A couple of comments Ethan:
- Your fuel lines (and likely most of the other rubber parts on the bike) need to be replaced:
- The inside of the tank doesn’t actually look too bad. There is lots of info on refurbing fuel tanks - but resist the temptation to use any sort of coating. The best bet is to simply put some gravel/machine nuts etc. in there along with a couple of litres of water and swirl it around for several hours. The metal or gravel acts as an abrasive and will effectively remove the rust. Then just keep the tank full of fresh fuel and it should be fine.
- Yamaha built these bikes from good quality materials and so the chrome usually cleans up pretty well and the aluminium engine cases and those beautiful flanged wheel rims will buff up to a mirror finish. All it takes is elbow grease.
The difficult issues usually centre on the carbs and the electrical system. Fortunately, NOS (new old stock) Yamaha parts as well as many decent aftermarket parts are available for both of these systems and there is tons of expertise on this Forum - so go slowly, work methodically and ask lots of questions. You WILL get the answers and wind up with a reliable bike that is a blast to ride and a total chick magnet.
(Well, maybe not a chick magnet - but at least it will sound like a motorcycle and not a kitchen appliance).
FINDING PARTS
Here is a key tip that will really help you in locating parts:
- Go to a parts company site like www.boats.net and look for the parts listing for your model and year of bike (the 1975 Yamaha XS650B is there);
- Go to the applicable system on the parts listing (say the carbs);
- You will find a diagram with an exploded view of all the parts on the carbs along with a list of the part names and Yamaha part numbers (the P/N will usually begin with the digits “447 which is the internal Yamaha designator for the XS650 family of bikes - ALTHOUGH the earlier 650s used the designator “256” which is an important distinction).
- That full Yamaha part number is absolutely golden information.
Now - in many cases, boats.net actually stocks the Yamaha part and will happily sell it to you. However, if the part is listed as “Not available” - don’t despair. Simply take that full Yamaha part number - and stick it into the search window of your web search engine (Google etc.) and you may very well find that somebody - somewhere has got that exact part for sale - often at a very reasonable price.
A lot of those parts were sitting on a dusty shelf in a dealership - and have been bought up by parts re-sellers and offered up on the web listed by their OEM parts number.
NOTE: when you use Google - you only need the part number - NO words, part names or other descriptors. Just the OEM part number itself.
The other important thing to realize is that many simple parts like nuts and bolts and standard mechanical components such as seals and bearings have been used on a wide array of other bike models - including some recent and even current ones.
So - if you click on the part number in the boats.net listing - it will give you a list of all the other bike models that use that very same part - and THAT list of other models is also golden information.
For one thing, you could go to a bike wrecking yard and find the correct part for your XS650B on another bike - and it widens your search window at dealerships as well.
Let’s say you need an acorn nut to hold on your shock absorber and you go ask your Yamaha dealer for one for a 1975 XS650B. They will likely say “
No way Jose - we don’t stock 40 year old parts” but if you ask them for the Yamaha part number and mention that it is used on the 2009 FZR600 (or whatever) - he will likely have one of THOSE parts - or he will be able to get one fast.
Onward and upward!
Pete