79 Aussie Cafe rebuild - first build - slow build

[Dax 650]

Two things to state first up before we go any further:

1. This site and the members here are awesome. Without the collated knowledge and the willingness of others to provide guidance, help and the odd sarcastic comment I wouldn't have the confidence to tackle such a comprehensive rebuild. Kudos to you all!

2. Do not expect regular updates, regular progress, or anything to really happen in a hurry. I go through fits and starts of motivation and already it took me about 2 years just to get around to stripping the thing down. I do have a little more motivation lately as I've just bought another bike that needs a restoration but I better finish at least one before I start on another!

So, here we are at the start:

She's an Australian model '79 XS650 and I have a vision for her. Just as well cause right now she looks rough. Hopefully it's just old age and some minor neglect and nothing too serious. On the down side she wasn't running when I bought her but on the plus side, the engine turns freely. So after a couple of years sitting idle in my possession it's finally time to start swinging spanners!

Stop. Actually, the first thing was to take stock, work out what I wanted to do, what I was capable of doing and come up with a plan. That involved lots and lots of reading here and other places before doing anything. I have taken the sage advice of others, I have a manual, I've read it a number of times and keep referring aback to it, this site, You tube, etc. Now we start swinging spanners!

Part way through the strip down, engine out, most parts removed and we're starting to get serious. Lots of other detailed photos taken to remind me what parts go where (what did we do before mobile phone cameras?). The engine is now in a stand my Dad built for me waiting its turn.

Thanks to this site for the plans and measurements and thanks to my Dad for his hard work.

During this phase I'm learning a lot about the bike. I don't mean in general, I mean specifically. Thinks that aren't right like the home made chain guard bolted on in the most ridiculous way so you have to take the wheel off to remove the guard. Mismatching of screws, some with flat heads and some with phillips. A bent bolt here, damaged screw heads, etc. Obviously one or more previous owners were more of the backyard bodgie mechanic using parts to hand and often doing it poorly. These are good warning signs that there may be trouble down the track and if I wasn't already planning a full tear down I would be thinking of it now.

So the frame is completely stripped now (sorry, forgot to take a photo of that) and almost ready to be shipped off for a strip and paint. Nothing fancy to happen here, just remove some surface rust, straighten a tab or two and paint her black again. The only thing holding me back right now is getting those damn old bushings out of the swing arm! As soon as I find my hacksaw I'll fix that problem! Incidentally, any Aussies here that can recommend a good panel beater / auto painter in Melbourne that could handle a basic job like this?

As part of the strip down I will disassemble the forks to replace the springs and also make it easier to polish the lowers. Once again, lots of reading completed and then follow the simple steps of removing the forks from the triple tree. Yeah. One hour later of cursing, struggling and hammering and I finally get them loose. Before anyone asks, yes the triple tree was loosened properly to allow the forks to 'slide' out but there was no sliding, they were very, very tight and nothing I did would loosen them further. It was just a long slow process of hammering away.

I even tried loosening the cap on a fork and almost took my head off as the damn thing shot itself at me! I then tried to get it back on but I just couldn't compress the spring and turn the cap enough times to engage the thread. Is there a trick to this, do I have a weird problem with the spring strength or do I just need to HTFU? Anyway, that's now a problem for another day

So, time to get into the engine now because I want to send the cam and crank to Hugh for a rephase and that can be happening while I'm concentrating on other areas. So following the manual I'm starting the engine disassembly and... err.... I'm a novice but I'm sure there should have been something under this cover.

No matter, I was going to need a new ignition anyway for the rephase so no big loss but again, another good indication of the lack of care the bike has had.

Made good progress lately with the head now off and the plan was to remove the cam chain with my chain breaker, remove the cam shaft and then work my way down to the crank shaft. OK, just gotta find that master link in the chain (turn, turn, turn), uh OK, there's no master link. More reading on the forum and I'll see if I can take the bearings off and remove the cam shaft without breaking the chain. I'll let you know how that goes.

While the exterior or the engine is filthy the interior (what I can see so far) is not bad. Everything moves smoothly and the oil is doing its job properly. A bit too early to tell if I have any major wear issues till I break the components down a bit further but at least no bits of valves are banging around.

The cam chain does appear to have some wear on the rounded tips of the links but I'm not sure if this is normal wear or otherwise. I guess I'll get some more insight as I get further in. As I was stuck with the cam chain I decided to move on to some other parts. Stator came off without any dramas so I moved around to the other side. Time to take off the side cover but let's get that filter out first.

