p.o. felt it was fine to have the air box held in place with the friction-fittings on the plastic trim pieces. Yikes!:yikes:
 
Just changed the oil in mine, started on the side mount license plate and 40 Ford taillight, then it started raining. I'll finish the taillight when the weather clears up, then I've gotta put a new tube in the rear tire since I picked up a nail.
 
Doing research for an R6 front-end and brake swap; someone in town has a good deal on R6 forks so I'm thinking I'll start collecting parts for off-season building.
 
Found that some bozo hit my bike while parked. Fortunately, just broke off a few pieces off my front fender. But I found the pieces and pretty sure I can bondo them back together. Kinda like the look of the bike fenderness... I wonder if I could make a low profile seat cushion for a more a more cafe racer look...hmmm.
 
Painted my 83 maxim 400! I'm actually quite impressed! No one will ever guess it was done by a 17 year old kid haha :D
 

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I installed my new throttle cable today. Came from a '79 XS1100 and fit just about perfectly. It's a little more sensitive than my old one, however I'll attribute that to 150% more attached cable. Also made a contact to replace both tires for under $250, with tires, labour and tire tax included. I'll be adding a review for Sonic Cycle Salvage in London after this weekend.
Also, tried to re-sync my carbs last night with my housemate. Managed to suck up about 50mL of 2-stroke oil and was left apologizing to the neighbours about the smoke hovering over our houses for about a half hour. I'll find some thicker bottles and try again. Note, I'm trying a different method that I want to make a write-up about later.
 
I bought the paint for it originally but I'm really liking it the way it is, so I think I'm going to leave it. The single colour really makes the tank look rounder and I like that. Any extra paint would probably take away from that
 
Ok So I took the bike out this Am. It started right up and sounded great. Left it sit till I got errands run and the lawn mowed. Got my helmet on and took it out Started it up and 1 hole running!!! 1 Fing hole not 2 - 1 hole. So in my infinite wisdom I decided to try & see if it would fire under strain & took it down the road. Nope!! No fire in da hole. Pulled the tank checked the plugs Right is Black & sooty (running rich I knew that). Left plug WET! No Spark???? after I suggested to someone on the 26th to check & reposition his wires, caps & coil connections. Guess What? Cap & Coil connections were bad!! Don't use that Graphite core plug wire. It looses it's connection really easily. And it seems wire core plug wire is getting hard to find. I did get some and took it out for a little ride later.
 
You can get 7mm copper core wire at any auto parts store or on-line for cheap.
 
I did get some but most of the parts stores only carry sets or singles with Graphite cores. Last year I bought a long single wire and butchered it to fit. It wasn't easy getting the connections right but it did work at least for a limited time. In my little town there's a couple Chain stores like O'Reiley's and Auto Value. There used to be a Napa but they closed recently. Luckily the Auto value manager had a full spool tucked away for safe keeping along with a set of new resistor caps.
 
Got the carbs back on the bike after tuning them this week. Fired up without any hesitation! Nice and smooth through acceleration now, and not bogging down on starts.

I might have to adjust the pilot mix screw, though. After the engine was nice and warm (quick highway run), the RPMs tend to hang a little bit. Takes a couple of seconds to get the idle down from 4k down to just under 2k, and doesn't want to go down to idle (1200) unless I let the clutch out a bit, but it'll stay there once I pull the clutch back in. Probably a bit lean? I've got the mix screws at 3 turns out.
 

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