markdtx
XS400 New Member
I am a new owner of a 1980 XS400 Special and am happy to be a new member of this community. I need some help getting my bike going though...
First some background info: This is my 2nd bike but I have very little experience actually working on motorcycles because my first bike was a dead reliable Yamaha SR150 that had essentially no problems in the year that I owned and rode it. With this project I want to learn as much as I can.
About the bike: the previous owner had the bike since 1983 and said it was running fine when he last rode it about 6 years ago. After I put in a new battery and some fresh gas, it started right up at the push of the button but had problems idling. After fiddling with the throttle stop screw it idled fine right at around 1200 rpm. However, it seems to be really moody with when it wants to start up, sometimes starting on the first push and sometimes not at all.
I've taken it out for short rides twice but it seems to have some major problems. On acceleration from a dead stop in first gear, it really wants to die and I have to basically give it full throttle to keep it from dying. In every gear and at any engine speed it is massively underpowered and the highest speed I've gotten up to is probably 35mph at about 5K rpm.
I took apart the carbs yesterday to take a look inside but didn't see anything glaringly awry. Admittedly though, I don't know if I would recognize a fault if I saw one.
I changed the oil today and started it up and it seemed to be running well, but then about an hour later I wanted to take it out for a ride but it just would not start up. When I try to start it, aside from the normal sounds there is sometimes a clacking and spinning sound. Another weird thing is that about 80% of the time when it isnt running, I cant change the bike out of neutral and into any other gear.
Oh yeah and a few other things: The left side exhaust seems to be missing a piece in between the muffler and the header pipe so the connection is not airtight even when the tightener is fastened as tight as it goes. Also, I took apart the air boxes to take a look at the air filters and half of one of them has basically disentegrated. Lastly, I took a look at the sparkplugs this morning and one of them looks exactly how it should look and the other one is black and oily.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
First some background info: This is my 2nd bike but I have very little experience actually working on motorcycles because my first bike was a dead reliable Yamaha SR150 that had essentially no problems in the year that I owned and rode it. With this project I want to learn as much as I can.
About the bike: the previous owner had the bike since 1983 and said it was running fine when he last rode it about 6 years ago. After I put in a new battery and some fresh gas, it started right up at the push of the button but had problems idling. After fiddling with the throttle stop screw it idled fine right at around 1200 rpm. However, it seems to be really moody with when it wants to start up, sometimes starting on the first push and sometimes not at all.
I've taken it out for short rides twice but it seems to have some major problems. On acceleration from a dead stop in first gear, it really wants to die and I have to basically give it full throttle to keep it from dying. In every gear and at any engine speed it is massively underpowered and the highest speed I've gotten up to is probably 35mph at about 5K rpm.
I took apart the carbs yesterday to take a look inside but didn't see anything glaringly awry. Admittedly though, I don't know if I would recognize a fault if I saw one.
I changed the oil today and started it up and it seemed to be running well, but then about an hour later I wanted to take it out for a ride but it just would not start up. When I try to start it, aside from the normal sounds there is sometimes a clacking and spinning sound. Another weird thing is that about 80% of the time when it isnt running, I cant change the bike out of neutral and into any other gear.
Oh yeah and a few other things: The left side exhaust seems to be missing a piece in between the muffler and the header pipe so the connection is not airtight even when the tightener is fastened as tight as it goes. Also, I took apart the air boxes to take a look at the air filters and half of one of them has basically disentegrated. Lastly, I took a look at the sparkplugs this morning and one of them looks exactly how it should look and the other one is black and oily.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.