Dear lord, is there any of my engine left in the case or is it all stuck in the filter!

OK, the wisdom of the forum has helped again. Obviously the chunks of black plastic are what is left of the cam guides so that answers that question, I'll need replacements. The red/brown bits I'm not sure of, hopefully nothing too expensive. I'm a little more worried about the metallic particles in the filter but I expect I'll find they are aluminium shavings also from the cam guides seeing as there is obviously no plastic left on them. My main hope is that no internal parts are damaged by these and all that will be required is a thorough clean up, replacement of the guides and maybe chain and then all will be fine. Yeah, I'm not banking on it either.

So after that horror story I figure I'll continue on and check out the clutch basket. Except all bolts are out of the cover and it's not budging. Must be a sign that it's time to wrap up for the evening and do some more research then have another crack tomorrow night.

So that's where I'm currently up to. Shortly I'll have the cam and cranks shafts on their way to Hugh's house of wizadry, I'll have measured all internals to find out whether I need to rebore, new pistons, new valves, etc or if I can reuse what I currently have.

So where is this all going? Well I don't want to get too carried away, just make some improvements and have a nice looking machine that is reliable and fun to ride. If I wanted a 'real' cafe racer I'd buy a modern sportster that goes like a scalded cat, but it's about the style and the feel for me, and really, is there any more sexy looking engine out there than the XS650?

So it's the rephase to reduce the vibrations to where I can see straight with a matching ignition, a mild upgrade to the suspension, probably upgrade the calipers to blue spots for some improved performance and reduced weight, new headlight with integrated speedo for more of an old school look, Shorai or similar battery for reliability, weight reduction and flexibility in location, and a number of other minor changes.

Ultimately I'd like to do as much as I can myself but I know my limitations. I won't be tackling any painting myself as I don't have the set up for it, and I'm too much of a perfectionist to accept a second rate job. The engine will need to be soda blasted to restore the metal finish but I'll outsource that too. Probably the other thing I'll outsource will be the brake set up because it will probably require some brackets to be manufactured and fitted and I'd rather let an expert do that than stuff it up myself.

All comments, suggestions and words of wisdom are most welcome

 

[itsatoy]

Red stuff looks like sealant to me.

 

[650Skull]

Hugh is not the only person in the world to do rephrase work. There were, and are people who have been doing these re-phase cranks for a lot longer. This is not a negative on Hughs work but i believe in supporting local manufacturing, ( if cost competitive), before i look overseas.

There are people here in Australia who Have been working with the XS650 way longer than this site and Hugh. There is a dedicated club here in Aus and if you joined the club you may find that local knowledge for work and help may save a lot of money.

Member 270YAM on this site is a club member and from Aus. Seriously he would be one to talk to on here for help or ideas and information on the XS650 engine. He has been building these motors and racing them for a long time now and he started of racing the XS650 in standard configuration. Check out this Link

PM me for a local contact for rephasing a crank through the Aussie club site.

I also think Mrrigs cams, Here. set up for a rephase to be better than Hughs.

 

[Dax 650]

Thanks for the input guys and a special mention for 650Skull, I'll definitely be following up those links you posted.

So I finally had a day to myself to spend on the bike and made a bit more headway.

Having said that, I had another crack at the swing arm bushes and made next to no headway so I've put that aside again for now.

Alrighty, clutch side cover off finally following a bit of knockometer assistance. That gasket was really holding the pieces together and still took a lot of encouragement to shift. Got my first new surprise of the day when the cover slid off and half a washer fell out. Awesome, just what I wanted to find! Next concern, where's the other half?

So, found the other half and another extra washer just sitting loose in that area. Anyone know where the stupid things should have been rather than bouncing around inside the case? A quick inspection and I can't see any catastrophic damage so far. a burr along one of the ridges on the upper case and another on the kickstarter area but nothing of concern.

Clutch basket seems reasonably good, no obvious signs of excessive wear although I'll check all the plates at a later stage.

Still trying to lighten the engine so I can relocate it so I thought I should remove the rotor seeing as the stator was already out of the way. Ah... any recommendations on how to remove the securing nut, that bugger is on there tight! I tried immobilising the shaft by using a spanner on the other side and only succeeded in undoing that nut.

