What have you done to your XS today?

Back in March or so I had gone out to the garage to start the Spring wakeup. First task was to flush the front brake and I was met with a busted sight glass.

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Did a little googling and found this replacement for just a couple bucks. Kit came with the new 'glass' and an o-ring.

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I had first thought that the original glass was busted during the truck ride cross country, I don't think so now. In my searching about replacing the glass, I came across a forum thread somewhere (not xs650) about a guy who made his own out of a spare slug of acrylic. Someone suggested he test it for resistance to brake fluid so he dropped it in a cup of fluid for a week. Sure enough, it developed a spiderweb of cracks and crumbled into tiny wet pieces. Just like Stella's when I excavated it.

Well, the replacement 'glass' is plastic too. I imagine I'll be dealing with this again in a few years, but I don't mind kicking it down the road for $3 shipped. Next time, I'll pick up a good used MC.

Replacement was super easy. Just tap the old one out from the inside, clean out the remnants, tap in the new one. Original was a dry friction fit, I added a thin smear of Hylomar Blue. Was able to do the whole job without removing the MC from the bar.

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Next up, a little job I skipped in the very beginning. I figured I'd give the head bolts a retorque before the usual Spring tune-up. She's always needed a good degreasing after 1000 miles or so, hopefully this will take care of it. I've had the copper washers for a while now, just another matter of those elusive round tuits. Never been a huge collector of them and nowadays the toddler seems to hide the few in inventory out of spite.
 
I got a looooong way to go to catch up with @Drewlc77 but I got my rear wheel built today. Couldn’t help but mock it up to start getting a sense of what I’m gonna do about the subframe.

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Parts shown:
• Cognito rear conversion hub
• EBC disc (Ducati Monster 800 spec)
• Brembo P32 caliper
• WM4 Borrani knockoff rim
• Buchanan’s SS spokes
• CR shocks
• Radian swingarm

What’s next to wrap up the rear wheel? Shave the swingarm, make new shock and brake stay mounts, figure out where to mount a rear brake master + choose which one, build a linkage, get a stainless line, decide if I want the brake caliper mounted above or below the axle, etc etc etc.
 
I don't care what It is, if I turn my back, Mud Daubers will pack it full of mud.
The bikes are under cover with a bike cover on them most of the time. Still, the Daubers find their way under the covers. Then there are times I want the covers off the bikes, to dry off condensation or work on them.
I got a couple of ultra fine polyester, 240 mesh Mosquito Nets, 78" (200cm) long X 32" (81cm) Wide X 59" (150 cm) high. About 17 bucks on Amazon. They have rings at the ends and in the middle so I can tie them at the right height. I tied these to the overhead so it would be easy to cover and uncover the bikes and just tuck the curtains up out of the way. I got them in olive green, kinda see through and blends in.
These come in a lot of sizes, prices, sure to fit what you have. You can always cut the rings off if you might ding something. They have a tendency to stick to the nibs of the tires, which is a good thing to help keep them in place. But this also makes them a bit harder to cover and uncover and they reach out and grab any cotter pin they see.
I like em'. No more worrys about the Daubers. I come back from a ride, let the pipes cool, drop the net down and over the bike. Easy . If your gona cut the rings off and use them as a throw, or your net doesn't have rings, mark the ends some way, cause they can get fiddly.
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Yes, I saw those on Mike's, but I wasn't about to spend like $20 on two bolts, lol, not when I could do it myself for less than $2.

Here's my '83 stand primed .....

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..... painted .....

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..... and installed .....

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Yeah baby .....

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I put the Krud Kutter on the top of the frame (center tube n back loop and some sanding. Started with a medium grit 3M pad and an other thin abrasive pad untill rust spot under seat pads were shinny..rinsing pads and using more Krud-Kutter in between. I like this solvent. I drys out. Otherwise, a bunch of scraping, scrubbing dirt out of every place it could hide. The center stand n Swing Arm slept in the Evapo Rust. As soon as I finish some more cleaning after that on those two, I'll bring the C. stand over tho the machine shop and leave it to cut some out of the height tube and then across the way to the welder. Moved the frame inside with the engine...too frikin hot/humid otherwise. I've just scratched the surface on cleaning, prepping frame for priming. I think on the side stand I will just make a little wood "clogg shoe" for it .
 

