markjs
XS400 owner, bike lover
OK works now, I guess the real test is yet to come though, it's relatively warm tonight because it clouded up.
-
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.
Grrr batteries and other general morning evil bike syndrome!
- Thread starter markjs
- Start date
-
- Tags
- maintenance restoration
Oh,those pegs. I broke one last year just pulling a cover off (I've never taken the tank off). The peg sheared right off.
I drilled 2 cavities - one into the centre of the peg and a corresponding back into the cover from the break. I glued the peg back onto the cover with Automotive "GOOP", making sure each cavity was full of GOOP - like a dowel.
Worked well - it has held for a year now.
gordonfi
XS400 Enthusiast
Yea. I just went out to my bike in th garage, and measured crankcase temp at 43 degrees F. Put charger on and cranked it over, slow. Was cranking at 36 Amps. Battery cables are new. They were very bad before. Someone spliced them with bolts and lots of black tape! Oh yea, and all it did was backfire. So, a few days ago I took my heatgun to the crankcase abd brought the temp to about 66 Degrees F and it started! Also was cranking over way faster. AND, no backfiring. Go fugure. I just bought this bike a few months ago and this will be it's first summer (When spring arrives). It's been sitting a very long time I think, based on what I've found in the carb and the rust under the seat. Anyway, can't wait for the warm weather to kick in!
I also read in here somewhere that someone suggested a battery blanket warmer would do the trick. Not up here in Canada Eh. I tried a 300W magnetic block heater pressed under the crankcase with a floor jack. After a week, still not warm! But I got an idea. I sandwiched a 1500w water heater element between 2 pieces of 1/8" steel plates and mounted a thermal switch on the end of it. Anybody else want to try this, I'd recommend one of those thermo disk things they sell for elecric water heaters.
Tried it last night and it heats up about 4 degrees F per hour. I'm happy with that.
Backfiring reolved, I think. Bought a used Auto Advance mechanism because I though the old one was worn. But it wasn't and I hooked up the test light across the points and found that, as I suspected, points were opening in two positions per cycle! I reset the points so the second part didn't light and voilah! I remember gapping the points at about 13 thousandths, but maybe I was in the wrong position when I did that. Anyway, since the points only open in one position now, I'm sure the backfiring is stopped.
Sure can'twait till the warm weather comes, eh? But I'll try my heater this weekend, froday overnight for a saturday morning start.
I also read in here somewhere that someone suggested a battery blanket warmer would do the trick. Not up here in Canada Eh. I tried a 300W magnetic block heater pressed under the crankcase with a floor jack. After a week, still not warm! But I got an idea. I sandwiched a 1500w water heater element between 2 pieces of 1/8" steel plates and mounted a thermal switch on the end of it. Anybody else want to try this, I'd recommend one of those thermo disk things they sell for elecric water heaters.
Tried it last night and it heats up about 4 degrees F per hour. I'm happy with that.
Backfiring reolved, I think. Bought a used Auto Advance mechanism because I though the old one was worn. But it wasn't and I hooked up the test light across the points and found that, as I suspected, points were opening in two positions per cycle! I reset the points so the second part didn't light and voilah! I remember gapping the points at about 13 thousandths, but maybe I was in the wrong position when I did that. Anyway, since the points only open in one position now, I'm sure the backfiring is stopped.
Sure can'twait till the warm weather comes, eh? But I'll try my heater this weekend, froday overnight for a saturday morning start.
Last edited:
gordonfi
XS400 Enthusiast
Now that's diy!
doubleextramayo
XS400 Enthusiast
hey everyone. first post here.
unfortunately its about something i already dicked up...
my xs400 came with a dead battery so i went and bought a new one.
filled 'er up to the line, charged it, but unfortunately not enough.
went back today to go hook up up my trickle charger annnndd... i accidentally hooked up the battery to the wrong polarities (+ to -, - to +). probably only had it hooked up for about 5 seconds before i realized my mistake and quickly ripped off the gator clamps. no smoke from the battery, just from the charger.
so down to my real question did i just kill my new battery? or just the charger? the battery wasn't hooked up to the bike .
unfortunately its about something i already dicked up...
my xs400 came with a dead battery so i went and bought a new one.
filled 'er up to the line, charged it, but unfortunately not enough.
went back today to go hook up up my trickle charger annnndd... i accidentally hooked up the battery to the wrong polarities (+ to -, - to +). probably only had it hooked up for about 5 seconds before i realized my mistake and quickly ripped off the gator clamps. no smoke from the battery, just from the charger.
so down to my real question did i just kill my new battery? or just the charger? the battery wasn't hooked up to the bike .
If it was only a trickle charger, and it was only for 5 seconds, you are probably ok. Even better if the battery was near dead to begin with. Get a new charger and see if it holds a charge before grabbing a new battery. Just be happy you didn't do it while hooked up to the bike.
Elecrical + smoke = $ wasted. Do yourself a favour and destroy that charger so you are not tempted to try it in the future. Then go buy a new charger. Spend the money to get a smart charger and it will last you a lifetime - the good ones have polarity checking built in so you can't make this mistake ever again.
gordonfi
XS400 Enthusiast
Yea, I wouldn't worry about it. 5 Seconds in reverse won't damage the battery. Just charge it normally observing proper polarity and you should be good to go. On that note, I had purchased a 14AH battery before and after a while it just didn't want to turn over the starter as I was using a charger at the same time for trying to get it started(set at 50A) Just purchased the bike a month or so ago and it had been sitting a long time. Anyway, I saw other postings here about Wal-Mart Batteries and how great they were, so I went out and bought one. It was only 12AH but outperformed the old one by far. This new one is slightly larger but fits in the box, which leads me to believe that the battery physical size is important too, since the smaller battery gave out after only a few minutes. This one is so much more dependable. I trickle charged it as per instructions and it works just fine. Yea. Wall-Mart batteries are good in my opinion.
doubleextramayo
XS400 Enthusiast
Well good news is my battery is OK. Got a smart charger to charge the battery and now everything is a-ok. And the trickle charger I roasted was a cheapo model that wasn't even mine so I'm not too heartbroken about it. Lol
Mcgruff
Just bought an 1982 XS400
how much was the walmart special? got a part number?
gordonfi
XS400 Enthusiast
It was about $70.00 with all taxes here in BC and theres two shelves of RV batteries in the Walmart battery display. I picked the 12AH one from the right side which I think was the cheaper of the two. It was also closer to the battery box size than the old one I had.
