delma
79 XS400F
Hello forum, this is my first post here, been lurking in the shadows for some time now, reading, learning, ingesting and digesting all the knowledge.
First, I have to say thank you to all who have posted and answered the myriad of topics, it's been a real treat to have practically all the questions covered and able to find the answers and your fingertips, going through my first build has been a great ride (pun intended) so far with all I am gaining from this site, so here's to you all. Drewpy, Arfstrom, XSChris, y'all have been an invaluable source of info and knowledge, I see your posts and answers throughout this site and envy the experience you have. I know there are others that I am leaving out, but at first thought y'all come to mind and special thanks to you, so much help from your wisdom.
A little about me, I am currently rebuilding a 79 XS400F. After purchasing the bike I stripped her down to the frame and got to it. Started taking off bits of metal I didn't want, repainted the frame, new seat pan, and new accessories to get her to the cafe/brat she will soon be. I will compile what pics I have taken so far, not many I have to confess, and add to this thread soon so all can see where I am currently. I am going with an m.unit Blue as the brains of the bike since I needed to redo the wiring harness anyway. Previous owner somewhere in her lifetime ripped out the fuse box and added a mess of inline fuses at some point, it was pretty awful. So decide to go with the m.unit to simplify things for me and let me get my head wrapped around things better. That said, I need to confess I am no mechanic so this is a project/labor of love I've wanted to do for some time. I grew up on two wheels my whole life but never knew much about the mechanical side, that was my dad's job being the flat track and motocross racer he was. So I wanted to learn and no better way than to get into it!
That leads me to this question. When installing a new clutch I, of course, had the kickstart assembly come out with the case. I read plenty of posts here about reinstalling and after several tries I think I got it licked but am posting a video of the outcome and looking for some of the more experienced members here to maybe take a look and see if it's looking correct. I know it's tough just by looking at the cranking in the video, but hoping some insight will come through. To recap the install, I lined up the inner shaft of the kickstart with the flanged collar to the 'ledge' it rests on inside the case, once seated in the journal I started rotating the shaft and spring clockwise until the shaft stopped at the bottom 'ledge' it hits inside the case and continued rotating the spring a complete rotation until I got it seated and clipped. I set the kick onto the shaft and very slowly kicked it as normal with the clutch engaged so not to cause any stress on the journal, seen plenty of horror stories about that to not want to repeat. Seems to be working right, please take a look and let me know if there's anything obvious I may be missing before sealing her up.
Again, thanks to all here, always my first stop when needing some insight.
First, I have to say thank you to all who have posted and answered the myriad of topics, it's been a real treat to have practically all the questions covered and able to find the answers and your fingertips, going through my first build has been a great ride (pun intended) so far with all I am gaining from this site, so here's to you all. Drewpy, Arfstrom, XSChris, y'all have been an invaluable source of info and knowledge, I see your posts and answers throughout this site and envy the experience you have. I know there are others that I am leaving out, but at first thought y'all come to mind and special thanks to you, so much help from your wisdom.
A little about me, I am currently rebuilding a 79 XS400F. After purchasing the bike I stripped her down to the frame and got to it. Started taking off bits of metal I didn't want, repainted the frame, new seat pan, and new accessories to get her to the cafe/brat she will soon be. I will compile what pics I have taken so far, not many I have to confess, and add to this thread soon so all can see where I am currently. I am going with an m.unit Blue as the brains of the bike since I needed to redo the wiring harness anyway. Previous owner somewhere in her lifetime ripped out the fuse box and added a mess of inline fuses at some point, it was pretty awful. So decide to go with the m.unit to simplify things for me and let me get my head wrapped around things better. That said, I need to confess I am no mechanic so this is a project/labor of love I've wanted to do for some time. I grew up on two wheels my whole life but never knew much about the mechanical side, that was my dad's job being the flat track and motocross racer he was. So I wanted to learn and no better way than to get into it!
That leads me to this question. When installing a new clutch I, of course, had the kickstart assembly come out with the case. I read plenty of posts here about reinstalling and after several tries I think I got it licked but am posting a video of the outcome and looking for some of the more experienced members here to maybe take a look and see if it's looking correct. I know it's tough just by looking at the cranking in the video, but hoping some insight will come through. To recap the install, I lined up the inner shaft of the kickstart with the flanged collar to the 'ledge' it rests on inside the case, once seated in the journal I started rotating the shaft and spring clockwise until the shaft stopped at the bottom 'ledge' it hits inside the case and continued rotating the spring a complete rotation until I got it seated and clipped. I set the kick onto the shaft and very slowly kicked it as normal with the clutch engaged so not to cause any stress on the journal, seen plenty of horror stories about that to not want to repeat. Seems to be working right, please take a look and let me know if there's anything obvious I may be missing before sealing her up.
Again, thanks to all here, always my first stop when needing some insight.
