I just couldn't say no

[nhsteve]

My first thought on the whole thing was: Man!, is that guy LUCKY!!! Nice score, sounds like it has a good home!

Second thought about the front brake was: That is not even off a 650 at all. Drum is way too small for that engine capacity. Not even in 1968 would Japanese engineers/designers have put a brake that small on a 650cc bike. My guess is it may be from an early enduro, some of which had a low front fender, which would have bolted to the small tab on the fork leg. I think whoever built that up was going for the look of no-front-brake, but felt one was needed ( state inspection/DOT regs/ brain kicked in and said wtf are you doing without a front brake?? ), so found an enduro front end and swapped it over. Just guessing here!

Lastly, the 650 in the window (how much is that 650 in the window??? is very nice, but......................

That XT500 absolutely NAILS IT for me!

 

[weaselbeak]

The only thing I will ever use to seal a gas tank again is Red-Kote.

 

[andrsn]

I guess I'll update this thread as I go and come up with questions.

I wanted to get the engine to start and run before sinking a bunch of time into cleaning and what not so I:
1. Rebuilt the carbs. Cleaned and replaced 1 diaphragm and 1 brass float.
2. If I'm reading the charts correctly my engine/frame is a 72' XS2 (S650-120646) and adjusted the valves as such.
3. Checked the cam chain tension
4. Eye balled the timing.

The wiring was in a very sad state but I jerry rigged it up and will deal with that later. I Kicked it over 6 or so times and it fired up. Backfired like hell and ran like garbage but at least I know it will run. The timing was all wacked out and one of the plug wires is completely falling apart and then rattled itself off, not to mention it only has 1 muffler. One of the spark plug holes is about 85% of the way toward needing a helicoil as well.... but nothing catastrophic. Kick over compression is 100 & 120 or something near that so I feel pretty good.

Now that I know it can run its time to start cleaning it up. I dissembled a good bit of the bike but then I went to remove the swing arm. Wow! That thing was so damn stuck I couldn't believe it.

I hit it with a hammer, then a bigger hammer then finally an even bigger hammer. Wouldn't come out. Laid it on its side to stop the bike from moving around while hammering, still nothing. Soaked it with penetrating fluid for 3 weeks still wouldn't budge. I eventually made a little press plate that bolts onto the foot peg studs and allowed me to thread a bolt into a nut and put pressure on the swing arm bolt but it spread the frame instead of pushing the pivot bolt out. The frame spread did allow me to spray penetrating fluid in new places though and that is what allowed me to finally hammer the thing out. I mad a little punch tool in order to avoid mushrooming the threads so the pivot bolt should be salvageable. It did finally clean up alright, some rust spots but I'm OK with a little patina.

The rear wheel polished up much nicer and is lookin' good.

 

[andrsn]

Now onto my issues... One of the center stand bolts is possibly more stuck than the swing arm pivot, that will either be cut off or hammered out.

My main issue is the steering stem bearings. I bought a set of tapered All Balls bearings but I got something weird going on... booth races are 100% seated in the frame and I have the taller race on top (11mm) with shorter race on bottom (9mm) as it should be and there isn't any way to get the bearings mixed up. When I insert the steering stem, the bottom handlebar stop lands in the same spot it used to so I know its right but the top bearing isn't low enough on the stem to contact its race! I think I may have a newer style stem on an older style frame. Can anyone confirm?

My only thought as a fix is to put the stem in the lathe and run that seat down 10mm or so until it comes into contact with its race. This really old thread seems to be referring to the same or very similar issue:
http://www.xs650.com/threads/steering-bearing-assistance.2067/

 

[Raymond]

Wow, what a struggle to get that pivot out!

I once had a pivot stuck in an SR500, so I belted it with a succession of large hammers till the threads were mushroomed. It still wouldn't budge. I wanted to replace the pivot bearings, see? The bike was my daily transport, and now I couldn't get the nut back on, so what did I do? Well, I sprayed with penetrating oil and just rode around on the bike for a few days - can't remember how long it was - until the handling became sort of 'loose'. And then finally able to batter the pivot shaft out. Replaced the bearings and of course the pivot too.

This was when I was young and foolish. I'm much more grown up and sensible now.

 

[gggGary]

Steering stem, What fork tubes are you using? Most common "fix" is to find the correct stem/triple, grind the welds, press them out and swap to the correct length.

 

[cafetools]

Price?

 

[andrsn]

Steering stem, What fork tubes are you using? Most common "fix" is to find the correct stem/triple, grind the welds, press them out and swap to the correct length.

It currently has 34mm forks, 34mm lower/upper triples but the newer style steering stem? I thought all 34mm front ends used the fully threaded at the top steering stem, maybe not? Maybe its from an RD or something? Maybe someone already did some mixing and matching?
Either way, the front end is a confusing assortment of parts, it was fine with the ball bearing set up. I could grind and swap out the stem but I think I'm gonna have a go at turning the current stem down in the lathe, there are center holes top and bottom so we'll see if it'll align well enough in the lathe to turn everything straight, I've got the right die for the threads already so its worth a shot.

