An Adventure in Firsts: '83 XS650 Heritage Special Build/Rebuild

5twins said:

I use a small air chuck like this on my air hoses to inflate motorcycle tires .....

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I have one of those but it vanished a few weeks ago.

5twins said:

I also have the long dual head style like this but it seldom fits a motorcycle wheel. It does work well on my car tires though .....

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I need to get one of those, because I found that they take a bend that suits my valve stems.
In one service station I was in the habit of bending the fitment, and the owner kept on straightening it for the next time I came in.
Eventually the thing busted and left a nasty cut on my hand.

Mikey said:

That's what I have and they definitely come in handy at gas stations

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Don't leave them on the rim when your done filling
(I know obvious right Just sayin)

Thanks everyone! Any recommendations on size of C spanners needed? (for this and/or future jobs) I saw some adjustable ones, so perhaps that my best bet, they just look thicker than the specifically sized ones. I have the adapters and a little portable pump on their way to me! In the meantime, going to try the bicycle pump I have again today

MarieKaramazov said:

Thanks everyone! Any recommendations on size of C spanners needed?

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You'll need 2 of 'em. I think these are the ones I have....

C spanners needed? ( I now see that they are not so expensive in Jim above )
Those I have never used in 35 years ..
Cant exactly remember how but most likely I used a drift and a hammer or flat screwdriver perhaps a Pipe wrench
Not the right method but sometimes it can do the trick .. depends on how hard it sits
But again more experienced coming in .. It can be a safety factor and I cant remember the procedure
But it is a tool that not will get used much for most people.
But again not so expensive.

Jim said:

You'll need 2 of 'em. I think these are the ones I have....
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Hi Jim,
back before I became fluent in Canadian English I didn't know that a C-spanner was a hook wrench.
So after Canadian Tire's tool-monkey said they didn't stock C-spanners i made a pair of 'em out of the
open ends of two el-cheapo combination wrenches. The wrenches' 22mm & 24mm box-ends are still
available for use and also let the wrenches hang on my workbench pegboard.

fredintoon said:

back before I became fluent in Canadian English I didn't know that a C-spanner was a hook wrench.

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Lol fredintoon..
Pawn shops are full of cheap wrenches and hook spanners..

Yes, that 45-52mm size wrench fits perfectly .....



..... even though the notched nut only measures 40mm .....



And yes, you want/need two or tightening the top nut will turn and tighten the bottom nut too, making your setting too tight. Also, when you tighten the top nut back down, the big one on top of the triple tree, it often makes your setting a bit tighter. So, it takes some fooling around to get the right setting. You may need to set the adjustment with the notched nuts a hair loose in anticipation of tightening the top nut making the setting tighter.

Jim said:

You'll need 2 of 'em. I think these are the ones I have....


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Looks like there's only one of those left online. Looks like this one is the same size. Going for it!

They're all over eBay too.

5twins said:

Yes, that 45-52mm size wrench fits perfectly

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I believe these are size 42 only. There isn't a given range in size. They came out of a CNC machine tool kit at sometime, idk where.
These fit more nearly perfectly.

Hey everyone!
So I did the steering the best I could. @Raymond 's directions were perfectly clear, it was just being able to sense when it was tight enough that felt like a wild guess... I read that too tight is worse than too lose. If there are any measurements or the like that I should take to ensure that I got it right, that'd be great. For now, I know it's tighter than it was and so far I haven't felt that click when coming to a stop--but only ridden twice since. Tire pressure sorted, though I want to double check that it's at the right #--I went with what was printed on both tires, but the numbers were the same for front and back which doesn't seem usual... I think 32, i'l look again when I go out.
Anyway, I've only ridden twice since because it seems my choke cable is stuck in the enrich position. The lever at the handlebar will move back to the right (unenriched), but the bar across the carbs doesn't move and I could tell by the insanely high idle that it was still letting extra gas in. I tried moving the bar back by hand but it doesn't really want to move.
As you can see from this pic below, there's extra cable when the choke is in the unenriched position, so I'd think that it's dried and not feeding back into the cable casing and thus not moving the bar. When I move the lever to the left to enrich, it just takes up the slack and then pulls a bit more cable out. I tried to feed the cable back in a bit with pliers, but before going further and spraying wd down there or starting to yank on things, I thought I should drop you guys a line. I believe WD has a fair amount of water in it so not sure if that's wise. I have penetrant too, and I have 10-30 motor oil but no way to get it down the cable without taking the cable off. I have about 2 hours before work so this may be a job for another day unless ya'll have a quick fix.

Also, cleaned up inside LH cover a lil and ran it to see where that side stand leak is coming from and it looks like it may be the pushrod seal again.

With the choke off at the lever. Try pulling the choke off at the carb... red arrow. Pull in the direction of the arrow to un-choke it.

To lube the cable, just use motor oil. If you pull the choke all the way on at the lever, hold it on at the carbs and move the lever to off, you should have enough slack to pull the outer cable out of the handlebar housing (bottom red arrow). then it's just a matter of moving it around until it will drop out if the lever. Hold it vertical and drip some oil down it.

Prolly the best thing to do first is disconnect the cable and see if that's what's stuck, or the mechanicals on the carbs themselves.

Jim said:

With the choke off at the lever. Try pulling the choke off at the carb... red arrow. Pull in the direction of the arrow to un-choke it.

To lube the cable, just use motor oil. If you pull the choke all the way on at the lever, hold it on at the carbs and move the lever to off, you should have enough slack to pull the outer cable out of the handlebar housing (bottom red arrow). then it's just a matter of moving it around until it will drop out if the lever. Hold it vertical and drip some oil down it.

Prolly the best thing to do first is disconnect the cable and see if that's what's stuck, or the mechanicals on the carbs themselves.

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Tried to pull that back across at carb and it wouldn't budge. Tried pushing from the other side. I may just need to pull harder as I was being a bit ginger in case it was a bad idea.. I would think if it was just the cable at lever that I'd still be able to get it to move at carb by hand and thus at lever...
I'm going to try again. I can try the second suggestion too but so far looks like the slack I posted is all the slack I can get. I'll try to noodle some out of it

I've not heard of chokes sticking open on the carbs. The choke plungers are spring-loaded so usually need something to hold them open. But, I suppose anything is possible on an old bike like this, lol. But my best guess is your cable is just all dried out and seizing up. Try to get some oil in it, and try to save it because Yamaha doesn't sell them anymore.

Here's the left carb with the choke full on. Look in the area of the arrow and make sure nothing's come loose and jammed in that area. There's not much clearance there.

Yes, I was thinking of that too. The set screw holding the forked bracket on the rod may have come loose. Then when you applied the choke, the forked bracket could have slid along the rod and now it's jammed in the wrong spot. It should be right near the end like in Jim's pic. The set screw has a pointed end and there's a dimple in the rod for it to tighten into.

Uhm, this is probably just me, and my XS doesn't have a cable operated choke for comparison, but looking at Jim's picture of the choke cable at the carb end it is clear the cable pulls the choke lever UP but in Marie's picture it looks like it's trying to pull lever sideways? Might just be the angle of the picture? Or might have been modified by some danged PO?

The cable pulls the choke rod sideways just like the knob type rod.

There is another forked bracket between the carbs for the right carb's choke. Check that hasn't come loose and moved (slid) on the rod as well.