First time rehab of a 1976ish basket case

Should I cut down front fender or leave it?

  • Total voters
    7
That looks like a steal! Wrong side of the country for me though. Someone will surely snatch them up I’d imagine. I’ll be on the lookout for something like them used in the future. Can’t justify the almost $200 for a new spoke set and rim from mike’s, and right now I just want to get her mechanically sound and on the road. Next project will be a titled frame, and a ground up no-theme build that id like to run two 18”s on
 
Usually on these, the black wire running to the inner brush comes from the regulator. It is a ground wire yes, but it's not sending a ground to the brush, it's picking one up from it and sending it to the regulator. The inner brush is grounded on it's own through it's 3 mounting screws. So, you may not even need to replace that black wire running to the brush. Just ground the regulator somewhere else on the bike frame.

The usual grounding point for the negative battery cable is to a tapped hole in the cross brace between the frame rails .....

7e2Hqkb.jpg
 
5twins said:
It is a ground wire yes, but it's not sending a ground to the brush, it's picking one up from it and sending it to the regulator
Click to expand...
The way the previous electrical wizard had it wired, the battery is grounded to the box, regulator to box via wire, and inner brush ground to frame... via the factory 18ga cloth wire.. which I guess explains why it fried to a crisp so readily. I read somewhere that on the earlier models, green to alternator powered from reg and black just grounded. Just started her up with inner brush grounded back to stator mounting bolt and jumper from battery to frame, and getting consistent voltage. I’d rather not run two grounds (one neg terminal to frame, one to battery box) but the way it’s wired for now I think I’ll have to
 
Last edited:
If you trace the black wire in the regulator plug, I think you'll find it is the same black wire that runs to the inner brush. I don't think it connects or ties into any other black ground wires in the harness. But if yours burnt up, who knows what it's touching in the harness now, lol. You'd better check the entire run of that black wire now to insure it hasn't melted into and is shorting to any other wires in the harness. Also notice the rubber cover over the positive battery terminal in my pic. That's stock and if you had one, you probably wouldn't be in this mess now.
 
The brush, rectifier and regulator should all tie together on the common black ground run on all the pre-80's. Doesn't really matter where they're grounded as long as all 3 are grounded to the frame.
You really need to move the batt. gnd. to the frame and off the batt. box. That or a heavy jumper from the frame hole in 5t's pic to the box gnd.

79_XS650SF&2F.PNG
 
5twins said:
If you trace the black wire in the regulator plug, I think you'll find it is the same black wire that runs to the inner brush. I don't think it connects or ties into any other black ground wires in the harness. But if yours burnt up, who knows what it's touching in the harness now, lol. You'd better check the entire run of that black wire now to insure it hasn't melted into and is shorting to any other wires in the harness. Also notice the rubber cover over the positive battery terminal in my pic. That's stock and if you had one, you probably wouldn't be in this mess now.
Click to expand...
The harness was so hacked when I got the bike there were no factory plugs left, all wire nuts and there were lengths of wire going nowhere. I completely rewired from scratch, but up until this point hadn’t touched the charging system wires aside from removing wire nuts and soldering in fresh wires. The regulator black wire comes out the back and grounds right to the mounting bolt (on the battery box) and the alternator inner brush black wire ran to a ground also on the battery box. Clearly not correct, that’s just how it was and it worked so I didn’t mess with it. I guess the whole system was grounding to the frame via alternator wire. I’ll try to revert it back to closer to factory so that I can run one ground off the battery to the frame instead of a separate one going to battery box
 
Jim said:
The brush, rectifier and regulator should all tie together on the common black ground run on all the pre-80's. Doesn't really matter where they're grounded as long as all 3 are grounded to the frame.
You really need to move the batt. gnd. to the frame and off the batt. box. That or a heavy jumper from the frame hole in 5t's pic to the box gnd.

View attachment 138724
Click to expand...
Thanks Jim. I’ll try to reverse as much of this damage as I can, shouldn’t be too difficult. Going to have to run brush wire from outside of alternator and leave the charred remains of the factory wire where they are (tucked/gunked inside of the stator) for now. Or maybe I’ll just go fishing :whistle:
 
Yes, all the early wiring diagrams show the regulator and inner brush ground wire tied into the other ground wires but if you traced it, you might find that isn't so. It may be a stand alone, separate wire run just between the inner brush and the regulator. But on yours I guess it doesn't really matter since your harness is pretty much gone. The point I was trying to make is you don't even need a black ground wire run to the inner brush. The brush grounds itself through it's mounting screws. The original black wire from it supplied a ground to the regulator. If your regulator is grounded somewhere else, no need for a black wire from the brush to it.
 
