gnarlydavidson
XS650 Member
Hello gents. It's been a while since I posted on here, so I'll start with a bit of back story.
I bought my XS650 while I was deployed to Afghanistan with the goal of building a little street tracker for cruising around town. It's a '75 with around 6,000 miles. I slowly started buying and collecting parts. I eventually got to a place where I was ready to start installing stuff, and after digging in to the wiring up the new parts I had purchased, I realized I was in over my head. With a deployment looming, I brought the bike to a reputable local shop and told them what I wanted done.
The install of the parts took a while, and near the end I asked that they tune the bike for me (I had a couple of race carbs thrown on it because, well, power!) I got a call from the shop with some pretty unfortunate news; while they were starting the bike to begin tuning it, the starter made a god-awful noise and when they dug in to it, they found that the circlip on the end of the starter had snapped, and was now a free radical in the engine. Its been a couple of years since I received the bike back, but I am fairly certain the circlip being they're talking about is the one in the picture I attached.
I'd really like to get this thing going. It has a lot of sentimental value due to where I was when I purchased it. I've called all the local shops and none of them are willing the split the cases on a bike this old to remove the old circlip. I'm hoping to get some advice from you experts regarding the following:
What is my best / cheapest option to get this problem fixed? (Money is tight)
What year engines will be a direct drop in for this bike?
I've epoxied some magnets to the drain plugs and tried cranking it over to move the oil around to try to trap the old circlip - no results. Any other tricks you boys can think of?
I bought my XS650 while I was deployed to Afghanistan with the goal of building a little street tracker for cruising around town. It's a '75 with around 6,000 miles. I slowly started buying and collecting parts. I eventually got to a place where I was ready to start installing stuff, and after digging in to the wiring up the new parts I had purchased, I realized I was in over my head. With a deployment looming, I brought the bike to a reputable local shop and told them what I wanted done.
The install of the parts took a while, and near the end I asked that they tune the bike for me (I had a couple of race carbs thrown on it because, well, power!) I got a call from the shop with some pretty unfortunate news; while they were starting the bike to begin tuning it, the starter made a god-awful noise and when they dug in to it, they found that the circlip on the end of the starter had snapped, and was now a free radical in the engine. Its been a couple of years since I received the bike back, but I am fairly certain the circlip being they're talking about is the one in the picture I attached.
I'd really like to get this thing going. It has a lot of sentimental value due to where I was when I purchased it. I've called all the local shops and none of them are willing the split the cases on a bike this old to remove the old circlip. I'm hoping to get some advice from you experts regarding the following:
What is my best / cheapest option to get this problem fixed? (Money is tight)
What year engines will be a direct drop in for this bike?
I've epoxied some magnets to the drain plugs and tried cranking it over to move the oil around to try to trap the old circlip - no results. Any other tricks you boys can think of?