zephirum
XS400 New Member
Hey everyone,
(Heads up, longish post, photos farther down)
Okay, so, I kinda just want to start off by thanking everyone who has contributed and will make further additions to not just this forum but pretty much every model specific enthusiast forum in existence on the web; places like these are invaluable for reasons I'm sure most everyone who has accessed them can probably relate to. You know, things like inspiration, motivation, information...
Anyways, in the past I have pulled much from and provided less for these kind of forums and I guess I'd like to take a few steps at actually getting, I dunno, involved. Without getting into my life story, these sort of webpages have been crucial to the maintenance of my vehicular independence; a healthy relationship with a shop has, for a twentysomething who is perhaps less put together than others his age, often proved to be prohibitively expensive when held to the intangible expense of time invested in acquiring skills. CB7tuner, Rollaclub, and FordF150.net come to mind as resources. More recently I've been browsing around DoTheTon as well. So here goes.
On to the bike.
I happened to come in to possession of my 1978 XS400 after a discussion with my great-grandfather. He asked one of my younger brothers and I if we would be at all interested in the "junk" bikes he was planning on throwing away; two Yamaha's, the XS, and a two stroke trials bike from the same period.
They had sat on his property for years... held over from when he was pretty into riding. He still is, pretty into it that is, so I was fairly surprised by the proposition. Sensing, I think, a bit of incredulity, he went on to state that we'd really be doing him a favour; he was unsure of their condition besides that the blocks were known to turn over, had been tuned up somewhere between five years and a decade ago, and was apparently tired of looking at them.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure he just knew I'm kinda into things with wheels and moving parts, and my brother likes to boot around.
In any case, we quietly said something about payment, he replied by stating taking them away would be payment enough and had a bit of a laugh. He said something about how they might be more trouble than anything anyway with a chuckle.
Addressing my brother, he mentioned the two stroke had been kept up and shouldn't need to much work beyond cleaning up the carb, changing out some rubber, and potentially changing out the seat as the one on it was more moss than vinyl. Bit of a Saltspring Island Special.
The XS400, on the other hand, he was a little less sure about. (I'm pretty sure he was more sure than he would have me believe.) It had been torn down; the block stored with lightly oiled rags in the ports in the shed around back out of the wet and turned over semi-regularly, the forks and everything attached besides the bars were on a sheet of plywood under said shed (lol, said shed, rhymes, anyway), and the frame pitched out into the far end of the yard. The rest had been tucked into boxes or arranged around the rafters of the shed and whatever wasn't there had likely been sold.
I asked him why it had been torn down; was something up with it? Must have been, right? He smiled a bit and said "no... it was just too much fun!". Apparently he had liked riding around quite a bit. He had picked it up sometime in the early eighties from a guy who had bought it new (presumably) and apparently had rode it on the beach a couple times for photos (or something) and then parked it. From what I was able to make of the exchange from the original owner to my granddad the fact that it had been ridden on sand weighed heavily in the negotiation process.
After the papers changed hands it was cleaned out a bunch and cleaned up a bit. The license plate that was bolted to it when I pulled it out had an insurance tag on it that expired in July of 1982.
I couldn't really believe his answer, and I think he could see it, as he went on to say that he had just been out riding around and looked down and seen sparks a couple times when he had been going through a corner or two. He got to thinking about things and took a hiatus from riding at around the same time he tore the bike down; said he had really enjoyed riding for many years and begrudgingly had felt that something like a minor incident like a rolled ankle from kick-starting or anything really might have meant more downtime than it would have perhaps in years previous. He's a stubborn guy though and of course took a few rides here and there on some of the other bikes left over from when the house was full
.
Ok, bit too deep. Moving on... how about a picture...
Long story a bit shorter, my brother and I hauled the frame up from the bottom of the hill, pulled the two stroke out from behind the shed, gathered up anything that looked related to the XS, and crammed it all into the back of my truck (which has since developed a blown head gasket or worse... different story though) and after a bit more talking and a wave we were off. I dropped my brother and his bike off, sprayed the frame with a marinade of Fluid Film and Rust Cure Formula 3000 and left it in pieces under the tonneau of the pickup, parked up for another day.
Fast forward a couple months, a few final exams, and a change of residence... and...
Essentially pulled it out, wiped it down, and threw what was there together to take stock of the situation. Tested the compression, came back within a pound of stock spec, cheaper tester though so I'm going with within five pounds. Polished a thing or two just 'cause. Determined I was missing a few things, and after a bit of phoning around and the discovery of a decent used parts store in Victoria.
