What have you done to your XS today?

Today ..... I ordered valve cover O-rings from gggary.

Tonight... I'm putting on new fuel lines. (Scratch that...I'll do it tomorrow).

In the last few weeks ......

I installed a replacement PMA as I had one of the units with the failing solder on the stator wire issue. All good now.
I reassembled and reinstalled the petcocks, I had the levers and bodies mixed up, "on" meant "use very drop of fuel in the tank".
I reworked the upper shock mount bushings so that the shocks could actually pivot like they are supposed to do.
I fixed a weeper of a valve cover stud, all due to a less-than-perfect installation of a threaded insert for the stud in 2014.
I replaced the hi-lo switch lever that jumped ship.
I made new seat hinge pin to replace the one that jumped ship.
I removed the lower cups from the shocks to get better clearance from the chain. It was kind of iffy before but we're free and clear now. Looks better too.

There is not much left on my to do list.

XStretchified
 
Retrieved my #19 (Rear Wheel Bearing) Collar (from '76C) from the trash... :D

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oops! poured solvent on top of both bikes, washed both, installed new stovetop, took off old 2into1 Alphabet and put on 2into2 with fake dunstalls. deeper tone. grandson helped its good to keep the youths handy. dam I'm tired.
 
Swapped out fuel tanks on the '77 and '83....Special tanks for both. '83 got a Ruby Red and the '77 got a stock black. Swapped out some sidecovers on the '77, black also.....kinda looking like a '78 Roadster without the gold trim.
Worked on some leaking petcocks too.
Mebbe take 'em out for a ride tomorrow.
Looking at the '78 Special and the Athena gasket kit that came in. Hmmmm........ 3 spare engines to make a runner.......

Picked up some rare earth magnets to try an experiment. Got two points charging rotors that ohm out around 5 plus but really need the TCI rotor......a template made and a magnet epoxied in place. Now to swap it out on one of my runners to see if it works......
 
oops! poured solvent on top of both bikes, washed both, installed new stovetop, took off old 2into1 Alphabet and put on 2into2 with fake dunstalls. deeper tone. grandson helped its good to keep the youths handy. dam I'm tired.

Thinking your going to like the change with the 2 into 2 and the Dunstalls.
 
rode the resto-mod 79 to town and just wrapped up a front brake R&R on the survivor 79. It got a good RH down pipe to replace the dented one yesterday and lots of cleaning and polishing while doing the once over. pulled plugs RH looked a bit leaner than the left. Compression; 156 R 153 L :thumbsup: Installed a seat hinge pin to replace a cotter key, still puzzling why the seat is sitting a bit crooked, high on the latch side. Dug out and cleaned up a chain guard to be sanded, painted and installed. Checked the original air filters, they're shedding "mouse hair" so will get that crap off and wrap them in UNI foam.
 
still puzzling why the seat is sitting a bit crooked, high on the latch side.

Maybe the latch hook was replaced with one from special? They were a bit longer.
Do you still have the other ripped "f" seat for a measurement? If not I can measure for comparison.
 
About to re-wrap my entire electrical on my 71 after 2 days of trying to get the wire connections right in the headlight bucket. Finaly got everything working again this morning.
 
Maybe the latch hook was replaced with one from special? They were a bit longer.
Do you still have the other ripped "f" seat for a measurement? If not I can measure for comparison.

I measured several seats, seems like the standards are 2 1/2" specials are 2 3/4" pan to end of hook, I didn't unbag the "reserve" pristine 79 seat to check it yet.
 
My wife and I took our 78s out for a spin today. Her Special kept dying until we got to the gas station and filled it. Doh. They both seem to run just fine. No drips from mine after replacing tach seals and the oil filler gasket.

Gotta give a shout out to gggGary for the Dico Nyalox brush recommendation. The 38yo corrosion on my side covers is finally going away. Next up will be fork legs and wheel hubs. Thank you for that. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Any one interested on findings (report) for the Torque Peak Optimizer's sold by 650 Central?

Yeah I would like to hear. I have set racerdave sent me a long time ago for "madness" but never installed.

Start a thread on it?
 
I rode my xs650 to the parts store for rental tools to work on my friends (my old) xs11. Kinda wish I hadn't sold it to him sometimes but I am slowly liking my 650 more and more.
 
Got stuck into my forks, stripped back the old, yellowed clear coat with paint stripper and a nylon scrubbing pad. Spent a few hours working the surfaces back with several socks (cotton) and Autosol. Once the Autosol had cut the oxidation back I got stuck into them with a clean sock and some of the awesome 'purple' polish. They aren't quite finished yet, but looking ok for a job done without yanking the forks off of the bike.
 
Shakedown cruise on the '77. Nothing fell off.
It ain't the prettiest girl at the dance - but she goes. Lots of things to finish up on it.
 

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Cussed it.

Left carb is flooding. Again. Wanted to go for a ride with my daughter, but KNEW I wasn't in the mood to fuck with carburetors. It would definitely not have ended well.

Perhaps one day this week.
 
Went to see what pulling the starter motor would entail and quickly realized it would be a bit of work to get it out...not technically hard, but challenging with the angles and trying to figure out how to lay the bike on it's side (In a safe way)... so I'll save it for a bad weather weekend. Took a ride to the local bike salvage yard and found a used starter...it seems to work, but it didn't spin like crazy when I bench tested it and they wanted $80 for it!

So I passed on it, and will just kick start it until I find one that cranks better...or at least at a better price.
 
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