'80 Special Refit

Solomoriah said:
Incidentally, both filters are done the same way, and equally neatly. I just photographed the one I had to bring into my office, because the seal needed glue.
Click to expand...

Looks similar to what I did on my XS2. Replacement paper filters were stupid expensive, so I just trimmed the old paper off of the original filter ( it’s a really stout base with a fully supported wire screen interior ) and I just wrapped it with Uni filter foam and oiled it. Photo doesn’t show it but I secured the foam with very thin aluminum wire wrapped around it in three places.
01C3F964-922B-4247-8C7A-84B40C17C3DE.jpeg
 
Solomoriah said:
Got my new cable today, and put it on. Installation was easy; hardest part, as always, was getting the gas tank hoses off and back on properly. While I had the side panel off for easier access, it occurred to me that I have been forgetting the thing I ALWAYS forget, namely the air filter... oops.

So I took out the one screw and removed the cover, and found this:

XS650-AirFilter-20190822_101010.jpg


Obviously they couldn't find the right foam to replace the original, so they found something that would work. I know I've complained about the previous owners of this bike before, but I can't find a single thing to complain about here... it's neatly done, with the excess bundled up in a place where it doesn't seem to matter. And the filter looks to be in pretty good shape too, so it must have been done not long before I bought the bike.

I'm questioning just one thing here... is this the kind of foam that should be oiled? It's not an OEM replacement, after all, and it looks like the foam from my TW200 (which is oiled).
Click to expand...
Looks like garden variety lawnmower filter foam and sure you can oil it. I'm cheap and tend to mix ATF and mineral spirits about 50/50 and keep them in a (Windex) bottle, easy to spray on a thin even coat, the mineral spirits lets it spread out easy then evaporates. Some lawnmower manuals say don't oil the foam but that's cuz it's over a paper filter that would plug if it got oily.
Actually the best spritzer bottles have an oval FARNAM label on the side of the head. I have a couple in daily use for several years, no problems.
 
Too much top end noise to suit me, and I realized I'd never actually adjusted the cam chain tension. SO... I looked up 5twin's suggested method (engine idling, adjust until the rod moves in and out 1-2mm without coming out past the end of the bolt, if it stops moving it's too tight) and set to work this morning.

And discovered I can't actually see the rod moving. I used a mirror, of course, and I could see the end of the rod, but I could not visually register movement. This was in sunlight, even. If I'm not stupid, I'm blind. But I put my fingertip on the end of the bolt and I could plainly feel it, so I adjusted it by feel.

Quieter now, and I think I judged 1-2mm correctly. It still moves, anyway.
 
I posted an early note about this on Facebook, but I want the real thing here. My right-side tank logo is missing the lower left corner, and has been since I got the bike. I planned to buy OEM replacements, until I saw a T-shirt with a rather cool alternative logo. I did my own version of that logo, somewhat different than the one on the shirt, and have been working out how to get it 3D printed. Here's last night's print run:

XS650%20Logo%2020191229_090913.jpg


It's 2.8mm thick, possibly a bit thinner than would be ideal, but I think I'm going to go with it and see how it holds up. No, there are no holes; I'll drill them the old-fashioned way. 3D printed items sometimes shrink a bit, so measuring and drilling seems smarter. I'll sand the tops (faces) of the letters and the "swoosh," then paint them with gold paint, probably ordinary craft-type acrylic paint this time around since it's known to stick to PLA pretty well. A topcoat of polyurethane clearcoat and it's good.

I did an earlier prototype to test the fit, but this one is slightly improved over that model. Fitting the flat print to the curved tank is easy... hit it with a heat gun and the PLA goes floppy. Lay it inside the original logo, then run cold water over it. This PLA gets floppy around 80 degrees C but doesn't actually melt until over 190, so there's a pretty good safety margin.

SO... I just tried to upload the actual STL file here (the file you start with for 3D printing) but the forum denied me. Gah. Here's a link to it on my own website:

http://newcenturycomputers.net/temp/XS650 Logo R5.stl
 
Thanks guys! The second one is printing now. I think the order of operations should be drill, sand, fit, paint. Drilling both at the same time should give me the most consistent results. I picked up some countersink bits at ye olde Harbor Freight earlier today, which should make this all a bit nicer.
 
I know a lot of people that "dis" them, but you gotta :heart: HFT! Especially when they have what I call "stupid sales". That's when the price is soooo low, if you don't buy it, you're stupid! You walk out with three times the tools for half the price of the big box places. I've spent a small fortune there (which means I've acquired a shit-ton of tools!).
 
Magnetic parts bins. I have a ton of them, they're so nice. They give them away sometimes, with literally any purchase, and I have an app for the coupons.

SO ANYWAY, here's my other 3D printing project:

snapshot01.png

This is a four slot fuse holder made to fit into the space freed by the removal of my RLU. It takes automotive fuses, and is not weatherproof, but I don't ride in the rain if I can avoid it. I based it on a design by Thorped:

Fuse_v1_preview_featured.jpg

I looked at every automotive fuse holder design I could find, ready made as well as 3D printed, and could not find a better one. The internal cavity in Thorped's design is ingenious... standard 1/4" (6.3mm) female spade connectors with retaining hooks slide in and lock automatically. My design cuts away the front flange and combines four of these blocks, two being inverted so the retaining hook holes are all accessible, and adds a flange with 6.5mm holes aligned for the mounting holes from the RLU. I'm waiting for a bag of the 1/4" connectors from Amazon so I can start building this.
 
Since learning that common 1/4" female spade connectors fit right on the automotive blade fuses, I think I'm going to try gutting a stock fuse box, putting the female spade connectors on all the wires, and stuffing all the fuses in there.
 
I messed up the hole pattern on this logo, but I held on to it for a paint test. This was done with a gold paint pen from Wal-Mart, and it's not entirely dry yet, but I'm liking it! (The streaks are on an envelope on which I tested the pen.)

20200103_195910 FB.jpg
 
Thanks Fred, but I don't need it. Today I got the connectors for the fuse block I described above, and assembled a small one-fuse version to see how it works. The answer is, fantastic! As soon as it's warm enough for me to want to sit out in the garage and set it up, I'll be installing my new fuse holder design.
 

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