SpiderWrench
XS400 Member
The 81 XS400 has been parked since late August when I rode it to its new home and parked it in my basement. It has never run particularly well, and has always had idle problems according to PO because it had to be tuned to the 2-1 exhaust. When I went to remove the carbs, I thought they looked a bit overly dirty. I figured it might just be a clump of mud that stuck up on top of the carbs.
Nope. It was a wasp nest!
At least I know the bike can move faster than the wasps, as there were just a few dead larvae inside. I do wonder how long those wasps were chasing me as I rode off with their babies.
Through the wisdom on this form, I determined my next step had to be a good carb tear down and cleaning.
Removing the carburetors, I made my next horrific discovery, one of the mixture screws was missing. I found it soon enough, lodged in an engine fin, with the tip bent and broken. I looked down the port, and to my delight saw the little brass tip lodged in the bottom, great!
I removed the mixture screw from the other carb to discover that it too was bent into a curly que shape.
At the bottom of that port was a bit more brass. The mixture screws were replacements for the originals which were broken off in the carbs and cranked down on top of the originals to break themselves, so it seemed I had two broken tips in the bottom of each carb. I found myself blissfully reminiscing when my problems were only a wasp nest.
Anyhow, this is really more of a thank you to this forum, because it took several attempts, and many long hours to remove those broken mixture screw tips. I used combinations of techniques posted by drewpy and Greasey Fingers plus a bit of creativity and a lot of patience. I used a heat gun to heat the area first, and wore leather gloves (after I had the first pick I made from sewing needles break off and go through my finger) The first one came out using a ground down HF pick pushing up. The second larger one was removed by a ground down nail pushing down which removed a tiny piece of one tip then followed by a 0.025 drill bit that I twirled in my fingers (No, I didn’t use a power drill because I don’t have a chuck that would fit this bit and I figured I would do the least damage by just manually twisting the bit) for hours. I don’t think I would have had the patience if I hadn’t read all the success stories on this form with the same problem. Thanks All!
Nope. It was a wasp nest!
At least I know the bike can move faster than the wasps, as there were just a few dead larvae inside. I do wonder how long those wasps were chasing me as I rode off with their babies.
Through the wisdom on this form, I determined my next step had to be a good carb tear down and cleaning.
Removing the carburetors, I made my next horrific discovery, one of the mixture screws was missing. I found it soon enough, lodged in an engine fin, with the tip bent and broken. I looked down the port, and to my delight saw the little brass tip lodged in the bottom, great!
I removed the mixture screw from the other carb to discover that it too was bent into a curly que shape.
At the bottom of that port was a bit more brass. The mixture screws were replacements for the originals which were broken off in the carbs and cranked down on top of the originals to break themselves, so it seemed I had two broken tips in the bottom of each carb. I found myself blissfully reminiscing when my problems were only a wasp nest.
Anyhow, this is really more of a thank you to this forum, because it took several attempts, and many long hours to remove those broken mixture screw tips. I used combinations of techniques posted by drewpy and Greasey Fingers plus a bit of creativity and a lot of patience. I used a heat gun to heat the area first, and wore leather gloves (after I had the first pick I made from sewing needles break off and go through my finger) The first one came out using a ground down HF pick pushing up. The second larger one was removed by a ground down nail pushing down which removed a tiny piece of one tip then followed by a 0.025 drill bit that I twirled in my fingers (No, I didn’t use a power drill because I don’t have a chuck that would fit this bit and I figured I would do the least damage by just manually twisting the bit) for hours. I don’t think I would have had the patience if I hadn’t read all the success stories on this form with the same problem. Thanks All!