What did you do with your XS today?

purchased new iridium plugs, black fuel hose and new fuel filter... put them on my table... girlfriend cleaned the apartment... said new parts are now missing and she has no recollection of where she put them...

this is my nightmare!

tumblr_mq1fxpotmZ1rp8zw1o1_500.gif
 
Got a tire machine thing and finally broke the bead on my rear tire... need new tire spoons though. They bend kind of easy.
 
Something I did a few weeks ago but never posted it:wink2: After running uni's directly to the carbs on my 80 the bike ran and started fine (42.5 pilots, 4 turns out on mix screws, stock 80 needles and 137.5 mains). It still could have used a bit more on the pilots but not any real issue. So after putting in the 45 pilots and decided to try using the H-pipe again just to see if anything changed. I replace the baffled center pipe on it with a straight open one so there was no restrictions between the boots.
Next I used the stock filter pipes to help hold the filters on. They have flange on one end which should help hold them even better:wink2: After putting it all together the bike runs even better the before. I seems the H-pipe is always a better way to go than without. I have tried four different types of pods and they never worked as well as than being attached to the H-pipe. :thumbsup:
 

Attachments

  • DSC02960.jpg
    DSC02960.jpg
    218.1 KB · Views: 316
  • DSC02961.jpg
    DSC02961.jpg
    199.4 KB · Views: 299
  • DSC02957.jpg
    DSC02957.jpg
    188.9 KB · Views: 314
  • user3160_pic6399_1433460149.jpg
    user3160_pic6399_1433460149.jpg
    124.7 KB · Views: 317
  • user3160_pic6400_1433460149.jpg
    user3160_pic6400_1433460149.jpg
    106.2 KB · Views: 288
I'm still going to use the h-pipe with my PWKs. I agree, it just seems to make things work better. Maybe the longer intake before the venturi smooths things out a bit more?
 
Swapped out my clubman bars with some clip-ons, and replaced the cheap-o ebay fork gaiters with some other ebay fork gaiters. Fits PERFECTLY. See the before and after. Gives a much cleaner look.

The clip-ons just hit the tank, which is really only a problem at really slow speeds. There is very little room to play with (if only the bars were and inch longer and I could slide the controls out further...). I'd rather not modify the stops. Also, I relocated the ignition switch because it didn't quite clear the HUD with the mounting bracket flipped upside down. Works fine, I just lose my steering lock.

Also, does anyone know how to remove the handlebar mount bushings? Or should I just leave them in there?
 

Attachments

  • Close up.jpg
    Close up.jpg
    292.7 KB · Views: 298
  • After.jpg
    After.jpg
    157.8 KB · Views: 317
  • Before.jpg
    Before.jpg
    221.5 KB · Views: 320
Went for a stroll around the block to warm it up for an oil change. Stalled coasting in 4th gear, but popped the clutch and got started again. Rolled back to my garage and pulled the fairly new plugs to find them very sooty black. The bike seems to idle worse when it warms up, so I guess it's a good time to check my carbs oot. As far as I know, everything is stock. Worn jets perhaps?
 
Went for a stroll around the block to warm it up for an oil change. Stalled coasting in 4th gear, but popped the clutch and got started again. Rolled back to my garage and pulled the fairly new plugs to find them very sooty black. The bike seems to idle worse when it warms up, so I guess it's a good time to check my carbs oot. As far as I know, everything is stock. Worn jets perhaps?

Running too rich, burning oil, bad float valves, wrong plugs. There could be a lot of things causing it. Jets don't generally wear out just get dirty.
 
Cut some tube at work to try for exhaust. About 14"long with a 45 degree bend Kinda like the exhaust tips on Mid 60's Buick Riviera's. Look pretty good but Freakin raucously loud & has a throaty rumble like a Hog. I kinda like it but I don't think my neighbors would be too pleased. Hadn't taken it for a trip yet cus I need to get clamps & 2 hangers for them.
 
So I guess I could post pics of this here machine. I ... or should I say my bike ... has reached a point where the turn signals are now on strike ... when I first installed the signals and relay (went with LED), everything worked without a hitch - fantastic ... as time went on, the probability of a successful function of the signals diminished ... and now I'm using hand signals - and am not pleased. :mad:


So I fixed another problem anyway. I installed new mufflers as I mentioned previously, however I very quickly learned that said mufflers interfered with the rear brake lever ... A.K.A. I couldn't use the pedal at all - hit the muffler right away. So I proceeded to torch and bend my rear brake lever until I was able to actuate it through its full range of motion without knocking my muffler. Looked great so I let it cool and went to take it for a spin...
...
...

