DPO.......I gota share this one

[Gordon in nc]

Okay.....I'll make it quick. I thought I had seen it all.....DPO fixes and mess ups. Heck, truth be known I'm a DPO myself.

Working on the "Black" 1978 XS650E trying to get it back on the road. Carbs were so stuck nothing moves. Rebuild carbs.......nice. Remount them and want to hear and feel that "snap" we all like to get when our carbs and throttle are being nice. Hmmmmmmmm?????? still sticky??? Must be the cable, no big deal, strip the throttle down and I'll be damned...........................................the DPO had used GRIP GLUE on the handle bars on the throttle side. Looks like it had been there for some time. You would have had to break it loose then push and pull the throttle open and closed. ONLY good thing (if you can call it that) was it kinda acted like a cruse control because the throttle would stay put where ever you wanted it.

That's what a man gets when he "thinks" he's seen it all...................................................GG in NC

 

[fredintoon]

Okay.....I'll make it quick. I thought I had seen it all.....DPO fixes and mess ups. Heck, truth be known I'm a DPO myself.
Working on the "Black" 1978 XS650E trying to get it back on the road. Carbs were so stuck nothing moves. Rebuild carbs.......nice. Remount them and want to hear and feel that "snap" we all like to get when our carbs and throttle are being nice. Hmmmmmmmm?????? still sticky??? Must be the cable, no big deal, strip the throttle down and I'll be damned...........................................the DPO had used GRIP GLUE on the handle bars on the throttle side. Looks like it had been there for some time. You would have had to break it loose then push and pull the throttle open and closed. ONLY good thing (if you can call it that) was it kinda acted like a cruse control because the throttle would stay put where ever you wanted it.
That's what a man gets when he "thinks" he's seen it all...................................................GG in NC

Hi Gordon,
I told my Eric, don't buy it but what does dad know, eh?
He dragged home this derelict Honda VF750F.
It's dreaded PO had "fixed" the broken cable in the bike's twin cable push-pull twistgrip by converting it to a twistgrip pull-spring return system.
Pity you had to roll the grip forwards instead of back to open the throttle.
Mind you, back in the 1950's UK bike twistgrips had adjustable friction dampers on them.
Back before signal flashers you gave hand signals.
To make a right turn signal (that's a turn across traffic in the UK) you have to let go of the twistgrip.
To have the throttle snap shut at highway speeds can be hazardous to your health.

 

[Gordon in nc]

Fred, I still have bikes with the adjustable friction dampers.....early 60's Brits.

The more I think about it the more I'm convinced who ever did this......did it on purpose. There's no way you could have had enough sense to take the throttle off and NOT understand how it worked. Best I can tell the washer plate has a correct position too......and they had that turned around to cause friction. You couldn't have done it by mistake and just left it that way......could you???? It would open and close.....but you had to do it all by hand. Strange deal but I ruined it because it works now like Yamaha had intended. Just make me wonder what else I'll find as time goes by.

Oh....another story....I picked up a BSA for a song one time. We made the deal over the phone and when I went to pick it up and saw how nice it was.....I asked him why the price was so low. He started the bike up......reved it a couple of times and then shut it off. ( It sounded fine to me) Then he said......."Im selling it because it won't go over 45mph no matter what I do." Hmmmm????? Okay, I heard the engine run...sounded fine. I told him not to worry I'd take it and find out what was wrong. I loaded it up on the trailer......wheels turned fine so it wasn't brakes hanging up.......BUT.....while I was getting it tied down I tried the throttle.....oh yea....stiff as hell. I got home and pulled the cable off.....ran oil through it several times and got it freed up and put it back on.......that's all it was, the cable was so gummed up/dry that it wasn't opening the carb up all the way. I've done thousands of miles on that bike......still have it, it's the one with the Velorex on it.

Cheers............your friend Gordon in NC

 

[mrtwowheel]

Maybe the guy was doing seat stands like Indian Larry and didn't want the throttle snapping closed.

Scott

 

[5twins]

These poor old bikes, lol. Apparently, from what I see around here anyway, one of the great mysteries in life is how to properly install and remove the lower end of an XS650 throttle cable. In most of the pics I see posted here, they're all bent to shit and kinked. On the '75 and older dual cable carbs, that makes it pretty near impossible to get a good, accurate sync .....

Another closely guarded secret or little known fact appears to relate to the availability of a couple new "wonder" products, grease and oil, lol. You put them on moving parts to help protect them from rust and ease their movement. Things like choke lever pivot points and the exposed bare ends of control cables. Granted, you can expect some of this from that DPO, but once the bike is in your hands it should be corrected.