First bike for me XS400 12E 1986

[puffybodie]

Hi all,

so I joined the club I'm proud owner of this nice princess http://www.youngtimermoto.cz/yamaha-xs-400-dohc/

So far just 130km driven, but is superb. A lot of new stuff on bike like chain set, tires, color, brakes, oil, filters, various fluids, battery, connection material and such, a lot of "refurbished" stuff like springs, tail, original sport exhaust (that sound is simply BRUTAL ) etc. etc. I hope that we will stay together for a long time as I like this type of bikes. Not that modern shit with engines at least 1000ccm, tons and tons of plastic crap, huge number of over expensive electronic which you can't fix yourself and so on.

 

[levdir]

Beautiful bike. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Slojza]

Welcome to the forum. Finally someone bought it!

 

[puffybodie]

Was looking on it for some time and still thinking if it will be fine first bike for me and so on. Two people checking it and not buying for whatever reasons (most probably too old for them and too small engine? ), looking for references on shop etc. And then decided ok, let's see it and if it's somewhat ok buy it. There is even nice Yamaha XJ550 and before there was nice XJ600, well this one looks nice for me, has nice sound, all is working and nice.

Need to make technical check for next 2 years, but I hope all will be fine.

 

[JaredK]

Looks great! Very clean bike. Don't forget to put an inline fuel filter between the petcock and carbs.

 

[puffybodie]

Read already some posts about it and thinking if it's related to me or not. After couple of days it doesn't come up on full choke in garage. You push starter and nothing, no sound, no movement in engine nothing. So you put choke on half, push starter and now it tries to start engine and with help of a little gas from your right hand it starts and then keep running just fine. Other time it starts fine on full choke without gas. Not sure if it can be battery (refurbished), some dirt in fuel (and case for your mentioned filter), choke function itself or carbs or just me looking for problems

But nothing like 10min of starting or something like that. Just 1 or 2 tries, 3 at max (getting to used to bikes and using it ) and voila all running fine and smooth.

 

[Slojza]

Well, fuel filter is really cheap and easy way how to avoid cleaning carbs every now and then, so i would install it. It is worth those 30 Kč and 3 minutes of work.
That the starter doesn´t move is weird. Electrical issues? But starting at 3rd try is not bad though. But look up this forum, donwload manual and think, test, tune...

 

[puffybodie]

Some updates after 200km. So couple of days in garage, full choke, controls light working, hitting start and nothing (just lower level of light on controls, well voltage must go somewhere ), half choke, start button and it tries to start, but is not enough, with help of gas it starts. Once engine warmed it keeps idle and all is fine, if I will stop engine no problem to start it again without choke on first hit of start button. will start with check up of battery voltage if there's enough power, because once it's running and warmed everything is perfectly fine.

 

[mmmboost]

Have you checked the timing? I suggest you check the points gap as well as the timing. I had a similar issue with the bike I just picked up.

.....it took forever to start it, but once I finally got it running it sounded ok. Rev'd up slowly though and I couldn't change the idle speed. When I pulled off the points cover and check the gap with feeler gauges and the static timing with a test light, I found the timing was WAY out to lunch. Once I fixed that, I was able to kick the bike over on the first try instead of having to run the starter motor for 20 seconds. (and it never would have kicked over before)

 

[16VGTIDave]

The ignition timing is probably fine. No points as it has TCI. The DOHC bikes are all like that. I suspect a weak battery or corroded connections on an otherwise beautiful bike.

 

[Jeff0133]

Welcome to the forum,nice clean bike

 

[mmmboost]

The ignition timing is probably fine. No points as it has TCI. The DOHC bikes are all like that. I suspect a weak battery or corroded connections on an otherwise beautiful bike.

Damn.....you're right I missed that it was an 86

 

[xschris]

This thread is almost three years old.....