What did you do with your XS today?

Got back from a trip to the mountains today and immediately got back in the saddle. A couple short fun rides and then into the shop to try and fix a persistent oil leak, which failed, and replace a missing idle air screw, which worked but I need to resync.
 
Nothing today but the plan is to ride it to the small municipal airport for a little open house they have. There will be a small car & bike show along with some military and civilian aircraft. Head lined by a WW2 B25.
 
Bike was running a bit rough on my way home last night. Almost stalled if I didn't keep the revs up. Put it to bed and this AM it would not start. Found the connector to the ignition fuse had come off. Reconnected it and all problems fixed. No idea why, but not looking a gift horse....

Posted via Mobile
 
Confirmed I have seeping leak around the camshaft to ignition pickup, perhaps a little more high temp sealant. After I pull the top off.
 
Worked on Mowing and found garden tractor parts in the lawn. After a few BAD words off to the hardware for parts. They used too short of a bolt to assemble the transaxle to the frame & they stripped out of the tranny case. A few more BAD words & cobbled it together to finish lawn. Cooled off with a great ride to the air show. Bike ran so good that I ran it up to 65 with no trouble. Seems to pull really well by my standards and runs smoothly. Now just to get that pesky title business done so I can justify finishing it off. Now Thinking about it has anyone used an insert other than Helicoils in aluminum. I don't like to use a helicoil in a shallow blind hole.
 
Tobie, could it be the rubber plugs like you suggested on my bike? Chris said they need a bit of sealant around the edge to seal properly.

Today I synced my carbs to adjust for the no-longer-absent left carb's idle air screw and it seems to be idling better, but after it warms up a bit it tends to want to idle really high kind of randomly. I'm hoping it's a vacuum leak; the line off my petcock is a bit fatter than stock and its inner diameter is about a millimeter oversized so I have hose clamps sealing both ends, but it's possible that once it heats up it isn't sealing properly.
 
DARKMIDKNIGHTWARRIOR said:
Can you just drill and tap it to the next size up?
Click to expand...

Yep that's what I did but I wanted to use something more substantial. When I took it apart I found that one of the so called blind holes was actually fractured at the bottom.:wtf: The point on the self tapping body bolts actually broke thru into the case. When I blew out the chips from tapping I got a face full of heavy transaxle grease. MMM Tasty!!! Got it all back together and it's much more solid. I can't help but be angry about stupid cost cutting and sloppy engineering. I did take the bike out again today after fixing the tractor to cool off. It ran great got it up to 70 and it ran smoothly. Kinda stupid on old tires.:shrug: Won't do that again till I get the title and can justify putting money into it again.
 
Spray bombed everything. First time doing an automotive paint-job.

Metallic teal on outside surfaces, black on inner facing surfaces.
Clear coated with Spraymax 2K gloss.
Need to wet sand a few blemishes out of the clear coat but otherwise I think it went pretty well for a backyard rattlecan job.
20140831_192434 (Medium).jpg
20140831_183653 (Medium).jpg
 
Love that colour. Today I went for the furthest ride I've yet taken, on a couple of paved back roads down to the local drag strip. I was planning to shoot the pro mod tournament there today but I got there too late. Good ride nonetheless.
 
looks good! is the spraymax easy to use? i found it locally in Toronto for $50... for that money it better be liquid gold lol.

try putting a nice wet coat as your last coat - top of the tank looks like the last coat went on a bit dry... cut and buff may take care of that though.

i tried to fix my high idle issue on my newly acquired 79. found that my intake boots were almost falling off the filters so i fixed that... still running funny so I'm wondering if its diaphragms. need to pull carbs off and inspect. i bought the bike last week. ran it at the previous owner's house, ran fine, got it home, ran it with no problems, then all of a sudden after a few days of sitting it started hanging between 3-4k when hot.

starts from cold with no choke, slight miss on the left cyl... i left the petcock in pri by accident when i got the bike home (thinking if was an off position, derp) and i think it caused the gas to spill out... related?
 
ChrisJ, Hanging could be bad gas, try to use what I call "non-corn-syrup gas" there is plenty of thread, I think I get some people rallied up, (I just try to keep is simple for my mind)

Petcock issue, just cause you left the pri on, shouldn't hurt the float and valve. if you have a habbit of doing that, then maybe.

Now that I am thinking of it, make sure your petcock vacuum hose is attached right. an air leak there will create unwanted consecquences.

Check the oil, make sure it doesn't smell like gas.
 
Replaced Spark plug, fixed the engine not wanting to run on the left side. (after testing different Coil, and TCI.) Drove bike in the rain, (still sucks)

@All????? Anyone with MAC 2:1 mufflers? I went with black headers, anyone else noticing that the paint is appearing to flake off?

still left to fix...
Still have weird chirping.
need to get front fender on.
Stop oil leaks, (2 maybe)
 
I've been out again today with the bike and Man what a great feeling!!! Runs good handled well just gotta get used to driving in a stiff side wind. Toby Not sure but isn't there some high temp ceramic paint available this side of the river from you?? If you can find a Welle auto they might be able to hook you up. There's one in Fridley just south of Menards on Central about 30 miles from you. There's also the possibility of an auto paint specialty shop you should be able to find one closer to you in St Paul. There's also the thought of High temp pipe wrap. Header pipes are always going to want to bake their paint off and many of the chrome ones turn a beautiful blue fading to silver.
 
Today the fiancee and I took a night ride down the highway...to return an overdue library book. She worked at the library in one of the suburbs this summer and forgot to take it back before her term ended.
 
@ Stubbs, Yup, I found VHT in my garage, and just now in the middle of active curing cycle. I have to drive it for 30 minutes now. Hmmm, mall of america? 15 miles into wisconsin? go to school, in arden hills? I think I pick it up at fleet farm, or orielly's.

  • New done stuff---
  • tighten up oil pressure sending unit
  • put old fender on, when I figured out the old 78 fender I picked up, isn't compatible with my bike, (at least with out drilling out new holes, Hmmmm
    [*}tighten chain
  • Bleed front brake,

I think I found Squeeky. the intake boots, outgas's making a squeeky sound. I was able to tighten one of the screws, I will have to remove my tank to get to the other one. (cross fingers) I have been feeling that outgass on my legs. :shrug:
 

Similar threads

G
Carburetors shooting flames!
Replies
14
Views
683
OldDirtyHippy
OldDirtyHippy
Pmcbee
My xs400 adventure begins!!!
Replies
1
Views
213
CaptChrome
CaptChrome
T
77 xs400 starting problems
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
thecurryman
T
S
What Chain Do You Use?
Replies
4
Views
942
SupsChad
S
N
HOW TO: Modify your original sealed beam to accept an H4 or similar bulb!
Replies
5
Views
709
tstidham
tstidham
Back
Top