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My 700 kit from Hoos shipped to me today. So after 7ish months I should be able to fix my XS again soon. And retune the EFI for the new setup. And no it didn't take that long for Hoos to blast and bore my cylinder, it took that long for me to have the money. Hoos turned it around in about a week once I sent a cylinder and check
 
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Good Morning's Work on the Blue '77
Started with a bare frame this AM and within a couple hours had put in the motor added swing arm and centre stand. Wasted some time because I did not bolt on the starter cable lead before Mrs. Lakeview helped me install the motor. (motor laying on its right side and frame placed over top of it) Had to dismount the starter to get clearance to place the terminal over the contact stud.
New s/a bushings and tapered bearing in steering head.
Package came from XS650 Direct today with some bits for the rebuild. Splurged on a new chain guard, comes in Chrome only so hope it does not outshine my less than diligent polishing efforts. Was going to paint it black, I'll see....
 
Got in a bunch of parts
Rebuilt tank petcock (hopefully correctly - I wasn’t positive on the orientation of the plastic block)
Replaced tach cable
Replaced a foot peg rubber
And couldn’t stop so I replaced my intake rubber “boots” - had some leaking and it turns out one side I guess I never put a gasket back - those carbs have been off a few times- but now I have nice new rubber AND gaskets
But Holy Eff, does anybody have a way to get the two inner cap screws out??? I was doing some mechanical gymnastics and getting like a millionth of a turn on each attempt. Is that just how it goes?
It’s back together but man alive. What a bitch
I just need to put the air boxes back together tomorrow
Those screws are worth their own forum thread but I’m too stupid to figure out how to start one right now.
 
When carbs are out of manifolds, lots of clearance to bolt on manifolds. Once manifolds are on, carbs go into manifolds, assuming that you still are stock CV carbs.
 
Got the head bolts retorqued tonight. Plenty of oomph was required to release the inner crowns. The outer ones with the rubber washers came off super easy. That gives me good feelings about whether the retorque will fix the slow seep.

Air filters cleaned, rinsed, and drying before they get reoiled and installed. Carbs bowls dropped, ready to get a good flush. Both bowls have a bit of Arizona dust, but look good as far as dried fuel or ethanol goop.
 
Got the head bolts retorqued tonight. Plenty of oomph was required to release the inner crowns. The outer ones with the rubber washers came off super easy. That gives me good feelings about whether the retorque will fix the slow seep.

Air filters cleaned, rinsed, and drying before they get reoiled and installed. Carbs bowls dropped, ready to get a good flush. Both bowls have a bit of Arizona dust, but look good as far as dried fuel or ethanol goop.

Daniel Black! In the house! Good to see you on the forum and getting a little wrench time! Hope life is treating you and your family well.
 
Tonight I built the front wheel, but I miscalculated the axle spacers, since I didn’t account for the stepped front axle. It got too late and I don’t want to disturb the neighbors but thankfully I have more aluminum tube stock so I’ll just make new ones later. Annoying.

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I also discovered I hate the caliper I bought way back when I pieced together this front end swap. Didn’t realize the 03-04 GSXR front calipers have four pads - one for each piston. Deciding if I’m going to live with it or get something different.

Also also a little miffed at this black Heiden front hub. It’s a good thing I’m only going to be running a left brake on this bike, because the rotor threads on the right are oversized by about half a mm. That was only mildly annoying until I also discovered the left ones were super tight which meant I had to chase all of them with a tap! Easy fix, I suppose. just questioning the QC. I just ordered front and rear 520 sprockets from him too, so I hope that stuff isn’t a total suckfest. Anyway, the rotor bolt threads are all set now and the EBC rotor + 10mm spacer is installed with fancy drilled flange titanium bolts. I’ll safety wire them some day before I ride it.

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Also also also ordered all the stuff for a flame throwing 750cc motor build from Hoos today. Pistons, sleeves, VM carbs, VAPE ignition, Shell cam, etc etc. That one hurt a bit.
 
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When carbs are out of manifolds, lots of clearance to bolt on manifolds. Once manifolds are on, carbs go into manifolds, assuming that you still are stock CV carbs.
And here is why it’s going to be a long time before it says guru anywhere near my name.....
So in this case, just trying to sneak new manifolds in there, I guess it’s not the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, but pretty close. All those times pulling the carbs (stock setup) I started at the wrong end......
I learn a little something every day but I’ll never live long enough to be as smart as I’d like.
Thank you.
 
Tiesco---I assume from your pic of the oil temp dip stick that it is numbered in Celsius. Where did you get it ???

tim
 
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