What did you do with your XS today?

Started peeling apart the carbs after intermittent rough running / hard starting. Discovered one of my brass floats is "taking on water" and pulling the jets out revealed lots of fun junk. When I first got the bike running it worked fantastic, but, after several months of use, all of the crispy critters hiding in the passages started to loosen up and migrate places, causing my recent issues. The carbs & parts will be getting a cider vinegar bath as soon as I manage to get the emulsion tubes out.

*Side note: Congratulations levdir, on the 4000th post in the thread!
 
Yesterday I pulled the headers and removed one stripped exhaust stud; turns out stock VW studs will fit perfectly and the gap in their threads is a much better fit for my headers' flanges. Now to see if fresh threads and bolts and some gasket material will fix my exhaust leak.
 
Don't be afraid to give them a decent whack... I gave each carb a bath in an ultrasonic cleaner before I could get mine out...
 
My boy helped swap handlebars from the 79 to the 80. Pulled the front master cylinder because its leaking. Pulled the carbs for a good cleaning. Lastly found that with the fresh unbent handlebars the front wheel has a good right hand twist. Will be adjusting those tonight with the help of Neil Diamond.

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Emulsion tubes out. A spot of the wd40 and, like Sesty said, "...a decent whack..." with a small hammer and wood dowel to drive them through (A few little crusties were keeping them in place). Bath time! :3
 
cruising home from dinner with my parents... 75 degrees, jacket zipped up and a mild sunburn from sitting on the beach all day.... i couldnt believe how cold i was... shivering the whole way. opted for a slow route home to cut back on windchill..
 
Was challenged by a brand new Mustang GTO. Stuck with him for several seconds until he pulled away at the higher speeds. I think that if I had shifted in the sweet spots I could have kept up a bit longer. Was still fun, though! :bike:

Also built my own "custom" baking soda blaster. I tested it out on a steel frame table that I picked up off the side of the road. The blaster worked quite well. When it cools down a bit out here (not holding my breath:laugh:) I am going to take it to my carburetor.

Before I rode out today and raced that GTO, I fired up my bike and was attacked by a nest of red wasps that had made their new home in the upper corner of the car port. :cussing: Guess they didn't like the sound of my engine. Now they know the taste of brake cleaner! :devil:
 
Finished reassembly of my crabs after a thorough cleaning and soldering up some pinholes in my brass floats. Then, carefully dissected my peacock, gave it a good cleaning and put it back together. Put the crabs and peacock back on the bike and gave it a whirl. Simply put: Wow. My bike runs TONS better with a clean fuel system. Got rid of the rough start, lost the rev hang / lean running symptoms, no more slow climb when you twist the throttle.

Plugged carbs make your bike run bad...who knew? :D
 
Hadn't had any time to play the last few weeks but did pick up an 87 450 Rebel to fix. Anyone know what to look for on these Rebels?? Been sitting a long time in a garage partially disassembled.
 
Finished a boat-load of work on my bike completing essentially all I want to do as far as custom work goes ... just need to paint everything. I would post pics but I keep getting some stupid error message saying something about a security token ... whatever that means. Last night and this morning it ran like a Swiss time piece ... this afternoon it ran like a piece of ... something else. Kept backfiring intermittently... I've been through the carbs twice, re-jetted them the day before yesterday since I put glasspacks and UNI pod filters on but it's running precisely the same as it ran back in April/May when I put it down for renovations. It'll start up just fine but if I let go of the throttle for more than 2-3 seconds, it's dead. It'll hiccup like a backfire and sputter down and die. I went through the timing back in April and set it to perfection. I balanced carbs back then and found a vacuum leak which made significant improvements but it still backfired then and now. Only thing I haven't done is valve adjustment as I figure that if valves were the problem, it would backfire every single revolution, not intermittently. I ride along Lake Shore Drive on my commute ... it's getting increasingly tempting to send it to the bottom of the lake. I've had three Harleys (one was 1/2 owned), two 1980's Hondas (4 cyl), and this Yamaha. I've rebuilt carburetors on all of these machines and never once had a single issue ... until this XS400. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you for taking time to read this.

- J
 
Really hate to make lite of your misfortune but just can't help my self. So ya had a Yamaweenieroast?? Hope you didn't get hurt other than your pride. Always hated when that happens. Usually when I am leaning precariously over the carburetor on an older car adjusting the timing. How many of you guys remember reaching back to turn the distributor?? I know Off topic but it's still an engine issue.
 
Nothing was harmed luckily other than the equivalent of a sunburn on my hand from swatting and plugging the carbs with my hand to out the flames out. And yes I have had many singed eyebrows and arm hairs because of open breather distributor tuning..

On another what I did today...I retrofitted TCI on my 78 and it is finally running and made my 80 more of a skeleton.
 
Got the new shocks for the XS!
 

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Hooped the rear and relocated shocks lower and forward, repurposed an old sign I had for a seat pan. Realized I can't relocated electronic until I have somewhere to put them.
 

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Welded up a new battery box, haven't relocated everything yet but it all fits. The battery is a fairly small emergency sign type agm. It is able to start the bike with the e starter (Currently no headlight or running lights/blinkers so that may change)
 

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