Not yer mama's XS.....

[9c1cap]

Not yer mama's XS..... FINISHED!!

.....more like yer little sister's!!! Well I startin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I thought Id thow up some pics of what I do when Im not choppin!! This bike is an '80 XS400 Special II, it belongs to a friend of mine (she's also my tattoo artist, I love trading labor!!). She got the bike on trade for a ribcage piece on a friend of her's. Its a low-buck build, basically she wanted a paint job and a once-over on the mechanicals, but I get a little carried away....
Was a non-runner when I got it to the garage, left side exhaust valve was bent and allowing no compression. Replaced both valves left side and cleaned up the bs34s and she sings once again! Parts, btw, are near impossible to find for these things, lots of time wasted on ebay but it was about my only resource besides what I could adapt from Mikes.
Day 1:

 

[9c1cap]

Day...aww, fuck i dunno, I lost count after one...
My favorite part..the TEARDOWN!!

 

[9c1cap]

Not so good at takin the progress pics so we'll skip a few steps here, but I went down to bare frame and took to sprayin her down with black, every part/nut/bolt was either cleaned, polished painted or replaced....

 

[9c1cap]

Helped the ol man last winter tearing out some bathrooms in an office building so I scored all the stainless shitter rails, perfect size for the exhausts on these jap bikes!

Polishing stainless is a real bitch tho!!

 

[gggGary]

Hey I like that grab bar as pipes idea!

 

[9c1cap]

Thanks Gary! the bends are kinda tight but perfect for this!
Not much filler needed for a 30 year old bike....was pleased with that!
Painted all the parts today so theyre still hanging in the paint booth as I type. Prolly gonna wetsand/reclear the tank but should look like a complete bike again here real soon!

Chrome was pitted pretty bad on the chain guard so speed holes became obligatory

 

[9c1cap]

And this is where Im at today...Got her off the stand and fired her up again, pretty good runner I must say....Still gotta polish up the side covers(been dancin around that, I HATE polishing.....)

 

[stuntdouble]

Nice work! Now I feel kinda bad about you havin to put that on the back-burner while getting my project running. i didnt know that project was that in-depth. Keep up the good work and the updates!

 

[9c1cap]

No problems, Ive been known to multi-task! Need to get this one done, I just traded an old ceramic Goodyear sign for a 1969 Rupp minibike. The niece and nephew are already buggin me to get it fixed up!

 

[stuntdouble]

Haha! When you gonna have time to ride?!

 

[9c1cap]

Whenever Im not fishin.

Put the shine on 'er....

 

[Travis]

Looking good! Any updates?

 

[9c1cap]

Oh! I wish....Deer season grabbed me by the balls....Obsessive compulsive bowhunter...One day very soon though, its all together just got the wiring blown apart tracking down a shorting turn signal. I did the radio shack rectifier/chrysler reg, just gotta plug it in and see what happens....Kinda got my mind blown, no broken wires, all grounds have been cleaned...i dunno Ill figure it out....

Craig

 

[Travis]

Sounds like a mess.. Have you thought about building a wiring harness from scratch? Or do you plan on keeping a lot of the bells and whistles?

 

[pumps]

9c1cap that 400 rocks. Great work.

 

[9c1cap]

Thanks pumps....
All bells and whistles will remain intact. Like I said its her first bike so safety and reliability are kinda what Im revovling around...or at least as much as possible for an otherwise stock 30 yr old bike....The harness is actually in very good shape. NIce and pliable, no rot or cracked insulation, damn near looks new under all that covering tape and rubber. Thats why Im scratchin my head...cant find the gremlin.

Oh and to throw another wrench in any possibility of finishing it before winter kicked in...I came home one day shortly after I painted the parts to find the gas tank upside down on the garage floor in a puddle of gasoline....I had removed it after a test ride and set it on a box, which obviously didnt hold it.....So the paint was scratched when it hit the floor, then the gasoline seeped in thru the scratches and lifted the paint off the top of the tank....paint job ruined.

Craig

 

[drewpy]

what a bummer, makes you want to scream, especially with paint and all the prep work involved.

I know what you mean about polishing stainless, its a pain. I put stainless fasteners on my resto xs400 and polished every single one.

onwards and upwards eh!

 

[Travis]

So what's the turn signal doing? Think it's a bad switch?

 

[9c1cap]

Everything blinks BUT the turn signal....Right signal works fine but the left is actin up. Indicators, tag light, brake light all blink when you hit the left turn signal, but the signal itself does nothing. Burned up three flashers, and now its blowing the main fuse if left on for more than 15-20 seconds.
Its not the switch, Ive tried two switches, and also took it apart and re-soldered the connections inside the switch, to no avail......
It had the self-cancelling unit, but replacing the flasher with a two-pole flasher bypasses that, right?? Cleaned and re-cleaned and even hard-wired all grounds to eliminate them as faulty.
Eliminated the tag light, brake lights, indicator lamps, headlight by removing each one, one at a time. Problem still persists....
So Ive done the chrysler reg and radio shack rectifier, and got a used relay from TwoWheelMafia, just havent had the opportunity to plug it all in and see what happens, I dont know of anything else that ties all those systems together.....Seems like a simple ground problem but no shorts, no broken wires, and all grounds are good!! Losin my bloody mind...

Craig

 

[TheMainMuel]

You've got a great start there bro. I'll be watching this one.