Went home with a tank, petcock, cap, a pair of forks, some head-pipes with a less rusty taillight bracket thrown in for good measure. The tape on the headlight is just for amusement. Over the course of the next few weeks, got a bit of a hand with finding a pair of carbs that were a little (a lot) less frozen than the originals. The replacements were cleaned in one of those immersion ultrasonic parts cleaners. Figure I'll use the OE ones for spare parts as the throttle plates refused to budge and I kinda buggered them attempting (forcing...) to get them to open. Otherwise the originals were good, just had a bit of gas left in them when they got tucked away I suppose.
Beyond that, there's still some odds and ends to figure out, the details. I'm going to take more photos as I go; looking to replace the rear master (was left attached to the frame and saw a few winters unplugged, thinking one from a Ninja 250 or ideally a PS13 from a KTM or something...), replace the chain (also left outside, badly corroded), locate some missing electrical components (battery, starter solenoid, condenser, taillight lens), test the rest of the wiring, clean out the replacement tank, rebuild the petcock, give it some fresh oil... then rubber...
First things first though, I'd like to hear it run. Going to get the fuel system cleaned up (tank, petcock, lines between them...), go over the engine maintenance list (valve clearances), get it wired, and double check everything. Get it running, get the original stuff working where possible, replace and resto-mod the rest. Plan on resisting the urge to make too many changes to the original form of the bike before I at least give it a few spins in semi-original shape.
Oh, and I'll be honest, I'm a total newbie when it comes to working on motorcycles. I've worked on my own cars, drove parts until they let me work in a couple general auto service shops for a while, and was at one point pursuing an apprenticeship as an auto technician... life intervened. I just work on my own stuff now, I'm 26, finishing up my second year in college, aiming for a business diploma, accounting option. Planning on getting some work in to go with last summers co-op before I head out for a couple years more training in management accounting down the line; eager to get back out into the workforce.
I'd definitely appreciate any input as I actually have little clue what I'm doing beyond applying transferable skills and putting my mind to it. I'll do my best to better document things as I go; I'll ideally create a thread or two reporting on figuring out a decent rear master solution and anything else I find that could be documented that may be of use that hasn't already been covered. This site rocks so we'll see what's left to contribute.
Thanks for reading,
Phillip
P.S. any questions feel free to ask.
(Heads up, longish post, photos farther down)
Okay, so, I kinda just want to start off by thanking everyone who has contributed and will make further additions to not just this forum but pretty much every model specific enthusiast forum in existence on the web; places like these are invaluable for reasons I'm sure most everyone who has accessed them can probably relate to. You know, things like inspiration, motivation, information...
Anyways, in the past I have pulled much from and provided less for these kind of forums and I guess I'd like to take a few steps at actually getting, I dunno, involved. Without getting into my life story, these sort of webpages have been crucial to the maintenance of my vehicular independence; a healthy relationship with a shop has, for a twentysomething who is perhaps less put together than others his age, often proved to be prohibitively expensive when held to the intangible expense of time invested in acquiring skills. CB7tuner, Rollaclub, and FordF150.net come to mind as resources. More recently I've been browsing around DoTheTon as well. So here goes.
On to the bike.
I happened to come in to possession of my 1978 XS400 after a discussion with my great-grandfather. He asked one of my younger brothers and I if we would be at all interested in the "junk" bikes he was planning on throwing away; two Yamaha's, the XS, and a two stroke trials bike from the same period.
They had sat on his property for years... held over from when he was pretty into riding. He still is, pretty into it that is, so I was fairly surprised by the proposition. Sensing, I think, a bit of incredulity, he went on to state that we'd really be doing him a favour; he was unsure of their condition besides that the blocks were known to turn over, had been tuned up somewhere between five years and a decade ago, and was apparently tired of looking at them.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure he just knew I'm kinda into things with wheels and moving parts, and my brother likes to boot around.
In any case, we quietly said something about payment, he replied by stating taking them away would be payment enough and had a bit of a laugh. He said something about how they might be more trouble than anything anyway with a chuckle.
Addressing my brother, he mentioned the two stroke had been kept up and shouldn't need to much work beyond cleaning up the carb, changing out some rubber, and potentially changing out the seat as the one on it was more moss than vinyl. Bit of a Saltspring Island Special.
The XS400, on the other hand, he was a little less sure about. (I'm pretty sure he was more sure than he would have me believe.) It had been torn down; the block stored with lightly oiled rags in the ports in the shed around back out of the wet and turned over semi-regularly, the forks and everything attached besides the bars were on a sheet of plywood under said shed (lol, said shed, rhymes, anyway), and the frame pitched out into the far end of the yard. The rest had been tucked into boxes or arranged around the rafters of the shed and whatever wasn't there had likely been sold.