I have an extra set of 34's and 2 extra sets of 35's lying around so maybe i'll convert to 35's but that depends on what front brake setup I go with. I located some chrome r6 brakes that might be cool but don't fit the time period of the bike. I was also thinking of rigging up a dual disc with the old front mount style calipers. Not sure where i'm gonna go with it yet, just needs to be chrome or polished!

 

[gggGary]

hint an XS750 front end should bolt right up to that neck. XS750 Standard forks use the same brakes as the later XS650. XS750 Specials use a different brake caliper. either will let you move the dual disk right over to an XS650 73 or later spoke front wheel.

 

[andrsn]

hint an XS750 front end should bolt right up to that neck. XS750 Standard forks use the same brakes as the later XS650. XS750 Specials use a different brake caliper. either will let you move the dual disk right over to an XS650 73 or later spoke front wheel.

Good to know, I'll file that under 'try not to forget' in my brain for later if I need more options

 

[andrsn]

Alright, cut down the bearing seat and threads on my steering stem and its all come together. I did cut the upper bearing seat a little too far down, not sure if that is really crucial to anything so I may just put a little tack weld or 2 on it and file it to the proper height.

On to the next issue... rebuilding my forks. I don't know what's up with this lower but it appears to have some type of insert in it to reduce hole size down from 22mm to 16mm? The insert blocks me from accessing the socket cap screw on the bottom of the fork! I'm gonna try to drill out an access hole on the lathe but I'm really at a loss as to what is going on here... I wanted to do the Minton mod on my forks but I don't know if these are even tx650 forks... Anyone seen anything like this?

 

[gggGary]

Alright, cut down the bearing seat and threads on my steering stem and its all come together. I did cut the upper bearing seat a little too far down, not sure if that is really crucial to anything so I may just put a little tack weld or 2 on it and file it to the proper height.

On to the next issue... rebuilding my forks. I don't know what's up with this lower but it appears to have some type of insert in it to reduce hole size down from 22mm to 16mm? The insert blocks me from accessing the socket cap screw on the bottom of the fork! I'm gonna try to drill out an access hole on the lathe but I'm really at a loss as to what is going on here... I wanted to do the Minton mod on my forks but I don't know if these are even tx650 forks... Anyone seen anything like this?

View attachment 148370

Odds are that's a 72 fork leg adapted to work with a later wheel.

you could either bore though the bushing or drive it out and replace when done. maybe cross drill it when it's out?

 

[GLJ]

 

[andrsn]

Odds are that's a 72 fork leg adapted to work with a later wheel.
View attachment 148371

you could either bore though the bushing or drive it out and replace when done. maybe cross drill it when it's out?

I tried pressing it out, really didn't wanna budge. Could be epoxied in there or who knows? I'm gonna drill it out, I think I can get it aligned in the lathe pretty well...

Thanks for the tip on the early lowers on later uppers (the internals seem to be the same as later models so Minton Mod should be fine) I would not have figured that out on my own.

 

[gggGary]

why not leave the insert in place set it up and drill the cross drill hole in the lathe?

 

[andrsn]

why not leave the insert in place set it up and drill the cross drill hole in the lathe?

I shouldn't have said 'drill it out', I am not going to remove the insert. I will drill from the bottom of the fork leg to give access for the Allen wrench. Should have said 'cross drill hole' as you did.

 

[andrsn]

Got the bike essentially re-assembled. I gotta run the final wiring after hacking together that temporary harness to see if it'd run but It's looking pretty cleaned up. I still have one incredibly stuck center stand bolt to deal with... gah these rusty bolts.

I'm thinking of doing some scrambler style pipes with these chrome trumpets I recently picked up.

 

[andrsn]

Kinda forgot I had a thread going for this little project... updates...
*Wiring is nearly done, gonna wrap it in some funky looking rope housing.
*Scored some NOS MCM headers for very cheap, were not a straight forward bolt on option but I did make some stock diameter spigots to hopefully keep some back pressure, the MCM's are very large in diameter compared to stock.
*Found an awesome chrome modern front caliper. got that all mounted up with a custom disc spacer and caliper mount bracket. Will polish sometime in the future...
*Scored a set of older Works Performance shocks, very nice and got them on the cheap, just need to make some new bushings.
*FINALLY got the center stand bolt out, will put it back on but need a replacement pivot bolt...

Have narrowed my to-do list down to:
*seal fiberglass tank/body so I can use modern ethanol gas
*fabricate some cactus themed foot-pegs and sissy bar
*need to get some sort of shiny front wheel going... I need chrome or polish everywhere
*gotta track down a worthy front fender... has been hard to find