North FL Build

I rode the new bike around the neighborhood on Sunday morning. It would run OK with the choke out, but wouldn't idle with the choke in. Carb'ectomy, here I come. The front drum brake also has some issues, but the rear brake felt good.

So, that was my first ever xs400 ride. It felt so odd after being used to my big softail with the 95" S&S. I liked it, but it felt SO SMALL. My wife says she is going to learn how to ride a bike on this one!
 
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I've got a small section of DOM tubing coming for the extension, but I haven't though about plugs yet... Any advice there? ...

After you cut the swingarm, measure the I.D. of the tube and buy the closest size tube (o.d obviously) to that. Get it in about .120" wall. If nothing is close, have someone turn you some sleeves on a lathe. You may have to grind out the weld seam in the tube that the swingarm is made of becuase I think it's ERW. Don't use a solid slug. Sleeves are better. Also drill some holes and use plug welds (rosette welds) to further strengthen everything.
 
With respect to the carbs I also had the same issue. While a surgical cleaning of your carbs can never be done too many time, make sure your idle mix screws are set properly at 3 to 3.5 turns out from seated.
Also, the single-carb setup has been discussed a few times but I've never read a final conclusion as to how applicable it is to our bikes. This is because of the short time that both intake valve durations overlap.
 
Some updates:

'79 - Sam and I cut the swingarm and welded in another 4" worth of DOM tubing last night. It seemed to go fairly well. While we obviously don't have a jig (and I would want to build one if we did it on a regular basis), eyeballing, with a small level and tape measure seemed to do the trick. I still need to clean up the welds and re-splatter any areas that I may have missed, but the bulk of it is done.

With the parts I've been buying, we now have a bit of a roller:

Photo0043.jpg


So, plenty of work to do, but we have made progress. By the way, what are the extra tubes sticking out from the frame at the rear brake lever point (and on the other side)? They have a threaded bit sticking out, but I don't see what the heck it is for. Looks like just a little horseshoe welded to the bottom of the frame opposite the lower rear motor mounts.

I did stop by my local indy shop who often has used Harley stuff. No peanut tanks, so it looks like I'm back to ebay for that. There is plenty of missing hardware, but at least now I can take an individual bolt off the '81 and take it with me to a store to buy replacements.

'81 - Carbs are off and partially dismantled. They were missing a couple of screws (one on a float bowl, one on the diaphragm top. Both diaphragms look good, no apparent holes. Jets looks clear, float valves look to be moving easily, floats look like they have been leveled well. The real problem I saw was whatever some PO put on the carb where a real float bowl gasket should have gone. It looked like a mix of some plumbers tape and some type of caulking/gasket seal goop. It was NOT good, and bits of the gasket seal type stuff was floating around in the carb. Who does that?

So, I have two new gaskets coming, and I'll hit Home Depot for some additional hardware. I'll also pick up a cheap fuel filter.
 
I think without seeing it you are talking about the rear brake lever stop? As for the carbs with bits of atv floating around make sure you fully take them apart and clean them well:wink2:
 
That's what the rear of the exhaust was bolted to on mine. I can't remember what else since I've cut my frame so many times.
 
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