Until I realized I couldn't start the bike as the kick-start lever slams right into my bent brake lever :doh:

:Take two:

I proceeded to do a little bit of repositioning of the muffler, torching and bending of the included rear mounting bracket, and torching and bending of my brake lever further, and now everything is fine... except the damn turn signals :banghead:

The only other ... and perhaps bigger problem that I'm experiencing with this fella is somewhat of a major issue for a Chicago-resident:

The Friday before I went on vacation out west, I left my laboratory early to "beat" rush-hour traffic ... my anticipation of a 60-70 minute ride home turned into a 3hr bumper-to-bumper traffic jam ride during which the bike experienced hellacious idling issues - namely high idling ... or no idling - it died on me 5 or 6 times on the interstate :wtf: - the only way to prevent the thing from stalling out was to hold the throttle open at 2,000 or higher RPM. Simultaneously, I noticed my clutch somehow got out of adjustment as the lever was much looser than before - so I'm wondering if it was overheating - or if the clutch was somehow to blame - perhaps if the clutch came out of adjustment, then pulling the lever would never fully release the clutch but that doesn't account for idle issues in neutral??? An air-cooled motor shouldn't be overheating at idle based on my experiences with my '85 Honda Nighthawk 700S and my 2001 HD Fatboy. (Note: at this point, my new mufflers were not yet installed - I was running stock mufflers with carbs balanced earlier that week - when not in traffic, it ran beautifully).

- J
 

Attachments

  • WP_20150606_19_12_16_Pro.jpg
    WP_20150606_19_12_16_Pro.jpg
    282.4 KB · Views: 281
  • WP_20150606_19_14_01_Pro.jpg
    WP_20150606_19_14_01_Pro.jpg
    236.5 KB · Views: 232
... And I just purchased a seat hoop and plugs from Dime City Cycles - 7" center - to - center and 1" diameter. My plan is to craft my own cowl seat and seat pan (obviously sheet metal for seat pan but I'm gonna attempt fiberglass for the cowl bit). Dime City Cycles has a great tutorial on making a fiberglass seat - for those of you who are curious ... here's the link.

It's a 2-part video, part 1: Making the fiberglass mold out of foam. Part 2: Taping it and "glassing" it. Conveniently I already have the very same saw that the guy in this video is using - I picked it up from Menards. Aside from that, he takes a lot of the guesswork out of doing fiberglass - we'll see how it goes.

I'll be working on this next week and will document my efforts. I also purchased materials for making my own café seat so that will go hand - in - hand.

Cheers

- J
 
Nice looking bike JV!

I don't think it should be overheating from just idling, but others would know better. Especially if you have to pull it up a bit to 2k to keep it from stalling. It's not much, but it doesn't help that you're not moving.

If it's inconsistent idle I'd be guessing you're in "clean the carbs" or "find the vacuum leak" territory. If you put new exhaust on you'll likely be re-jetting anyway, so give it a good clean next time you're in there.

Have you swapped out your flasher unit already? You might've got lucky with running the original one with LEDs, but from what I've heard most people need to swap them out to even get it working. You might have been on borrowed time.
 
Nice looking bike JV!

I don't think it should be overheating from just idling, but others would know better. Especially if you have to pull it up a bit to 2k to keep it from stalling. It's not much, but it doesn't help that you're not moving.

If it's inconsistent idle I'd be guessing you're in "clean the carbs" or "find the vacuum leak" territory. If you put new exhaust on you'll likely be re-jetting anyway, so give it a good clean next time you're in there.

Have you swapped out your flasher unit already? You might've got lucky with running the original one with LEDs, but from what I've heard most people need to swap them out to even get it working. You might have been on borrowed time.


Well thanks for your feedback ... the carbs were rebuilt over the winter and I did find a huge vacuum leak a week prior to this incident (see an earlier post from me). And as far as the turn signals go, yea, I got a relay for LED signals based on a tutorial posted elsewhere on this forum (don't remember who did it off the top of my head). As mentioned in an earlier post, I had some wiring issues with the relay which involved wiring it backwards as the colors of the wires I have on my bike differed from that on the tutorial I found - there is - I suppose - a possibility that I screwed up the relay from wiring it backwards but given that it worked perfectly ... I can't be sure.

- J
 
Been staring at it all winter. At the end of last summer the tank started leaking again. Finally found a decent tank, and took it to professionals to recondition it. Picked it up today, needs some lipstick and mascara but will be on the bike soon and I'll be riding again.
 
Well some of this was actually yesterday, but....

