sandmanred
XS400 Addict
Looks great, nice job!
-
Enjoy XS400.com? Consider making a donation to help support the site.
XS400.com receives a small share of sales from some links on this page, but direct donations have a much greater impact on keeping this site going.
'77 XS400 build thread - cafe racer
- Thread starter Ezetman
- Start date
Ezetman
XS400 Enthusiast
Thank you!
So I went out riding last Sunday and got caught in the rain. Long story short, next week my bike hotwired itself and would stay on even after I removed the keys which led to draining my battery. I got around to taking a look at what happened and this is what I found.
Do you guys think I'm going to need to pull out the whole harness and replace the 2 cables that shorted?
Could water to the ignition switch cause this or should I search for something else?
So I went out riding last Sunday and got caught in the rain. Long story short, next week my bike hotwired itself and would stay on even after I removed the keys which led to draining my battery. I got around to taking a look at what happened and this is what I found.
Do you guys think I'm going to need to pull out the whole harness and replace the 2 cables that shorted?
Could water to the ignition switch cause this or should I search for something else?
Last edited:
You probably need to open the harness up to look for damaged wires to be sure you wont have any strange electrical ghosts later.
WelderDave
XS400 Addict
Very well put together, looks great! As for your battery situation mentioned previously, I also thought about lithium batteries as an option but heard a lot of horror stories. I use Duracell agm 1.3ah battery under my seat. Fits well, but you can’t have a starter for something that small. What route did you choose?
WelderDave
XS400 Addict
Looks like they smoked out, probably a short and burned them up. That’s my guess anyway. If I were you, I’d just pull the harness and make a new one, that’s what I ended up doing from scratch.
Ezetman
XS400 Enthusiast
Yeah I'm going to build a new harness. I'm entertaining the idea of getting an m-unit from motogadget but they are pretty pricey, not sure I want to dish that much money. Gonna do more research first.
@WelderDave I got the 8 cell antigravity battery and works great for me. I use the electric starter all the time and up until this short, there were no issues. As a matter of fact battery is still intact.
@WelderDave I got the 8 cell antigravity battery and works great for me. I use the electric starter all the time and up until this short, there were no issues. As a matter of fact battery is still intact.
Ezetman
XS400 Enthusiast
It's been a while and after many years of it sitting at various corners of few warehouses and garages, I finally decided it was time to bring it back to life and get to re-wiring it. Except this time, I'll make it a it kick-start only as I plan on tracking it at AHRMA events. First one coming up in February so trying to hustle to get it all buttoned up by then which will be a tall task. I'll keep updating my progress here as I get it ready to hit the track with it for the first time -probably it's first time too at 49 years old!
Attachments
Ezetman
XS400 Enthusiast
Yesterday I heard it run for the first time in 6 years or so and boy it was loud with no mufflers on it but it felt damn right!
Cleaned carbs, fresh gas, gapped the contact breaker points back to spec (which I'd never done before) and connected the coil cables the right way since I had them inverted since my rewiring all those years ago... and there she was running once again. Such a good feeling!
Today I worked on re-installing the rearsets once again which meant re-welding where it broke off and tapping a new threaded hole for the pegs. Still not happy with my weld work or the rearset since the brake pedal is too close to the kickstart the way it's laid out now. I'll get some photos of it on my next post. but I'll likely end up shopping for a new set now that the bike is kickstart only.
Cleaned carbs, fresh gas, gapped the contact breaker points back to spec (which I'd never done before) and connected the coil cables the right way since I had them inverted since my rewiring all those years ago... and there she was running once again. Such a good feeling!
Today I worked on re-installing the rearsets once again which meant re-welding where it broke off and tapping a new threaded hole for the pegs. Still not happy with my weld work or the rearset since the brake pedal is too close to the kickstart the way it's laid out now. I'll get some photos of it on my next post. but I'll likely end up shopping for a new set now that the bike is kickstart only.