I asked him why it had been torn down; was something up with it? Must have been, right? He smiled a bit and said "no... it was just too much fun!". Apparently he had liked riding around quite a bit. He had picked it up sometime in the early eighties from a guy who had bought it new (presumably) and apparently had rode it on the beach a couple times for photos (or something) and then parked it. From what I was able to make of the exchange from the original owner to my granddad the fact that it had been ridden on sand weighed heavily in the negotiation process.
After the papers changed hands it was cleaned out a bunch and cleaned up a bit. The license plate that was bolted to it when I pulled it out had an insurance tag on it that expired in July of 1982.
I couldn't really believe his answer, and I think he could see it, as he went on to say that he had just been out riding around and looked down and seen sparks a couple times when he had been going through a corner or two. He got to thinking about things and took a hiatus from riding at around the same time he tore the bike down; said he had really enjoyed riding for many years and begrudgingly had felt that something like a minor incident like a rolled ankle from kick-starting or anything really might have meant more downtime than it would have perhaps in years previous. He's a stubborn guy though and of course took a few rides here and there on some of the other bikes left over from when the house was full
.Ok, bit too deep. Moving on... how about a picture...
Long story a bit shorter, my brother and I hauled the frame up from the bottom of the hill, pulled the two stroke out from behind the shed, gathered up anything that looked related to the XS, and crammed it all into the back of my truck (which has since developed a blown head gasket or worse... different story though) and after a bit more talking and a wave we were off. I dropped my brother and his bike off, sprayed the frame with a marinade of Fluid Film and Rust Cure Formula 3000 and left it in pieces under the tonneau of the pickup, parked up for another day.
Fast forward a couple months, a few final exams, and a change of residence... and...
Essentially pulled it out, wiped it down, and threw what was there together to take stock of the situation. Tested the compression, came back within a pound of stock spec, cheaper tester though so I'm going with within five pounds. Polished a thing or two just 'cause. Determined I was missing a few things, and after a bit of phoning around and the discovery of a decent used parts store in Victoria.
Went home with a tank, petcock, cap, a pair of forks, some head-pipes with a less rusty taillight bracket thrown in for good measure. The tape on the headlight is just for amusement. Over the course of the next few weeks, got a bit of a hand with finding a pair of carbs that were a little (a lot) less frozen than the originals. The replacements were cleaned in one of those immersion ultrasonic parts cleaners. Figure I'll use the OE ones for spare parts as the throttle plates refused to budge and I kinda buggered them attempting (forcing...) to get them to open. Otherwise the originals were good, just had a bit of gas left in them when they got tucked away I suppose.
Beyond that, there's still some odds and ends to figure out, the details. I'm going to take more photos as I go; looking to replace the rear master (was left attached to the frame and saw a few winters unplugged, thinking one from a Ninja 250 or ideally a PS13 from a KTM or something...), replace the chain (also left outside, badly corroded), locate some missing electrical components (battery, starter solenoid, condenser, taillight lens), test the rest of the wiring, clean out the replacement tank, rebuild the petcock, give it some fresh oil... then rubber...
First things first though, I'd like to hear it run. Going to get the fuel system cleaned up (tank, petcock, lines between them...), go over the engine maintenance list (valve clearances), get it wired, and double check everything. Get it running, get the original stuff working where possible, replace and resto-mod the rest. Plan on resisting the urge to make too many changes to the original form of the bike before I at least give it a few spins in semi-original shape.
Oh, and I'll be honest, I'm a total newbie when it comes to working on motorcycles. I've worked on my own cars, drove parts until they let me work in a couple general auto service shops for a while, and was at one point pursuing an apprenticeship as an auto technician... life intervened. I just work on my own stuff now, I'm 26, finishing up my second year in college, aiming for a business diploma, accounting option. Planning on getting some work in to go with last summers co-op before I head out for a couple years more training in management accounting down the line; eager to get back out into the workforce.
I'd definitely appreciate any input as I actually have little clue what I'm doing beyond applying transferable skills and putting my mind to it. I'll do my best to better document things as I go; I'll ideally create a thread or two reporting on figuring out a decent rear master solution and anything else I find that could be documented that may be of use that hasn't already been covered. This site rocks so we'll see what's left to contribute.
Thanks for reading,
Phillip
P.S. any questions feel free to ask.
. Tank is looking pretty good, had it picked by the gents over at Acme Safe on Fort Street and received a new cylinder with keys as well, they got it done within a half hour or so. Pretty clean inside, millimeter or less sized occasional specs of rust starting to form, plenty of clean bare metal though. We'll see, the guys over at Action Motorcycles recommended rinsing it out with a bit of gas since its not too bad and running it as is considering there's a filter inline and a screen before the petcock. Which leads to...
.