My 1978 XS400 sidecar project has been dragging on for over a year. Seems work, tear down and reassemble Sportster engine, retiring after 45 years, dismantling the XS650 Sidecar outfit I rode to work for about 15+ years in all kinds of weather including getting tee-boned by an Isuzu 14 years back, and assorted other things kind of got in the way.

Well decided a couple weeks back to get restarted on this 1978, in more ways than one. As it had been parked for a year or more before I got it back from the nieces husband who I loaned it to a few years back, he was given a 1982 or was it a 1981 XS400 by my brother so he up graded. Actually I think I either gave that one to my brother or sold it for next to nothing. Anyhow this was going to be about my XS400!

As I said bike had set with little running for a couple years so figured a carb cleaning was a good first step. Removed disassembled and ran most of the parts through my recycled Crock pot filled with 50/50 mix of Simple Green and water. Seemed to clean pretty good but did discolor the castings a bit when left in for longer time. I also have on of those Harbor Freight Ultrasonic cleaners, right now it has a mix of water and ammonia clothes washing liquid again I think about 50/50. A few minutes in that and the brass parts looked almost like new. While trying to remove the pilot jets in on carb it the slot started to break out. I cleaned up the one I had already removed from the other carb and then went to my XS650 Spare Parts Shelf and guess what they are the same number. So then I just taped my smallest EZ-Out into the stuck one and it actuall came out, saved it as it could be reused if needed some day.

Reassembled both carbs and then decided it might be worth the effort to adjust the valves as I have no idea if they were ever adjusted since new, little screw on covers do not have any damage so may never have been off. One intake and one exhaust just a touch loose. Next figured I'd check to be sure I had good spark. That's when things seemed to go south.

Left side had fair but not impressive spark, right none or very intermittent. As I have a 1977 XS400 that is partially apart had easy access to some other coils and condenser. After spending too much time swapping things and testing with VOM decided coil is not the problem, I knew the contacts were fairly new as early in the last year it was used I had installed new ones. I had tried opening and closing the contacts for the right side with small screw driver and even shorting them with the screw driver, did not seem to have spark. As a last resort figured I'd check continuity through points, yes should have done it much sooner but sometimes you go off in one direction and over look the basics. This is when things seemed strange, not getting the reading I expected. OK lets polish them with some 1200 grit paper and clean with sheet of clean paper. Now this does not make sense??? Points are open and I'm showing very low OHMS from wire to coil and the engine head??? Wire to coil is not frayed or even touching anything??? Then I look close at the wire end where it is attached to the contacts. That wire end is bent over just enough where it was making a slight contact to the contact frame bridging over the insulating washer!

Guess what now I have spark on both cylinders, not as much as I'd like but think those little old coils are just borderline at best. Nudged the timing to get both cylinders right on the mark.

Remount those clean carbs, install fuel tank dump in a few quarts of fuel pull out enrichener<AKA choke>, give a few kicks. Nothing! Okay one more try crank the carbs open about 1/2 way and give another kick! What the heck is that noise? Oh wait that's 400cc's of screaming XS400 running! That little engine makes more noise than my 1200 Sporsters! Then again it has some vintage 1980's slip on after market things where the mufflers should be!

Guess about the next thing I need to do is drop by the DMV and get the paperwork finished on this so I can do some legal test runs. Then if everything seems good will have to disassemble the sidecar mounts and clean up some welds and put a touch of paint on things. Hope this little outfit can hold it's own against wife's Vespa. Don't laugh that little scooter will hit an easy 80 mph on the level. Through the twisties I almost have trouble keeping up with her with the Sportster Sidecar outfit!
 
Not today but this past week I gave making a fiberglass seatpan buck another run, and this time it actually looks halfway symmetrical. I also got my friend to press the bearings into my home-made rearsets and got them solidly mounted in the stock muffler mounting bushings. Some wide washers and a couple oversized nuts to act as spacers and they are rock solid.
 
Went out for a ride today and ended up pushing the bike 4 miles back home! Was merging on to a busy road and it just died while giving it decent throttle. Looks to be like an electrical short somewhere in the mess of wires under the seat. The bike starts right up for a second, will stay running while I rev the piss out of it for 4-5 seconds then dies again. I'll dive into it tomorrow.
 
Found the problem! Dash lights were flickering when moved around wires. See that big glob of melted plastic? There were two bullet-style connectors wrapped in a heap of electrical tape that melted. I put new ends on all the wires and she fired up as normal. I installed my new solenoid since I was in there.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1434029703.600140.jpg

Cleaned up. Eventually I'll go to the blade style, but this will do for now. Here in upstate NY I'll have plenty of time for upgrades during winter. I just want to ride it!

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1434029781.450925.jpg
 
Back
Top