Johnny3D
XS400 Enthusiast
I've finally gotten my XS400GS in my work room and up off the ground. I also built myself a work table for me to use during the restoration and effort to make it roadworthy. Here are a couple pictures of the room (which is heated so I can continue to work on it over the winter without freezing).
I'll be using this thread as my ongoing restoration/rebuild thread so I don't clutter up the forum with all the questions that I'm sure to have along the way. I don't have much experience with working on motorcycles, but I've worked on cars and scooters in the past. So I'm sure this will be a big learning experience for me and hopefully I don't totally screw it up along the way.
As you can see in the pictures, I have a tank up on the table that I'm in the process of restoring. The plan there is to get all the rust off the outside and inside of the tank, bondo over the name plate brackets and fix the couple of extremely minor dings on it. Then I'll paint the tank and replace the dented up one that is currently on the bike.
I'm also planning on doing a tear down on most if not all of the bike so I can fix clean up the rust on the frame as well as any other parts as I go along. I also have to replace the tires because the front one has a number of fairly serious cracks in the rubber even though it is still holding air very well.
When I was looking through my Yamaha repair manual for it and looked up the rear wheel removal, it said that I would need to "cut" the chain to remove it. I'm wondering if that is absolutely necessary or if I could possibly remove the rear wheel without cutting the chain (not something I'm particularly keen on doing)?
Feel free to give me any other pointers or tips you might have along the way. I'm certain that I could use all the knowledge you folks care to share with me.
I'll be using this thread as my ongoing restoration/rebuild thread so I don't clutter up the forum with all the questions that I'm sure to have along the way. I don't have much experience with working on motorcycles, but I've worked on cars and scooters in the past. So I'm sure this will be a big learning experience for me and hopefully I don't totally screw it up along the way.
As you can see in the pictures, I have a tank up on the table that I'm in the process of restoring. The plan there is to get all the rust off the outside and inside of the tank, bondo over the name plate brackets and fix the couple of extremely minor dings on it. Then I'll paint the tank and replace the dented up one that is currently on the bike.
I'm also planning on doing a tear down on most if not all of the bike so I can fix clean up the rust on the frame as well as any other parts as I go along. I also have to replace the tires because the front one has a number of fairly serious cracks in the rubber even though it is still holding air very well.
When I was looking through my Yamaha repair manual for it and looked up the rear wheel removal, it said that I would need to "cut" the chain to remove it. I'm wondering if that is absolutely necessary or if I could possibly remove the rear wheel without cutting the chain (not something I'm particularly keen on doing)?
Feel free to give me any other pointers or tips you might have along the way. I'm certain that I could use all the knowledge you folks care to share with me.
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