Starting a thread now but updates may or may not be slow - we'll kind of just have to see how things go.
I bought this bike early this week and it's my first bike. I have absolutely no mechanical knowledge at all but can work with my hands, can follow instructions, have the manual and have a buddy or two who will help me out when I need a hand.
So heres the state of the bike and what I'm going to be doing:
Mechanically, the bike has some issues but I believe most of it can be fixed by cleaning out the carbs.
1) It has some problems starting up and getting running. It will start up with the choke wide open and the petcock set to prime, let it run a moment then change to run, but it revs up to 5k+ and doesn't idle down. If I let it run for a bit then close the choke a touch it'll rev down then sputter out. So to actually get the bike running I have to sit and baby the choke, moving it back and forth to keep it reving not too high or too low. Depending on the day I *may* at this point (five minutes+) be able to close the choke and keep the bike running or it may die. Once it's warm I can start the bike with the choke closed by starting in prime, waiting five seconds, moving the petcock to run. Even once the bike has been going for a good while and the engine should be good to go, I always have to set the petcock to prime and let it run for about five seconds before I can get it going.
2) Occasionally the throttle goes nuts / the engine revs up out of nowhere. This happened once in gear as I was riding around and a couple times while running in neutral. No idea what this is about.
3) While running the bike will occasionally stall out. This can happen in neutral but I adjusted the idle throttle screw and fixed that for the most part, but it also can happen in gear with the clutch fully pulled in, so I don't know what that is yet.
3) Horn doesn't work
4) Turn signals occasionally work properly. They always turn on but sometimes they blink and sometimes they are just a steady light on.
5) Rarely I can't change gears. This may be related to stalling out? Clutch issue or even just a cable issue?
I think that's all for the big things.
Cosmetically there is work to be done but I don't know exactly how deep I want to go yet. The previous owner painted everything black - exhaust pipes, engine, forks, etc. I like the look of this, but he did a pretty crappy job. So I'm going to strip everything down and do it all properly. The tank is stock and looks fine but reading around on here I've seen a couple builds with knee indents and I love the look of that. In addition to that I may paint with white stripes down the middle, like seen here - http://www.xs400.com/attachments/img_20160813_083251-jpg.27322/ - but at that point I will most likely pick up a used tank off eBay and mod that one. If I make some mistakes and mess up the look of the indents I don't want to be SOL. I also really love the look of a matte black instead of a gloss, so if I need to think on how i want to do the tank before I start doing everything else.
So, those are my thoughts. I won't have my license until fall and probably won't safety and insure until next season, so I have time to get everything sorted.
Feedback and suggestions extremely welcome. Here's a dump of photos, including a bonus pic of my works parking lot where I will ride around (mostly in circles) until I can take it on the road!
I bought this bike early this week and it's my first bike. I have absolutely no mechanical knowledge at all but can work with my hands, can follow instructions, have the manual and have a buddy or two who will help me out when I need a hand.
So heres the state of the bike and what I'm going to be doing:
Mechanically, the bike has some issues but I believe most of it can be fixed by cleaning out the carbs.
1) It has some problems starting up and getting running. It will start up with the choke wide open and the petcock set to prime, let it run a moment then change to run, but it revs up to 5k+ and doesn't idle down. If I let it run for a bit then close the choke a touch it'll rev down then sputter out. So to actually get the bike running I have to sit and baby the choke, moving it back and forth to keep it reving not too high or too low. Depending on the day I *may* at this point (five minutes+) be able to close the choke and keep the bike running or it may die. Once it's warm I can start the bike with the choke closed by starting in prime, waiting five seconds, moving the petcock to run. Even once the bike has been going for a good while and the engine should be good to go, I always have to set the petcock to prime and let it run for about five seconds before I can get it going.
2) Occasionally the throttle goes nuts / the engine revs up out of nowhere. This happened once in gear as I was riding around and a couple times while running in neutral. No idea what this is about.
3) While running the bike will occasionally stall out. This can happen in neutral but I adjusted the idle throttle screw and fixed that for the most part, but it also can happen in gear with the clutch fully pulled in, so I don't know what that is yet.
3) Horn doesn't work
4) Turn signals occasionally work properly. They always turn on but sometimes they blink and sometimes they are just a steady light on.
5) Rarely I can't change gears. This may be related to stalling out? Clutch issue or even just a cable issue?
I think that's all for the big things.
Cosmetically there is work to be done but I don't know exactly how deep I want to go yet. The previous owner painted everything black - exhaust pipes, engine, forks, etc. I like the look of this, but he did a pretty crappy job. So I'm going to strip everything down and do it all properly. The tank is stock and looks fine but reading around on here I've seen a couple builds with knee indents and I love the look of that. In addition to that I may paint with white stripes down the middle, like seen here - http://www.xs400.com/attachments/img_20160813_083251-jpg.27322/ - but at that point I will most likely pick up a used tank off eBay and mod that one. If I make some mistakes and mess up the look of the indents I don't want to be SOL. I also really love the look of a matte black instead of a gloss, so if I need to think on how i want to do the tank before I start doing everything else.
So, those are my thoughts. I won't have my license until fall and probably won't safety and insure until next season, so I have time to get everything sorted.
Feedback and suggestions extremely welcome. Here's a dump of photos, including a bonus pic of my works parking lot where I will ride around (mostly in circles) until I can take it on the road!
...that's where I got the exploded view above.