So, back to the top end! I removed the bearings to lower the profile of the cam and loosened off the cam chain tightener... and still couldn't slide off the endless chain. I tried multiple angles and rotations, different tools to try and give me leverage but the truth was, every options was just a few millimeters to short. So plan B was enacted and the chain breaker was put to use. A short time later, pin out, chain separated and then removed. Huzzah!

Next step, head was removed with valves looking nice and charcoally. Not much more to be done here until my valve compressor tool arrives so that was put aside.

So with the head off I finally get my first look at the pistons.

OK, well that doesn't look right! Judging by the carbon on the head and valves the right side piston (I'm taking photos from the front of the engine so the right piston is on the left of screen) has either been replaced or at least cleaned but curious that the other was not.

I've also noted, though it may be hard to see in the photos, that the clean piston has damage to the head near the edge where something has struck the piston causing a small divot in the head about 2mm in diameter. While this is not ideal I'm not sure if this is something that automatically mandates replacement. At this stage I'm inclined to believe the piston was cleaned as it bears the same marks as its mate (a 3 near the direction arrow and the numbers 948 in the center) and appears to be of similar age and wear.

I was also able to more closely inspect the cam chain guide and tensioner and both exhibit wear with the guide showing definite splintering along the edges. I'll replace both but wondering who is best to purchase these from. Is there much difference between MikesXS and Yambits for these parts, or somewhere else even? One thing I didn't observe was wear to the aluminium parts so I'm not sure where the metal particles that were caught in the oil filter were coming from. Perhaps the next level of disassembly will provide the next clue.

Well that's it for now, progress was made, more questions proposed and new obstacles to be overcome. Very satisfying!

 

[Dax 650]

OK, so time for another update with a little bit of progress.

First things first, after some more reading I have realised that the 'split' washer in the earlier photos is meant to be like that and is part of the kick assembly. As I wasn't intending to work on that part yet I hadn't read the chapter in full but a quick search here and reference to the user manual and it became clear. Whew, one less thing to panic about.

So after my last update I managed to get the barrels off, remove the piston circlips, chase the piston circlips around the garage, remove the pistons themselves and was down to splitting the case.

Mutter, curse, mutter, can't get the stupid thing to separate. Recount all the bolts and nuts and realise I only have 17 so I've missed one! Thanks to the excellent photos in the German guide I found the mystery bolt hiding behind the starter motor... which I can't get off easily because my engine stand is in the way. So a partial remove from the stand, tilt the engine up, spill oil on my bench and the motor is free. Remove the final bolt and then some tapping around the case and the two halves separate.

Well, it's easier said than done. I could get the halves to lift up 1mm on one end with a lot of effort but not all the way up. Move the other end up and the back slides down. Eventually had enough of a gap on one side to slide the tip of a screwdriver in to maintain the space (not using it to lever the case thereby avoiding any damage to the sealing edges) and work my way back and forward slowly lifting up higher, slide another wedge in until there was enough room for finger tips to gain purchase. After all that, then it lifted away relatively easily.

So, moment of truth, how are the internals looking? Well my first question is about the gears as mine have grooves in the surfaces and I'm wondering if this is how they are supposed to be (and if so, what do the grooves do) or is this sign of wear and they require replacing?

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed a definite problem with the gear assembly.

I think it's part of the 5th pinion gear (bit hard to tell from my manual diagrams) that has been broken off but you can clearly see it in the image. One thing I really didn't want to find was bits broken off in my transmission Now that the motor is fully disassembled I can confirm that this piece is not sitting in the engine anywhere. Is it possible it was ground up by the motor and is responsible for the tiny fragments in my oil filter pictured earlier? What sort of damage would this have likely caused to other parts of the engine and where should I look for these?

Another question I have relates to the internal surfaces of the engine case.

Parts of the surface have this rough appearance sort of like when paint crazes as it ages. Is this normal wear and tear, is it damage that needs addressing (and if so, how do I fix it), is it indicative of a particular problem (like a piece of transmission flying around inside the engine and 6000rpm) or overheating oil?

There's also some roughness to the case like this which looks like there's been dust and grit on a surface and someone's painted over it. Again, is this normal and/or should I so something about it?

OK, hopefully I can do a bit more later today. My next stage is to start measuring items for wear such as the pistons, barrels, clutch plates and valves. Then I can start assembling the mother of all shopping lists for parts

Hope I'm not boring anyone too much and many thanks for all the great advice given on this site!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Hey, Dax, this thread should be of some help:

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31570