5twins said:
Yes, all the early wiring diagrams show the regulator and inner brush ground wire tied into the other ground wires but if you traced it, you might find that isn't so. It may be a stand alone, separate wire run just between the inner brush and the regulator. But on yours I guess it doesn't really matter since your harness is pretty much gone. The point I was trying to make is you don't even need a black ground wire run to the inner brush. The brush grounds itself through it's mounting screws. The original black wire from it supplied a ground to the regulator. If your regulator is grounded somewhere else, no need for a black wire from the brush to it.
Click to expand...
Ahhh okay. Copy that, thank you for clarifying 5t. I’ve got the parts for the diy replacement reg and rec, but for now I’ll just run them into my frame ground and call it a day
 
It’s been slow going over here, but thought I’d post a bit to keep this thread half-alive till things get exciting again. Got new pushrod and countershaft sprocket seals in, and finally cleaned up the inside of my left side cover. When I got this bike everything under it was caked in oil from probably 5+ years of running this bike with bad seals.
Before
606A3E8B-F67F-4376-98BA-744061C0C11F.jpeg
after
5305CE18-02B6-4E1B-AE77-47282C6BA7B7.jpeg

And here’s the actual case from before I cleaned it months ago
Before
6B8EC7C4-2649-4C3A-9360-7C7C6D6B3DD8.jpeg

After
3800AF04-D212-4E26-A71D-435374831A44.jpeg

I also found a set of pretty sweet directionals for $11.00 to my door and will be swapping them in tomorrow, since the ones that came on the bike are two VERY different styles between front and back, and neither of the two sets looked very good in the first place. Did a much needed valve adjustment and she runs noticably better so that’s promising. New timing light was ordered and will be here Tuesday so I can dial in the currently out of spec points and dial in timing. Last compression test on cold engine was 115 and 120 so I’m excited to see what kind of readings I get after a warm up tomorrow. Rerouted frame grounds for reg and rec to the actual frame and not the battery box, and rerouted battery ground to the factory grounding spot on the rear of the frame above the battery strap loop. It’s been a bunch of little stuff but it’s all coming together. More pics and maybe a video or two tomorrow. Over and out
 
***edit false alarm**
After posting this I walked over to my neighbors farm (whom I’ve never met after almost two years of living here) and asked if he had a seal puller and he was very excited to help. He’s heard the bike running and stopped over to have a peek. Nice guy, saved me a hassle too. He’s got some beverages heading his way asap

Welp major steps backwards today. I tried to pull my old shift shaft seal today and I can only surmise at this point that whoever replaced it last used some kind of bonding agent. I’ve completely shredded the metal ring inside of the seal all the way around and it’s still in there with no signs of moving. I pulled the right side cover and was prepared to remove clutch assembly to get the shift shaft out, but I’ve never done it and am having trouble finding a good write-up. Am I right I’m assuming I’m going to need some spare clutch plates in order to hold the basket to remove the center? And it appears to be a 28mm but any confirmation would be helpful before I track down that size socket. I’ll be reposting this in the “what have you done” thread as well
 
Last edited:
Upon initial inspection, everything under the right side looks to be in good shape. The original JIS screws that hold the clutch plates in place are the only in-f**ked heads I’ve found on this bike so far. Clutch worked fine on first ride so I’m not gonna fiddle with anything in there
02AC140B-1C3E-41B3-BF9E-0DBB54C7D837.jpeg
the reason my shift shaft seal was glued into place became apparent once I got it out.. the orifice that it sits in is botched pretty bad
4733FB5B-170F-4D5B-9B13-9332A6DE03AC.jpeg
DA0A562A-A052-47E7-9935-3E180E252BDD.jpeg
so I cleaned the hell out of it and deburred as well as I could without removing too much material, and lubed/seated fresh seal. Time will tell how well it holds
 
gggGary said:
rumor is clutch nut can be either 27 or 28mm
Click to expand...

5twins said:
..... or 29mm or 30mm. I've found all different sized nuts on them.
Click to expand...

I’m thinkin 28 on mine, the 27 I got for my oil drain plugs just barely doesn’t fit. I’ll try to rent acouple sizes and see while I’ve got everything open this week
 
LiveSlowDieWhenever said:
***edit false alarm**
After posting this I walked over to my neighbors farm (whom I’ve never met after almost two years of living here) and asked if he had a seal puller and he was very excited to help. He’s heard the bike running and stopped over to have a peek. Nice guy, saved me a hassle too. He’s got some beverages heading his way asap
Click to expand...
Well if it was me I'd be hoping for some Flower Power IPA!
 
Back
Top